What's to Dislike in MCE 2005? (1 Viewer)

[KidKiwi]

Hi All,

Being a newbie I'm interested in the reasons MCE 2005 isn't the favoured software of choice. I've been researching a HTPC for quite some time and so far none of the S/ware is easy for someone like me - but MCE 2005 seems like a good place to start.

Can you tell me please (those that have some experience with it) why it isn't more popular with the tweaking community? Does it not allow one to do certain things? Is this DRM really as bad as all that? Can it play VOB files out of the box? (This one is important because I want to run my DVD collection from the HD through whatever interface I use).

Initially I didn't like the idea of only two tuners, but since then I've found out there is a hack to allow the addition of more tuners.

Looking forward to all your answers.

 

[mama]

Read this:

http://nolanparty.com/mediaportal.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=49603

 

[KidKiwi]

Hey Mama,

Yeah...I read this the other day - gives MP and great punt.

The reason I asked this question is that MCE seems to be the easiet to install and use for someone like me (Great straight out of the box). I had a play with it in a store and was suitably impressed - nice UI and worked really well. That was playing with it in a store - it's not until you get something home that you find out all the limitations. I still haven't found how they setup the EPG for TV for NZ or if they even have one sorted out.

We seem to be so far behind the rest of the world as far as this type of tech goes. (it's only been 3 years since Sky mentioned their TIVO-like STB and we still don't have it - maybe Xmas, but I'm not holding my breath.).

I've only seriously looked at MP in the last couple of weeks so I'm still fresh on a lot of it - trying to come to terms with it. For a newbie most of these types of programmes are rather daunting - although I'm willing to persevere if it'll do what I want.

 

[TVKiwi]

Hi KidKiwi

some NZ experience speaking..

I have tried almost evry commercial htpc software out there and I have made MP my home and one of the key reasons is the EPG you mention.

I have got it working perfectly including all sky digital channels and have my pc changing the sky decoder channel when required to record something. I just could not do this with mce2005 and to me that was kinda the whole point of building an htoc with tv capability.

 

[KidKiwi]

Hi KidKiwi

some NZ experience speaking..

I have tried almost evry commercial htpc software out there and I have made MP my home and one of the key reasons is the EPG you mention.

Hey TVKiwi,

What EPG do you use for good old NZ? I found XMLTVNZ and had a quick play (Got it to do someting finally), but I don't have a TV card to see how things work properly

 

[voxmortis]

MP is my HTPC software due to the fact that I need to use 2 different tuners - one tuner for analogue cable TV (Optus) and one for free-to-air HD TV.

...and MCE 2005 can't do that.

Simple as that.

 

[Marcusb]

Also, you say that MCE is much easier to set up for a noob than any other, but (and I may be biased here) we have the best user support forum. Take the time to install MP and you should be able to work most of it out yourself. If there are any bits you get stuck on then we are all here to help. If you look at other questions from other people, answers are usually very fast and very efficient.

If you find a bug in something, the odds are that a new CVS will be released within a few days that solves your issue. That's better than waiting for MS to release a service pack.

 

[KidKiwi]

MP is my HTPC software due to the fact that I need to use 2 different tuners - one tuner for analogue cable TV (Optus) and one for free-to-air HD TV.

...and MCE 2005 can't do that.

True - we only need analog connections in NZ I believe.

Also, you say that MCE is much easier to set up for a noob

As a noob I'm not sure it is easier to setup - thats why I"m asking the question. I've only experienced MCE in a shop for a short amount of time and it looked really good - but I didn't set it up and I don't know all the shortcomings of MCE like many of you experienced users do. I'm no puter expert so don't want to have to spend all my spare time trying to suss something out - would rather spend it watching movies.

 

[wortelsoft]

Well I installed MP on friday afternoon and most of the stuff worked without a hitch.
The biggest problem was tweaking it for performance (I only have a thuderbird 800, which is struggeling)
I still have some things to learn or setup but my first impression is very good. The EPG works for most of my channels (The Netherlands) only have to see how I can get the rest of the channels working

I already changed the widescreen bluetwo skin with elows red and gold color schema, which was pretty straitforward to do.

If you read a bit on the forum and the wiki mp isn't that hard to setup.