MCE2005 now supports software TV tuners!

[doperst]

Dear Tom, gentlemen, greetings!

My mediacenter PC has been built several years ago, but has never been finished,

it has gone through a series of total hardware upgrades, with complete reinstalls.

At the moment, i have Windows MCE 2005 installed on it, and a full (paid) version

of GameEx. Initially, i have not been planning to use it for TV programs watching,

but at some moment, i have come across a TV-tuner with a brand-NEW remote-on

feature, that is a tuner that could switch computer ON via remote control. It happened

to be a Compro X350 TV tuner. My mediacenter PC's case is a slim one, and that

tuner was a low-profile one, with second, short, bracket bundled with it.

Unfortunately, compro remote was incompatible with MCE right out of the box,

and X350 tuner was incompatible with MCE, because it was missing hardware MPEG-2

encoding feature. So it has been barely using a PCI slot in my media PC.

A few days ago i have been browsing an online price-list of local shop, and saw

a new remote-control appear, a Compro VideoMate K200. I had to spend us$300

anyway, so us$30 for that remote meant a little, or no difference to me. But when

i got my hands on it, my jaws dropped. There was a text on the box, saying that

there is a MS-certified MPEG-2 encoder, for support of SOFTWARE TV cards and

boxes in Media Center! And it really works! BTW it is a MainConcept encoder!

The mix of MCE2005 and GameEx the way i have it now, isn't perfect, some

features do not work, some are doubled in MCE and GameEx, but now i have

a new fresh reason to get back to polishing things. I have made an upgrade

to my media-PC, giving it a dual-core CPU and another TB of storage, and

will get back to translating GameEx menus soon.

Those of you, who are interested, can proceed to Compro web server:

http://www.comprousa.com/en/home.html

There is still no download link for K200 remote yet, only for an older K100,

but i don't know whether it contains encoder. I can upload the software to,

say, rapidshare, or pass it to Tom Speirs. I do not think it is prohibited

to copy it.

I have few questions concerning GameEx, too, but i will take my time

gathering my thoughts.

Best regards!

[headkaze]

I just bought myself a VideoMate Vista T750F for MCE 2005 and is my second card I bought for it which originally had a WinFast DTV1000T card.

Both times I feel I was the subject of false advertising. These cards are sold as "Dual Tuner" cards but do not show in MCE as being two separate cards, so you can't record and watch another channel at the same time even though they say you can on the box. They advertise them as MCE compatible but don't say the dual tuner feature only works in their own software and not in MCE.

So now I just use both the cards together in the same box and MCE detected them both and I can record and watch separate channels. In the end that's about $200 AUD to actually be able to do that which I think is pretty steep for a real dual tuner experience. So I warn people to be careful when they buy a "dual tuner" card and that you can "record and play different channels at the same time" as that may not be the case at all for using it in MCE.

Other than that I'm quite happy with the card, although after I bought the T750F I found out the DTV1000T had dropped price down to $50 AUD so I would have been better off getting that and then being able to afford to replace my authentic Microsoft MCE remote with another one for just $50 AUD which is 100 times better than the crappy remote packaged with the T750F. So for less than I paid for the T750 I could have bought the DTV1000T and a better Microsoft MCE remote.

[doperst]

Well, yes. I agree with you, mate. Compro products are advertised agressively, but when it comes to

real use... The K200 remote is a real crap, compared to the original MS RC6 Remote i have, too. I do not

know how to use IR blaster, MS remote comes with (help appreciated!), but the quality itself talks [for itself].

I just wanted people to know, we can use our non-hardware TV-tuners in MCE2005 now. It's been a great

news for me, and a real surprise. I've been using my media PC ocassionally, and now there's a new reason

to get back to make it perfect. There've been a lot of bd & hd rip movies on the net recently (oops!), so there

is a reason to refresh my movies collection, too. My MAME roms collection is a bit outdated, tho...

[doperst]

wow.what a massive support here...

[Tempest]

Did you have a question?

[greatflash]

Did you have a question?

Did YOU have a question?

[chriss]

Did YOU have a question?

I knew this would come

[Tempest]

I knew this would come

I knew THIS would come

[headkaze]

wow.what a massive support here...

I don't entirely understand the point of your post. What sort of feedback are you expecting or do you have a question?

BTW If you work for Compro Technology then your post would be considered spam.

[Tempest]

(Tempest @ Sep 26 2008, 10:53 PM)

Did you have a question?

Did YOU have a question?

I don't entirely understand the point of your post. What sort of feedback are you expecting or do you have a question?

BTW If you work for Compro Technology then your post would be considered spam.

See... I told you that a question was needed to make a statement like that.

Thanks for backing me up HK!