I am getting frustrated with M$ and may get a Mac or switch to Linux
I just installed Win XP Media center 2005 complete with the updates ( Well I was forced to activate in order to get the ruttin updates since the update CD would not work since I needed the .dot net runtimes )
My sytems specs are

Asus a8nsli deluxe with after market north bridge cooler
Athlon 64 3200+ / Zalman cooler
1 gig Micron ram
Asus /nvidia 8600gt with 256 megs or ram
Using onboard sound for now ( Nvidia )
Hauppauge Win TV pvr 150 tuner card
Seagate 'cuda 320 meg drive
two panasoice DVR drives

When I go to watch TV or play a DVD or even during the setup of media center I get a " Decoder error, The video decoder has either malfunctioned or is not install, Please restart Media Center and/or the computer
During the set up it was the audio portion of the setup, since when do you need to decode video to get audio G F
Wait a minute I paid for this thing and expect it to have a decoder included, That is why it is media center . Kind of like when I buy a car I get the engine
Or do I have to replace the tuner card with a special media center tuner card, possibly made by M$
I may wipe the drive and drop Linux in, this may be the last M$ POS software I buy , I know if I wipe the drive and reinstall I will be a crook since I will be denied activation and have to phone and type in a 42 digit number , This has happened to me a few times when reinstalling XP on the same hardware
Right now a Mac book is looking really good, I set one up and was playing DVDs out of the box
If M$ wants to copy innovation they should copy that example
End Rant