Microsoft has alerted beta testers of The Windows XP Media Center Edition Beta that the "Symphony" beta is due to begin shortly.
The email confirms that new testers will recieve a new PC and current testers will receive some kind of kit update - "Testers with a Microsoft Beta PC You will soon receive a beta hardware accessory kit to update your beta PC hardware."
The beta kit includes the following:
·Beta PC
·Keyboard, mouse, and speakers
·Hardware accessories (see the packing list with PC)
We'll keep you updated on the dates of the beta release and on the development of Symphony. Look for some exciting stuff with MCE 2005 though.
News source: In-House
The email confirms that new testers will recieve a new PC and current testers will receive some kind of kit update - "Testers with a Microsoft Beta PC You will soon receive a beta hardware accessory kit to update your beta PC hardware."
The beta kit includes the following:
·Beta PC
·Keyboard, mouse, and speakers
·Hardware accessories (see the packing list with PC)
We'll keep you updated on the dates of the beta release and on the development of Symphony. Look for some exciting stuff with MCE 2005 though.
P.s. Downtime was apparently due to a network issue at our Hosts; appologies :)

while I was on the Win2000 SP4 beta they asked me if I would be interested
Nothing yet.
lol
MS hasn't even mailed me ONCE with a beta... *feels left out*
and a few screenshots guys?
Not Necessarily.
I've been accepted 3 days after all the other emails where sent before.
And I submitted it at the same time.
plz plz ?
I hope you're not selling!
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediace...ter/default.asp
This will tell you all you need to know.
I can leave Windows XP and 2000 up for days (even weeks) without needing a reboot. But I've found that if there are ANY hardware problems what-so-ever, windows doesn't handle them very well. (Usually just random reboots w/o any kind of description of what happened). Thats annoying.
I've found that Linux handles these problems better. But you are less likely to have your hardware supported in linux. I've fought Linux for about 3 months trying to get sound on my board to work, and so far nothing.
I am in Australia. Should be good to test out with MS hardware, I am already running MCE 2004 with my own hardware though...
I do have one question though? Is this beta to test 2005? or to test 2004 edition? I am hoping that it is the 2005 ed...
Last edited by 17454 on 14 Apr 2004 - 06:59
I am speculating that the hardware update for existing testers is a nVidia GeForce 6800 graphics card, since this supports HDTV/WMV hardware decode using pixel shaders. (nVidia Presentation Slide). This could also include NVDVD 3.0, which seems to integrate into MCE.
Another possible hardware enhancement is the portable MCE players that have started to appear.
All pure speculation of course...
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