Is there a market for my Vista/ MCE Leftovers?

FredZ · **20th May 2008, 05:06 PM**

I have a bunch of stuff left over from my Vista/ MCE experience, which is now thankfully finished. Things like the OEM licensed Windows MCE2005/ Vista HP licensed discs, a number of dual PCIe & PCI tuners etc..

I thought about placing them up for sale, but then I think about the hassles, so maybe give to some geeky kid somewhere so he's got something to play with?

Cheers

arkay · **20th May 2008, 10:08 PM**

I imagine you'd have no problems selling the tuners. People are always looking. Just sold 2 of mine recently.

As for the windows licenses.. Well. You could always keep them for next time you run out of toilet paper

Cheers,

Arkay.

FredZ · **21st May 2008, 12:08 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by arkay

I imagine you'd have no problems selling the tuners. People are always looking. Just sold 2 of mine recently.

I've had a few PMs already about them. It occurs that I'd like to swap the the two Compro E700s for a single HAUPPAUGE NOVA500MCE - Hauppauge Nova-T 500 MCE PCI Dual, which is known to work well under MythTV.

Quote:

As for the windows licenses.. Well. You could always keep them for next time you run out of toilet paper

Yea, it is a piece of junk.

Cheers

ozbear · **21st May 2008, 12:14 PM**

Yet many (most?) users of tihs forum appear to have a good experience with Vista Media Center. I am not sure what that says about those that don't/can't/won't.

MS-bashing is really a tired thing to do guys.

Grow up already.

Oz

arkay · **21st May 2008, 03:45 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ozbear

Yet many (most?) users of tihs forum appear to have a good experience with Vista Media Center. I am not sure what that says about those that don't/can't/won't.

MS-bashing is really a tired thing to do guys.

Grow up already.

Oz

By and large my experience with VMC has been ok. Apart from a couple of catastrophic failures where I come home and find it in an endless bsod/reboot cycle for no apparent reason. After restoring from acronis I find the video driver that was in use at the time the image was made is no longer "vista compatible" WTF. The guide dies more regularly than I find acceptable and where MS are heading with their DRM is not a good thing. Go Google MS silverlight and read the info. Its all about protection for content providers and advertisers. The end user does get a mention in a "we better mention that this is good for them" sort of way. When of course it is not.

"Most" people on this board are hear looking for help for the things that don't/won't work or ways to kludge in functionality that isn't available. 10 of the regulars having an ok time doesn't warrant "most" to me and "most" of them are running beta drivers and multiple hacks to get a decent experience.

As for the grow up comment. It's a public board. I'll say what I like with reference to a company that can and should do a hell of a lot better than it does (in my opinion). Thanks. Perhaps if more people were less willing to except mediocre then we'd all get better products.

Cheers,

Arkay.

ozbear · **21st May 2008, 03:59 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by arkay

"Most" people on this board are hear looking for help for the things that don't/won't work or ways to kludge in functionality that isn't available. 10 of the regulars having an ok time doesn't warrant "most" to me and "most" of them are running beta drivers and multiple hacks to get a decent experience.

As for the grow up comment. It's a public board. I'll say what I like with reference to a company that can and should do a hell of a lot better than it does (in my opinion). Thanks. Perhaps if more people were less willing to except mediocre then we'd all get better products.

Cheers,

Arkay.

If it were only "10 of the regulars" that were having an ok time with VMC/MCE given the thousands of users on this board then I would expect it to be far busier than it is.

I would agree with you that many people having problem are trying to shoehorn in functionality that in some cases would have been nice to work out-of-the-box (e.g., AVI playback) but in other cases are just silly (who needs big screen weather?) and/or are trying to use their VMC as a general purpose computer as well as for VMC. This entails loading the box up with all kinds of addtional programs (email, anti-virus stuff, firewalls, cd/dvd editing sftware, the list is endless) with all of their attendent drivers, .dll's and so forth. Natually the person never even bothered to check if their hardware was up to it in the first place. And suddenly when VMC checks a wobbly because of all this is is magically MS's fault. Please.

I also agree that this is a public board and one can say what one feels like about any company. In return, I'll point out when those comments are juvenile/declasse'.

And around and around we go.

Oz

arkay · **21st May 2008, 04:22 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ozbear

In return, I'll point out when those comments are juvenile/declasse'.

In your opinion...

Cheers,

Arkay.

ozbear · **21st May 2008, 04:32 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by arkay

In your opinion...

Cheers,

Arkay.

Indeed....doesn't mean I still don't love you more than my luggage though....

Oz

arkay · **21st May 2008, 04:36 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ozbear

Indeed....doesn't mean I still don't love you more than my luggage though....

Oz

Aw... Shucks......

GlenR · **21st May 2008, 07:45 PM**

Well, I also have to disagree with the "piece of junk" sentiment here. From my experience VMC, while not perfect, is still very good. It has proved stable and handles all my TV needs.

Yep, some things need improving, but they are not ALL Microsoft's fault.

Video Thumbnails - irritating that they show no title or have a list mode. One for MS to fix.
Guide - No native support, but not Microsoft's fault. ALL HTPCs have the same issue there.
AVI Support - Not native, but ffdshow works fine with VMC so not a major issue.

Aside from these I really haven't had much in the way of problems. I don't fiddle, leave the HTPC as a HTPC only and keep add ins to a minimum (I only have an internet radio add in and Webguide4).

Sure, there are a few setup things that newbies may trip over (such as the guide) but once set up, it is stable. I built one for my in-laws. They haven't had any major dramas since it went in (they've called me twice I think. Both times a reboot fixed it and I have advised them to reboot weekly, just to keep it "fresh").

I'm no MS fan-boy, but on the whole VMC is not a BAD product - it's just not perfect, but what is?