So close...
I know there's a lot of talk about Vista at the moment, but I needed at least one computer with it installed for testing - so what the hell, I upgraded my home PC.
Neatly side-stepping the many and varied blog entries that I could make about that process, the reason I took that decision was because of Media Centre.
Getting content from the interweb onto your TV is pretty much the Holy Grail for many content providers (at least those not obsessed by mobile phones) and lets face it, the sofa is way more comfortable for both me and Trixie. So I got myself a media extender, initially to see how downloaded files looked in the lounge.
But then, after many years of faithful service, the PVR broke down.
Her Indoors is sufficiently passionate about television that there may be several shows that are required viewing on at the same time. A PVR is essential, but our timing couldn't have been worse - Topfield is between models. Would Media Centre come to the rescue?
On paper, it should have been ideal. I'd been talked into buying a dual-tuner HDTV card with the media extender, so with a few settings tweaks we should have been good to go.
Initially, it all seemed to go well. The Media Centre interface is very well thought out, and the functionality was well ahead of the old PVR. But then I was summoned to account for a missing recording. It turns out that the driver for one of the tuners wouldn't start, despite being identical to the other (working) tuner. This meant that when two programs were selected to record at once, one would fail - at random, as there's no way of telling which tuner is to be used by which program.
The moral? A general-purpose desktop PC, particularly one that is still being used for general purposes, will never be as reliable as a purpose built appliance. Never. At least while there are as many hardware vendors for PC hardware as there are. Much as I'd like to meet whoever wrote the drivers for that tuner card for a "product evaluation session" (you know exactly the sort I mean), it's not reasonable for them to anticipate all of the possible hardware combinations that their card will be slotted into.
Which is one of the reasons Apple has such a reputation for reliability - they have complete control over the basic hardware in their machines, which means greater predictability for software developers and add-on hardware vendors. Fewer surprises for them means fewer surprises for the punter that buys their gear. But then the more open and chaotic nature of PC hardware means that you get a vast range of gadgetry at much better prices.
I've since fixed the issue, of course. I just have to hope it all holds together until the new PVR arrives. Otherwise my attempt at convergence may see me spending way more time on the sofa than I'd counted on.
Neatly side-stepping the many and varied blog entries that I could make about that process, the reason I took that decision was because of Media Centre.
Getting content from the interweb onto your TV is pretty much the Holy Grail for many content providers (at least those not obsessed by mobile phones) and lets face it, the sofa is way more comfortable for both me and Trixie. So I got myself a media extender, initially to see how downloaded files looked in the lounge.
But then, after many years of faithful service, the PVR broke down.
Her Indoors is sufficiently passionate about television that there may be several shows that are required viewing on at the same time. A PVR is essential, but our timing couldn't have been worse - Topfield is between models. Would Media Centre come to the rescue?
On paper, it should have been ideal. I'd been talked into buying a dual-tuner HDTV card with the media extender, so with a few settings tweaks we should have been good to go.
Initially, it all seemed to go well. The Media Centre interface is very well thought out, and the functionality was well ahead of the old PVR. But then I was summoned to account for a missing recording. It turns out that the driver for one of the tuners wouldn't start, despite being identical to the other (working) tuner. This meant that when two programs were selected to record at once, one would fail - at random, as there's no way of telling which tuner is to be used by which program.
The moral? A general-purpose desktop PC, particularly one that is still being used for general purposes, will never be as reliable as a purpose built appliance. Never. At least while there are as many hardware vendors for PC hardware as there are. Much as I'd like to meet whoever wrote the drivers for that tuner card for a "product evaluation session" (you know exactly the sort I mean), it's not reasonable for them to anticipate all of the possible hardware combinations that their card will be slotted into.
Which is one of the reasons Apple has such a reputation for reliability - they have complete control over the basic hardware in their machines, which means greater predictability for software developers and add-on hardware vendors. Fewer surprises for them means fewer surprises for the punter that buys their gear. But then the more open and chaotic nature of PC hardware means that you get a vast range of gadgetry at much better prices.
I've since fixed the issue, of course. I just have to hope it all holds together until the new PVR arrives. Otherwise my attempt at convergence may see me spending way more time on the sofa than I'd counted on.
posted by matt at
12:25
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