Windows XP Media Center Edition: Exposed
by Anand Lal Shimpi on January 8, 2003 2:55 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
Introducing Media Center Edition
Much like Tablet PC Edition, Media Center Edition (MCE) is largely based on the Windows XP Professional kernel. In fact, if you strip away the Media Center part of the equation you will be left with a fully functional copy of Windows XP Professional. What Media Center adds to the OS is primarily support for the Media Center application, which appears as nothing more than a regular program in your Start Menu.
There’s much more to MCE than the Media Center application however; for starters, MCE uses a nonstandard codec for compressing all of the shows it records. Fundamentally, all programming is recorded in an MPEG-2 format with an ASF wrapper; Microsoft’s ASF (Advanced Systems Format) works perfectly in this case as it can act as nothing more than a container for media encoded in a different format, more specially MPEG-2 encoded audio and video.
The ASF wrapper effectively prevents two things from happening with the shows that MCE records; first of all, you can playback anything recorded in MCE but the playback system must be able to read this unique ASF wrapped file format. Currently, the only application that supports playback of MCE recorded files is Windows Media Player 9.
The ASF wrapper also currently prevents transcoding into other media formats, such as DiVX. We’d expect this to change eventually but currently you’re stuck with the “bloated” MPEG-2 encoded video. One of the benefits of a PC based PVR, as we mentioned before, is the ability to transcode and store your recorded shows in whatever format you desire – especially in DiVX/MPEG-4 formats, something no other PVR can currently do.
Playback of MCE recorded files on the MCE machine itself doesn’t require Windows Media Player 9, rather just the MCE application and a specific MPEG-2 codec. For whatever reason, version 3.0 of Intervideo’s WinDVD has the appropriate MPEG-2 codec necessary for MCE. What’s even more confusing is that WinDVD 4.0 will not work, as MCE will complain about not being able to find the appropriate playback codec. And no, installing WinDVD 3.0 on another computer won’t let you playback MCE recorded files, you need to actually have MCE installed for that to work.
That pretty much sums it up for the software side of MCE; not to discount the amazing amount of work that has gone into MCE, as we’ll be getting to the incredible interface shortly, but as you can see there’s not much to it at a high level.
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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.