Windows Media Centre Useless?

Who else here thinks Windows Media Centre is useless? I live in Canada so i don't get to receive that "internet tv" thing... The only thing i can watch online is MSNBC News and i dont care about that... I could just use firefox and use BBC international instead... So who else thinks media center is useless?

 

Media Center's not really useless (granted I run Vista Business so I've only played with the current version in Windows 7.... ) But XP MCE was/is fairly decent, and you can do way more with it than just Internet TV. If you have a TV tuner, it can be your DVR. It's also good for showing off media to your family and friends, even w/out hooking your PC up to a TV. You can even set a party mode, where guests can walk up to it and "request" songs and stuff without having access to other parts of the computer.

 

Can I vote "yes" twice? It's doubly infuriating that WinMCE is treated as an entirely distinct OS outside of the normal WinXP upgrade path, so you can't convert it back to a decent version of XP by simply upgrading to WinXP Pro. (Mind you, your point was probably more on the _Vista version, but as far as I'm concerned, MCE has been a waste of time for longer than _Vista has been around).

 

I'm in Canada and internet TV in windows medica center works perfectly.

 

I never use Media Center, so for me it's useless.

 

I love it. Connect my cable box to it, tell it what to record, and its my free dvr. I downloaded lifesaver and I have all my favorite shows commercial free. I also have it connected to my Xbox 360, and all my music, Videos, and recorded tv can be played from downstairs from my xbox.

 

What os are you using? Also what version of WMC where you using? How did you set it up?

 

I think it's pretty useless for those without the ability to record tv. If internet tv were working, that would be sweet, but seeing as there is like nothing in it (perhaps get Hulu working in there for something), then yeah it's pretty useless.

 

It's only useless for people who don't need it. If you happen to decide to use it then you'll change your mind.

 

I think it depends...

I personally find it useless.
(My mother has it on her laptop, I've got Vista Business)

Let me explain - UK, BBC iplayer for the BBC and else, if you want to watch TV you'd use a TV set anyway.
Else, is buggy and slow - it freezes, or crashes and what have not.

It is slow to respond to enput via mouse... to me also illogically set up.

While the idea is potentially a good one - the implementation is absolutely horrid.

 

I find it extremely useful and use it on a daily basis. I use it to share my video and audio between my xbox 360 and my PS3. I also use it on my laptop with my TV Tuner card and use it to record TV shows in HD via the guide. It's a very nice little program. In all honesty if you don't have any media extenders or TV tuners then theres not much reason to use it, just like IE is useless without internet, lol

 

With this post, I am just thinking... - Is it possible that the Medai Center makes more sense on a desktop than on a laptop?

 

Well, I don't own a desktop so Media Center works perfect for me on my laptop. If I had a desktop then yeah it would make more sense on a desktop rather than a laptop, but I personally don't have a reason for both so I just have one

 

Yep. I have always wanted to set up one of those Media Center type PCs next to my big DLP TV in the family room. It's too bad those, Media Center Extenders never really took off... Or that Microsoft hasn't really put much effort into marketing Media Center, after all it's pretty slick and well done.

 

Strange that is never quite works on my mother's laptop...
But whatever... if it works for you

 

I like media center, but i'll soon have a special pc just for it (on the beamer). with a tv card, blueray in (and some extending software for this) it's a great combination, so you don't need tons of devices to do the same thing: watching some media (be it tv, be it recorded, be it dvd, be it blueray, be it from the homeserver). and it has a nice gui.

so no, it's not useless. but without tv-card, you lose tons of it's features. and you can of course life without it with no problem.

 

Yeah, I hook up my laptop to my 1080P projector and like to watch movies sometimes on that via Netflix instant view, 108 inch screen ftw

Plus, Counter strike on the PJ is awesome too

But yeah, I think it would be cool if M$ made an OS that was based around Media Center, making it not needing a mouse a KB to boot. Kind of like XBMC, that was an awesome software

 

I'm pretty sure Media Center was a standalone edition of XP before...but seeing as how it's one of those really really under-rated features of Vista now, I doubt it.

 

I think so i have it on my laptop and my desktop, and only use it on my desktop. Since i don't have a tv, it works perfect in my room.

 

Who says you can't boot up to windows media center without a mouse and a keyboard? Justunplug them and remove your password. Or get a fingerprint reader or face recongition software to log you in.

 

I guess WMC does have some uses for media people, what is that party mode? That seems like a good thing, since they cant access anything else other than music.

 

I guess it's useful if you have a TV connection to it, but for me it's useless since I watch most of my movies and TV shows from downloads.

 

You can watch downloaded shows in windows media center as well...

Some people prefer the much simpler appearance in windows media center.