Windows Media Center Edition on a laptop.  Why?

I've been looking at laptops lately and noticed that they all seem to come with Windows Media Center Edition installed.  This seems like an odd choice, since the small screen and tiny speakers of the typical laptop aren't a very good platform for a "media center".

Since I've only familiar with XP Professional, what exactly is "special" about the Media Center version?

Because XP Home is old and busted, Media Center is the new hotness, even more-so with its new visual-style.

I guess Microsoft felt XP MCE was to XP SP2 what Apple's Tiger is to Leopard.

Free Upgrade to Windows Vista Ultimate.


These new laptops are for people who are creating Media

W3bbo wrote:

Because XP Home is old and busted, Media Center is the new hotness, even more-so with its new visual-style.

I guess Microsoft felt XP MCE was to XP SP2 what Apple's Tiger is to Leopard.

You have your cats around the wrong way, and in any case the analogy is so far off the mark its not even remotely funny.

eagle wrote:

These new laptops are for people who are creating Media

More like "consuming" than creating. I keep on overhearing students sing DC++'s praises and pretend to be elite network hackers just for running an easy-to-use Direct-Connect client on their university's network and downloading a few hundred gigs of TV shows, and none of them have ever touched a digital video camera.

The cost to OEMs is marginal, and consumers are more likely to buy the laptop with the most bullet-points next to its photo in the catalog.

I expect desktop-replacement MCE laptops to outsell traditional desktops in all areas within a few years, they're getting obscenely cheap.

Custa1200 wrote:



W3bbo wrote:Because XP Home is old and busted, Media Center is the new hotness, even more-so with its new visual-style. I guess Microsoft felt XP MCE was to XP SP2 what Apple's Tiger is to Panther.

You have your cats around the wrong way, and in any case the analogy is so far off the mark its not even remotely funny.

Whops, my bad. And how is it off exactly? MCE is effectivly HE's succesor in the "home" field.

W3bbo wrote:



Custa1200 wrote:  W3bbo wrote: Because XP Home is old and busted, Media Center is the new hotness, even more-so with its new visual-style. I guess Microsoft felt XP MCE was to XP SP2 what Apple's Tiger is to Panther. You have your cats around the wrong way, and in any case the analogy is so far off the mark its not even remotely funny.

Whops, my bad. And how is it off exactly? MCE is effectivly HE's succesor in the "home" field.

I assume you haven't used MCE (XP or Vista version) yet.

MCE is basically XP SP2 (Pro) + the "eHome" application (which is the 'Media Center'). It's not an extension of the "HE" (XP Home was very limited.)

Having MCE on the laptops makes sense, they have good enough graphics card, most people do store media/music on the large hdd that laptops have now-a-days, as well as if you don't own a desktop you can still connect your laptop with you TV and use the MCE functionality.

Somebody has to create the Media before anyone can go consuming.

keeron wrote:

I assume you haven't used MCE (XP or Vista version) yet.

I've got an MCE2005 box at home I've rigged into being a domain member and I've used Vista's MCE as well.

keeron wrote:

MCE is basically XP SP2 (Pro) + the "eHome" application (which is the 'Media Center'). It's not an extension of the "HE" (XP Home was very limited.)

You're right on the first bit, but since XPMCE is a strict superset of HE then it is "an extension".

keeron wrote:

Having MCE on the laptops makes sense, they have good enough graphics card,

The original MCE specs did indeed call for a fairly decent GPU in the computer, but I've seen laptops with Intel Integrated sell with MCE. "Intel Integrated" is just below "good enough". My MCE sometimes has issues with its GeForce 7400.

keeron wrote:

most people do store media/music on the large hdd that laptops have now-a-days,

Still less than desktops. The £499 lappys with MCE I see usually have either 80 or 100GB HDDs. Remember that isnt a "true" 80GiB (Gibibyte), then subtract 7GB for the "Recovery Partition" (since they contain a DVD image), another 7GB for pre-installed junk and Windows and you're left with a lot off.

keeron wrote:

as well as if you don't own a desktop you can still connect your laptop with you TV and use the MCE functionality.

Having connected my MCE to various TVs, it's a totally overrated experience. It only looks semi-good on one of those huge (38"+) plasma or LCD displays, and downright horrible on any CRT TV, forget about using it with the 15"er lying around in the bedroom.

....but you any experience creating Media with a MCE XP or Vista.......32 or 64bit?

eagle wrote:

....but you any experience creating Media with a MCE XP or Vista.......32 or 64bit?

It's the same on all platforms. MCE is just a glorified media player (it doesn't even have a built-in disc ripping facility). All versions of Windows have the venerable Sound Recorder and more-modern Windows Movie Maker (which doesn't hold a candle to 1996's 3D Movie Maker)

eagle wrote:

....but you any experience creating Media with a MCE XP or Vista.......32 or 64bit?

Please explain to me how MCE is intended for creating media. I sure would like to know as I use an MCE box every day and for the most part (besides TV recordings which need to be converted to wmv) I don't see how MCE has a true purpose as a platform for creating media. And even TV recording can easily be done without the use MCE.


Also MCE is being shipped on laptops and desktops alike for economical reasons. It's simply cheaper on the OEMs to ship MCE over XP Pro. (Most home users don't require the functionality that is removed from XP Pro within MCE... like joining domains... which as W3bbo pointed out can still be done)

XP MCE 2005 SP2B : $109.99 -- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16832116049

XP Pro SP2: $139.99 -- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16832116059

pretty much basic economics if you ask me. and most users think they are getting more (which many of them are).

From what I have seen from major OEM's, XP MCE costs less then XP Professional, and only marginally more (Dell used to charge ~$10 more, then made it free, now MCE is the default base option) then XP Home.

Despite this, XP Home only yields a free upgrade to Vista Home Basic ($99 Upgrade/$199 Full) whereas XP MCE yields a free upgrade to Vista Home Premium ($159 Upgrade/ $239 Full).

Considering the XP Pro upgrade is Vista Business ($199 Upgrade/ $299 Full), it yields an advantage to the consumer to receive MCE for no additional cost as the Vista Upgrade for it will lead to a more complete Vista experience compared to XP Home.  Also it will make the price difference between the upgrades more advantageous for MCE.
(XP Home vs XP Pro is ~$100 and their respective upgrades Vista Home Basic vs Vista Business is $100==no net difference, whereas XP MCE vs XP Pro is $100+, yet their respective upgrades Vista Home Premium vs Vista Business is ~$40-$70.)
[OEM bundled pricing]


Also, considering these laptops are designed and targetted at home users, XP Professional is overkill with it's features such as Domain Join, Cached Credentials, Remote Desktop, and more.

Thus, I would take XP MCE over Home any day, and if I didn't like the MCE application, I would just not use it, and look forward to the nicer Vista upgrade I would receive.



And I think the OS X analogy isn't fully applicable in this scenario as the new editions of OS X are more like Windows service packs, yet Apple treats them as all new operating systems.  Whereas MCE is a different edition from Home.  Since Apple has only one home/business edition (not including server) yet has frequent updates, and Windows has three versions in this generation of OS's, but infrequent updates (with regards to service packs), they each follow very different cycles.