BTV vs Vista Media Center?

[fanbanlo]

What's BTV doing to maintain the competitive advantage now that Vista has Media Center built in?

Actually, what are the advantages now over Media Center, if any?

[Zaap]

Based on past experience with Microsoft: I'd guess VMC has more burden of heavy-handed content protection that an XP system with BTV doesn't. I'd wager there's a much heftier system requirement to overcome a lot of eye-candy that's not necissary for HTPC function. Also, I'm sure a lot of bugs have yet to be ironed out of VMC.

If a Vista compatible version of BTV can stay lean and clean compared to Microsoft's tendancy toward bloat, heavy-handedness, and unituitive design (again, based on past experience) then I'd say BTV will always have a lot to offer over a purely Microsoft alternative.

[tscales]

Vista gains only one new feature that matters -- and it hasn't shipped -- and that is CableCard support.

- It is still limited to four tuners.
- It still can't handle different guides for different tuners
- It still can't compete with BTV Link (a PC cannot be an extender)
- It still requires the MS remote control (which is lousy)

Oh, and if you bought into the idea of an extender, such as Linksys, HP or even the original XBox?

Tough. They don't work with Vista. No upgrades, no trade-ins. They're paperweights.

And no vendor has shipped a Vista extender. The only one, and it is not a true V2 extender is ---- surprise, surprise --- the Xbox 360.

For media users, Vista is, well, nothing.

Tom

[mlomker]

Originally Posted by tscales

Vista gains only one new feature that matters -- and it hasn't shipped -- and that is CableCard support.

Nice summary, thanks! I hadn't seen a list like that before.

I'm going to switch back to MCE for a month (or forever) when my copies of Vista arrive. It sounds like I'll be fine within all of those limits. My understanding is that DRM is only applied to flagged content (which can really only be done by cablecard). If I can open the file in VideoReDo and export an mpeg then that's all I need. MCE already allows DVD burning at no charge, so...

The main appeal to me is 1) quicker support for the HDHomeRun, and 2) integration. When I ran MCE I *never* had a problem with applications losing focus (causing the remote to stop working) or switching between media types--TV, DVD, AVI files. It seems like I'm always reaching for the keyboard with Snapstream products. 3) Tons of add-on development is happening while Snapstream doesn't even provide an API for doing anything with BTV. 4) Plays back just about everything. I can't run a TP file through VideoReDo and expect BTV to play it afterward. I can't be certain that any file downloaded from the `net will play back in BTV. 5) If you have another MCE machine on the network it'll simply find all of the servers and you can play back content stored anywhere...it's basically an automatic Link box. Great for people that have PC's around the house already.

The most important for me, though, is that MCE is the only other product that offers excellent picture quality. Sage and every other 3rd party PVR doesn't come close. In my mind MCE is the 1000 lb gorilla for Snapstream.

Did you guys notice that MSFT is charging students $75 for Home Premium and $99 for Home Basic? It is clear that they want MCE to own the market...they are practically giving it away.

[tscales]

Any premium channel (HBO, etc.) is protected content even if it comes in through s-video from your cablebox. Then it cannot be played on another machine. DRM is my main issue.

I never run tp through videoredo, but if BTV can't play it afterwards, I'd talked to the videoredo people. They're saving a bad file.

I've tried MCE, but can't get past having to have one lineup and no BTVLink. Shared folders isn't the same

[mlomker]

Originally Posted by tscales

I never run tp through videoredo, but if BTV can't play it afterwards, I'd talked to the videoredo people. They're saving a bad file.

It isn't that simple. The file plays in every other media player.

Shared folders isn't the same.

Could you elaborate on your reasoning? MCE extenders stream, do live TV, etc. just like BTV does. I assume that BTV automatically transcodes divx files for streaming whereas you have to use a free add-on for MCE. Movies look the same to me when played through WMP via a share, anyway. People that have hardware players (MediaMVP, etc) won't like it because extenders have to have DRM capability. That isn't really a problem for anyone that already has a Link PC that can run Vista.

[gihayes]

One Thing BTV can do that Media Center cannot do is handle mutiple input services. My cable company splits it's lineup between two cable lines. In order to get the entire lineup (Cable A and Cable B) I have to connect one to one TV card and the other to another TV Card. BTV allows me to configure each card to handle a different lineup or source. Media Center treats all tuners in the computer as having the same input.