Is Windows Media Centre Edition just XP?

[this_is_gav]

Yup - just regular 32-bit XP drivers work perfrectly here too. The only difference between it and regular XP Pro, other than the networking detailed previously, is the Media Centre app itself. ATI have only just released some drivers/driver addons for MCE with their last update - previously it worked just as well with normal XP drivers.

[Lee H]

You can usually get away with normal XP drivers but in one area I have had issues with normal XP drivers being installed was Graphics.

When using the standard Nvidia drivers for XP - usually when the remote was used to load-up the menu for navigation, the drivers always created a BSOD at exactly the same point, but this miraculously stopped once the MCE graphics drivers were used instead.

Soundcards etc I've added the extra extensions for the X-Fi cards to give some extra controls when using the media Side, and also updated the nvidia codecs, but drivers are the ones from the CD that came which then were updated via the web.

TV Card - I'm using the latest build for MCE from the hauppauge UK web forum. These have fixed a few things since their initial release.

[jimborae]

i have better things to do than run MCE, but this is based on reports from someone who does (lee @ scan, on the forums, if my memory serves me correctly)

You can usually get away with normal XP drivers but in one area I have had issues with normal XP drivers being installed was Graphics.

When using the standard Nvidia drivers for XP - usually when the remote was used to load-up the menu for navigation, the drivers always created a BSOD at exactly the same point, but this miraculously stopped once the MCE graphics drivers were used instead.

............

Hmm in that case I'll have to revise my comment as I don't use a remote on my systems to navigate with and so haven't had the privelidge of that particular bug, apologies

[Taz]

I've got the MCE-specific drivers for the nVidia GPU and the TV card. All other drivers will be standard XP drivers.

[digit]

Thanks for all the replies. The friend i'm building this specific PC for wants a TV card in it and i've ordered one of those as well (the drivers for it are compatible with mce apparently). He also wants to play about hooking up his Xbox 360 to it but I have no idea what for!

Hooking up a 360 to an MCE computer enables the 360 to become a media center extender. You can schedule recording (provided a tv tuner is installed of course), playback music and video and look at pictures. Very easy to setup you just switch on the 360 and follow the instructions. You should have pushed your friend to buy the remote package to go with it! It would have worked on his xbox 360 as well!

[ash_rm]

You can usually get away with normal XP drivers but in one area I have had issues with normal XP drivers being installed was Graphics.

When using the standard Nvidia drivers for XP - usually when the remote was used to load-up the menu for navigation, the drivers always created a BSOD at exactly the same point, but this miraculously stopped once the MCE graphics drivers were used instead.

Soundcards etc I've added the extra extensions for the X-Fi cards to give some extra controls when using the media Side, and also updated the nvidia codecs, but drivers are the ones from the CD that came which then were updated via the web.

TV Card - I'm using the latest build for MCE from the hauppauge UK web forum. These have fixed a few things since their initial release.

I seem to be ok with my mce 2005 system. I'm running normal XP nvidia drivers on my 6200 Geforce and it runs fine and thats with the remote as well. The only thing that is running specific MCE drivers is my Freeview TV Card.

Might just of been related to Motherboard drivers or something?

[Carlh]

There isnt really many differences apart from if the different MCE certified drivers you have to use to be able to use the media centre frontend.

Taz,

Your mate will want it for the xbox 360 as you need the MCE running with the extender software from www.xbox.com/pcsetup to stream videos and recorded tv from the pc to the xbox 360, using the standard plugins this wont convert xvids or avis however if you google for vlc 360 or transcode 360 you will get programs you can use from the pc which will enable the streaming of avis etc to the xbox 360.


You cant stream videos etc using the normal version of windows xp