And #6…
Computer World, Visual Tour: 20 Things You Won’t Like About Windows Vista: 6. Media Center isn’t all there and falls flat.
The author’s primary compliant is that live tv isn’t working on beta 2 with his graphics card. I can understand how this would drive a user crazy, but I don’t believe that you should fault Media Center for an issue that we will surely resolve before shipping.
If we put that aside what else does the author have to say:
The important issues with Media Center are that it needs more content, should be easier to install and configure, and must be 100% reliable.
Needs more content? I don’t think I understand that issue. Media Center will ship with a small amount of sample content. Just enough to give the user a sense of what Media Center can do, but not so much that it interferes with their content, once they have content on their machine. Though I have feeling his issue isn’t about the amount of sample content… ?
Should be easier to install and configure. I disagree about installation, since Media Center comes pre-installed with Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate. Though on configuration I totally agree, it should be simpler, but it’s a hard problem to simplify. …No promises but we may see some changes that come in after beta 2 to further simplify our configuration.
Must be 100% reliable. Totally agree. My Media Center 2005 machine rarely gets rebooted (no more than once every three weeks) and it runs 24×7. I completely expect Windows Vista Media Center to have or surpass that same level of reliability.
Comments(6)
I think hes crazy. More content? Who wants content? I dont want people choosing content for me. What is good for the goose is not for the gander!
I think he is talking about the configuration of MCE in the screen, audio etc. I dont know how a PC could determine external devices ? This guy is nuts.
And the last one… 100% reliable?! Is he crazy? Cars have been built for what almost 100 years? They arent completely reliable. And computers wont be 100% reliable either.
I cant stand these beat-up articles that are flying about the web. Its drumming contraversy to get a digg or traffic to their site.
I see the main problem with B2 at the moment is driver support. Which is a little sparce. But that has little to do with Microsoft.
It’s interesting when people start doing full reviews as if the product is 100% finished. I can understand some of his grips but harping on anything that deals with stability or is dependent on drivers seems like he’s just reaching to fill the column.
The content comment is truely the oddest thing, he has to have meant something else. Maybe he means more URGE style intergrations? I have to given him the benifit of the doubt considering the whole point of MediaCenter is to obviously act as a portal to your own content.
I think everyone will agree about reliability, to compete with dedicated set-top boxes that really is a must. What he should have complained about was the whole CableLabs, HD certification process, which will doom Vista MCE for the HD crowd if people can pick up a HD settop for a lot cheaper than having to rebuy an entire new “certified” PC.
Really? My Windows MCE 2005 PC has to be rebooted on a daily basis (I’ve set up a scheduled task) or it will start failing to connect to the guide database for spurious reasons after 1-3 days, and will fail to record any TV programmes.
I’d hardly say MCE 2005 is reliable, in this respect. Hopefully Vista will be better. But then I would hope that, wouldn’t I? And my MCE PC probably won’t be up to running Vista.
Tim, which MCE do you have? I have a HP DEC z555 with the factory image still installed.
I have MCE 2005, with XP SP2, etc.
I don’t use my MCE PC for anything other than MCE duties. Probably the only ‘non-standard’ thing I have installed is the DivX codec, but the problem still shows up when I’ve only been recording/watching TV, and not using the ‘My Videos’ feature at all, so I doubt it’s that. I probably have a couple of MS MCE power toys or whatever they’re called installed, but I never use them. The problem used to happen on my clean install before I had this other stuff installed anyway.
It’s really annoying because if this reliability thing was fixed, then barring a couple of minor niggles, MCE works great for me. But my #1 quality bar for MCE is “Does it fail to record TV I’ve asked it to?”, and sadly, the answer is yes. It managed to fail to record two programs this evening, actually, even though it was rebooted this morning. Usually the reboot will prevent these problems, but sometimes it doesn’t :-(.
This issue is (I believe) acknowledged here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/peterrosser/archive/2006/02/15/DvbGuideProblem.aspx
I should note that I haven’t installed the April Update Rollup for MCE2005, and Peter’s blog hints that the next rollup (ie April’s) may contain this fix, but looking at the documentation for the fixed issues, it’s not mentioned anywhere I can see. I’ll give it a go though, to see if it fixes the issue.
(I don’t have auto-install of updates enabled on my MCE, as I’ve found that as often as not, a new update will cause problems, so if my MCE PC is vaguely working, I tend to leave it alone.)
BTW, I agree with your comments about ‘more content’. I’d like *less* stuff like that gumming up my PVR, to be honest.
I can’t agreed with the author too.
The 3rd point, reliability, is really a issue, but it’s a issue with MCE 2005 too. Stufs like not going to standby after recording, not going to standby when you stop live TV and things like that are old complains from users. But he can’t blame that only on Vista.
Makes me think if he really have any previous experience with MCE at all….