I have a machine running XP Home that I would like to use as a HTPC. I installed Boxee on it and love it. However, it does not support my Amazon VOD videos as they have DRM.
Amazon VOD will play through Windows Media Center though. Is there any way to get this running on my HTPC? Or another solution that allows me to watch my Amazon VOD?
Media Center is only available as an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) install. It is a version of the XP OS. If your PC didn't come with it from a place like Dell you can't normally upgrade to it.
But if you like living dangerously, see Convert XP To MCE 2005 :
I stumbled across a conversion kit for XP Pro to MCE.
The full Blog can be found here.
The direct link to the ISO file can be found here.
Password for the zip file is : beefteck
I suggest reading the entire blog, and comments. Some had no problems booting from the disk for the registry hack, but others like myself were not able to boot off the cd.
The registry modification is very simple, and MUST be done BEFORE you attempt the conversion, but it CANNOT be done in Windows, as the keys involved are protected. I used ERD commander, but BartPE should work also, as both allow access to the Windows registry.
So far, I've used it on a new Windows XP install, and I also converted my existing XP Pro SP3 ASUS OEM install. The great part is you don't have to hack or crack your existing installation for Validation. After the conversion, my ASUS OEM SLP1 install is still activated, and passes Windows Genuine Advantage. All MCE functions are working perfectly.
As always, you should backup you current system before attempting this. Do not rely on System Restore for something like this.
You can also google for "XP to MCE conversion torrent", but you might end up installing a virus.
I have no idea how legal this operation is, but I suspect not very much. If the above article is valid, make first a disk image of your system drive to avoid having to reinstall Windows if things go "Boom!". I take no responsibility.
It appears that you only need Flash Player to view Amazon VOD live streaming. Are you using the latest version?
If you want to view downloaded films, you can use the Amazon Unbox Player.
I don't think you will have much luck in getting Windows Media Centre installed on XP Home, as I tried doing that on Windows Server 2003 a few years ago (I wanted to run my HTPC as a server as well), as it turned out to be impossible to install the BDA driver system (although I cannot remember if it can run without that, if you do not need to use TV cards).
