Moving Sage.tv to new PC - Best OS? XP (Home, Pro or MCE)?

[McTurok]

Hi Everyone,

I'm moving my Sage.tv to a new PC. It currently is running on my XP Pro PC but Need this computer for other things now.

Which OS do you like and why?

I'm looking at buying a new XP version at Newegg.com and it seems XP MCE is cheaper then PRO but I don't know if it will cause issues with Sage.tv.

Anyone have any opinions on which OS is best?
Security on XP MCE like Pro or nothing like Home?

I'm leaning towards XP MCE. XP Home I think is worthless to any IT Guy.
Pro has been great for my Sage.tv PC so far but saving a few bucks would be nice if there is no reason not to try XP MCE.

Let me know what you all think.
Thanks,
Chris

[korben_dallas]

Go for MCE and report back to us how it works. I'm building a PC for a friend in a month or two, and I'm gonna use MCE cause him & his wife like music & videos, so MCE makes sense.

[m0ng00se30]

IIRC... MCE is basically the same as XP + a few upgrades except for the TV/Media part that can be turned on and off with a service. I'd say go for MCE... then you can have OTA HD if you want too.

--Mike

[RedR]

Howdy,

I started out with MCE 2005, then shortly after found SageTV. Since I've had to rebuild the machine and dumped MCE for XP. Why? As m0ng00se30 mentioned, MCE is basically XP with the media center packages on top of it. My pref is the features of XP Pro for a machine with new hardware running SageTV. I also have to agree with you, XP Home is just, well too limiting for an OS to fit my needs. I spose another bonus about XP Pro is the already well published tweaks to keep it running lean and clean vs. finding the additional addins from MCE.

Enjoy,
RedR

[Crashless]

I'd recommend XP Pro, for the same reasons as RedR. With the new hacks to enable multiple remote desktop clients, it's the perfect OS for these type of systems.

[Ryokurin]

FWIW with media center you have to remove some services from starting before Sage can start as they make the cards look like they are in use. its fine after that. I would just go with pro or home even.

[sudipto]

XP MCE is internally EXACTLY same as XP Pro EXCEPT for the fact that a feature called "domain join" is disabled in MCE to support MCE Extender boxes. Plus, of course, MCE has the mediacenter application built into it.

You CAN use SageTV with MCE. A friend of mine is running that setup. You do have to disable the MCE scheduler and recording service, otherwise it will probabably hog on to your TV tuner card and Sage will be unable to access it.

There might be a way to configure MCE so that it disabled the TV portion, then you won't need to manually disabled the recording and scheduler services.