PGHammer
join:2003-06-09
Accokeek, MD
clubs:
 ·Comcast
| reply to openbox9
Re: HTPC
said by openbox9  :Yeah, but it's Vista, and I've read several pieces regarding the challenges/pains of using Vista MC....most probably due to the heavy handed DRM. Then you're reading FUD.
I came to the Vista Media Center from that of Windows XP MCE (which Vista MC is based on) and found it not only no harder to use, but actually much easier to use, than XPMCE's WMC. Also, unlike the wide variety of third-party media-center-type applications (especially BeyondTV 4, the only one that supports the built-in TV tuners in the older ATI All-In-Wonder line in Vista), it mostly *just plain works* with devices that have drivers available. Most of the complaints about *DRM* are really about the issues involved with hacking in features (ala Linux) that aren't normally supported by specific combinations of hardware and software (never minding that the success of the hack is almost always entirely due to what software is on an individual computer). Nowhere is this more true than in terms of hacks involving the HDTV Wonder from ATI, an OTA-primarily TV/HDTV tuner card (there have been tales of hacking this card to support 256QAM; however, I actually suspect that most fall into the category of *urban legend*). |
