Thanx Bill !
It’s nice of Bill to mention his Windows XP is soooo complete. Users couldn’t play DVD movies with their Windows XP Home and Windows XP Pro, out of the box. Even though they paid a premium price for the computer with DVD-ROM player and the Windows XP package. Luckily, any DVD program will do. It’s either on the DVD movie disc itself, or sometimes it’s included in the DVD-ROM retail package.
Then comes the new complete home entertainment (direct quote from microsoft.com) system from Microsoft. Windows Media Center Edition 2005. Essentially it’s XP Pro with a new skin and frontpage to interact better with a TV screen and remote control. So you can have a multimedia center in your room using your computer linked to a TV screen. Sounds reasonably nice, right ? Record TV, get the TV listing from the internet, timeshift watching, music, pictures etc etc.
So, here I am, finishing the first Windows MCE PC, hardware and software installs without a hitch. Then comes the TV testing. Decoder error. And I have to deliver this system tomorrow. And it’s 17.38.
Solution ? Well, a closer look at the Hauppage website (for the TV card) already mentioned this, though it’s not of much help. Digging further reveals what we’ve lived through earlier. Except this time, not any DVD program will do. A whole arsenal of programs have already been installed to no avail (WinDVD 4 & 5 & 6, PowerDVD 4 & 5) (everytime followed by a reboot, an uninstall and another reboot), and finally, I came across PowerDVD 6. And it works. (I’m talking demo versions of course, I wouldn’t dare downloading illegal Deluxe versions).
Moral of this story ? Complete is a dangerous word. Not only did you buy an expensive incomplete Windows MCE version, you’re in a whole lot of danger of buying the wrong extra DVD program.