Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

odog402

macrumors member
Original poster
May 26, 2008
39
0
Hey guys, I'm looking into getting a macbook and I was wondering if it was possible to run windows media center on a mac, or would I need a MBP? Thanks
 
Hey guys, I'm looking into getting a macbook and I was wondering if it was possible to run windows media center on a mac, or would I need a MBP? Thanks

Normally you can not install Media Center because it consists of two disks. There is no hardware eject on your MBP and the normal eject key will not work until Windows is installed along with the Boot Camp drivers.

You may be able to do this work around but I can't say for sure if it will install:

Burn both of your disks as an ISO and put it on one DVD. It (in theory) should work since the Windows installer will "see" disk two and continue. :rolleyes:

Regards.
 
If you want to run XP Media Center Edition 2005, then you'll need to use software to slipstream the two discs into one.

But Media Center is built-in to Vista Home Premium and its much better than XP Media Center was.

But all of the MacBooks and Mac minis can run Media Center just fine.
 
Thanks for the replies. I really don't know much about media center but
I'm assuming if I wanted to use a cpu as a DVR for tv, I would use windows media center. So I my next question, is it possible to do this with the macbook/mbp or would I need something else?

Thanks
 
Thanks for the replies. I really don't know much about media center but
I'm assuming if I wanted to use a cpu as a DVR for tv, I would use windows media center. So I my next question, is it possible to do this with the macbook/mbp or would I need something else?

Thanks

Theres TV tuners available that are Mac only. But not very many and they typically cost more than what you'd find in the Windows only section.

If you're recording cable or SD over the air, then any cheap TV tuner for Windows will do. You don't need to worry about quality with cable! If you're recording from digital cable (still crap) or satellite, then you'll need a tuner that has an IR blaster so it can change the channels on the box. For Windows, theres an external tuner by hauppauge that will record high definition sources like a DirecTV HD box http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr.html Its a little expensive ($250) but its one of the only of its kind at the moment.

If you're recording from over the air, then just about any TV tuner with an ATSC tuner will do.

Sorry about my rant on cable. I just switched from DirecTV to cable. What a mistake! As soon as football reason rolls back around I'll be switching back. I'm paying a super cheap promotional price right now for cable. How anyone can pay full price for cable is well beyond me! What a ripoff. I miss my 95 HD channels
 
you can if you use parallels or VMware. I use media center 2005 and it runs fine. no issues with installation
 
Windows media center on macbook

ON 13 MacBoook13 inch white, 2 GB ram

I bought the OEM Windows XP Media Center 2005 edition and used boot camp to install it. It failed the first time I tried, windows would run but not media enhancements because of the inability to eject the disk, so today I decided to reload windows and figure it out.

When it asked me for disk 2, I simply turned off the machine, rebooted to the OS X side and ejected the disk. There was a problem however, as I had to put CD1 back in and the is asked for CD2 again, several times so I shut the macbook off, (that's right) and I attached it to my Windows Desktop with a Serial to USB connector and archived the 2 Windows media center CDs onto the NTFS partition so when the windows installation askes for files, I then had to type the correct path. I archived the Windows CD with names of MX2PROEM_EN and CMPNENTS.

I put the drive back in the MacBook 13. I restarted and the Windows installation resumed. When windows installation asked for a file, I had to type the path. Some files are hidden, but there. I had to tell Windows to look in the C:|MXPOEM_EN\i386 folder a few times. The files are thereon the disks.

Since the CDS are archived on the Mac Harddrive now, you can drop the Windows intallation CDs in your other windows machine to view the correct path and file names to get the media center installed correctly.

Additionally, when you do the updates, you will find you might get an error when installing service pack 3.

It requires a registry addition
TO:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup

Add Edit, New Key
Name: BootDir
Value C:\
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.