Windows XP Media Center Edition: Exposed
by Anand Lal Shimpi on January 8, 2003 2:55 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
Final Words
With Windows XP Media Center Edition, Microsoft has proven their ability to bring a truly consumer-friendly OS down to the living room, or in the case of the first MCE boxes - the dorm room or apartment. People have had computers in their living rooms for years, but with MCE the PC can be put alongside a receiver or a TV and finally be at home.
As a PVR, Media Center Edition functions just as well as any TiVo or ReplayTV box, and is already miles ahead of anything currently available for the PC. But if you're buying a Media Center PC to use as nothing more than a PVR, then you're unnecessarily making one very expensive investment. You can get PVR functionality and identical capabilities out of any set-top box, for a quarter of the price of a decent Media Center PC. In order for MCE to really be a competitor to the TiVo and ReplayTVs of the world, it will have to be made available in a much cheaper form - potentially as an Xbox2 add-on.
What MCE does do quite well is exactly what Microsoft is targeting it at currently; for the dorm room or apartment where space is tight, MCE can easily transform a PC that would otherwise be used for work and games into a true media center. The important thing to keep in mind is that while MCE will transform a PC into a media center, it will not remove its ability to function as a normal XP Professional machine; this is exactly why it can do well in these niche markets where one machine for work, games and TV would be ideal.
There are a lot of improvements that must be made in order for MCE to really take off however; first and foremost, the performance issues we encountered are unacceptable. Unfortunately, it may take mainstream Hyper-Threading enabled Pentium 4s with an 800MHz FSB in order to mask the stuttering issues that occur during normal use of MCE as a PVR. As far as stability goes, we'd expect the limited number of hardware vendors to more thoroughly stress test and ensure their machines won't be crashing in a media center environment; like we've mentioned before, who wants to explain why their TV just blue screened?
In the end, Microsoft has done a splendid job with Windows XP Media Center Edition. It isn't perfect, and it definitely isn't for everyone but in going after the markets that it does tailor to, Microsoft has done well. Hopefully this will be the first of many steps in reaching this idea of digital convergence that Intel and Microsoft have been pushing for quite some time...
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GreyMack - Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - link
Excellent review, but I don't think it was harsh enough.baboon68 - Wednesday, October 29, 2003 - link
Well, if nothing this article shows that MCE is NOT capable of settling comfortably the living room for a variety of reasons. MCE does not do away with the windows menu and the instability/driver issues. The HP box is certainly worse than a custom assembled Shuttle SSF or Ahanix box. The latest ATI Multimedia Center software in conjuntion with an RF (not IR) control is also quite close to the MCE experience - I have one and it works quite well on a cheaper Athlon 2K+. ALso free/cheap updates to the ATI software can only make it better - never mind the HDTV capability using the 40$ adapter. And last bat not least, if I look at the additional capabilities of Freevo or MythTV (Weather, RSS feeds, MAME, etc.). Also missing - at least from the article - is a discussion of: support for people outside of the US, possible DVB-S card support, external IR Transmitter support (to control a Sat receiver box), and more.I think the MCE is at best another flawed attempt by Microsoft to market beta quality software at a loss or at the expense of hardware integrators to gain market share in the Tivo market.
Anonymous User - Monday, October 20, 2003 - link
After reading this article I'm not clear why the author thinks MCE is preferable to alternatives like ATI All-in-Wonder, which sounds like does the same things and is more flexible what computers it will work with. In particular, the author says the MCE interface is significantly better than ATI but doesn't adequately explain why. Also, the ATI remote will work without line-of-site required and can control the computer mouse, which MCE can't. Seems like ATI is a better deal.Anonymous User - Wednesday, September 10, 2003 - link
Do the same thing for freewww.mythtv.org
Anonymous User - Friday, August 29, 2003 - link
This is a great review. Will a Dual processor xeon machine combat the stuttering? i presume its compatible as its xp pro based.Anonymous User - Monday, August 11, 2003 - link
Thank you, AnandTech! Your review is extremely helpful, as it debunked some of the myths of Windows Media Center. Plus, it gave me inside look of the machine I'm looking to buy.Still, I have one question: About the "skip" function, when you skip 30 seconds ahead, does the machine record the commercials also or does it only record the areas not skipped? If it doesn't, is there some kind of software that can erase the commercials?
Anonymous User - Wednesday, July 30, 2003 - link
yeah basicallyAnonymous User - Thursday, July 17, 2003 - link
So, the the final word is the MCE is just Xp pro plus PVR right.. ???Anonymous User - Saturday, July 12, 2003 - link
This is a great review. It explains every aspect of this Media Center PC in great detail. I have looked all over the internet to find a review like this and this is the only one I could find. Thanks alot. This will make me even more jealous to buy it since I am planning to purchase one.