MCE, XP Home, or XP Pro for SageTV HTPC os?

[IncredibleHat]

Doing a search on MCE, and XP, well, resulted in a billion results, and I couldn't quite think of what someone may have asked before, so, I will just ask this.

Which would be a better deal (both cost, and performance/use) for an OS on an HTPC that basically runs SageTV, and Zoomplayer Pro?

I'm wondering if my XP Pro is "overkill" for this machine, and I may be better off with buying and using MCE, or Home even?

Thoughts?

[lobosrul]

Pro. You will rue the day if you purchase XP home, trust me.

No point in buying MCE if your Sage.

[Ken C]

Originally Posted by lobosrul

No point in buying MCE if your Sage.

MCE is about the cheapest way to buy XP. The XP version is between Home and Pro. And you don't have to load the second cd, the one with the MCE software.

Ken C

[IncredibleHat]

So basically youre all saying my Pro is fine as is.

But this is good information, as I have been talking my friend into building an HTPC... this info can help him choose an XP for purchase.

[Wakecrash]

XP Home works fine for me in my sage server, I also have a client, 2 MVPs, and placeshifter.

[blade]

I also use XP Home on my server and 2 clients.

[BobPhoenix]

I had XP home as a Sage Server for a while. The only problem I had was that I couldn't RDP into it and VNC was getting anoyingly slow - so I switched to XP Pro so that I could use RDP - much faster. Happy now. Otherwise I have no problems with XP home.

BobP.

[stanger89]

Home has crippled file sharing that drives me up the wall, I'm with Ken, buy MCE and just don't install the MCE part.

[IncredibleHat]

Only file sharing I do personally, is opening up my OSX machine on the HTPC to grab/put files too. I never actually open up the HTPC on my OSX machine (because I don't wanna turn on all that crap on my htpc heh). Likewise for my other PC, i never transfer files to/from pc to pc... I use my mac as sort of an intermediary.

[popechild]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Home has crippled file sharing that drives me up the wall, I'm with Ken, buy MCE and just don't install the MCE part.

What are the limitations? I use Home for all kinds of inter-network file sharing, and have never run into a wall I hoped I could get around. Maybe I just don't know what I'm missing.

[stanger89]

You can't disable "Simple" file sharing.
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/...ilesharing.htm

Vs Pro:
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/...ring/index.htm

I refuse to run any of my PCs without a password or with shares that aren't password protected. That's impossible in XP Home.

Also default/admin shares are not available on XP Home (these are very nice for things you don't want "shared" but need access to from time to time, like the SageTV directory on another PC on the network).

[mightyt]

I did try MCE during my last Sage upgrade about a year ago ... The only thing I found (and read) was that not all XP Pro compatible drivers will work with MCE. Not sure why, but remember experiencing it myself at one point. Eventually (and happily) went back to my comfort zone with Pro.

[Ken C]

Originally Posted by mightyt

I did try MCE during my last Sage upgrade about a year ago ... The only thing I found (and read) was that not all XP Pro compatible drivers will work with MCE. Not sure why, but remember experiencing it myself at one point. Eventually (and happily) went back to my comfort zone with Pro.

Interesting ... What drivers failed ?


Also, here is some additional info on the Home vs. Pro differences,

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase...p_home_pro.asp

Ken C

[bcjenkins]

If you're going to use the MS MCE remote for the HTPC go with XP Pro. Works much better when the MCE hooks aren't there.

B

[mightyt]

Originally Posted by Ken C

Interesting ... What drivers failed ?
Ken C

I just knew that question would come up as I was posting my comment. Well it was a while ago so honestly I don't remember exactly which drivers I had issues with. I just knew that I was moving from Sage 2.x to 4.x and thought it was time for an OS rebuild anyway. After fooling with it for a while it wasn't worth it to me and just went back to Pro.

For kicks I Googled "MCE driver issues" and found lots of references out there. One thing I will admit is that it was probably wasn't too far after to MCE 2005 was released so some of that may have been new driver availability. But that in and of itself bothered be because at the time I just wanted to use my tried and true XP drivers.

I was also hoping that I could have easily played with Sage and MCE on the same box, but there again MCE required certain services to run that took issue with Sage. So it wasn't just exit Sage, launch MCE, exit MCE, launch Sage. Add MCE limitations at the time like 2 tuners only and I ended up thinking why mess with a good thing. Sage/XP Pro worked just fine for me for about 2 years.

T.

[Sandbox]

Good post - I already have MCE installed and definitely a burden. Hate the though of starting over with Pro so I keep trying to shut down MCE so it does not tangle up with SageTV. Lots of advice and I think I've made it almost there, but still a few problems. One, I cannot find where MCE starts on boot. Love to kill it all together. Also, I've stopped the services that hang with SageTV, but touch the green button the remote and there it is again. Can anyone offer a step by step, MCE application killer? It would be nice to be able to restore the MCE application, but not necessary.

Thanks