XP Pro V. XP MCE

[phenixdragon]

Is MCE is just XP Pro running the extra MCE software? Or is it based off of XP Home?

[stanger89]

Yes, it's XP Pro + MCE app.

[Opus4]

This came up a long time ago & I tried to find a comparison of how exactly the 3 OS versions compared: from this post and further on, especially the links in this post. It seems to be something in between Home and Pro. I'm still not clear on some things, such as whether MCE supports dual processors, which Pro does, but Home does not. Since MS themselves say MCE is based on Home... it isn't quite Pro, but it is more than Home. Is domain joining (mentioned in that other thread) really all that is missing compared to Pro, or is it missing more, like dual cpu support?

Is there a good comparison of the features of all 3 somewhere?

- Andy

[dbfresh23]

Actually Opus MCE is based one XP Pro - Not Home. When you are installing it, it actually says installing XP Pro. For SageTV purposes, I can't see there being any benefit to using MCE over XP Pro.

[ToxMox]

From what I understand is that MCE has all the features of Pro except that it cannot join a domain (which you can actually hack your way around or choose to join a domain on initial setup. If you join a domain then MCE extenders won't work because they require fast user switching). Supposedly it cannot cache network credentials either (for remote logins).
I've been looking at potentially getting a new notebook in October and it seems to be cheaper to get MCE than XP Pro so it would seem that unless you are going to be in a corporate environment you might as well go with MCE instead of Pro since you'll save money and have all the needed features from Pro.

[batorok]

Originally Posted by dbfresh23

Actually Opus MCE is based one XP Pro - Not Home. When you are installing it, it actually says installing XP Pro. For SageTV purposes, I can't see there being any benefit to using MCE over XP Pro.

I agree, but for the price difference, (nil), MCE is the way to go if you're wanting a pvr anyway. Sage is superior in many ways, but why not get the "free" MCE just to have it? Or do as some do, run meedio, and for standard def trigger it to use sagetv and for hdtv link to mce...

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by ToxMox

From what I understand is that MCE has all the features of Pro except that it cannot join a domain (which you can actually hack your way around or choose to join a domain on initial setup.

Yeah, IIRC you can join a domain until you install the MCE part (which is a second CD), which disables it.

Originally Posted by dbfresh23

I can't see there being any benefit to using MCE over XP Pro.

Well MCE is about $20 cheaper than XP Pro on newegg.

[jphhughes]

One of the annoyances I found when using SageTV under XP Pro/MCE is that a couple of modules of MCE run as a service . They take control of the Tuner and when you try and start SageTV you get an error and Sage will not start. You can change the status of these MCE modules from automatic to Disabled on startup and this corrects the problem. However MCE does not like this and tends to fill up the logs with error messages which is a minor annoyance, but be aware.