Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Rocks!

Sep 12 2005 9:06 AM

Yet another late update! I installed Windows Media Center about a week and a half ago and I am just loving it. The machine is a 1.0 GHz Pentium III with 768 MB RAM, about 100GB HD space, a GeForce FX 5200 for primary display card, and Avermedia 1500 MCE TV tuner card. The setup works really slick. I think I can see the 1.0GHz in some of the visual effects, but the TV viewing/recording works like a charm. I plan on writing a plugin or two for it as soon as I have a chance. I have a few ideas that I can't find implementations of anywhere. I've spend hours and hours the past few years tweaking my open source media center software, but for a variety of reasons I never got things exactly where I wanted them. This worked so well and is a clear reflection of Microsoft's work put into it. Bottom line: it's a great 10' experience, and I highly recommend it!

5 Comments

Joe said on Sep 18 2005 at 10:57 PM

Did you manage to get a standalone copy of Win MCE? I understood that you can only get MCE by purchasing a new PC that has it pre-installed. -JS
Arian said on Sep 19 2005 at 1:53 PM

This is no longer the case with Media Center 2005. It is now available OEM as long as you buy any PC part (could even be a mouse!). Check out PC Mall or most other retailers and you can buy it pretty-much standalone now.
Joe said on Sep 20 2005 at 10:05 AM

CDW, PCMALL, and others don't seem to be selling MCE 2005. Although I did find a refurb HP MCE2005 "stereo component" sized machine for only $699. Any other options?
Arian said on Sep 20 2005 at 12:05 PM

TigerDirect has it for just $109: <br><a target="_new" href="http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1546467&Sku=M17-7514&SRCCODE=GOOPROD&CMP=OTC-FROOGLE">http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1546467&Sku=M17-7514&SRCCODE=GOOPROD&CMP=OTC-FROOGLE</a>
charles h duff said on Jul 28 2006 at 4:59 AM

I also installed xp media center edition 2005, About 1 week ago now im looking for some walpapers and screensavers, can anyone help me out? I have a 160gb hard drive, With 2gb of ram, and a geforce fx 5200, and avermedia 1500 mce tv tuner card, and a creative sound blaster card, Does anyone have any ideas for improving my picture clearaty?