Is Media Center unneccesary?

Just turn it off. :)
I've had great success using Option Three.
The green button on your remote won't open it and all media center services will be disabled.
Disabling it, hasn't messed up my system, not once.

Windows Media Center - Enable or Disable

whs said:

If you were to use my software, Media Center would not be letting you down.

WMC never "let me down". It is just utterly inconvenient to operate. And I fail to see how your codecs could change that. And yes, I found it under "new posts". We usually do not slice the forums as thin as you do.

Btw: Different question - how can I make WLMM work with .xesc files as input? I dread the Expression Encoder. It is so darn slow - even on an i7. And normally I edit the captures with WLMM anyhow - sometimes I use Machete.

Mine works as a charm. Thanks given to Mikinho and Orbital Shark for this. I just have one or other issue with one or other heavy metal concert. But this is because my personal music taste, nothing generated by WMC, or Shark Codecs, or Yammm.

And, better of all, Orbital Shark (and Mikinho, and others) is here, always at on keyboard of distance. :)

I have tunnel vision as innitially quoted

But without kidding, if you do a lot of Video work, Machete might be useful. It is a lossless editor. http://www.machetesoft.com/

whs said:

If you were to use my software, Media Center would not be letting you down.

WMC never "let me down". It is just utterly inconvenient to operate. And I fail to see how your codecs could change that. And yes, I found it under "new posts". We usually do not slice the forums as thin as you do.

I find most people that don't see the point to Media Center (or related software) do not use their PC as an HTPC and therefore do not require a 10-ft interface.

Are you using it with a remote for a HDTV versus a computer monitor? For instance, I would not use it on my desktop aside for Live TV or development but on any my TVs I wouldn't use anything but (or SageTV)

LOL, I have not watched TV in years - at least in the US. Who wants to watch commercials.

One thing that Media Center provides is the Microsoft DTV-DVD Video Decoder. Although you can disable Media Center, the decoder provides excellent playback when using programs like SageTV or Beyond TV. The Microsoft decoder can be manually selected through SageTV or Beyond TV, and I find that playback is better than the default decoders. Although many may not want Media Center or find it useless, it provides an excellent decoder that is free.