The SA MCE Community

I really interested in the new extenders announced by MS. I have a Xbox360, but 1) it's noisy and 2) it's downstairs in my living room WITH my Media Center anyway.

I need a cost effective solution for my bedroom upstairs. I'm currently running AV cables upstairs with a Remote Blaster. This works fine, but now I have to change AV cables to use the Media Center when I'm downstairs.

It looks like the new extenders will be for Vista only, I'm using MCE2005.
Is Vista worth the upgrade ?

I have a Fujitsu-Siemens Scaleo E computer (P4 3Ghz, 2GB RAM, 320 GB HDD, Hauppage TV card).
Anyone know if this system is fully compatible with Vista ?
I don't want to spend money on Vista and not be able to use it.

Thanks,

Mier.

Hi,

If I was you, I would upgrade.  The biggest question about your PC would be what video card have you got in there?  The rest of your specs are fine!

Cheers

Chris

Thanks Chris,

Not sure what video card it is...I know it's Intel based so I assume Vista will work with it.

What other feature / improvements does Vista have to make the upgrade worthwhile ? I use the machine purely for Media Center.

Mier

Mier:

What other feature / improvements does Vista have to make the upgrade worthwhile ? I use the machine purely for Media Center.

Hi Mier

I would just like to say that I've upgraded from MCE2005 to Vista the day it was launched in SA and there is really no way going back. There are a ton of extra features in Vista that makes my daily life easier. But it's in the little things that I notice a huge improvement. For example, in the old days, you would have to rename an existing file before copying a file with the same name to the same folder. With Vista, Windows simply asks you if you want to replace the current file or keep both and it will do the renaming for you. It's all these little extra features that I enjoy most.

I also use my pc mainly for Media Center and I absolutely love the thumbnail views of my recorded shows. Another big improvement is the search function in MCE. With MCE2005 when I search my huge collection of music for a specific song, it would take ages. Vista is much faster in that regard. Now I'm not sure if MCE2005 has this but I doubt it, in Vista I no longer shut down my pc. I simply press the sleep button on my remote and my pc instantly turns off. Pressing the button again, instantly awakes the pc. I couldn't do this with MCE2005 and had to use hibernation. Media Center in Vista also works much better with widescreen which MCE2005 doesn't and Media Center in Vista looks absolutely great against MCE2005.

I would say, go for it!

Regards