Microsoft Vista Media Center TV Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Is an analog TV tuner required for Vista MCE?
A. No

Q. Is there cable QAM support?
A. Unencrypted QAM using standard digital tuners is not supported by Microsoft at this point. There are rumors it will be in the future, but probably not until summer/fall of 2008. The HDHomeRun network connected dual tuner will work with unencrypted QAM. There are special Cablecard PC's available that do support QAM. Go here for more information.

Q. Can I buy a CableCard tuner and put it into my existing HTPC?
A. No. Only pre-built OEM PC’s that have been approved by CableLabs will work with a CableCard tuner.

Q. What about satellite?
A. Microsoft announced in 2006 they were working with DirectTV on a PC card. There has been no further information. Discussions at CES this year lead me to believe this won't happen.

Q. Which TV tuners run under Vista?
A. All of the tuners on the compare tuners page run under Vista Media Center.

Q. How many tuners can run under Vista MCE?
A. The same as with MCE 2005, 2 analog and 2 digital for a maximum of 4 tuners.

Q. Can I use my hybrid tuner(one capable of tuning both analog and digital stations such as the ATI HDTV Wonder) for both analog (standard) cable and over-the-air digital/HDTV?
A. Vista MCE will recognize a hybrid tuner as either analog or digital but not both. However there is a work around routine. Go here for more information.

Q. What is the minimum hardware requirements to run a HDTV tuner under Vista Media Center.
A. Probably around a 2.8 Ghz Pentium 4 w/1 Gig memory. My 2.4 Ghz PC freezes at 100% processor utilization when starting Live TV under Vista Media Center, but my 3.0 GHz PC with 1 Gig works fine. Any dual core processor should work fine too. The thing to remember about Vista in general and Media Center specifically is the more memory the better. You really should have 2 Gig or more for optimum performance.

Q. Will ReadyBoost memory help Media Center performance?
A. Unfortunately no. ReadyBoost will not help streaming video type performance.

Q. Do you have to supply your own decoders?
A. No, Vista has it’s own decoders, unlike MCE 2005.

Q. What graphics cards work with Vista MCE?
A. Most existing graphics cards will work in the standard default mode 800x600. The minimum graphics specs for HDTV should be no less than MCE 2005 which per the Microsoft Web Site are:

“Video adapter with 128MB DDR video memory with 128-bit interface; AGP8x interface or PCI express; video memory bandwidth of 10Gb per second or greater; and driver support for MPEG-2 iDCT acceleration.”

Q. Which remotes work with Vista MCE?
A. All existing MCE 2005 remotes should also work with Vista. Go here for an ATI Remote Wonder Plus (from the ATI HDTV Wonder package) install routine for Vista.