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Vista Ultimate & Graphics Cards

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BoulderBum

BoulderBum

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I have sort of an out there question that I am hoping someone on this forum might know.

I'm looking at upgrading from Media Center 2005 to Vista Ultimate when the time comes, but am unclear what kind of graphics card upgrades are possible.

Essentially, my computer comes with a very basic TV tuner card that I want to replace, but I want to do it in a way that is compatible with Windows Vista Ultimate.

I know that very few cards were approved for Windows Media Center 2005 and that most came with the systems you bought, but is there a way to upgrade the card so that it will work with Vista Ultimate (inculding all of the cable TV capabilities)?
 
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The problem I'm finding is that there's lists of cards that are "compatible with Windows Vista" but none that come out and say they're compatible with the TV features of Vista Ultimate.

Thanks for the link, though.
 
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There's nothing special about Vista's requirements for the UI - only if you want the Aero glass theme.

Any GPU with 64/128Mb+ of memory, DX9 and WDDM drivers will allow for aero.

So get a TV tuner with the above specs or better and you'll be away!

Cheers,




Steve.

"They have the internet on computers now!" - Homer Simpson
 
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See I'm worried, though. The Aero glass-supporting card isn't hard to find, but it used to be that only a handful of cards, usually sold as part of the OEM system would support Media Center.

I've come across pages like this:
But nothing similar for the Vista replacement for Media Center.

Are you sure that I can get any old graphics card with a TV tuner and be Vista Ultimate ready?
 
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This is just an assumption, but it's grounded on common sense I think: MCE wasn't really intended for the masses. Or at least, not nearly the same masses as XP Pro. Vista on the other hand is intended for use by everyone, and the differences between the editions aren't quite the same as those between XP Pro and XP MCE. MCE was more a speciality thing catering to media. "Ultimate" would likely cater to "everything". So, I'd imagine they wouldn't make special hardware requirements for it.

But I guess my answer isn't really "concrete". Nonetheless, I think it'd be a safe assumption that a card that meets the above requirements would suffice.

 
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The question is what kind of support is there for the "Windows Media Center" feature of Vista Home Premium/Ultimate which is like the successor to Windows XP Media Center.

Not meaning to sound like I'm completely disagreeing with anyone: all the suggestions sound logical. I wish I had a more firm answer, though.
 
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I currently have an AIW 9800 Pro, and Vista Ultimate doesn't recognize the TV Tuner on it, so I wouldn't say that the support is there for all TV cards that meet the criteria you have stated aaronvvright. I wish that it were, but I would have thought that if the GPU supported Aero, the integrated tuner would support Vista, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
 
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The support is there in that Vista can use any standard TV card that would work in XP - however if the manufacturer doesn't have drivers then it's another matter.

Think of it as upgrading a Windows 2000 PC with a TV card 5 years ago. Why would WinXP have any super special requirements..?

FYI: Home Premium is meant to be the direct successor of XP MCE 2005.





Steve.

"They have the internet on computers now!" - Homer Simpson
 
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FYI: Home Premium is meant to be the direct successor of XP MCE 2005.
Click to expand...

One of the most compelling reasons to upgrade for me personally is so I can finally join my PC to a domain and have an actual home network (for development purposes). Apparently you need ultimate to do that, however.
 
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Ultimate or Business (or Enterprise) is required to join a Domain.
 
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Right, but only Ultimate has both the media center features of MCE 2005 and the ability to join a domain.
 
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