3 November 2004
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 rocks…..part 1
Posted by Mick (SplaTT) Stanic under: Emerging Technology; Geek Toys; Microsoft .
One word…”unbelievable”…
Yep…i did it…i went out and bought myself a HP m1199a (link to m1188a) Windows Media Center Edition 2005 PC…and it was is no doubt one of the most life changing devices i will probably have in my lounge room for a long time to come.
Lets start of with the simple fact of having a PC (and a high powered one at that) plugged into your TV opens up so many possibilities for changing the way you interact with things. I’ll admit, i’m one of those geeks that when i get home from work (or geekdinnering, or playing xbox with friends and sitting around waiting for Halo 2 to launch) and sit in my lounge room, i fire up my TabletPC, which automatically connects to my WiFi set up, and it just sits next to me on the couch. Every now and then i pick it up, read some blogs in my aggregator (NewGator), listen to some podcasts / audioblogs, watch some video, spend some time on IRC in the #joiito IRC room and i even use it to check something that i might have just seen on the TV and i’ll admit, that even with a Media Center PC hooked upto my TV, i will no doubt still fire up the TabletPC. The Media Center is good, but you just can’t spend time on IRC trying to type on and read from your TV screen…well…when i get a plasma or LCD TV with a better screen resolution that might change ;)
While i love my TabletPC, the Media Center is just so much more well suited to doing all of the stuff i just mentioned. Lets me go into some detail on some of the sections of the Media Center…
“Play DVD”
Just like any other DVD player…except…its a computer plugged into my TV with all of the benfits of that…but they really should add a “My DVD Collection” section. Some thing like this add-on i found would be perfect.
“Online Spotlight”
Allright…this is like having access to a number of channels normally viewed from a PC on your desktop…MovieLink, Napster, MSN Music, msntv, NPR, AOL music, ESPN, Reuters, Kodak, etc…
“My Videos”
Being a tech loving geek in my personal life and at work, i spend a lot of time watching product launches, videos of conference sessions and similar things to keep up to date on what is going on out in the big wide world. Watching a one hour product launch or conference video on my TabletPC screen (and i admit that my Toshiba M200 has a great screen) is just a right royal pain. While the form factor is fantastic, you end up realising that is fine for watching short videos but anything longer than 10 minutes and its just becomes a little to much. Now take that some video and playing it though your TV and you audio through a kick-ass sound system is a much better way to watch and listen to this stuff. Its just so much closer to the “TV” experience that we are used to.
“My Pictures”
The world of digital camera’s has meant that my hardrive is full of images that i often don’t look at more than once. Now take those images, and have them cycle through in a slideshow mode while you are listening to your favourite music…much better. The HP m1199a, like most of the 2005 Media Center’s, has a bunch of memory card slots on the front panel. Get it. I take the memory card out of my camera…walk over to the Media Center PC…put the card in the corrosponding slot…and it allows me to easliy copy my images from the card to my harddrive…easy as pie…
“My TV”
What more can i say…”pausing live free-to-air television”…wow. You have to remember that the concept of PVR’s is still new in Australia…we never got the Tivo here. 30 minutes worth of time shifting at the press of button. While i am talking about the My TV setup…the only real downside of the Media Center in Australia..and this is a biggy…is that we do not have an agreed system (by the broadcasters) for creating an EPG (Electronic Program Guide). can i make it clearer other than saying…”not having a program guide SUCKS”. You loose all the cool TV based functionality other than timeshifting and recording to your hardrive. Just remember that when you want to record something at the moment that is hapening in the future, you need to set your recording session up like a VCR. Its all manual…grrrr…
“My Music”
All my music media is now in one place…my audio CD’s are now going into the cupboard. Take note…all of my audio is synced between my Media Center, my TabletPC, my iPod, my PocketPC…everything…one place to manage all of it…how cool is that??? More on audio later…but here is a teaser …the My Music section of my Media Center, when combined with Doppler is a huge addition to how i listen to “podcasts“…
“Radio”
I have yet to really play with this as i need to go and tune all the FM stations in that i want…hmm…time consuming…
“Extras”
Being a HP, the Media Center has a couple of HP specific apps put into it like; HP Image Zone, HP Tunes (HP version of itunes), create CD/DVD (nice) and maybe some more things i haven’t seen yet.
“Messenger” integration
So there i am watching a TV show, when all of a sudden an IM from one of my friends pops up on top of the show i am watching….how cool is that???
This thing is just so cool…i’m glad that the “gadget monster” won this battle :)
ADDITION: Hey guys and gals…if you post a comment looking for a free / cracked key to Media Center I won’t publish it anymore. For all the benefits the Windows XP Media Center Edition gives you, its really not that expensive. Sorry.
43 Comments so far...
Christoph Says:
3 November 2004 at 10:48 pm.
and there is more out there!
how about your weather on media center?
how about all your contacts at your fingertips? easily look up a telephone-number with your remote?
take a look at mceWeather and mceContacts at http://www.cbuenger.com
Christoph
Emily Says:
12 November 2004 at 7:36 pm.
Ok - i just got the Media Center m1188a - and I’m having issues with the sound and TV image being outta sync. Anyone got any ideas about fixing that? Or any support sites anywhere??? Damn this new technology!!
Cheers
Mick (SplaTT) Stanic Says:
13 November 2004 at 1:52 am.
Hi Emily….i would check out the forums at http://www.thegreenbutton.com as they seem to be pretty cluey about MCE stuff….
KMS Marketing Team Says:
16 November 2004 at 1:42 am.
If you are looking to add extra functionality to the MCE Platform then check out the following website http://www.mediacenterware.com/
KMS Internet, (Microsoft Certified Partner) have developed a range of functional and fun bolt-in applications for Windows XP Media Center Edition to enhance the user experience.
Products currently featured on the website include World Trivia, Contacts, Calendar, To Do and Home Organiser. A free trial version of World Trivia v1.0 is available for download from the following location http://www.mediacenterware.co.uk/downloads/trivia.asp. This is a locked down version of the original software that needs no registration and contains only 100 questions.
Enjoy!
anonymous Says:
19 November 2004 at 4:35 pm.
The out of sync problem can be rectified by the patch microsft have released (on their website), and is a know issue with MCE.
Peter Vogel Says:
30 December 2004 at 12:49 pm.
I am developing a source of xml TV listings for the Australian FTA channels. This will become a subscription service, the first legal (non-copyright-infringing) source of 7-day EPG data that I know of in Australia.
I am looking for people to beta test the data, in return for a free subscription.
Please forward this invitation to anyone that might be interested.
Ian Says:
11 February 2005 at 10:57 pm.
Hi all, I’ve just been reading PC User March edition
and they reckon MCE is a waste of space.
Mick (SplaTT) Stanic Says:
12 February 2005 at 3:41 pm.
So what sort of details did they base the “waste of space” review on?? I often find that a lot of journalists just right it off because of the lack if a (legal) EPG in Australia.
Jon Says:
22 February 2005 at 4:26 pm.
I have Media Center 2004 or 2005 - does anyone know anything about how well it works w/recording home movies that you’ve already taped and playing to thr computer thru the digital camcorder????
Shan Says:
17 March 2005 at 8:39 am.
I’m a Pom living in Brisbane for the last 18 months. One of the (very few) things I miss about the UK is the fact that TV stations have to broadcast, whether by law or by agreement I’m not sure, what they say they are going to show WHEN they say they are going to show it if at all within their control. Programs starting and finishing 15 or more minutes off schedule seems to be the norm here. I’m told this is a ploy to hang onto viewers by mucking up the chances of watching two decent programs on different channels one after the other.
Surely Microsoft et-al could get together with consumer groups who no doubt already have a bee in their bonnet about this sort of thing, and lobby for some legislation.
If TV channels had to stick to their published/printed schedules, an official EPG would be a lot quicker coming and would actually work.
Personally, I’m holding off investing in any kind of PVR/media center box until I know what’s going on with the EPG situation. My favourite toy by far was the ability to record entire series at the touch of a button and I want the TiVo style recording by genre function. I assume both these functions require a reliable EPG.
cesar Says:
5 June 2005 at 9:27 am.
i have a m1170n but the media center edition 2005 keeps crashing
does anyone know what might be happening?
smith Says:
8 June 2005 at 10:52 pm.
I have m1170n running media center , for few seconds my pc hangs and i my mouse cursor disappears for 10-15 seconds, i have format my drive and did reinstall several times.
Looks to me there is some service trying to access internet or something , tried spyware as well.
any clue ???
Ryan Says:
16 June 2005 at 9:31 pm.
my computer wont let me change my resalution to any thing but 800 by 600 and a coulor thingy of 4 bits i know its probably something to do with my graphics card but i dont know wat to do and this happened shortly after installing some new usb ports into one of the pci slots (My graphics card is also “PCI”)
Saktidip Chakma Says:
5 July 2005 at 4:54 am.
Dear Sir,
Can I free download “Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005″ OS?
Mick (SplaTT) Stanic Says:
5 July 2005 at 12:18 pm.
Media Center 2005 is only available on pre-configures machines…unless of course you are an MSDN member and wnat to go to the trouble of building your own box…”for development and test purposes only of course”
Andrew Says:
9 July 2005 at 11:10 pm.
MCE2005 is available as an OEM option with some hardware.
At auspcmarket.com.au, you can get it with a TV tuner card for $407.
I’ve nearly finished setting it up on my pc, looking good so far.
dinesh gurjar Says:
11 July 2005 at 9:21 pm.
i love center media edition
debjyoti Says:
14 August 2005 at 8:59 pm.
I am not able to transfer music from my computer (through ITunes) to my Ipod. the Ipod manual says that windows XP home or professional with service pack 2 (or later)is necessary for Ipod.I have Windows XP Media Centre Edition on my computer.What do I do?
Mick (SplaTT) Stanic Says:
14 August 2005 at 10:06 pm.
If you got to http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sp2 it will give you all the information on downloading XP SP2 :)
Razon Says:
14 September 2005 at 4:58 pm.
i want to download windows media center edition
Hurs Says:
15 October 2005 at 4:48 pm.
Hi I have MCE 2005 OEM and one problem the MCE component has disappeared completely normal XP stuff is there but no mce stuff just gone. I have reinstalled over it self all i get is the same no MCE at all
Nick Says:
24 October 2005 at 4:35 pm.
I have Windows media Centre, i want to put on but is there a way where i can chuck it on without loosing my stuff on my PC Now, or do i have to put on the xp on the cd. Someone HELP ME
mtbphil Says:
28 December 2005 at 12:20 pm.
Is it impossible to file share 2005 Media Center PCs with other computers running XP home or professional? This is really frustrating. I’ve hooked up alot of networks, so I’m pretty sure this is beyond the obvious. The Windows website seemed to indicate it doesn’t support domains…are there any workarounds?
elephant.stone Says:
24 February 2006 at 8:11 am.
Yo
I have MCE and its cool and stuff, its on a laptop with wireless blar blar blar
Im really annoyed with my version as it doesnt seem to show up in my network workgroup. Iv tried the wireless set up wizard on it many many times!
All I want to do is share a printer at least! dont really care about file sharing. ARRRGGHHHH
Is there anyway around this? You would think there would be as there must be a way to access music files (for the media centre) on a local server (e.g. in an attic)! God.
I know that MCE is half way between Home and Pro and Microsoft have taken a few features out (thus it being cheaper than pro, if it had ALL pro’s features all the companies in the world wouldnt bother with forking out for software licences for Pro anymore) but this just takes the michael!
Please someone post me a response on here pretty please!!!
Cheers
Tim Barrett Says:
14 March 2006 at 4:24 pm.
Hi all,
Media Center is available to buy on its own in a lot of the IT shops in Sydney (Chinatown etc). For those of you attempting to download it most of the Bittorents are only 2004 edition and don’t have all the features of the 2005 version. You also won’t be able to get all the windows updates which are esssential if you want the thing to work as planned. You only get a 30 day trial unless you register it!!
suman Says:
20 March 2006 at 9:10 am.
hi
i am going to buy a laptop from Dell, (namely E5015) and they are offering windows xp media centre edition as free (! though for sure they counted it anyhow by other means) and windows xp pro for more 149$. i am a student and want to use softwares like Matlab, Maxwell 3D etc. can any one tell me whether windows XP mce will be a good option for this? i mean whether it will work stable and fine fpr those computationally intensive applications?
thanks in advance
Suman
Mick (SplaTT) Stanic Says:
20 March 2006 at 4:39 pm.
Suman,
Windows XP Media Center Edition is basically Windows XP Pro with some extra bits on it. If your other applications run fine on plain XP Pro, they will run fine in MCE.
SplaTT
KK Says:
15 May 2006 at 9:44 am.
oh i lost my product key. oh i lost the serial number. oh wait - i didnt buy it in the first place.
seriously can anyone tell me if only HP have bought out a version of their own itunes. i bought a media centre but not a HP one, and i would love to have a itunes type program in the media centre menu. just cause i hate microsoft media player. anyone know if this is possible or available to buy.
lilricky Says:
15 May 2006 at 10:51 am.
If you lost your cd key for XP MCE contact microsoft, they can help you, as for the link to download MCE, you need to go to Microsoft’s Software testing center, just google it.
Rob Says:
16 May 2006 at 10:39 pm.
Can anyone please send me a MCE trial version cd key? robvuong@yahoo.com thanks
cell Says:
20 May 2006 at 8:07 am.
Can someone send me the link for MCE..Please Thank You
Peter E Says:
12 June 2006 at 11:12 am.
Hi, can anyone tell me if you can load MCE over xp pro. I have the 2 disc and when I loaded the first disc it came up with the installation of xp. As I allready have xp-pro installed, I looked at the second disc which has 3 zip files that I wasn’t able to get to load. I f someone knows how to loaded on top of xp- pro, please let me know.
Thanks
daza92 Says:
23 December 2006 at 12:22 am.
Is it possible to update Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2002 to Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005?
roy arthur Says:
15 April 2007 at 1:44 pm.
this is cool
santosh Says:
22 May 2007 at 5:12 pm.
its cool using media center
oduh moses Says:
24 February 2008 at 9:29 pm.
I bought a fairly used toshiba laptop with window xp mce 2005 and changed the hard disk. Now i need to use the existining xp mce 2005 with the serial number that came with the laptop, how do I activate the window?
anonymous Says:
5 March 2008 at 4:20 pm.
i know this has nothing to do with media center,but can anyone tell me what website to go to to download a bios bootup sound file
tuk Says:
3 July 2008 at 12:40 pm.
This is pretty pathetic i mean come on Ever heard of google or yahoo or ask Etc.
This string has been running for 4 years and 99% of the posts are the same questions
“where can i download MCE”
“I need a product key”
just fu**ing google it
i dont even know why all you pathetic people want mce for there is nothing all that great about it about the best thing is if you have an XBox 360 so you can share pictures videos and music between the two.
Xp MCE is lyk a Flashy version of XP Pro with a few xtra programs that can be downloaded LEGALY for free. And most of the torrents out there with the patches contain builtin spyware and viruses because other pathetic people have nothing better than to make other peoples misrable lives even more misribal. and why should an honest person who spent the $125+ to get their copy give theirs up and risk getting their system corrupt because microsoft blacklisted their key and his copy is no longer genuine??
ask you selves these simple questions
and how fuc*ing stupid are you people putting your e-mail addresses on a topic lyk this?
Mick (SplaTT) Stanic Says:
3 July 2008 at 1:41 pm.
I’ve just deleted all of the comments asking for MCE keys. If you want it that badly go and buy it or download something similar.
I’ve also updated the original HP box to the Vista version of MCE and its even better than the XP2005 version…and yes i bought it legally.
Jake Says:
9 August 2008 at 11:47 pm.
Yes, Media Center is really amazing, isn’t it?
I never knew about the Messenger thing though.:)
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