MCE or Vista

[andych732]

Hi all

Was thinking of getting MCE so I could stream videos to the xbox, but was wondering if Vista would be able to this, and and if it was worth waiting for that instead.

Also will MCE send the sound as 5.1 to the xbox or does it only send it as a 2 channel source?

Finally, will it be better to do a clean install, partition the HD or get a new HD to run alongside my existing one?

Thanks all and apologies if anything I said doesn't make sense I dont know too much about MCE or Vista

Andy

[Stiggy]

If you are waiting for Vista, you will be waiting until at least January unless you want to try a beta version in the meantime.

MCE is clean install (or separate partition) only. MCE is only really for new PCs, although you can persuade it to install on an old PC with a few tricks.

The visual experience within the 'Media Center' application itself is very similar in MCE and Vista.

No idea about the 5.1 sound - sorry! However, current betas of Vista do not work with UK PAL Xbox 360s yet.

[andych732]

Thanks Stiggy, I don't mind waiting for Vista as long as it will do what MCE will do. I don't see the point in paying out for MCE now and VISTA in a few months time.

[Cable Monkey]

Originally Posted by andych732

Thanks Stiggy, I don't mind waiting for Vista as long as it will do what MCE will do. I don't see the point in paying out for MCE now and VISTA in a few months time.

I was about to say the same. I have leapt straight in with Vista as part of the official beta trial and will almost certainly buy when released properly. One small detail, I bought a new Compaq Presario V5000 but the Turion model I bought has an Expresscard slot but not the old PCMCIA slot. I would like a TV tuner but while there are many PCMCIA ones (and I have one) no one is selling expresscard tuners in the UK yet.

[marcdando]

I have recently downloaded and installed Vista RC1 on a test machine I have, I have to applaud Microsoft for the quality of this release, after the base install I downloaded the latest nVidia drivers and then proceeded to install the .Net 1.1 upwards, this allowed the TechnoTrend MCE tools (26-6-06) to load perfectly and the DVDMapper applications works as well, if not better than under MCE 2005. So if you have the time to investigate check it out.

Hardware as follows;
Motherboard Asus A8N-VM CSM
AMD 3200+ CPU
2Gb Memory
300Gb 7200RPM Disk
TechnoTrend Budget 1500
Hauppauge PVR150

[Stiggy]

Any news on whether a PAL Xbox 360 works with Vista as a media extended yet?

[eternaldark]

Originally Posted by Stiggy

Any news on whether a PAL Xbox 360 works with Vista as a media extended yet?

It does but you still cannot stream Divx/xvid stuff yet as transcode does not work, but otherwise yeah works fine, and looks amazing

[boez]

Originally Posted by marcdando

I have recently downloaded and installed Vista RC1 on a test machine I have, I have to applaud Microsoft for the quality of this release, after the base install I downloaded the latest nVidia drivers and then proceeded to install the .Net 1.1 upwards, this allowed the TechnoTrend MCE tools (26-6-06) to load perfectly and the DVDMapper applications works as well, if not better than under MCE 2005. So if you have the time to investigate check it out.

Sorry for hijacking the thread....

I'd be interested to know the procedure you followed to do this!

I tried to install tt MCE Tools on Vista RC1 only to be told that .NET is needed. When I tried to install .NET Vista complained that it was already part of the OS! Any tips?

TIA
Andy

[boez]

Originally Posted by boez

Sorry for hijacking the thread....

I'd be interested to know the procedure you followed to do this!

I tried to install tt MCE Tools on Vista RC1 only to be told that .NET is needed. When I tried to install .NET Vista complained that it was already part of the OS! Any tips?

TIA
Andy

Ok, I've solved it. I was trying to install .net 2 and not .net 1.1!

I dont feel too silly as the software automatically directs you to the .net 2 site in error!

Make sure you install .net 1.1 SP1 too!

HTH
Andy