RE: Anyone got a MCE2004 box?

["Paul Gale" <groups@xxxxxxx>]

Hey, thanks Adam.

My Shuttle PC is a good spec (can't remember what though!). Luckily I have
=
it linked up to my 50" plasma in the AV Room :-)

Trouble is, the shuttle only has one PCI slot and one AGP. The PCI slot
has=
an Audigy 2 in it for good quality audio output to my Onkyo amp. I guess I=
need a graphics card with video in.

Don't know if I'll really use the TV function of MCE though as I have an
RG=
B feed from Sky+ to my Plasma.

Paul.


-----Original Message-----
From: Adam Stevens [mailto:adam@xxxxxxx]=20
Sent: 08 October 2003 16:25
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ukha_d] Anyone got a MCE2004 box?



> "Paul Gale" <groups@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:<EBF6E5C1E4B58845BBCE68FE34972CBA04FCC0@xxxxxxx>...
> Was the install simple or were there any pitfalls to look out for?

MCE 2004 (aka MCE 1.5) comes as a small-ish upgrade to MCE 1.0/1.1 - It's
about a 140Mb download from the MSDN site, so it's around the same sort of
size as a service pack.

I had played (briefly) with MCE before, but the lack of UK support make it
pretty much unusable, so I didn't have it installed on any machines at the
time.  I just wiped a spare Athlon 1.2Ghz, installed MCE 1.0, and then
immediately installed the 2004 upgrade.  All worked fine.

However, that said, I'm not really running it on the correct hardware ATM.
My machine doesn't currently have a tuner card in it (I've since ordered a
WinTV 350, so am just waiting on delivery), and the graphics card probably
isn't up to the OEM standards. Generally though, it all just worked out of
the box (baring in mind this was a totally clean install).

For what it's worth, if you want a home built MCE machine (and can get hold
of the software), then you're looking at a WinTV PVR 250 or 350 (2004
supports the radio in the 350, so it's probably worth the few extra quid),
=
a
128Mb NVIDIA FX5200, and a MCE remote.  The remote is the hardest thing to
find in the UK.  I ended up finding one on eBay US.  Also, the minimum spec
for MCE is a 2.4Ghz P4, although I expect this is more because it's only
available with new PC's, and you probably can't get a new PC of less that
2.4Ghz these days.  It does appear to run okay one my old Athlon.

The thing which is stopping me from using it "Full time", is that
it's quit=
e
a lot of hardware to have tied up in a machine which basically is a
glorified Tivo.  My Tivo works, and works well, and I can play MP3s from
th=
e
network via a Slimp3, so MCE doesn't *really* give me much extra (with the
possible exception of being able to access a video library).

The biggest draw back is you really need a PC monitor attached to the box
t=
o
be able to use it in "PC mode".  TV resolution just isn't good
enough in
anything more than 640 by 480.  The ideal solution would be to use a Smart
Display to connect to the machine via Terminal Services, however XP Pro
(which is basically what MCE is) doesn't support concurrent users, so if
yo=
u
connect via TS, you'll log out the user on the console, and hence loose TV.
For me, that is the *big* downfall.  The rumours are that there'll soon be
=
a
version on XP Pro which will support two concurrent users in a 2k/2003
Server manner (possibly even with XP SP2).  When this arrives, I'll be
happ=
y
:-)

Adam.


-----Original Message-----
From: Adam Stevens [mailto:adam@xxxxxxx]=20
Sent: 08 October 2003 15:42
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ukha_d] Anyone got a MCE2004 box?

> Indeed, thats the one. Postcode bt27 4ns has rte1 and 2 on NTL
Digital.
>=20
> Sky digital doesn't have RTE in the UK, but they do transmit it for
Irish
> Sky customers.
>=20
> If you could try that postcode, and see how you get on I would
appreciate
> it.

No problem.  I'll give it a go this evening and get back to you (assuming I
can figure out how to change the postcode! :-).

A.



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