Registered: Feb 2003
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Posts: 28

I was fortunate enough to receive a copy of Microsoft’s Windows XP Media Center 2005 to review. Media Center is Microsoft’s answer to Tivo. It allows you to create your own Digital Video Recorder (DVR). You can do everything that Tivo allows you to do and more. In the following review I will show you some of the advantages of Media Center; along with the disadvantages (there are a few).

Read the Review

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Registered: Aug 2004
Location: ATL-USA
Posts: 150

nice review hirka, i am now hooked on learning how to build a DVR, PVR, whatever...lol

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Registered: May 2002
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Posts: 4161

decent enough content but it reads like a physics text book... YYAAWWWNNN

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Registered: Oct 2004
Location: Conyers, GA
Posts: 162

Thank you Gravy , Since I had a chance to play with Media Center I got hooked into building one also. Once my new house is build (pre-wired with ethernet) I'm planning on setting up a whole DVR system, with at least two TV's hooked up, and the media center computer.... Can't wait!

Dr_Romulus I'm glad you liked the content, I'm sorry it sounded like a physics textbook. If you have any suggestions to make my reviews more entertaining to read, just let me know.

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Registered: Aug 2004
Location: ATL-USA
Posts: 150

yes, constructive criticism is always welcome, prefferably with suggestions

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XFX 6600GT 128 AGP 8x @ 562/1140
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Registered: Oct 2004
Location: Conyers, GA
Posts: 162

Correction of Review

I recieved an email telling me that Media Center is based off of Windows XP Pro, not home as I put in the review. I contacted Microsoft to verify one way or the other and they have informed me that it is based off of Windows XP Pro, which some featurers in Pro removed (can't connect to a domain for one).

So, I was wrong, donmarkdavis was correct. Thank you for letting me know so I could get it right.

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Registered: Feb 2003
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Posts: 28

I threw a little note into the review to note the error. I wish we could get more detail about which parts of Pro were excised, since the connectivity to the domain was the biggest difference between Home and Pro.

If anyone else reading the review has some insight, I'd love to see it posted here.

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Registered: Mar 2002
Location: Kansas
Posts: 1849

Interesting, my media center is a member of my domain. I haven't found anything missing from WinXP / Media Center. The media center portion just contains a shell that runs over the top of WinXP from what I can see. Interesting enough it looks like 2005 supports multiple tuners allowing you to record multiple t.v. channels and watch a different channel simultaneously. EVGA just announced a dual tuner card. Looks like it will be sweet.

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Registered: May 2002
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Posts: 4161

They added multiple tuner support from beta testing feedback that showed how important the addition was if they wanted to be a truly viable HTPC alternative.

There really isn't anything to be said about the review that could make it more interesting unfortunately. It is a writeup on an OS afterall.

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Registered: Nov 2004
Location: Agoura Hills, CA
Posts: 1

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Registered: Oct 2004
Location: Conyers, GA
Posts: 162

mtncry, I did not see an option to burn a video DVD when I was testing Media Center. The "Burn CD/DVD" program did not give me an option on how I wanted to burn disk. It automatically burned the TV show I was burning as a dvr-ms file.

If there is a way to burn a recorded TV show as a regular Video DVD, I did not see it.

There was an option for the Slideshow DVD, but that is for burning picturers. I did not have enough blank DVD-R's to test it (in fact, I used my last one testing the TV show burning).

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Registered: Nov 2004
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Posts: 1

I like windows xp media center edition. Because its point and click, you dont need to go to fileselect the file play etc.
You just click on the file, but now my question is. Can you get it to play xdiv, divx movies. By integrating them in the windows xp media center edition, being point and click.
Thanks

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Registered: Oct 2004
Location: Conyers, GA
Posts: 162

Yes, Windows Media Center will play Divx, Xvid, and all the other movie formats you can think of. If it will play in Windows Media Player on a normal XP machine, it will play in WMC. Of course you need to install the required Codec first.

I tested this feature by playing some Divx and Xvid files I had on my own computer (Episodes of Stargate SG-1 if you must know)

All you have to do is select the directory they are located in as one that Media Center looks at for files, it will load them all up, and you can play them in the My Video section.

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Registered: Jan 2005
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Posts: 1

Hi there,

I am a new user in this forum, I hope I can find a solution here! I am using the Media Center 2005, I have installed a codecs for playing real video format for my media plyer 10, however, I don't know why inside the media center mode, it can't detect the rm format.... can anyone help me about it? thanks!

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Registered: Oct 2004
Location: Conyers, GA
Posts: 162

I never tried to play .rm files in media center, however I was able to play any Divx or Xvid files that played in Windows Media Player. Are you able to play the .rm files in Media Player? Also, do you have Media Player to be the default player for .rm files?

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