Arian Kulp's Blog
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Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Rocks!

Monday, September 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!



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# re: Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Rocks!

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 9/18/2005 10:57 PM | Joe

# re: Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Rocks!

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. 9/19/2005 1:53 PM | Arian

# re: Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Rocks!

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? 9/20/2005 10:05 AM | Joe

# re: Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Rocks!

TigerDirect has it for just $109:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1546467&Sku=M17-7514&SRCCODE=GOOPROD&CMP=OTC-FROOGLE 9/20/2005 12:05 PM | Arian

# re: Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Rocks!

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? 7/28/2006 4:59 AM | charles h duff



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