Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE) is a version of the

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...

operating system which was the first version of Windows to include Windows Media Center, designed to serve as a home-entertainment hub. The last version, Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Update Rollup 2, was released on October 14, 2005. After that, Windows Media Center was included in certain editions of later Windows versions. It was an optional, paid addition to Windows 8 and then discontinued in Windows 10. Windows XP Media Center Edition reached end of support on April 8, 2014 along with most other

Windows XP editions Windows XP, which is the next version of Windows NT after Windows 2000 and the successor to the consumer-oriented Windows Me, has been released in several editions since its original release in 2001. Windows XP is available in many languages. In ...

Versions

Windows XP Media Center Edition has had the following releases, all based on Windows XP Professional with all features enabled except domain-joining ability disabled in Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 and Terminal Services in the original release. *A preview version of Windows XP Media Center Edition from Microsoft's eHome division, was shown at CES 2002, with the final version released later that year. *Windows XP Media Center Edition (codenamed "Freestyle") was the original version of Windows XP Media Center, which was built from the

Windows XP Service Pack 1 Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...

codebase. It was first announced on July 16, 2002, released to manufacturing on September 3, 2002 and was first generally available on October 29, 2002 in North America. *Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 (codenamed "Harmony"), which was launched on September 30, 2003 and was made available as an upgrade to the owners of the original editions' licenses, was built from the

codebase, after the original Windows XP Media Center Edition. *Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 (codenamed "Symphony"), which was launched on October 12, 2004, was built from the

Windows XP Service Pack 2 Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...

codebase. It is the first edition of MCE available to non-Tier 1 system builders. Among other things, it includes support for Media Center Extenders, and CD/DVD-Video burning support. *Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Update Rollup 2 (codenamed "Emerald", October 14, 2005) is a major update to MCE 2005 (Symphony) and was a recommended download. It adds support for the

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...

as a media center extender,

DVB-T DVB-T, short for Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial, is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in Singapore in Feb ...

broadcasts, and support for two

ATSC tuner An ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) tuner, often called an ATSC receiver or HDTV tuner, is a type of television tuner that allows reception of digital television (DTV) television channels that use ATSC standards, as transmitted by tel ...

cards. It is the second version of Windows XP Media Center based on

, after Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. To determine the underlying edition of Windows XP on which a particular revision of MCE is based, the System Properties Control Panel applet can be used. To determine the revision of MCE that is being used, select the About Media Center option from the General -> Settings area inside MCE.

Exclusive features

Windows XP Media Center Edition is distinguished with its exclusive component, Media Center, a media player that supports watching and recording TV programs, as well as playing DVD-Video, photo slideshows, and music. Media Center sports a user interface that is optimized for use from a distance with large fonts and icons. Unlike competing commercial DVR products, Microsoft does not charge a monthly subscription fee for its Media Center TV guide service. Due to its strict hardware requirements, Microsoft opted not to supply Media Center as an independent retail version. Microsoft only distributed it to

MSDN Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) was the division of Microsoft responsible for managing the firm's relationship with developers and testers, such as hardware developers interested in the operating system (OS), and software developers developing ...

subscribers and original equipment manufacturers in certain countries. Consumers purchase Media Center preinstalled on a new computer, set-top box or embedded device.

Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005

New features

* Away Mode in Update Rollup 2 allows the machine to appear off while it performs background tasks. * Windows Movie Maker, contains new effects and transitions and support for

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

burning based on

Sonic Solutions Sonic Solutions was an American computer software company headquartered in Novato, California. In addition to having a number of offices in the U.S., the company also maintained offices in Europe and Asia. It was acquired by Rovi Corporation in 20 ...

's AuthorScript technology. * Windows Media Player, upgraded to version 10, along with Windows Media Format Runtime 9.5. * Royale theme: not included in other editions of Windows XP except

Windows XP Tablet PC Edition Windows XP, which is the next version of Windows NT after Windows 2000 and the successor to the consumer-oriented Windows Me, has been released in several editions since its original release in 2001. Windows XP is available in many languages. In ...

, it is included and enabled by default. * Microsoft Plus! Digital Media Edition components: a number of applications not included in previous versions of MCE are now included such as Audio Converter, CD Label Maker, Dancer and Party Mode. *SoundSpectrum's G-Force: a special edition is included as one of the music visualizations for Windows Media Player. *Screensavers and themes from ''Microsoft Plus! for Windows XP'' are included (Aquarium, Da Vinci, Nature, Space and My Pictures Premium). * Media Center Extender Support, dedicated hardware devices that allow users to view the same content that is available on the MCE computer over wired or wireless Ethernet, are introduced in this version for the first time.

Linksys Linksys is an American brand of data networking hardware products mainly sold to home users and small businesses. It was founded in 1988 by the couple Victor and Janie Tsao, both Taiwanese immigrants to the United States. Linksys products inc ...

and other companies currently sell Media Center Extenders, and Microsoft sells an add-on kit for the Xbox game console that allows it to function as an extender. The

also has Media Center Extender functionality out of the box, including HDTV support (which is notably absent from current extenders). Media Center 2005 currently can support up to 5 Media Center Extenders per household. *First party hardware: Microsoft has released its own first party remote, receiver and infrared blaster with MCE 2005. A new specially designed wireless

computer keyboard A computer keyboard is a peripheral input device modeled after the typewriter keyboard which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys to act as mechanical levers or electronic switches. Replacing early punched cards and paper tape technology, ...

for MCE 2005 was released September 2005.

Removed features

*Joining a

Windows Server domain A Windows domain is a form of a computer network in which all user accounts, computers, printers and other security principals, are registered with a central database located on one or more clusters of central computers known as domain controll ...

: The ability to join an

Active Directory Active Directory (AD) is a directory service developed by Microsoft for Windows domain networks. It is included in most Windows Server operating systems as a set of processes and services. Initially, Active Directory was used only for centralize ...

domain is disabled by default. Computers that upgrade to Windows Media Center from a version of Windows that had joined the domain before upgrade will remain joined to the domain. However, if they leave the domain, they may never re-join. The option to join a domain during installation of this version of Windows is still available. Microsoft says that the reason for this discontinuation of feature is to support Media Center Extenders which required

Fast User Switching Fast user switching is a feature of a multi-user operating system which allows users to switch between user accounts without quitting applications and logging out. In Linux The Linux kernel's VT subsystem dates back to 1993 and does not unders ...

. It is possible to re-enable joining a domain by modifying the Windows registry. * Windows Media Player 6.4, which is shipped with

Windows 2000 Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses. It was the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was released to manufacturing on December 15, 1999, and was officially ...

and can be installed on

Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of operating systems. The first operating system in the 9x family, it is the successor to Windows 3.1x, and was released to manufacturi ...

Windows NT 4.0 Windows NT 4.0 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses. It is the direct successor to Windows NT 3.51, which was released to manufacturing on July 31, 1996, and then to retail ...

and

Windows 98 Windows 98 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. The second operating system in the 9x line, it is the successor to Windows 95, and was released t ...

, was removed.

Hardware requirements

Media Center has higher hardware requirements than other editions of Windows XP. MCE 2005 requires at least a 1.6 GHz processor, DirectX 9.0 hardware-accelerated GPU (ATI

Radeon Radeon () is a brand of computer products, including graphics processing units, random-access memory, RAM disk software, and solid-state drives, produced by Radeon Technologies Group, a division of AMD. The brand was launched in 2000 by ATI Tec ...

9 series or nVidia

GeForce FX Series The GeForce FX or "GeForce 5" series ( codenamed NV30) is a line of graphics processing units from the manufacturer Nvidia. Overview Nvidia's GeForce FX series is the fifth generation of the GeForce line. With GeForce 3, the company introduced p ...

or higher), and 256 MB of System RAM. Some functionality, such as Media Center Extender support, use of multiple tuners, or HDTV playback/recording carries higher system requirements. Media Center is much more restricted in the range of hardware that it supports than most other software DVR solutions. Media Center tuners must have a standardized driver interface, and they must have hardware MPEG-2 encoders (this was changed as companies such as ATI wrote drivers to support MCE 2005 with their All-In-Wonder cards and HDTV Wonder cards),

closed caption Closed captioning (CC) and subtitling are both processes of displaying text on a television, video screen, or other visual display to provide additional or interpretive information. Both are typically used as a transcription of the audio port ...

support, and a number of other features. Media Center remote controls are standardized in terms of button labels and functionality, and, to a degree, general layout.

Upgradeability (before April 8, 2014)

Windows XP Media Center Edition could be directly upgraded to Windows Vista Home Premium or

Windows Vista Ultimate Windows Vista—a major release of the Microsoft Windows operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing op ...

. Support for Windows XP Media Center Edition under Microsoft's consumer product lifecycle policy was planned to end on April 13, 2010, however, in July 2009, Microsoft extended the support window to July 12, 2011. This date would be then extended again on December 31, 2010 to a final end of support date of April 8, 2014, citing support volumes in emerging markets as the reason for the extension. Windows XP Media Center Edition retail availability ended as planned on April 14, 2009.

References

External links

Windows XP Media Center Edition Website

Listing of Logo'd Hardware Partners for MCE 2005
- {{DEFAULTSORT:Windows Xp Media Center Edition Video recording software Windows XP 2004 software de:Windows XP Media Center he:Windows Media Center pt:Windows XP Media Center sv: Windows Media Center Edition