XP Home or Media Center ? Same price

[- Bobb -]

Just a basic question so no need to go in depth ...
I'm looking at a new notebook at www.shopping.hp.com- the DV5000 series
and I can choose XP Home or Media Center at same cost. Orignally I
thought I'd get XP Pro, but after seeing Media Center for free I was
wondering if it's worth getting. For those that have used it - what
would you choose? I might occasionally watch a DVD while traveling:
definitely not a "media freak". I've only ever seen the MC screen that
shows My pictures , My movies etc in the ads - never used it. If I get
MC , is it something that you can "turn off/on" to have the PC act /
look like a "regular windows XP" PC ?

Thanks
Bobb

 

[Malke]

Just a basic question so no need to go in depth ...
I'm looking at a new notebook at www.shopping.hp.com- the DV5000 series
and I can choose XP Home or Media Center at same cost. Orignally I
thought I'd get XP Pro, but after seeing Media Center for free I was
wondering if it's worth getting. For those that have used it - what
would you choose? I might occasionally watch a DVD while traveling:
definitely not a "media freak". I've only ever seen the MC screen that
shows My pictures , My movies etc in the ads - never used it. If I get
MC , is it something that you can "turn off/on" to have the PC act /
look like a "regular windows XP" PC ?

Five Editions of Windows XP Compared -
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/evaluation/compare.mspx

Malke

 

[Ground Cover]

It doesn't make much difference unless you were joining Activity Directories
etc. If not, then go ahead and get the Media Center. It's basically Pro with
media oriented extras (but doesn't include the de rigeur leather couch).
However, there is a built in limitation in that one can only join Media
Center on an Active Directory, once, during installation. Thereafter you
cannot:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP_Media_Center_Edition

 

[- Bobb -]

Thanks guys. I went to Circuit City today to check out one of these
boxes and having seen it I think the screen is too big (15.4") to use
on a plane comfortably. Also I saw that I couldn't join a domain (
confirms what I read at the earlier wikipedia link). I might need that
so it does matter.
BUT from that earlier link , I found a link that showed how to hack the
system to ENABLE domain capability. So it would work but just not the
model I saw - I need a smaller LCD.
Thanks again.