Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005: Feature and Performance Investigation
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 12, 2004 12:19 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
A New Setup Tool
With MCE 2005, Microsoft has included a video that helps you adjust your monitor/TV
settings for the best picture quality with Media Center.
Through Media Center's Display Calibration Wizard, you are coached through
adjusting the positioning of your screen, aspect ratio, brightness, contrast
and color balance.
The wizard lets you properly center your screen by displaying a video of a few "friends" playing pool. In a frame within the video there's another video giving you an indication of what you should see on your screen; you adjust what you see on your screen until it matches what's displayed in the box.
Configuring your aspect ratio is a bit misleading as Media Center tells you to look for the Geometry controls on your display, which aren't exactly related to what you would normally think of when you think aspect ratio (e.g. 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratios). What the video segment in this clip does do a good job of however is giving you a good reference point to make sure that your display isn't being stretched.
Media Center even tells the user to look to make sure that the cube of chalk looks square and that the billiard balls look round, both things that will be distorted if you are running in a stretched viewing mode. Other than telling you to change your resolution or use the geometry controls on your display, the Display Calibration Wizard does an otherwise poor job of educating the uninformed about how to choose the right aspect ratio setting on their display.
The brightness test is a very useful one and relatively easy to interpret:
... as is the contrast test:
In both situations, the wizard tells the user what to look for and what a properly calibrated display should look like.
Finally the color balance configuration gives you a set of gray bars to remove all red, green or blue tints from.
The Display Calibration Wizard is a nice addition for entry level users as well as those users who are not yet ready to graduate to using something like Video Essentials to configure their display. It's a valiant and appreciated effort on Microsoft's part.
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jamawass - Wednesday, October 13, 2004 - link
First post, longtime anandtech reader. MCE 2k5 looks good from all the reviews I've read but at around $170 (with essential remote)is just too expensive as the reviewer pointed out. With the type of hardware you need to run it, you're looking at $1000 at least. With networked DVD recorders with tivo capabilities ( which are much more stable) getting better in the $400 range why would I put mce in my living room?glennpratt - Wednesday, October 13, 2004 - link
Best solution for mom is to have TV and Computer connected and running at the same time. And yes, if mum can use windows and operate a TiVo, she can use MCE. Just make sure you get nice and stable components.GodsMadClown - Wednesday, October 13, 2004 - link
You know what? I look at this and see a market for dual-core.tantryl - Wednesday, October 13, 2004 - link
I'm trying to figure out whether this is something that you could, well, give to mum for example. Or mom as you crazy americans call them.Presume a nice setup, 3+GHz or equivalent, Hauppage TV Tuner, 80GB system drive and 200GB storage/video drive, 512MB or 1024MB RAM (not info given by Anand as to what difference this might make?), all MCE approved components, with the necessary remote all set up in a quiet case...
Would Ma be able to use it? Would she be able to handle swapping between the monitor and a regular TV? Would she be better off having a physical switch that changes the signal from into the PC to into the TV?
So Anand - you think this is something mum could use?
glennpratt - Tuesday, October 12, 2004 - link
9 & 10 - I have not seen one copy protected file yet and I use both analog antenna and digital cable for over a year. It is up to the station to set the flag to lock the file, which IMO is fair. Also, you can convert the file after the fact to WMV using DVR2WMV. I like the low CPU usage that hardware MPEG2 brings, and if i decide I like the program I can convert it and archive it.Reflex - Tuesday, October 12, 2004 - link
#10: Part of the 2005 release is that its available to system builders or sites like Newegg for do it yourselfers. I do agree about codecs, but its not a *huge* deal to me.segagenesis - Tuesday, October 12, 2004 - link
#9 - I would prefer BeyondTV solely for the fact I can do whatever I want with recorded shows. And I dont have to buy a new computer just to get the *software*.PrinceGaz - Tuesday, October 12, 2004 - link
Windows MCE will never be any use for people serious about video until it allows you to select what codecs you want to use for encoding from all the DirectShow codecs installed on your system. Having to use the proprietary MS stuff with all their DRM garbage is unsuitable.rbV5 - Tuesday, October 12, 2004 - link
Nice Review Anand. I'll be building one of these shortly using dual eHome Wonder cards and HDTV Wonder (hopefully MS will release the patch soon.) I ordered MCE + the remote from Newegg earlier today, so i should be on it by the end of the week.kurisu - Tuesday, October 12, 2004 - link
I still think the interface is pretty attractive. I see this doing well in the market..