Full Circle

I am back to using Vista as my Media Center PC...

Windows XP MCE 2005 was running Ok, but there was the occasional random error that popped up (under the display so I didn't see it until I was shutting down) and some random failures to play videos. Sunday I was showing a friend and I was unable to play any of my HD (in H.264 MKV format) videos. I tried to fix it and I got to the point where nothing would display on my TV save for the cursor. I installed VNC to try to remedy this (assuming it was out of range/frequency) and everything looked fine- I could even move the cursor on the TV while viewing everything else in VNC- very strange...

I formatted and installed Vista Premium from a Dell OEM CD I have (I will need to activate within 30 days or it will shut down). The 1st install was going Ok- until I updated the motherboard BIOS (Abit Fatal!ty F-I90 HD) and everything wend BSOD- Note: always update the BIOS BEFORE installing the OS (when possible). I did another format and re-installed Vista...

Another note: configure the MCE environment screen resolution AFTER you install the final video driver! I set the MCE to 1080i with the default driver (from Microsoft) and I had an unaccessible environment once I installed the Catalyst v7.4 drivers- I had to unplug the HDMI and access the system via VGA (which reset it back to 1024x800) to get back into the MCE area. The new Catalyst driver does allow custom HD (overscan/underscan) resolutions.

After an install of the most recent Vista Codec Package, everything seems to be working smoothly (even the TV- which was a deal-killer for the last install). Why is this one better? Not sure; maybe better MPEG2 decoders or (perhaps) the MCE environment doesn't run very well in 1080i (I am in a custom 720p at the moment.)