gaz.***:

It has killed webguide however!

that is a huge bummer about Webguide ... what is it doing?

I honestly feel like suing MS and HP because I bought a very sweet quad-core earlier in the year and HP(the makers of the PC) and MS(makers of the installed OS) did not inform me at all that I would be left out of future features on said OS.  I am a little pissed off here.  I really hope the connected home concept that I have supported for five years crashes and burns.  At least that's how I feel right now.  Q.

Webguide fails to see Mediacenter. Thus it doesnt connect.

The sidebar gadget fails, locally and remotely.

I cannot connect to webguide at all via browser.

MHEG is sluggish, but works, needs a bit more playing.

ChiWax:

I honestly feel like suing MS and HP because I bought a very sweet quad-core earlier in the year and HP(the makers of the PC) and MS(makers of the installed OS) did not inform me at all that I would be left out of future features on said OS.  I am a little pissed off here.  I really hope the connected home concept that I have supported for five years crashes and burns.  At least that's how I feel right now.  Q.

Your logic makes no sense to me.  You want to sue a company/companies because they sold you a product that was the latest at the time.  Now here we are months later, on the verge of a new release and you expect that the company should have told you that they won't sell you a system, because a newer one will be out in a few months and you should wait.  That is ridiculous. 

I understand your frustration, but lets be realistic here.  New products come out every day.  Sometimes you happen to purchase at the wrong time.  I don't think this is one of them.

I don't care what you say.  I have spent thousands of dollars on HP computers and MS OS's.  I have spent over a thousand on Linksys Media Center Extenders and an XBOX 360.  As of right now it all feels like a huge waste and I feel like an idiot for putting that much money into something that completely sucks!!!   The connected home concept is a pipe-dream.  I bought into it and it blows because now I have to spend more money.    Q

Just a heads up. The guide when using Sky Digital (via STB) is screwed. The channel numbers are all over the place, and I have 6 different BBC 1 regions (all on channel '1').

Screengrab here...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66502056@N00/2739016251/

More than happy to have installed it. Nice to see that it has become available, albeit via alternative routes. Just going to rollback until I have a bit more time to play..

Ben.

I didn't mean it to be insulting.  I'm sorry if you took it that way, sometimes I can be blunt.

I too think that TV Pack should not be OEM only, and hope that it isn't.  I was just saying I don't see that you have any real grounds for a lawsuit.

I bought a DLP projection TV, now that manufacturer isn't making DLP TV's anymore, they shifted their focus to LCD TV's.  That doesn't mean that I am mad that they let me buy my TV when I did, and that they should have warned me.  It just means that I bought at possibly the wrong time.  But in the end I still have a TV that I like, even though it may not be the latest and greatest.

curbnoise:

Given the gist of this post, I'm starting to get the feeling MS made it OEM only was to ensure that it was only installed on systems that had some engineering behind ensuring it would work.  The fact that it works on existing OEM boxes (eg first gen CableCard boxes) is no guarantee that it would work on any homebrew box.  Combinations of mobo's, video and sound cards, tuners and the myriad subset of driver version permutations makes it virtually impossible for MS (or anyone) to truly test out all scenarios ahead of time.

Blanket distribution would doubtlessly lead to numerous headaches and animosity within this community and a black eye for Microsoft for releasing shoddy (accurate acusation or not) software.  So the route they have chosen (good, bad or indifferent) has also incurred the black eye, but one that they could anticipate while allowing them more control of the out of the box experience when it initially ships.

They also had to anticipate the bits would leak onto the internet  and enthusiasts would try it out anyway, but without the resident support issues--unauthorized user beware and all that stuff.

While I'm not necessarily happy about the approach, I can see the merits of it from a business perspective.  No matter what, Microsoft was in a no-win situation. 

Distribute TV Pack via OEM's on new sytems only that are more likely to work but pisses off a hard core group of supporters (highly predictable) and misses key requested features (chosen path)--fail.

TV Pack works perfectly for all users on a full Windows Update distribution, but misses key features (unlikely)--fail. 

TV Pack suffers millions of compatibility issues on untold hardware/driver permutations on a full Windows Update AND misses key features (likely)--epic fail.

Ultimately, IMHO Microsoft chose the path with the most predictable outcome, and ultimately the most upside if the OEM systems really work well.  Its telling the Dell, HP and Velocity Micro are mum at this point and appear happy to sit out the early adoption round--their original systems sucked out of the box too.  Its also telling the Paul from S1 is openly reporting what he can and is ready to ship at this point--his systems work.

Sorry if I am being blunt....I just want MY Vista Media Center to support my clear-QAM tuner!!!  That's all I want.  And the only reason I want it is so I don't have to record clear-QAM with the hauppauge software.  For MS to act like this is a big deal is what's ridiculous.  I can record clear-QAM with my Vista computer right now!!   Just send the clear-QAM part of the TV pack down the Windows Upgrade pipe and be done with it...that's all I am mad about....Q

vmc_junkie:

If you look at the spec's in my first post, you'll see that there is a x64 version.  (those were originally links).