MCE vs BTV4

[fanbanlo]

which one do you like better, and why?

What does MCE do that BTV4 doesn't?
What does BTV4 do that MCE doesn't??

[tscales]

MCE has three problems, as far as I am concerned.

1) Without a hack, MCE only supports two analog tuners
2) All guides for all tuners have to match (even HD)
3) dvr-ms files. I'll take my MPG thank you

The interface is very good, though, and I use MCE to playback many of my BTV files, particularly when I load them to my laptop.

[Hemway]

Has anyone compared HD in MCE vs. BTV4? I'm running BTV4 now but some of the guys at work are running MCE. None of them are running if with HD tuners.
Can anyone give me a comparison between the two using only HD tuners? I would like my final system to have two HD tuners.

[nanook105]

Originally Posted by Hemway

Has anyone compared HD in MCE vs. BTV4? I'm running BTV4 now but some of the guys at work are running MCE. None of them are running if with HD tuners.
Can anyone give me a comparison between the two using only HD tuners? I would like my final system to have two HD tuners.

I've never tried MCE, but I have 2 HD tuners along with three SD tuners, and it works GREAT

[dpaull414]

Originally Posted by Hemway

Has anyone compared HD in MCE vs. BTV4? I'm running BTV4 now but some of the guys at work are running MCE. None of them are running if with HD tuners.
Can anyone give me a comparison between the two using only HD tuners? I would like my final system to have two HD tuners.

I had a MCE setup with an ATI HDTV Wonder and didn't have any problems with it. The one nice thing it did versus BTV4 was it didn't record all the streams, only the one you wanted, so the files were smaller.

The big downside to MCE was it doesn't have a product like BTV Link (I didn't investigate any of the extender boxes as i already have a computer capable of playing hi-def in my bedroom). So I'd record on my pc in my living room, and I could map drives from my bedroom, but I was left with windows media player to play them. Not much of a 10' interface there. And you would have to wait for MCE to finish recording before you could watch it.

So if you only want to record and watch HDTV on 1 pc and it has MCE on it it's a viable solution. But if you want/need BTV Link functionality, BTV blows MCE away.

[Hemway]

The problem I have with BTV is the format it records HD in. It saves them as MPEG2 transport stream files and you can't change the format type it saves them in via BTV setup.

I'm in the process of installing one of the new D-Link DSM-520 media extenders and it won't process .ts files. The DSM-520 has the capability to recieve HD content that has been streamed to it in WMV9, MPEG2, MPEG4 (Advanced Simple Profile only) and AVI (MPEG4 layer only). The unit is small and noiseless and would allow me to build a nice beefy BTV box with a couple of HD tuners and then watch my recorded shows if I could save teh shows in one of the other HD formats. I could convert the saved files but that is an extra step of processing I'm trying to avoid.

[tscales]

Don't they all record in a variation of TS/TP? BTV can convert them after the recording, just like the DVICO software can.

Tom

[fanbanlo]

I guess I'm really waiting for a cheap Tvivo-like set-top box with upgradable harddrive that can handle HD, cable card 2.0, wireless for guide download, and simple to use (NO SLOW MO bug pls!). The PC solution is getting ridiculous... Why do I want my PC to handle TV? ~_~ This is what B. Gate wants us all to think PO is the solution for everything... Com'on, where were all the great CE???

But who would release such hardware?.... D-Link? MS? Sony? ATI?

[KyleK29]

Originally Posted by fanbanlo

I guess I'm really waiting for a cheap Tvivo-like set-top box with upgradable harddrive that can handle HD, cable card 2.0, wireless for guide download, and simple to use (NO SLOW MO bug pls!). The PC solution is getting ridiculous... Why do I want my PC to handle TV? ~_~ This is what B. Gate wants us all to think PO is the solution for everything... Com'on, where were all the great CE???

But who would release such hardware?.... D-Link? MS? Sony? ATI?

I don't know about some of that. But the newest TiVo's support wireless guide data (get a wireless USB adapter), and upgradable harddrives (have to do it manually with various linux hacks). Only issue is, it's TiVo, so you have to pay like $10 a month.

The majority of us go to the PC solution because any set-top boxes like you mention would most likely be either A) an expensive lifetime fee for guide-data, or B) a monthly fee for guide-data. With the PC, it's free. BTV wouldn't be nearly as popular as it is if they charged for guide-data monthly in my opinion.

Plus, companies like TiVo want you to buy a new box (hence Series 1, or Series 2, etc), it forces you to buy a new lifetime suscription with that box if you don't do the monthly thing. Allowing the end user to easily upgrade would slow-down the necessity to ever buy a newer box - a.k.a. - one with more capacity.

*shrug* Just my opinion on the whole thing.

[fanbanlo]

Originally Posted by KyleK29

I don't know about some of that. But the newest TiVo's support wireless guide data (get a wireless USB adapter), and upgradable harddrives (have to do it manually with various linux hacks). Only issue is, it's TiVo, so you have to pay like $10 a month.

The majority of us go to the PC solution because any set-top boxes like you mention would most likely be either A) an expensive lifetime fee for guide-data, or B) a monthly fee for guide-data. With the PC, it's free. BTV wouldn't be nearly as popular as it is if they charged for guide-data monthly in my opinion.

Plus, companies like TiVo want you to buy a new box (hence Series 1, or Series 2, etc), it forces you to buy a new lifetime suscription with that box if you don't do the monthly thing. Allowing the end user to easily upgrade would slow-down the necessity to ever buy a newer box - a.k.a. - one with more capacity.

*shrug* Just my opinion on the whole thing.

Yea, that's what i said Tivo-like. If it has none of the limitation you mentioned, wouldn't that be a killer? (the CE can even be based on PC, like XBOX)

But PC is just not meant to be used like HTPC.. no matter what case you chose, what remote you get, it is just not the same. ~_~ Just not userfriendly enough.

It should act like a CE, plug in, and work! Why fuss with all the bugs of your TV app (like BTV?). This is totally stupid and i can see in a few yrs, we will laugh at ourselves trying to make a large pc doing these kind of things when all you need is a tiny set-top box (or built-into TV).

[cfaslave]

I've had good support from snapstream and really like Beyond TV. from the time I've begun using BTV, it continues to improve. I have to agree with tscales on some of the problems with M$E. Also, I really prefer to give my business to a company who's main business is HTPC and not just an add on to an already bloated operating system.

[dpaull414]

Originally Posted by fanbanlo

Yea, that's what i said Tivo-like. If it has none of the limitation you mentioned, wouldn't that be a killer? (the CE can even be based on PC, like XBOX)

But PC is just not meant to be used like HTPC.. no matter what case you chose, what remote you get, it is just not the same. ~_~ Just not userfriendly enough.

It should act like a CE, plug in, and work! Why fuss with all the bugs of your TV app (like BTV?). This is totally stupid and i can see in a few yrs, we will laugh at ourselves trying to make a large pc doing these kind of things when all you need is a tiny set-top box (or built-into TV).

Technology is all subject to change. Predicting what we do in the future is pretty difficult. But at least now and the recent past, using a PC although more complicated, gave/gives you so many more options than using Tivo or the DVR's that come from the cable companies. That of course adds complexity, and isn't for everybody. But for some of us, this is the right (and only!) choice.

[fanbanlo]

I think it is getting a little ridiculous in the complexity side of things. And there are still many unfixed bugs (i.e. slow mo..), and importanting feature missing (burn to DVD).

[guncam_man]

slowmo is needed, that's for sure.

but 'burn to dvd'???

I go the other way - I put DVDs on my BTV pc. Why the fark do I want to do disk swapping when I could just push a button?

[fanbanlo]

because you want to store and share your recording.