Uncategorized 24 Aug 2007 10:49 pm
Meet The New Box, Same As The Old Box: New Microsoft Vista Media Center Does It Again!
My, how Ed Bott of ZDNet gushes over the nifty features of his *new* Microsoft Vista Media Center PC:
Vista Media Center takes over the living room by ZDNet’s Ed Bott — In June, I recounted my out-of-the-box experience with a new Dell PC running Windows Vista. In July, I took the plunge and moved this system out of the office and into the living room. With a few extra bits of hardware, everything is working together perfectly. If you’ve considered doing the same thing, read my advice and check out the accompanying image gallery.
Something struck me as not quite logical about all the gushing. Reading further in the original article, Bott further explains:
My goal with this system was to consolidate all of our digital media - photos, music, and home videos - into a single location accessible over the network. I want to be able to play back any album or song, create playlists on the fly, launch slide shows, and view home movies, all using a remote control.
Sounds neat, right? I mean, we should all go significantly upgrade our computer systems - or buy new - so that we can set up a state-of-the-art Vista Media Center and have all these nifty capabilities! Hey, I’m a gadget-freak, why not?
Well, my first thought was “Jiminy Christmas, I been doing this for the last two years with my WINDOWS XP Media Center PC System!” I mean, EXACTLY this, not a single feature missing in my two-year-old system that Bott describes in his Vista setup.
But wait, there’s more! Bott then casually mentions:
I had no doubt that the Media Center interface would work, because we’ve been happily using Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 for the past two years,…
So Bott wasted my precious time (that coulda been spent blogging) just to tell me that, yessir, the *NEW* Microsoft Vista Media Center OS can sho’ ’nuff do the exact same things as the old XP Media Center?
Well, let’s be a bit circumspect, here. It’s not *exactly* the same “out of the box experience.” After all, with Vista, it being all new and up-to-date and shiny and everything, I’d have to have a faster processor, more memory, up-to-date video subsystem, etc.
So really, what Bott means to say is that I can pay over a thousand bucks so that I can have a Vista system that does the same thing my old XP system can do. Nothing added except that “Vista experience” (you know, with Aero and all that).
No wonder Microsoft’s having a tough time moving this product.
No, Redmond, I’m sorry.
“Won’t get Fooled again.”
on 25 Aug 2007 at 4:12 pm 1.Ed Bott said …
Well, for starters, you don’t have to “pay over a thousand bucks.” If you reuse the harddrive and TV tuner from your XP system, you could duplicate my system for $471. That’s with a dual-core CPU, 1GB of RAM, an X1300 Pro video card, and Vista Home Premium.
And Aero isn’t needed in the Media Center interface, so you missed the boat on that one.
I find performance better overall, especially when searching a large music collection. But I agree that for someone who already has a solid working Media Center system, this isn’t necessarily a compelling upgrade. For someone who is just starting, though, it’s a good option and I prefer it to XP.
on 25 Aug 2007 at 6:26 pm 2.fool said …
I think that, even if one is starting from scratch, there would be little reason to prefer the Vista version to XP. Of course unless you want to spring for a business-class computer, you’re probably not going to have the option.
Had Microsoft proceeded with the original Longhorn concept, perhaps things would be different, but from what I have seen and read, Vista is to XP as Windows Me was to Windows 98: a distinction without a difference.
In any case, my XP system has been working fine for over two years now, and I can’t see any reason to upgrade.
None.