Win XP Media Center edition
Discussion
Thinking about replacing my home desktop for with something a little more powerful - will probably go for another Dell but their "configuration" software is pushing me towards Win XP Media Center edition instead of XP Pro. Do I want that? What's the difference? Media center looks like it's a simplified OS but is all the other XP Pro stuff under the covers somewhere?
ARH said:
It's XP with another program thats all. So will do everything xp home will do.
Added bold for clarification.
If you have more than 5 machines on your home network or you are planning on using the machine on a 'full on' Windows network (Domain, AD, etc.) then tell their configurator to feck off and manually select Pro.
Windows XP Home does what it says on the tin. It's for home users. Limited functionality on the network side (can't join Domains, 'simple' file and printer sharing, etc.) Media Centre Edition is the same underlying engine but has the MCE program on it... It's designed to be your home's "digital media hub" so ties in to the Xbox, records TV and stuff, but it's not Pro under the hood.
Things get more confusing with Vista as you have Home, Home MCE and Ultimate Edition. I've seen conflicting information about Ultimate Edition (some say it's Pro + Virtualisation + MCE others suggest it's Home + Virt + MCE) but if your a business user then on Dell's site snag the Vista Pro upgrade for gratis
If you wait about 4 weeks you'll be able to spec Vista instead of XP, unless you are despirate I'd hang on.
Despite the normal ramblings about the number of editions it really isn't hard to choose a version:
www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/editions/default.mspx
Despite the normal ramblings about the number of editions it really isn't hard to choose a version:
www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/editions/default.mspx
Media centre is rubbish, it might be interesting for a barebone PC but not for normal use, Dell is a bit cheeky with their advertising, they make you think you can get a PC for nowt but when you come to buy one you get ripped off, fi, a DVD burner cost from dell 88 pound but when bought separate it costs 27 pound and with all the bits you have to put on to end up with a complete PC and the 399 becomes 699 and that it is still nowt special, for 699 you can build urself a nice PC.
clog said:
Media centre is rubbish, it might be interesting for a barebone PC but not for normal use, Dell is a bit cheeky with their advertising, they make you think you can get a PC for nowt but when you come to buy one you get ripped off, fi, a DVD burner cost from dell 88 pound but when bought separate it costs 27 pound and with all the bits you have to put on to end up with a complete PC and the 399 becomes 699 and that it is still nowt special, for 699 you can build urself a nice PC.
Not wishing to sound like I'm rushing to defend either Dell (looks at her dead XPS Gen 2) or Microsoft (Me??? DEFEND MANKYSOFT? HAHAHA! Do you grep my grok?) but MCE is actually very good, it's EPG works from the get go (no arsing around with XMLTV-RT and Channel numbers) does multiple tuners with no issue and whilst it's annoying to unpack the .dvr-ms files it can be done if you really want to. True you could build a MythTV network or use Mediaportal on a beige box but they require some serious effort to get going properly (i.e. pre-0.19 Myth and it's ring buffer that isn't, Mediaportal not streaming live TV, etc.), it really comes in to its own when you start adding on media extenders like the xbox and standalone units.
Dell do actually sell you the system they advertise at the price (they have too, it's the law). The cheeky thing is that by default their website doesn't generate that exact configuration as the default; but selecting the right base unit and options package will get you the £499 price advertised. Of course when you throw in the on-site warranty option the price does go up a lot, but your paying for not having the hassle of shipping the machine somewhere (or having to mail off individual components in the case of self-build). Personally, I'm too old to faff with that, it stopped being fun a long time ago.
Pretty sure Media Centre Edition is a bolt on ontop of Xp Pro and not just on top of Xp Home. Certainly has Remote Desktop which was important to me and that's not included in Home. I have it on a cheapy Dell that I got from their warehousey thing, agree the Media Centre part is not really that useful in itself (good if you want to tag on a wireless xbox I think as you can then stream to it etc) but if the price is right then why not, when I was looking it just so happened that they had no Pro's listed in the price range I was looking for but did have Media ones so that is what I went for. Still maybe worth waiting for Vista if you are speccing your own however.
touching cloth said:
Pretty sure Media Centre Edition is a bolt on ontop of Xp Pro and not just on top of Xp Home.
Easy way to tell if they've changed it. Pull up Explorer > Tools > Options > View.
Scroll all the way to the bottom. If it says "Use simple file sharing (Recommended)" it's Pro, if it doesn't it's Home (you can't disable it in Home).
Media Center is excellent, especially for using with an Xbox360. On it's own, it is also a good way to organise photos, video, music and tv. If you get 2 tuner cards then you can record 2 things at once, pause live tv etc. Sure, Myth TV gets good write ups but would require more computer knowledge than most home users would posess.
Vista is great as a media center but I found it needs more memory and is a bit slower, however the interface has been tweaked and I prefer it to MCE.
Vista is great as a media center but I found it needs more memory and is a bit slower, however the interface has been tweaked and I prefer it to MCE.
ThePassenger said:
touching cloth said:
Pretty sure Media Centre Edition is a bolt on ontop of Xp Pro and not just on top of Xp Home.
Easy way to tell if they've changed it. Pull up Explorer > Tools > Options > View.
Scroll all the way to the bottom. If it says "Use simple file sharing (Recommended)" it's Pro, if it doesn't it's Home (you can't disable it in Home).
Yep, can disable it so definitely based on Pro then
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