Hi guys,

Okay let me preempt this by saying I'm no M$ lover by any stretch of the imagination, and my little tirade the other day was not in support of one OS over the other as I'm sure many people already understand...

I bought Vista Home Premium a few days ago and installed it what was my current XP Media Center 2005 box in the lounge.

I have an XP Pro box in the study which is a basic internet browsing type machine. I've setup file sharing and installed a few extra drives, so its got around 1TB in it at the moment, and there's around 600GB in the drives in the lounge.

Now here's where it gets interesting. The UI in Vista Media Center is pretty cool. I've setup shortcuts in my TV subfolders (comedy, drama, etc....). The shortcuts are pointing to folders on my XP Pro file server. Just as a laugh I decided to try and view an episode of Stargate on the Media Center, by streaming it over the 802.11g into the lounge. I have to say, it worked A LOT better than I thought it would. No skipping, no jerking, no image degredation. In fact, while I was watching it I was also able to transfer files between the two computers at almost full speed (or rather - speeds i'm used to with 802.11g).

At this point I'm impressed! With the Media Center DVR functionality it really is an amazing piece of gear. It has it over Front Row, it has it over Apple TV. It really has it over most products on the market. Well i should be more specific - for people who are techy and who like to have that little bit more than just a basic dvd recorder or dvr - it has it over all those less intense products.

I like it a lot, I'm all for Apple getting ahead and their products are ace no doubt about it. But they are going to need some serious features in Lepoard and Apple TV to one-up M$ on the Media Center side of things.

Aside from that, the OS gui is clunky, Aero is a waste of time, its hard to navigate. It's a bit of a dog. but once you press that green button on the remote and media center loads up - it SHINES!

Who's with me?....or am I about to get flamed?

Mike

Get that fire retardant suit out,

Each to their own. But can you "pull" content from the couch rather than "pushing" it from the PC?

vista media center is cool.
OSX media center is cool.
OSX MC is simple, Vista MC not so simle.

Well there is no need to. As the shortcuts in Vista MC are already pointing to shared folders on the file server, they're constantly up to date. i mean, you download a show into its appropriate folder on the file server, open vista and its there.

i can't see the difference. unless apple tv somehow gets to a point where you can physically purchase from itunes, the "pull" functionalty is moot

this is true to a point, but looking past that fact what do we think? its a given that people who buy MS media center products are either getting an oem box and not knowing anything about what they're doing, or building their own from scratch - with a lot being the latter. so if thats the case then ease of use is subjective.

I don't get it. Are you running a PC in the lounge? This is the stumbling block - the masses have shown they don't want a PC in the lounge. This is why AppleTV has a chance of succeeding.

i definatly agree with you when you say windows has a better media center software setup right now.
But at this stage apple really havent tried to build a full blown media center setup so its hard to compare them right now.

Frontrow has along way to go to become a full blown media center app. If apple made it one and made macs with built in tv tuners then windows would have some serious competition.

In terms of hardware pc's dont quite compare to macs just yet though. A mac mini with an eyetv is much better then most pc media centers price wise, quality wise and a mac mini is quiter then most pc media centers and definatly quiter then any desktop pc.

oops, i should probably elaborate a bit on that. it's a pc yes, but it's a silverstone case so it looks like any other home theater amplifier or the like. its aesthetically designed to be at home in the lounge.

i think if more people were switched on to the freedom you get from having an actual computer in the lounge there may be a lot more people jumping on board. right now its the whole "the computer in my office is complicated enough, i don't want another one in the lounge".

i mean in a sitting after work i can do: record 2 channels at once on tv, surf youtube or msn or reuters for the news, check the metservice weather, use teletext, view all my divx/avi/mpg/mp4/mov files, listen to my music collection with visualisations and all that, play games, view my dvds both on the hard drive and on disc. its a very flexible system. oh and browse pictures, listen to radio. and theres an untold number of plugins you can get.

as far as i can see all you can do with front row is browse your itunes/iphoto library through a gui. thats it? apple tv opens a few other doors with regard to compatability with other peoples equipment when they bring it to your house. but apple tv hinges a lot on the whole US itunes store where you can buy tv and movies as well as everything else. what about the rest of the world. thats where the flexibilty of a vista media center comes in surely?

I use both. I have a Desktop PC set-up with Windows Media Center. In my opinion, this leaves Front Row for dead. I know, Apple have never developed a fully-blown Media Center, but at the moment I guess this is it.

I love how it's set-up. Easy to use. It's got your TV, Pictures, Videos and everything. Best of all, it goes straight to my Xbox 360. So this is great for me at the moment. I also believe with the release of Vista (running it now) it leaves the original Media Center in the dust.

I have a Mac Mini serving as a MediaCentre with an EyeTv in the lounge room. While I can not stream (just add a shortcut to network folders in the Movie folder) video from my other computers to my satisfaction (the video is jumpy) I can play all types of media (except WMVs) through the simple Perian plug-in. I am also able to stream music from the computers and have access to their playlists, which is a plus for anybody who has a large collection. With a wireless keyboard and mouse I can access the internet and all that jazz, just not play graphic intense games (Civ IV) as the graphics card is not supported.

The real advantage of going down this road was how easy it was to setup, the MacMini is so quite which is important factor for me as it sits about 30cm behind the couch. Using OSX also allows me to just sleep the computer and have it activated in seconds and only needing a restart when system updates come out.

Windows Media Centres suit individuals who want to much around with the technology. I just want simple access to my media without all the hassle of a complicated setup. I must say that I have not any experience with the Windows MC, but I have lots of experience setting up windows computers and their various networking problems.

I just wish that Apple would allow third parties such as Eyetv to access Front Row.

I think Apple are caught between a rock and a hard place on media centres. Yes, Front Row is easy to use, especially with the Apple remote. But I see the Apple TV as a large iPod. You can take content from elsewhere, but it is really designed to pull content from iTS. Since video content on iTS is US only at the moment (well, Europe as well in Northern Spring, supposedly), it kind of sucks. It would be soooo much better if iTunes had a video converter built in, so you could throw in the divx/wmv content, and it would convert it in the background to mp4 (seeing as Apple will only use that standard).

The way I see, MS are providing something that consumers want now. Apple are providing something that points to what consumers will want in the future.

EDIT: Speeling mistaks!

Spot on.

Win media centre kicks apple's arse, because apple haven't got a media centre. The nearest they've devloped yet is frontrow, which is not a media centre. Win MC kicks frontrow's arse.

Win is more chronologically advanced than apple in terms of media centre.

BUt if apple get their act together and design a rival, i expect big thinigs.

For now though, winMC wins becuase apple literally has no competition.

We also have to look at this from the point of view of the average Joe. Media Center might be better for the tech-savvy, but for someone who just wants simple plug-and-play, AppleTV might be better.

As for PCs in the loungeroom, I wish Apple would push the Mac mini more as a media centre PC. It only costs $200 more than Vista Ultimate Edition!

Incidentally, are you folks saying Front Row isn't a media centre because it has no TV component? It's obvious Apple's model is pay-per-download via the iTunes Store. Once iTMS.au gets movies and TV, you might change your "tune"!