RE: Vista Media Centre

["Dave Sussman" <davids@xxxxxxxxx>]

Quality is excellent, but I'm going into a standard CRT 32"
widescreen TV, =
not an LCD/plasma. The desktop comes configured with links to switch the
ou=
tput to 420p, 720p and 1080i; obviously I've not tried these

Overall I'm impressed with the machine; it's pretty quiet, although the
har=
d disk is a little noisy - you can hear the disk spin up/down and I intend
=
to replace the disc with a quieter one. The tuners are dual hybrid, with a
=
single socket on the back - it's split internally. There's plenty of other
=
connectivity (RJ45 + wireless) and all of the cables are included.

It hasn't been flawless - the VFD driver is a bit dodgy, but that's
probabl=
y because I've hacked the OS to allow multiple remote desktops and this
def=
initely causes problems (I think the driver is single threaded, and fails
w=
hen another process tries to fire it up). I don't think this would affect
m=
ost people though. You also, very occasionally, get a VFD lockup which
caus=
es the remote to stop working, so you have to resort to ctrl-alt-delete
and=
either kill of the VFD process, or reboot; this doesn't happen often thoug=
h and wouldn't stop me from buying the machine again.

d

-----Original Message-----
From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of R=
ob Mouser
Sent: 15 June 2007 10:20
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Vista Media Centre

Thanks Dave, that actually looks impressive. What's the quality like with
S=
CART?=20
Currently =A3700 at eBuyer which is not bad either. No Vista but I don't
se=
e that as that bad a thing really.=20
=20
Rob=20