Hi there, i live in the UK, and about 2 months ago, bought a HP Media Centre PC m380uk. Overall the system works well and after a quick scan through this Newsgroup i have decided to answer a few common questions and at the bottom i have some questions of my own which if i get no answer too here, will be taking up with Microsoft directly and will post the answers into this thread. Freeview on MCE??? If you have a Freeview box it can be connected to the PC and works very well and it does NOT just come on 1 channel and then you have to use the Freeview remote control, EVERY channel is listed in the guide and you use the MCE remote throughout. HP Provide you with and IR Blaster cable which runs from the IR receiver to your Freeview Box, then when you change the channel on the Guide, it sends the correct IR data to the Freeview Box, changing the channel. Can you copy, sorry, "Back up", Videos onto DVD's using MCE? Yes and no is the answer to this, let me explain. Yes you can link up to your MCE a video player through the video and sound inputs at the front and then record the incoming "unprotected" video such as home videos and recordings made off the TV on your video, BUT the problem is this, alot of Videos you may have bought from the shop and want to copy, ahem "BACK UP", have copy protection on them called MACROVISION. Macrovision is a data scrambling protection which alters the brightness settings to the picture making it appear on any tuner light and then dark repeatedly, and the TV tuner card in this PC is just the same as any other, and so, the picture becomes very blocky and scrambled. The solution for this is a device logically called a "Macrovision remover" or for the techies, a "Time Base Corrector". This device sits in-between the Video and the pc and, you guessed it, removes the macrovision protection! enabling you to convert all those VHS Videos onto lovely DVD's! Do you get RDS on the radio part of MCE? Unfortunately, no. This is a disappointment to me as RDS seems to be on everything from the cheapest stereo all the way to the most expensive but not on a new state of the art £1500 pc???? Once again the conversion between analogue and digital seems a slow gate to open, if only a digital tuner complete with a DAB radio was installed instead of the analogue card. Now for my major grumbles and a possible solution... 1. The alarm clock you can download from Microsoft has a sleep and an alarm function, and a nice touch it is that you can select different music to go to sleep to and wake up too, BUT ,my major grumble with it is that you cannot set 2 different volume levels, one for sleep and one for the alarm. Anyone got any ideas?? Microsoft?? 2. DivX films seem to be a problem for MCE, for what reason i know not, but whenever you watch a DivX movie and then want to exit it to do whatever you want to do, MCE freezes!!! Then, if you press Ctrl+Alt+Del, wait a few seconds, it will unfreeze and away you go. This however it not something i want to be doing everytime i watch a DivX film as i have quite alot of them, Anyone got a solution?? Microsoft?? Divx?? 3. The Media Libary function where it gets the information from the internet about CD's you copy onto your MCE works well most of the time BUT...... IT DOES GET IT WRONG FROM TIME TO TIME!!!! Beware of this and check all the details of the track listings BEFORE you copy the CD. You can easily edit track listings and artists but the Major grumble i have with this is the apparent inability the user has to change ALOT of the details about a CD, Most importantly, THE ALBUM ARTWORK!!! When I have a CD that is not in the Internet database of CD's I have to put up with a generic picture of a note or even worse, the WRONG PCTURE!! WHY?? I have a scanner and could quite easily scan in the image of the album artwork and could copy THAT into the Media Libary, surely?? PLEASE give me t he ability to change this unhappy situation. 4. On numerous times i have left my MCE to record the TV programs i have left it to record, and then come home for a nights worth of recordings to find that it has recorded the Picture but with NO SOUND!!!!! You do not know the annoyance factor involved here until it has happened to you!!! TRUST ME!!!!! Now no one wants to leave MCE running in there user area unattended just so they can be sure they get a recording with sound, so I have this suggestion until someone at Microsoft sorts out this HUGE, ENORMOUS, PRACTICAL, COLOSSAL, ANNOYING, MAJOR PROBLEM WITH MCE!!! I have noticed that if you just simply turn on your PC and not log on then I can guarantee to you that this problem will occur, so, if you.... 1.. Power on 2.. Log on 3.. Launch MCE 4.. Watch some TV on MCE 5.. Close MCE down completely 6.. and then instead of Logging off completely, "Switch users" This also requires you to have a password on your user account to make your PC secure. THIS IS SURELY NOT WHAT YOU WANTED PEOPLE TO HAVE TO DO ALL THE TIME MR. GATES??? SORT IT PLEASE!!!! In conclusion After personal experience with this setup, I would have preferred it if HP had have put a Freeview TV Card with a DAB tuner in the PC then there would be no need for IR Blaster cables and having to know what the frequency of the station is that you want. This i belive should have been a requirement from Microsoft to the builders of a Media Centre PC and was an opportunity missed. As for Microsoft, MCE 2004 is a worthy 2nd attempt but MCE but still has a long way to go to become "Complete Media Centre" nirvana! Improvements i would like to see from personal experience: 1.. Addition of Digital TV Tuner Card 2.. Addition of Digital Radio Card 3.. An Alarm that can be set for one volume and sleep that can be set for another. (I don't go to sleep with music at the same volume as i want to wake up too!) 4.. Get rid of the mysterious and extremely annoying problem of NO SOUND on a recording!!! 5.. Give people the ability to put there own album cover pictures in the Media Libary 6.. Sort out compatablility problems with DivX recordings Thanks for reading this i hope someone found it usefull, please feel free to add additions, solutions, grumbles, e.t.c... to this thread. Paul Bilsborough - paulbilsborough2003 (@noSPAM) hotmail.com