Media
Center Edition 2005 is arguably Microsoft's best OS yet for the home theater PC.
Today, we fully expect to see a
much anticipated update hit the Internet. This is a free update for all
those that are running MCE 2005. Although the update does not address any major
issues, it does feature many small improvements. One change will be the ability
to stream high definition or standard definition content to the Xbox 360.
 Version
2 will also allow a Media Center PC to run two ATSC television cards
(versus one for the previous version). Each card can carry two tuners, so
theoretically you could play and/or record up to four TV programs (two
high-definition and two standard-definition) at once. You can stream HD or
SD programming from the PC to Media Center Extender or to the Xbox
360, which is supposed to go on sale in November. The old version of the
OS would stream only standard-definition content.
However, you'll still be limited to accessing only
over-the-air high-definition programming: While Media Center PCs usually
come with infrared blasters for use with cable-television set-top boxes,
they will allow access only to standard-definition broadcasts.
Furthermore, even if you can access over-the-air HD programs, if you try
to burn one to a DVD, Media Center Edition will downcode it to standard
resolution. |
This downrezzing DVD "feature" for Media Center is very
much an annoyance. But, I suppose this makes sense for now as it would be
difficult to fit much HD programming on a DVD.
Source: PC World
