i was told by the sales rep i just bought a Toshiba p100 sd3 Laptop from that i could go onto the MS website and down load MCE 2005 as the unit didnt come with it pre installed. well i discovered today that this is false. i confronted him about this and he directed me to a retailer that sells MCE 2005 OEM for $145.00can. after much griping on my part they agreed to go and purchase this disc for me and provide to me at no cost. so i called microsoft just to make sure this was on the up and up and they have told me IT IS NOT, that i will run into problems if i try and install the software now, as it is intended to be installed only at the factory by the manufacturer. now the rep couldnt give many clear reasons why but kept eluding to the fact that retialers ARENT SUPPOSED TO sell this software. so i got the feeling they just dont "want" people doing it opposed to it not being possible.

so has anyone here successfully down loaded to MCE 2005 software to their laptop PC that didnt have it pre installed. as from what i can see here others HAVE. and if i can, where do i get an IR reciever (i already have an MCE remote from another PC -its an original MS MCE remote)?

thanks alot, Christian

Picture MCE 2005 as Windows XP Pro (with a few advanced networking limitations) combined with a super deluxe media player. If you never run the MCE program, you'd never know you were using anything but XP Pro.

I built my own PC from scratch and installed MCE 2005 on it (probably purchased the O/S from the same place as you're mentioning).

that post sounded familiar -LOL! thanks alot Dan, Christian

Christian,

Microsoft MCE is VERY sensitive to the type of hardware that it is installed on. The OEM puts together components that are guaranteed to work, for an end user to do this it takes some research. Among other things, MCE requires a DirectX 9 hardware compatible video card. This is different then just the DirectX 9c drivers. Many 'shared memory' configurations you find on laptops are also incompatible. If you plan to use a TV tuner, it absolutely has to be MCE compatible. This means it has to have a hardware MPEG encoder and appropriate WDM drivers. You will also need some kind of software DVD decoder. This is sometimes available from the video or tuner manufacturer or came pre-installed, or you can purchase a DVD app such as by CyberLink or InterVideo.

To be honest, you are probably better off just purchasing a Home Theatre/PVR application, and installing it on your existing OS. Most of your retail packages like those by SnapStream or ShowShifter have identical features to MCE at half the price. They also support a larger varity of video/tuner/sound options. They also have 15 day trial versions you can download, so you have zero risk.

Most of these applications support a variety of HTPC remotes and IR emmiters.

James