At the beginning of the year I rid myself of any standalone video or audio players and started using an HTPC with Windows XP MCE 2004. My choice of media center software was the result of getting a great deal from a coworker on a computer he was replacing. I've thought about switching to other software, but since there's no support for an MCE remote without purchasing additional hardware I'm not ready to make that move until I upgrade to hi-def.

While I've been fairly happy with my experience so far, I've run into a problem that apparently has no acceptable solution. While I don't watch TV through my HTPC, I do use it to stream video from Joost and some other sites. I also have a Netflix subscription, which gives me access to a small, but growing, library of movies and television series that can be streamed through their Watch Instantly service. Last week I upgraded my internet service in order to take advantage of their highest quality streams, but when I tested it yesterday I was given a message indicating I have to upgrade from WMP 10 to WMP 11. Unfortunately, WMP 11 can't be loaded on an MCE 2004 or earlier computer without breaking the Media Center app.

I find this situation unacceptable. A computer with an original 2002 copy of Windows XP can install WMP 11 with no problems (as long as SP2 is installed), as can someone using Windows XP MCE 2005. If this is the level of support I can expect for new multimedia technology I'm certainly not going to upgrade to a newer version of the same software and hope it never happens again. And I'm not spending more than $100 to upgrade a computer I bought for $250. For the same money (or less) I could get BeyondTV plus a new remote that I can use with whatever software I want.

If I don't come up with a better solution, I may be stuck dual booting to different copies of Windows XP so I can use the streaming service I'm paying Netflix for. Meanwhile I've sent emails to Microsoft (whom I expect nothing from) and Netflix (whom I expect a polite but ultimately non-helpful response from).