Media Center? (Vista)

[Elvin Presler]

So, exactly what is Media Center for and why on earth would I want it? I've tried twice to check it out myself, but it gets to the part about "Express or Custom Configuration" I hit Custom and it just locks up until I have to CTRL+ALT+DEL and kill Windows.

It seems like just Windows Media Player in Full Screen Bloatware to me, but as I said, I've never actually gotten into it to see what it does.

[einstein_314]

Originally Posted by Elvin Presler

So, exactly what is Media Center for and why on earth would I want it? I've tried twice to check it out myself, but it gets to the part about "Express or Custom Configuration" I hit Custom and it just locks up until I have to CTRL+ALT+DEL and kill Windows.

It seems like just Windows Media Player in Full Screen Bloatware to me, but as I said, I've never actually gotten into it to see what it does.

It's only useful if you're running a home theater PC (HTPC). It allows you to browse all your music, movies, pictures, watch dvds, watch live tv (if you have a capture card), record live tv (basically acts like a PVR). It's great.

But on a regular desktop PC, it's useless.

[Elvin Presler]

It sounds like an extra addon UI for Media Player to me still. I think I'll go with Vista Home Basic if I ever do go to Vista (when I absolutely have to, eventually) just to avoid it, and a bunch of other bloat then.

[Sazar]

I use it quite a bit with my Hauppauge hybrid tuner.

It's perfect

Plus I can use it to watch dvd's or listen to music if I choes to

And it's quite light on system requirements. Note my usage includes 2 folding clients running, one on my proc and one on my gpu (using some processor itself).

And a free guide is always good