Frequently Asked Questions

Not easily...

This is not supported by Media Center.  Many DVDs have copy protectionⁱ on them, and in many countries it is illegal to break this protection - even if you are legally allowed to make a backup copy.  Microsoft has not included any type of support for copying DVDs to your computer.

That said, there are ways to do this.  There are several 3rd party plugins available that assist with this.  More on this topic is covered in the Rip DVDs guide.

Maybe... to have a Cable Cardⁱ tuner you need to have a computer that supports it.  You are not able to add a Cable Card tuner to computer that doesn't have the proper bios and Cable Card product key (OEM only) - this means that you can not add Cable Cards to a computer that you built yourself.

Currently you can record High Definitionⁱ TV in Media Center using one of the following methods:

1. ATSCⁱ - get a tuner card that supports ATSC (digital over the air), and get an HDTVⁱ antenna.  Using this method you can record your local stations in high definition.
2. HD Homerun - this is a network tunning device that will allow you to record clear QAMⁱ (unencrypted) channels from your cable provider.  This method works well, but individual results will vary depending on your cable service provider.  This method also requires a decent understanding of how to use a computer as it is not simple to set up (it's a bit of a hack).
3. Cable Cardⁱ - If you have a Cable Card capable PC equiped with a Cable Card tuner and a Cable Card (provided by your cable company) then you can record HDTV channels from your cable service.  The advantage to this is that you can record encrypted channels (e.g. ESPN or HBO).  
   • One disadvantage to the Cable Card method is that all recordings made with a Cable Card are DRMⁱ protected.  This means that you can't share these recordings with other computers or portable devices (though they will work fine on an extenderⁱ).
4. Satellite - Currently there is no way to record HDTV from Satellite, though DirecTV is rumored to be doing beta testing that would allow Satellite HD recording in Media Center.

A Media Center Extenderⁱ is a device that gives you the Media Center interface and access to your content from your TV.  Extenders connect through a network (wired or wireless) to a PC running Windows Media Center and give you access to your pictures, music, recorded, and live TV.  Extenders can take many forms - some are small set top boxes similar in size to a DVD player, while others are even built into the TV itself; the Xbox 360 is one device that can also be used as a Media Center Extender.

No. 

Version 1 Media Center Extenders are only compatible with MCEⁱ 2005.  They are not compatible with Vista Media Center.  The only exception to this is that a Xbox 360 can act as a v1 or a v2 extender - it is the only device that can do this.

Version 1 Media Center Extenders were compatible with Media Center 2005. 

Version 2 Media Center Extenders are compatible with Media Center on Windows Vista.

No.

Do a search on http://www.thegreenbutton.com for "Softsled" and you will find a lot of discussion about this.  To sum up, there is no way to do this... some third party applications can get close (check out Orb & WebGuide), but nothing will let you actually use a computer as an extenderⁱ.

You certainly don't have to register to take advantage of mediacenterguides.com; however, you do receive some benefits for registering.

Once registered you get the following benefits:

• Upload photos in the Guides section.
• Upload files to the Apps section.
• Ability to rate applications.
• Ability to rate feature requests.
• No CAPTCHAs when posting.
• Edit more pages on the site.
• Revert changes to guides.

No.

Mediacenterguides.com has no affiliation with Microsoft, it is purly an enthusiast website.  For more information please see the about page.