Using Vista Media Center In Fiji

Forums › Freeview (DVB-T/DVB-S) › Using Vista Media Center In Fiji

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | ... | 24

495 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#132029 20-May-2008 12:27

chiefie: And true to what Mauricio said... MCE isn't really officially supported in my book. Until they got the EPG data freely accessible by MCE, it is a glorified PVR... real disappointing and sad to see MCE will never live up to its full potential in NZ.

Yep - us and Norway taking on the world...

I really don't care whether its officialally supported or not. I am simply concerned with is it sold here - which it most certainly is and will it work here - which it does. Will it work better - well from what I have seen absolutely yes.

Using DVB-S, I have just had a look at my Guide - its showing 7 days worth of EPG data. I don't have Bladerunner on my HTPC anymore, nor have I done anything to setup the guide from any internet based source. Believe me this was also much easier to setup than any of the other products I have tried ie it uses OTA EIT guide data. I've also got combined Analog/Digital S/T running.

The native DVB-S support seems very good.

Like I said - DVB-T is very flakey (its the first BETA) - but it works, and it looks like it will provide a very very good solution in the near future once the stability issues are addressed (which like I said may me ATI related). It doesn't look like MHEG guide data is supported at the moment ie shows only the EIT stuff - but I haven't tried much yet.

What they have done is open up the appropriate parts of the MCE Engine to ensure that it will work in most places, including NZ.

I believe it also has native support for the Hauppauge HD-PVR engine which is about to be released, which may/may not provide an alternate solution for those with Pay HD.

I think given another few months once its formally released many people on here will have changed their tune.

I really didn't start this thread as a MS vs the world thread simply to inform a few people of whats out there...

Satch

1985 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 259

#132030 20-May-2008 12:38

Mate, glad to see you are still alive! I was tearing my hair out in clumps way back when you were trying to help me with all the registry hacks, then disappeared never to be seen again (until now).

Needless to say, I gave up. Just could not get the two working together properly. A reboot literally booted everything out :(

Glad to see the Fiji beta is finally out. I just hope it is not long before a retail version is released as I need more Sky as my source of TV in VMC.

Other than the improvements you've alluded to, does the interface look different?

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
80647 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 41030

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#132031 20-May-2008 12:39

RustyGonad: I really don't care whether its officialally supported or not. I am simply concerned with is it sold here - which it most certainly is and will it work here - which it does. Will it work better - well from what I have seen absolutely yes.

Using DVB-S, I have just had a look at my Guide - its showing 7 days worth of EPG data. I don't have Bladerunner on my HTPC anymore, nor have I done anything to setup the guide from any internet based source. Believe me this was also much easier to setup than any of the other products I have tried ie it uses OTA EIT guide data. I've also got combined Analog/Digital S/T running.

Exactly my point. The product works but just because Sky EPG is not available they shouldn't simply "not support" it. AS you know EPG works with DVB-S - and limited on DVB-T. But this is not enough reason to simply not supporting the product - which is a whole lot more than EPG only.

Referral links: Quic Broadband (free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE) | Samsung | AliExpress | Wise | Sharesies

Support Geekzone by subscribing (browse ads-free), or making a one-off or recurring donation through PressPatron.

RustyGonad

495 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#132035 20-May-2008 12:55

Satch: Mate, glad to see you are still alive! I was tearing my hair out in clumps way back when you were trying to help me with all the registry hacks, then disappeared never to be seen again (until now).

Needless to say, I gave up. Just could not get the two working together properly. A reboot literally booted everything out :(

Glad to see the Fiji beta is finally out. I just hope it is not long before a retail version is released as I need more Sky as my source of TV in VMC.

Other than the improvements you've alluded to, does the interface look different?

Sorry about that - Had a 400 GB drive die on me which took a couple of weeks to recover from - by the time I had another look everything had changed...

Next time you try you won't need any registry hacks.

Everything looks the same. The guides a nicer colour, and it looks like you can remap guide channels ie take a Sky DVB-S Guide source and apply it to another channel - which is the bit the current versions gets hopelessy stuck on. Looking at it I'd take a guess and say late this year before its released to the public.

Vorbis

176 posts

Master Geek

#132433 21-May-2008 23:15

Woohoo, Microsoft finally start to catch up with the readily available free software. Except you have to pay for it. Are we excited yet?

RustyGonad

495 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#132438 21-May-2008 23:27

Vorbis: Woohoo, Microsoft finally start to catch up with the readily available free software. Except you have to pay for it. Are we excited yet?

Geez mate - if you want to bash MS go do it somewhere else.

If your using a HTPC with Freeview HD or h.264 your using Vista - MCE comes with every edition of Vista from Home Premium onwards. If you didn't pay for that well - your a thief. Tell me how free the others are once you finish buying PowerDVD etc etc etc...

This thread was to inform those who want to use Vista MCE about whats coming... If you don't want to use it I don't care.

If you want to talk about some of the merits of some of the other "free" packages vs Vista MCE start another thread - I'll happily contribute, especially if you have found a perfect "free" solution as you imply - I'm dying to see it...

New World

Shop on-line at New World now for your groceries (affiliate link).

samsam

167 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 2

#132441 22-May-2008 00:08

so just to conferm the new 'fiji' version of MCE is looking to support both DVB-T/S and also supports h.264 stream in DVB-T?

Vorbis

176 posts

Master Geek

#132445 22-May-2008 00:33

RustyGonad:
Vorbis: Woohoo, Microsoft finally start to catch up with the readily available free software. Except you have to pay for it. Are we excited yet?

Geez mate - if you want to bash MS go do it somewhere else.

If your using a HTPC with Freeview HD or h.264 your using Vista - MCE comes with every edition of Vista from Home Premium onwards. If you didn't pay for that well - your a thief. Tell me how free the others are once you finish buying PowerDVD etc etc etc...

This thread was to inform those who want to use Vista MCE about whats coming... If you don't want to use it I don't care.

If you want to talk about some of the merits of some of the other "free" packages vs Vista MCE start another thread - I'll happily contribute, especially if you have found a perfect "free" solution as you imply - I'm dying to see it...

I wasn't 'bashing' as such. I bought vista home premium because of the included mce. I was pretty disappointed when I found out it was useless for dvb-s. Granted I should have researched its capabilities, but had wrongly assumed that proprietry software would do a better job than open source. I stand corrected.

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
80647 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 41030

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#132458 22-May-2008 08:10

Vorbis: Granted I should have researched its capabilities, but had wrongly assumed that proprietry software would do a better job than open source. I stand corrected.

Are you talking about free software or open source? They are very different things. Media Portal is open source and free but GB-PVR is free but not open source.

And I have to say Windows Media Center looks nicer...

Referral links: Quic Broadband (free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE) | Samsung | AliExpress | Wise | Sharesies

Support Geekzone by subscribing (browse ads-free), or making a one-off or recurring donation through PressPatron.

Dingbatt

6804 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3694

Lifetime subscriber

#132524 22-May-2008 12:14

RustyGonad:
Geez mate - if you want to bash MS go do it somewhere else.

If your using a HTPC with Freeview HD or h.264 your using Vista - MCE comes with every edition of Vista from Home Premium onwards. If you didn't pay for that well - your a thief. Tell me how free the others are once you finish buying PowerDVD etc etc etc...

.........This thread was to inform those who want to use Vista MCE about whats coming... If you don't want to use it I don't care.

Thanks RustyG. I assume by the vehemence of your response that you are actually officially testing the Beta. As someone who was disappointed with the out-of-the-box experience (no hacks etc) with Vista Home Premium could I implore you to give it a good workout, so that when the SP is issued we end up with a usable, stable Hi-Def media system. Things like an EPG or even manual control of tuners would be kind of nice.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

Regs

4066 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 206

Trusted

Snowflake

#132547 22-May-2008 14:39

RustyGonad:
Its not that hard to find a ticket - The Green Button travel center can show you the way...

i must look too shifty because I was deported as soon as I arrived there

i thought i had all the luggage i needed but perhaps i missed something... as i'm not flush with spare time right now I 'spose i'll probably just wait to see if the visa I lodged with their high commission gets approved in the near future. at least i now know what it might be like to visit and what i should see when I get there

Sales Engineer
Snowflake
www.snowflake.com

about.me/nzregs
Twitter: @nzregs

Lenovo

Shop now for Lenovo laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

stubacca

7 posts

Wannabe Geek

#132550 22-May-2008 14:58

So does it come with native blu ray and HD DVD support :O?

gehenna

8667 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3883

Moderator

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#132554 22-May-2008 15:19

stubacca: So does it come with native blu ray and HD DVD support :O?

why on earth would it have HD DVD support?

stubacca

7 posts

Wannabe Geek

#132565 22-May-2008 16:07

gehenna:
stubacca: So does it come with native blu ray and HD DVD support :O?

why on earth would it have HD DVD support?

Why not lots of ppl have HD DVD's and would like to be able to play them via there media center.. yes i know theres 3rd party software you can use. I was just asking if they did add ether blu ray or HD DVD to play natively without 3rd party software~

AceVPD

137 posts

Master Geek

#132566 22-May-2008 16:19

I agree, HD DVD support would be a waste of time. Although it wouldn't surprise me if M$ had it 90% working when HD DVD died back in Feb.
Actually I would have thought that since HD DVD doesn't have regional coding that they would play in Fiji anyway, maybe not.
Blu Ray support would be nice but I hear that it's pretty unlikely due to M$'s hate of Java (which is used for all the interactive stuff on Blu Ray)

How hard is the Beta to find? My VMC + DVBViewer setup doesn't pass the WAF yet.

Ace

HTPC: 3G P4, 2GB RAM, Nvidia 8500GT, HVR 2200 (for FreeviewHD), 2x Hauppauge PVR-150 (1 for analog TV + 1 for AV input), Windows 7
Display: 42" Panasonic Plasma
Blu Ray/Games: PS3

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | ... | 24