Any Vista buffs on here ?

[evolution400]

Just wondering if Vista will support DVB-S offically ?
Encrypted chanenls ?
So we can have SKY HD in MCE and topuptv for those who stay with DVB-T.

In response to Nigels post RE the version 1 extenders not working at all with Vista I think thats a shame.
So I think I will continue to run MCE2005 on my MCE PC then install VISTA on my dual core media server then link the 360 to that instead so I can contnue to make use of the xbox 1 extenders I have.

[Dan L]

Does the Xbox 360 work as an extender as of Beta 2?

[dejongj]

I've only tried the November build...to be honest I couldn't notice any difference besides the cosmetic changes...And I don't even like those.....

Still no MPHEG (or whatever digital text) support, no support for the encrypted channels....I don't have an DVB-S card so wouldn't know that one.....

[PeteT]

Does the Xbox 360 work as an extender as of Beta 2?

I am installing it over the weekend. I'll let you know. I have heard it works fine

[Dan L]

Cool :thumbsup:

Please do let me know if it works. My Xbox crashes when I try to use the extender (and this is my second console) so I am keen to try Vista to see if that makes the console crash too.

[nigelbb]

Vista is now feature complete & thus it's clear that there will be no support for DVB-S & no MHEG5 (teletext) in DVB-T & definitely no CI in DVB-T or DVB-S. So no encrypted channels.

For Beta 2 only US region Xbox 360s work as extenders (& not very well by all accounts). This is deliberate as Microsoft want to get it working correctly with US before adding all the other variables like PAL, 50Hz etc

Outside the US MCE in Vista is little more than a port of MCE 2005. There are no new features although typically for Microsoft they have reworked the GUI a lot. In fact there is actually less functionality as V1 Extenders & Xbox MCX don't work with Vista. In the US they will have Cablecard which is like a DVB-x Conditional Access Module.

[evolution400]

Vista is now feature complete & thus it's clear that there will be no support for DVB-S & no MHEG5 (teletext) in DVB-T & definitely no CI in DVB-T or DVB-S. So no encrypted channels.

For Beta 2 only US region Xbox 360s work as extenders (& not very well by all accounts). This is deliberate as Microsoft want to get it working correctly with US before adding all the other variables like PAL, 50Hz etc

Outside the US MCE in Vista is little more than a port of MCE 2005. There are no new features although typically for Microsoft they have reworked the GUI a lot. In fact there is actually less functionality as V1 Extenders & Xbox MCX don't work with Vista. In the US they will have Cablecard which is like a DVB-x Conditional Access Module.
Thanks for the info Nigel.
So basically then we are upgrading to get less functionailty but a prettier front end I think I will stick with MCE2005.
What do you think are the chances of SKY-HD working with your DVB-S work around Nigel ?

[nigelbb]

What do you think are the chances of SKY-HD working with your DVB-S work around Nigel ?With the right DVB-S2 card pretty high. I am holding off for a bit as the demands of H.264 decoding appear incredibly high e.g. Athlon 64 X2 4200 as minimum. I am waiting until I see a few more people posting that they have perfect playback as I really don'y want to find that I have spent a few hundred Euros on a CPU plus another couple of hundred on a graphics card & then discover that they are not quite powerful enough & that there is still a little stuttering. I downloaded a sample of the BBC HDTV loop & found that a 3.2GHz P4 with ATI Radeon X1300 doesn't play it back smoothly.

Because of the remaining problems with the Technotrend solution for MCE (unattended recordings requiring channel change to encrypted channel not working) I am basically using MCE for scheduling FTA recordings. The quality of Dr Who is just fantastic via VGA to my new 46" Samsung LCD TV. We have another MCE system connected to a Sky Digibox via s-video & share these to the system connected via VGA. To be honest the picture quality is pretty good. Previously I found s-video from a PC graphics card gave awful quality & that using an Xbox MCX via RGB was much better. The Xbox is now connected via component but doing a quick A-B comparison on the same Recorded TV file the PC connected via VGA has much better PQ.

[andrewpmoore]

I know vista is feature complete, but i'm not sure about mce. I've seen screenshots of things like network strengths, tv signal strengths etc before, which i can't find in this build.

I wish i remember where i saw them.

I know also one of the mce team was saying in an interview that mce doesn't support uk digital text - yet!

I don't know, maybe i'm just an optomist. As mce doesn't seem to have changed much in nearly 2 years if nothing new comes with vista.

[dejongj]

I know vista is feature complete, but i'm not sure about mce. I've seen screenshots of things like network strengths, tv signal strengths etc before, which i can't find in this build.

I wish i remember where i saw them.

I know also one of the mce team was saying in an interview that mce doesn't support uk digital text - yet!

I don't know, maybe i'm just an optomist. As mce doesn't seem to have changed much in nearly 2 years if nothing new comes with vista.

TV Signal strengths etc is in MCE today! Again nothing new...But of-course not for the UK market.....