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Thread: Media Centre only for XP

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    Media Centre only for XP

    Is there any such thing as media centre for XP pro?
    I don't have the media centre edition and wanted to use it. There's someone selling it on ebay or a couple of quid but I dunno where they got it from 'cause I can't find it on the MS website. Maybe that one isn't legit.
    Martin


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    Does he need a reason? Funkstar's Avatar
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    Media Center isn't available seperately, it can only be bought as an OEM OS.

    However, there are alternatives. You might well have seen people selling MediaPortal on eBay. this an open source Media Center alternative

    http://www.team-mediaportal.com

    It isn't without it's flaws, but it is free and there is a pretty good user forum there too.

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    thanks for that. I'll give it a try
    Martin


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    Check out The Green Button for Media Center info too.

    I believe there is a way to install the Media Center software on Pro, but you'd need a Media Center license for this to be legal.

    It's possible to re-enable Domains on Media Center Edition which is the only difference I personally had noticed between MCE and Pro (bar the MCE interface).

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    Smile

    Of course there is Linux with MythTv, which is free and after setting it up it is really nice to use. Here is a screen shot and as it is linux you don't need a WMC remote(£30!) for it to be coMpatible and you don't need super specs to run it


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    Senior Member this_is_gav's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bfbf View Post
    Of course there is Linux with MythTv, which is free and after setting it up it is really nice to use. Here is a screen shot and as it is linux you don't need a WMC remote(£30!) for it to be coMpatible and you don't need super specs to run it
    £30? It's £20 just from Scan. Probably a bit cheaper elsewhere too. There's cheaper out there of course, and better too, but really... you don't even need a remote. Even a wireless mouse is plenty enough, and many are using them anyway.

    Just tried LinuxMCE (based on MythTV) a few days back, and frankly, it's the worst piece of software I've used in a while. No matter how many times I downloaded it (to rule out corruption), installed it, even followed guides (I don't do help), it broke Ubuntu straight away. MythTV by itself is great when you get it going, but it's not a case of just letting it do it's stuff. MediaPortal (buggy as hell in itself) is a better option in my opinion.

    I've got MCE2005 running on a 7100GS here, on a Core Duo underclocked to 800MHz. You don't get many specs lower anymore.

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    Well you could have done checksum to rule out coruption. I had a few proplems folowing the guides... Managed to installed easly using Synaptic

    and I also think LinuxMCE is somthing diffrent to mythTv which I did not find as nice to use.

    I've got MCE2005 running on a 7100GS here, on a Core Duo underclocked to 800MHz. You don't get many specs lower anymore
    Of course there are loads of lower specs used for a media centre[]

    Turning an old Petium 3 (256mb of RAM) Carrea into a media centre for someone was fun. £20 media centre case plus £35 for TV card with decoder and a few quiet fans. That would defiatally struggle to run windoes. Super for Kubuntu and MythTv

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    Comfortably Numb directhex's Avatar
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    linux mce is pluto, not mythtv

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    Senior Member this_is_gav's Avatar
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    The media backbone of it is MythTV though - Pluto is the funky 3Dness and the bolt-ons. Apparently.

    Quote Originally Posted by bfbf View Post
    Turning an old Petium 3 (256mb of RAM) Carrea into a media centre for someone was fun. £20 media centre case plus £35 for TV card with decoder and a few quiet fans. That would defiatally struggle to run windoes. Super for Kubuntu and MythTv
    I've had Vista MCE on a P3 running fine, nevermind XP. Admittedly it was with 512mb RAM though, which is probably the critical factor.

    If it's just a media box even a P2 with 256mb RAM would be more than adequate, no matter which OS.
    Last edited by this_is_gav; 03-04-2007 at 12:13 PM.

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    Seething Cauldron of Hatred TheAnimus's Avatar
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    as long as there is something too help with the graphics acceleration.

    I really like MCE (hell spent £400 on a box that's sole purpose in life is too run it). But you need a good gfx card.

    (that said i'm using a DX9 onboard intel ima950something or other, running vista mce).

    Myth has one big advantage, which i'm surprised hex didn't bring up (more disapointed). Its got a client - server approache. In MCE the lines are a bit blured.
    throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)

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    Comfortably Numb directhex's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheAnimus View Post
    as long as there is something too help with the graphics acceleration.

    I really like MCE (hell spent £400 on a box that's sole purpose in life is too run it). But you need a good gfx card.

    (that said i'm using a DX9 onboard intel ima950something or other, running vista mce).

    Myth has one big advantage, which i'm surprised hex didn't bring up (more disapointed). Its got a client - server approache. In MCE the lines are a bit blured.
    a low-spec machine is fine, as long as you have hardware video decoder help. everything these days does mpeg2 assistance, hence a low-end epia is enough for SD video

    as for the client server thing, you're right - unfortunately, the only place in my house with a working connection to the roof arial is next to the tv.

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