Snapstream 3.3 V's Windows MCE 2004 UK

[mrphil]

After almost a year, Windows Media Center Edition is available for UK users, with full guide data. I have been trying it out the 2004 version over the weekend (legally, my company subscribes to MSDN) and I have to say it really is outstanding. Im looking to see what happens with PVS 3.4, but at the moment I may be staying with MCE 2004 for the following reasons:

MCE 2004 has:
Full UK EPG listings (This is the killer!)

A nice flashy animated interface including some very nice looking fades with the on screen display

The settings are configurable from the remote, and not a web interface (Although I like the PVS 3 web interface as it means I can make changes at my desktop PC easily)

Power options work correctly - This is my biggest issue with PVS, the PC wakes up from standby to record, but after that never obeys the PC power settings again and thus doesnt go back to sleep. Very irritating. In MCE 2004 this works great, at the end of the recording the PC sleeps again.

The Bad:

Like PVS 3 (In the FSUI), its near impossible to easily find a show you want to record if its more than a few hours into the future. Scrolling through days of shows is a royal pain. Why can't I just enter the first few characters of the show name??

Non-standard format means I cannot immediately burn to DVD without conversion first. PVS 3 has the advantage here.

So for me overall its pretty close between the two, but MCE 2004 definately has the upper hand right now in the UK supplying proper guide data for free. Im going to stick with that for a few weeks, and will evaluate my options when PVS 3.4 comes out.
Run faster Snapstream!!

[Sef]

Don't get me started on the UK listings!!!

As soon as they include support, I'll stump up the cash to buy PVS. Until then, I'm quite happy reinstalling everything from scratch every three weeks.