Re: OT: Windows Media Center / PVR Experience

Media Center, of course, does support Over the Air HD quite well. I use a
different product, but virtually everything I record is OTA HD.


"Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOSPAM@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:45fc7760$0$5735$4c368faf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Re: "Now I know why people are into the new HD Plasma / LCD TV's."

No, you really still don't. You are only closer to knowing.

Re: "I have a taste of what that might be like."

Only a taste.

720P or 1080P HDTV (with a corresponding true HD signal source) on a large
screen (50" or larger) really is pretty spectacular. People who talk
about it without having really seen it don't really understand what the
attraction is. Windows Media Center, for the most part, is still limited
to SD (standard definition). DVDs are all still SD also, although they
are the highest quality SD you can get. But even if upconverted to HD,
it's still upconversion of SD material. While these can be far better
than a typical TV set and VCR, they both still fall short.

So you have a taste; now go out and get a meal.

It's not that expensive. In 1997, I bought a 50" Hitachi projection TV
for about $1600. It wasn't even their "Ultravision" set (their top of the
line set), it was just one of their standard large-screen models. In
December, I bought a JVC 56" 1080P HDTV for $1,749. 10 years later, when
the dollar is worth a lot less, and there is no comparison, it's like
comparing a Lexus to a horse drawn carriage. You can get some good 720P
50"-plus projection sets down around $1,100 - $1,200. None of these
prices are anything like the $5,000-plus that people were saying that a
good HDTV would cost only 3 or 4 years ago.

[PS - I have a media center system, but I just love the Pioneer 8300HD
cable box that I got from the cable company. Dual tuners, both of them
dual mode (NTSC SD and QAM), with a 160GB hard drive built-in, I can
record and/or watch two different channels at once, in both HD and/or SD,
the quality is fantastic, it has HDMI digital output, and it has dual
tuner PIP (picture in picture) in the cable box itself. The service is
fantastic except that while there are lots of HD channels (3 or 4 dozen),
there are still major channels that are not yet broadcasting in HD. And
once you've seen really good HD, you actually come to resent non-HD
material. Our cable company does not charge ANYTHING more for HD service,
although there is a small charge ($4 or $5 per month) to get the dual
tuner DVR cable box with the built-in hard drive. Also, by the way, the
cable box has a SATA plug on the back, you can plug in your own SATA
external hard drive to increase the storage capacity to as much as you
like.]



Journey wrote:
I didn't know what I was missing.

I have been using my old 20" TV to watch TV and movies, thinking that
it was better than using my old P4 Windows Media Center PC. I thought
of WMC as something I would only use in a separate window when working
on the computer.

Well, because I recently bought a new desktop, I moved the WMC PC to
the living room and decided to try out the USB TV tuner that had been
sitting on the shelf for about a year to see how well it would work.

I put in the movie "Girl, Interrupted", and ....

WOW

Now I know why people are into the new HD Plasma / LCD TV's. I have a
taste of what that might be like.

Watching a movie on a quality, large display totally transforms the
experience. I notice so many things that I never noticed before.

The main thing I want to share that might help others is the external
USB2 device that I have found to work really well:

http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_pvrusb2mcekit.html

It works perfectly with Windows Media Center, has a great remote, and
has a great FM tuner.

Using the remote, I am able to watch live TV, listen to FM, easily
find and set shows to record, find movies using the guide, listen to
my music library, view photos, etc....... Everything is very
intuitive.

Someday I may be able to buy one of the large TVs, but a PC with the
24" display works very well too.

Something I would like to do but don't think is possible is to have
some of my favorite movies stored on a hard drive to be able to view
on demand, rather than put the DVD in the computer.

I have a new appreciation for the talent that goes into producing a
movie when I can experience it so fully.


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: OT: Windows Media Center / PVR Experience
    ... many OTA tuner choices from all the majors. ... channels and also unencrypted channels through Firewire, ... So when I said that "Windows Media Center, for the most part, ... find and set shows to record, find movies using the guide, listen to ...
    (alt.sys.pc-clone.dell)
  • Re: OT: Windows Media Center / PVR Experience
    ... The problem is that there are very few HD tuners for media center, and most of those are ATSC only, even the relatively few HDTV tuners that do exist mostly don't do QAM. ... Whereas most larger cable systems these days have several dozen HD channels, and some services have 100 to 300 HD channels. ... So when I said that "Windows Media Center, for the most part, is still limited to SD", I know that it's not a literal truth in the technical sense, but until you can get a media center system with multiple multi-mode tuners, and until MS finally gets around to allowing multi-tuner media center systems to have different channel guides for each tuner, media center won't have enough versatility to compare favorably with the types of multi-tuner DVR cable boxes that the better cable companies are offering. ... find and set shows to record, find movies using the guide, listen to ...
    (alt.sys.pc-clone.dell)
  • RE: To All With Vista TV Tuner Card Problems
    ... got the "No TV tuner installed" in Media Center. ... TV tuner is being used with another equipment...". ... while setting up TV in Vista Home Premium Media Center: ... Find Windows Media Center Receiver Service ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.vista.general)
  • Re: Another Issue:Re: Media Center - Unable to record (Error code:
    ... I can play the movies on my PC using Media Center. ... Windows Media Player cannot perform the requested action. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter)
  • Re: Windows Media Centre - Video Card with Miltiple Inputs
    ... I'm located in Canada and not really sure which type of tuner I have. ... I am using Vista's Media Centre and I have a video card with two separate ... Not being able to mix sources is a annoying problem that Windows Media ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.vista.general)
Loading