Comments on: The Pros and Cons Of Media Center Vista http://davisfreeberg.com/2008/01/31/the-pros-and-cons-of-media-center-vista/ Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:12:30 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: NoireLion http://davisfreeberg.com/2008/01/31/the-pros-and-cons-of-media-center-vista/comment-page-1/#comment-168390 NoireLion Sat, 02 Aug 2008 14:59:33 +0000 http://davisfreeberg.com/2008/01/31/the-pros-and-cons-of-media-center-vista/#comment-168390 I bought dells on weekly sale machine xps420 with 20inch wide flatpanel thrown in with an ATI650prohometheater card (non cablecard tuner..who knew) and I have the viata media center on vista premium. Hooking it up was an adventure. With no cable card to comcast digital cable box..... went like this: Comcast digital cable box just has the coax jack for the cable and some analog audio (red and white) and video (yellow) cable ports... so I hooked up a DVD player to the digital cable box first (to utilize the S-video from the dvd player to my Ati tuner card-plugged it in). Next I took teh plug from digital cable box- that would normally plug into the TV and plugged it into my tuner card (ati 650 pro is a hybrid card- if it doesn't work in one coax try the other with this setup...)... after plugging in all the stuff I took teh remote control ir cable really thin with sticky end attached it to the comcast digital cable box ir face on teh cable box. Then I opened windows vista media center and ran the setup configuration wizard and it did not auto configure- rats- so pouted then MANUALLY configured it and it worked! Found my cable signal after waiting a long time for it- finally it found channel "4" and made me configure the remote-just follow onscreen instructions from this point- download the channel guide -figuring out which of my cities 10 different cable outputs was mine -kinda was hit or miss ....after 2 hours I had it licked....lol But if a technology dork like me can figure it out...u better... Listen HD tv requires an HD receiver so don't expect awesome pictures - this is still analog video even though it says digital etc... but the resolutions are acceptable and even though there are broadcast flags on some shows- most of what i want to record- I can... This definitely adds a bundle to my computing experience. Glad I bought the xps420 with the tuner card onboard. But get the one with the cable card that can plug directly to it- your cable co- must give u a free cable card -if you subscribe to their service- using the analog cables is a pain- but at least it works- cable card be better- adn prolly better video too. I bought dells on weekly sale machine xps420 with 20inch wide flatpanel thrown in with an ATI650prohometheater card (non cablecard tuner..who knew) and I have the viata media center on vista premium. Hooking it up was an adventure. With no cable card to comcast digital cable box….. went like this:
Comcast digital cable box just has the coax jack for the cable and some analog audio (red and white) and video (yellow) cable ports… so I hooked up a DVD player to the digital cable box first (to utilize the S-video from the dvd player to my Ati tuner card-plugged it in). Next I took teh plug from digital cable box- that would normally plug into the TV and plugged it into my tuner card (ati 650 pro is a hybrid card- if it doesn’t work in one coax try the other with this setup…)… after plugging in all the stuff I took teh remote control ir cable really thin with sticky end attached it to the comcast digital cable box ir face on teh cable box. Then I opened windows vista media center and ran the setup configuration wizard and it did not auto configure- rats- so pouted then MANUALLY configured it and it worked! Found my cable signal after waiting a long time for it- finally it found channel “4″ and made me configure the remote-just follow onscreen instructions from this point- download the channel guide -figuring out which of my cities 10 different cable outputs was mine -kinda was hit or miss ….after 2 hours I had it licked….lol
But if a technology dork like me can figure it out…u better… Listen HD tv requires an HD receiver so don’t expect awesome pictures – this is still analog video even though it says digital etc… but the resolutions are acceptable and even though there are broadcast flags on some shows- most of what i want to record- I can…
This definitely adds a bundle to my computing experience.
Glad I bought the xps420 with the tuner card onboard. But get the one with the cable card that can plug directly to it- your cable co- must give u a free cable card -if you subscribe to their service- using the analog cables is a pain- but at least it works- cable card be better- adn prolly better video too.

]]> By: Anonymous http://davisfreeberg.com/2008/01/31/the-pros-and-cons-of-media-center-vista/comment-page-1/#comment-162494 Anonymous Sun, 22 Jun 2008 08:04:40 +0000 http://davisfreeberg.com/2008/01/31/the-pros-and-cons-of-media-center-vista/#comment-162494 yeah but how the hell did you connect it all up........... yeah but how the hell did you connect it all up………..

]]> By: Lance http://davisfreeberg.com/2008/01/31/the-pros-and-cons-of-media-center-vista/comment-page-1/#comment-132795 Lance Fri, 15 Feb 2008 01:03:14 +0000 http://davisfreeberg.com/2008/01/31/the-pros-and-cons-of-media-center-vista/#comment-132795 Does anyone know of any workarounds or enhancements to deal with the EXTREMELY SLOW DVD burning in Media Center? Other programs that I can use to burn? Improved drivers or codecs I can load? Anything is better than taking 3 hours to burn a 1 hour TV show. Does anyone know of any workarounds or enhancements to deal with the EXTREMELY SLOW DVD burning in Media Center?

Other programs that I can use to burn? Improved drivers or codecs I can load?

Anything is better than taking 3 hours to burn a 1 hour TV show.

]]> By: Joshua Holt http://davisfreeberg.com/2008/01/31/the-pros-and-cons-of-media-center-vista/comment-page-1/#comment-131163 Joshua Holt Mon, 11 Feb 2008 03:28:16 +0000 http://davisfreeberg.com/2008/01/31/the-pros-and-cons-of-media-center-vista/#comment-131163 Wait, wait...... 1st of all this is mostly a well balanced critique, but to be fair... I use Vista Ultimate to record OTA HD (CHicago) from an ati HDTV Wonder Card. Firstly, ati doesn't support Vista, but Vista installed the drivers for me! I stream the HD content from my PC to my xbox360 then onto a 1080p projector, and use it as a full HD DVR, and it works...ok....almost flawlessly. The HD is flawless, but you are right, I do have to power down the 360, and power it back on....however, that is usually because I am downloading torrents, burning DVD's and recording using media center....I realise i could, and i do occasionally, use VLC360; the biggest downside is that the pause is very iffy, so i prefer DVD's. Ohh, and Russ there QAM, both clear QAM, and Cable Card....the first is hdhomerun, while the latter is controlled by the Cable Industry and is limited to OEM machines.... Now, the real future lies in the DTV HD Tuner Card...this will provide all that is neccassary to complete the ULTIMATE SYSTEM!!!! Wait, wait……

1st of all this is mostly a well balanced critique, but to be fair…
I use Vista Ultimate to record OTA HD (CHicago) from an ati HDTV Wonder Card.
Firstly, ati doesn’t support Vista, but Vista installed the drivers for me! I stream the HD content from my PC to my xbox360 then onto a 1080p projector, and use it as a full HD DVR, and it works…ok….almost flawlessly. The HD is flawless, but you are right, I do have to power down the 360, and power it back on….however, that is usually because I am downloading torrents, burning DVD’s and recording using media center….I realise i could, and i do occasionally, use VLC360; the biggest downside is that the pause is very iffy, so i prefer DVD’s.

Ohh, and Russ there QAM, both clear QAM, and Cable Card….the first is hdhomerun, while the latter is controlled by the Cable Industry and is limited to OEM machines….

Now, the real future lies in the DTV HD Tuner Card…this will provide all that is neccassary to complete the ULTIMATE SYSTEM!!!!

]]> By: Russ http://davisfreeberg.com/2008/01/31/the-pros-and-cons-of-media-center-vista/comment-page-1/#comment-130918 Russ Sun, 10 Feb 2008 01:21:16 +0000 http://davisfreeberg.com/2008/01/31/the-pros-and-cons-of-media-center-vista/#comment-130918 The one thing that is near and dear to us tuner guys is there is no cable QAM (digital cable) support, yet. Hopefully in the next (Fiji?) Media Center release. The one thing that is near and dear to us tuner guys is there is no cable QAM (digital cable) support, yet. Hopefully in the next (Fiji?) Media Center release.

]]> By: Chris http://davisfreeberg.com/2008/01/31/the-pros-and-cons-of-media-center-vista/comment-page-1/#comment-130644 Chris Fri, 08 Feb 2008 19:37:32 +0000 http://davisfreeberg.com/2008/01/31/the-pros-and-cons-of-media-center-vista/#comment-130644 For the most part this is a really good summation of the Vista media center situation. As for the recording quality I think that you are right that it is mostly your tuner. My cablecard setup is flawless. The Zooming capabilities are good but I wish I could make them automatic between SD and HD content. Other than than I think I'm done with cable boxes for good now. For the most part this is a really good summation of the Vista media center situation. As for the recording quality I think that you are right that it is mostly your tuner. My cablecard setup is flawless. The Zooming capabilities are good but I wish I could make them automatic between SD and HD content. Other than than I think I’m done with cable boxes for good now.

]]> By: Al http://davisfreeberg.com/2008/01/31/the-pros-and-cons-of-media-center-vista/comment-page-1/#comment-128303 Al Sun, 03 Feb 2008 14:20:01 +0000 http://davisfreeberg.com/2008/01/31/the-pros-and-cons-of-media-center-vista/#comment-128303 fyi... On your comment about not being able to auto-record wishlists, I'm not sure this is exactly what you are looking for but here's how I handle this: I'm a Nebraska Huskers fan so to auto-record all the games I... Go to "Recorded TV", "Add Recording", "Create Custom Recording with: Keyword", I then enter the keyword "huskers", do a save and it then gives me the option to enter a category so I specify "Sports", and "Football". I create another custom recording that uses "nebraska" as the keyword. These two custom recording have so far caught every broadcast game for me. fyi… On your comment about not being able to auto-record wishlists, I’m not sure this is exactly what you are looking for but here’s how I handle this:

I’m a Nebraska Huskers fan so to auto-record all the games I…
Go to “Recorded TV”, “Add Recording”, “Create Custom Recording with: Keyword”, I then enter the keyword “huskers”, do a save and it then gives me the option to enter a category so I specify “Sports”, and “Football”. I create another custom recording that uses “nebraska” as the keyword. These two custom recording have so far caught every broadcast game for me.

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