Using Vista Media Center In Fiji

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1985 posts

Uber Geek

#155070 7-Aug-2008 22:04

rhysb: Previously teletext was implemented for analogue but not for digital. The TV pack now adds in digital Teletext support.

Righto. Thanks for the clarification.

On another topic, one of the senior members over at TGB made the comment that he's love to say something about the leaked TV Pack to stop people from screwing up their machines, but as he is under NDA he can't.

And MS employees have been contributing to the same threads which both talk about and link to the leaked software. None of them seem to worried about the leak, and one even said that he hadn't removed the link when it was suggested that MS would do so smartly.

I'd love to know what is going on! Roll on September is all I can say!

sub

358 posts

Ultimate Geek

#155097 8-Aug-2008 04:35

RustyGonad: Reading between the lines h.264 wasn't HDCP enough for the content providers so it got pulled.

Expect it to make a strong come back complete with DRM nightmare attached.

Thats not quite right.

Basically Microsoft werent happy with how well their H.264 decoder was working, so decided it wouldnt be ready before their deadline. Where "DRM" comes in is that they couldnt instead allow users to install a 3rd party H.264 decoder, because that decoder would have access to the raw video as it passed through, allowing people to siphon off perfect/unencrypted copies of the video. In the old MCE2005 days, the user was able to install a decoder of their choosing. From Vista on (when the DRM and 'protected content path' kicked in), only Microsoft decoders can be used so they can be sure of what the decoders are doing.

Disrespective

1925 posts

Uber Geek

#155127 8-Aug-2008 09:03

Okay, so earlier this week we had a morning tea shout by the guys at Integrated AV solutions down here in Chch and they brought along a machine running Vista Media Center to explain what it could do.

I instantly assumed they’d be playing around with normal Vista Media Center but then they started to talk about how the Xbox360 could be used to extend the Freeview HD signal from the machine to other screens… And I was pretty sure that the original release of VMC couldn’t do the HD stuff so presumed that they were using a Fiji release, either Beta, or the OEM one.

Does anyone know if the OEM release is actually true and it is available to lay people in the industry?

Also, the vista gui looked pretty schweet and I’ve started to look into having a dual boot vista and XP with Media Portal so see how vista goes. Can someone answer these questions for me before I waste my time?

- Can the new Vista MC have analogue tuners deal with some channels and DVB-T tuners deal with the rest? i.e. Prime on analogue and the rest on Freeview HD
- Can VMC actually record the HD broadcasts? There is a lot of talk about h.264 support missing and I don’t want to go back to normal Freeview if that means no HD TV support.
- Further to that, does the h.264 support mentioned everywhere actually mean Movie playback support, or is it the TV broadcasts?

All I want it to do is play music, movies and Freeview HD TV. Nothing else really matters, and I’m getting a bit sick of the bloated nature of MediaPortal with all its extras built in and settings to accommodate.

Thanks in advance fellas.

freitasm

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Geekzone

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#155141 8-Aug-2008 09:57

@Disrespective... Windows Vista does not play Freeview|HD content neither can extend this to the Xbox 360.

This was in early "Fiji" betas but it is not part of the final release.

rhysb

435 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#155143 8-Aug-2008 10:00

Does anyone know if the OEM release is actually true and it is available to lay people in the industry?

Yes it is an OEM only release at this stage, but only to specific bigbox/htpc OEMs. So you can't get it from the normal OEM channels yet. If you look around the net you should be able to find it though. It even seemed to have implied support from the MS guys at the green button.

Can the new Vista MC have analogue tuners deal with some channels and DVB-T tuners deal with the rest? i.e. Prime on analogue and the rest on Freeview HD

Yes and no, they have greatly improved the tuner support so you can now have multiple different sources for a channel, but not Freeview HD.,br>

Can VMC actually record the HD broadcasts? There is a lot of talk about h.264 support missing and I don?t want to go back to normal Freeview if that means no HD TV support.

No there is no h.264 in the TV pack. You will only be able to get Freeview SD. See sub's post above.

Further to that, does the h.264 support mentioned everywhere actually mean Movie playback support, or is it the TV broadcasts?

I presume you mean Bluray? No there is no native Bluray support.

JaBZ

404 posts

Ultimate Geek

#155144 8-Aug-2008 10:01

Was the early Fiji beta with H.264 more stable than MediaPortal? :P

My opinions and ideas expressed in posts are solely my own and do not reflect the views of my employer in any way..

Disrespective

1925 posts

Uber Geek

#155162 8-Aug-2008 11:09

Hmm, thanks for the replies. I'd jump to Vista in a heartbeat if they put HD broadcast support in there. I guess for now, however, i'll just have to wait.

Lenovo

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papdt

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#155208 8-Aug-2008 14:16

JaBZ: Was the early Fiji beta with H.264 more stable than MediaPortal? :P

I’ve been using fiji (early release) with h.264 support more successfully then media portal, or Power cinema or gbpvr. Only "real" issue with watching freeview is after stopping live tv have to reboot due to decoder error.

ifflanb

20 posts

Geek

#155217 8-Aug-2008 14:54

Papdt......Where would one get hold of a copy of the fiji (early release) with h.264 Is there a specific version number to Google for?

thanks

berrys

225 posts

Master Geek

#155218 8-Aug-2008 14:56

I think it has, or is about to expire...

sbiddle

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#155220 8-Aug-2008 15:02

JaBZ: Was the early Fiji beta with H.264 more stable than MediaPortal? :P

No. Not unless you consider a reboot every time you exit from live TV or change channels.

The beta was an unsupported time bombed release that is certainly by no means suitable for day to day use.

ifflanb

20 posts

Geek

#155222 8-Aug-2008 15:08

Ok do you know where I can get a copy from please?

ifflanb

20 posts

Geek

#155223 8-Aug-2008 15:09

ok just read your post about it being a timb bomb. cheers anyway. Come on September!!!

papdt

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#155251 8-Aug-2008 16:33

sbiddle:
No. Not unless you consider a reboot every time you exit from live TV or change channels.

The beta was an unsupported time bombed release that is certainly by no means suitable for day to day use.

You don't have to reboot after changing channels, only time need to reboot after exiting live tv
was downloaded from russian site, not sure which, i still have a copy

sbiddle

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#155259 8-Aug-2008 16:50

ifflanb: ok just read your post about it being a timb bomb. cheers anyway. Come on September!!!

September isn't going to mean anything if you're after DVB-T support.

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