Beginner needs help with MCE etc

Hello,

I just bought a new computer this week and would like to get it installed as a MS media center.

I am very confused at the moment.

At present I have a PCI-E video card ( Nvidia 6660 eXtreme ) installed,
the motherboard is a P5LD2 Deluxe, ( I'm not sure if this motherboard can support a second PCI-Express board, or do I need a PCI based card for video encoding ( hauppauge winTV pvr-500mce is supposedly a god one)

But first things first...

Can I have Microsoft Media Center installed and also have Windows XP installed at the same time ? ... At present the computer has XP on it, but I am finding it hard to find any website with any beginner info.


Anyone out there willing to give me some starting pointer ? that would be super

P.S. - The TV I currently have has no S-Video on it :-(
The only way I can hook stuff up is using RCA cables... so am I wasting my
time in trying to build a Microsoft Media Center computer for this TV ?

You can have them installed at the same time, yes, but it would be rather silly as MS Media Centre IS Win XP but with the media centre mode program thingy. Other than that, its pretty much the same I believe. Try and install Media Centre only for now, see how it goes. :)

Hi UnReal,

Thanks for the reply.

Do you think I'm wasting my time doing all of this if all I have is a 27" tube TV which is about 5 years old ? ... the only way I can connect the TV to the computer would be using RCA cables.....

Not sure if this would just be totally a waste of time. I hooked up my computer a number of years ago.... with the TV out option... with RCA plug, using Windows 98..... I could not even read the desktop icons on the TV and it was not clear at all....

I would say that without an S-Video input on your TV, you are going to get marginal results at best.......

MCE is in fact - as unreal says - XP with extensions, so no real need to have both installed as most of MCE is in fact XP but with extras !

The Hauppauge card you mention is a great unit, although also consider Black Gold models - they have, arguably, the best name in the market. Also note that there are Digital tuners available as well.......either way, make sure whatever card you go for is supported by MCE.....(generally means it will need hardware encoding)