Does anyone really use Media Direct?

Maybe I just don't get it. It takes Vista like 30 seconds to boot. Why not wait the extra few seconds and just boot into the OS to view pictures and stuff?

Maybe I don't understand the purpose of Media Direct...

Sure, its a neat gimick I guess...but to me its useless. Can that button be programed to open a web browser or something instead?

 

It was one of the first things I got rid of when I re-installed my system.

 

Doesn't it take less battery power? Your OS has a lot of background services running and maybe you don't want to do anything other then see your pics/videos.
A nice idea, but in reality it isn't really useful, as you said.
Maybe if you're on a flight and it saves you some battery to see the whole movie

 

It's ideal if you just want to watch a DVD for example, although tbh I haven't used it that often either.

 

There's a thread about users asking if it is a wise decision to install mediadirect in their computers...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=257339

Frankly like what ifti said, that's what I'll do if I had a new Dell system. I think it's not that difficult to boot to windows and watch. My mediadirect button is now a boot-to-windows feature.

 

I don't use Media Direct. It hasn't been installed for some time.

I remember many months back there was some effort to map the Media Direct button to something else, but it was cumbersome and didn't really work. If somebody knows of a way to do it, please share.

 

I found that the 3rd party codecs didn't work when I did try it so I tossed her....maybe the do work but the pack I had wouldn't show video on certain flicks...cheers...

 

Why boot up to Windows Vista in 35 seconds when you can boot up in mediadirect in 33? It seems impractical. 2 seconds time saved, 2 seconds!

lol, jk. I personally think its nice to have, though I havn't used it yet. I use Media Center much more often and is nicer anyways. I Dell made it so you can boot up into Media Center instead of Vista, I think that would be much more useful.

 

I use it to play Blu-ray movies on my 1730. Otherwise I would have to buy Power DVD which aint cheap. BTW MD player is made by Cyberlink [owner of Power DVD]

 

Formatted the drives on the 1521's that I bought for my wife and kid, and for a 1525 I set up for a friend - didnt bother to re-install MD on any of the machines.

 

That's a good observation about Vista media center. When they started using media direct back with XP, most machines didn't have an intergrated Media Center app like that (unless thaey had XP MCE) and Media Direct offered that sort of experience. As you say, with Vista it makes more sense today just to use Vista Media Center.

I remapped my MD button to launch IE.

 

Is it possible to re-map the buttons to launch media center while in Vista/XP? Also to control it once it's launched? Thanks. Also is there a guide available on how to do it?

 

I think it's totally useless. MediaDirect is basically a heavily restricted version of XP.

As for remapping the MD button in Windows, I'm not sure. You can map it to anything you like in Ubuntu, though!

 

Just Remove It !

 

i do use it for watching dvd's ..... its not really a necessary thing but its good software to watch dvd's

 

Seeing as how my Vista hardly ever gets shut down (I just hit the power button and it gets suspended), I can have Vista + Media Player running from power-on in about 10 seconds.

I'll likely never have any Blu-Ray media to watch films from, so that point is entirely moot.

So, no, I don't use MediaDirect. It's a frivolous feature used by people who don't know any better.

 

The second thing I'm going to do with the system is delete media direct & boot linux via the media direct button/reinstall windows & have that boot via power button. First thing of course would be to check everything to make sure everything works well. ^^

 

Yeah, I deleted MD totally from my system and re-mapped the MD button to launch Firefox.

I really don't see the need for MD, as I hibernate all the time and can resume in < 10 seconds.

 

Cool. At least I am not the only one that does not like it.

 

I used to install it back when I had a XPS M140 (but never really got around to using it). But with latter DELLS, (previous M1210 and current M1310) never even bothered. Hard to keep it intact with OS reinstalls, especially with Linux distro upgrades etc..

Besides, not much control over video settings either....

For me its useless.

 

The final?

98% & Above say dont use Media Direct so do i
2% people want Media Direct

Just a conclusion from this thread.

 

Hey but does it save some battery or nay?

 

I'm sure it does, but I've never done any tests to prove it.

 

On my M1530 I don't have Media Direct anymore.

But when I press the 'home' button it boots Vista for mine way quicker than it boots if I press the normal power button.

It comes up with a media direct picture and then loads Vista in about 5 seconds. It doesn;t have to botehr doing that thing where you get the chance to enter setup.

 

I don't...It was troublesome from the start...and now it's *gone daddy gone* per se

 

im trying to play ironman blurray with dell mediadirect. Doesnt wrk for me.

 

Are you asking a question or just posting your comments ? In either case it is not a good idea to dig up a 5 months old thread.

 

MD is gone from my PC as well. It basically copies everything that can already be done with media center. I don't really like the way that it appears to separate itself from the OS anyhow. If dell wanted to impress me, they would have added ubuntu drivers to their website . . . so that my lappy would be 100% functional with Linux also.

 

I got rid of Mediadirect for a few reasons

1 - it's not that useful for me as all of my media is on my server and not local
2 - my laptops are always either on or in standby
3 - i'll just take the extra few seconds to boot into windows

 

Someone know how to map it?

 

Initially it annoyed me how movies would open using Media Direct.

But now, I actually find I watch all my movies using MD. Compared to Windows Media Player its far better. I like the true Theater mode, makes movies sound really good.

Im using XP, and of course thats just my opinion

 

Personally I hate media direct. For what it's intended to be media direct makes sense if it wasn't such a horrid piece of software with so many inherent flaws.

If you search around there's tons of horror stories involving media direct.

To me media direct is nothing more than a button that I should avoid depressing unless I want to wage thermonuclear war on my boot record.

 

i accidentally hit the dam md button at work and it screwed up my 1330 untill i was able to get a vista disc... that was a pain
never actually used md though

 

HA! I had MD on my 1530 when I first got it....I also hit the MD button and from there things got mussed up! So, I simply *took it down* and removed it from my lappy!

I will never ever use MD again on any Dell notebook



Cin

 

Now using that button to turn off LCD, using mod found elsewhere on nbr

 

Can you link me to the thread for using it for LCD off? That would be a great feature for me becuase my laptop is always on in my room ... even when I'm sleeping.