Inspiron 6000 & Media Direct/Media Experience

[oregonite]

Hi everyone....

I appreciate all the helpful posts that everyone makes here. Thanks!

I know the topic of media direct and media experience has sort of been beaten to death, but most of the discussion has not covered the I6000, which is the focus of my question/confusion.

I just got my new I6000. It came with XP pro and had several partitions. I deleted them all (mistake?) and installed a fresh copy of XP pro. I installed drivers and downloaded media direct and quick set.

At this point, if I push the media button when the computer is off, it just starts windows.

If Windows is running, the volume controls work, but the other buttons don't seem to do anything.

Dell media experience, which was installed before I wiped the hard drive, does not seem to be downloadable and I don't have a disc for it.

My questions:

1. What exactly should I expect from my media buttons. I'm not sure if the I6000 is set up to play CDs and DVDs without Windows running.

2. Related to (1), is it functioning properly if the computer just powers up when I hit a media button?

3. How can I get media experience and do I want it? Is it necessary for the media buttons?

Thanks for any suggestions!

[ccbr01]

Oregonite, Welcome to NBR. Answers to your questions. The i6000/i9300 use the old generation of dell media direct. Windows has to boot in order to open the software. When you did the format, you got rid of the stuff you needed to get rid of. The buttons are a add on for Media Players in Windows. All you have to do it just push the play/pause button in order to boot the machine. You can get the Media Direct Software at this link. http://support.dell.com/support/down...&fileid=138671
I'm sorry that isn't what you wanted, but that is facts. Again, welcome to the fourms, ccbr01

[Amber]

Just like ccbr01 said, the 6000/9300 doesn't have the capabilities to do a boot without windows because of the older version.

A bit off the subject, but the media buttons with work with CyberLink PowerDVD/Media Direct, Windows Media Player, Winamp and Itunes.

I'm not really sure if this will work or not, but if you could get a copy of Media Direct 2.0 (version that E1705 and newer systems use) from Dell, you might be able to install it, and follow the directions in the previous threads.

Like I said, I'm not sure if that will work or not.

[oregonite]

Thanks for the replies!

So, that helps somewhat, but not completely.

The link that ccbr01 (helpfully) provided is for the media direct software (which I already have). The description of that file is "If you have Microsoft Windows Media Center Edition or Dell Media Experience installed, you can use Dell MediaDirect to launch your media application by pressing the play/pause/Dell MediaDirect button"

So, I'm running XP pro and I no longer have dell media experience since I wiped my hd.

Revised questions:

1. How do I get dell media experience?

2. Do I really want dell media experience?

Related to (2), I don't know that hitting the buttons to make a media player work is all that useful for me. Is there anything particularly exciting in the dell media player?

[ccbr01]

All I did was install that program. The installer did the rest about the play/pause button etc. For number two, it depends on what your want out of your computer. For me, I don't have it because it seems pointless. Now, if I had a computer with the next generation of media direct, I would think different. My input...

[Amber]

Dell Media Experience is on the CDs that dell sent you. This is pretty much just a hyped up version of Cyberlink PowerDVD. Dell Media Experience actually uses PowerDVD to play the dvds, but adds the feature of music and pictures - I believe. Its been awhile since i've used it. You also must have Dell's Quickset installed and running in order for Media Direct to work properly.

I'm like ccbr01. I don't think Media direct is really worth it. Generally if I'm going to watch DVDs, I rather be in windows where I can do other things during the movie.

SG

[DonnaB]

Originally Posted by SouthernGirl

I'm like ccbr01. I don't think Media direct is really worth it. Generally if I'm going to watch DVDs, I rather be in windows where I can do other things during the movie.

SG

Hi SG,
Different user has different preference
To me, to be able to watch video, listen to music or simply browse the media files without booting to windows is a breeze feature of a notebook. Also not much resources (CPU usage) is running while doing the task while I'm in bed watching the movie.

[-boom-]

I can see that the I6000 has an older version.

So does this mean that the Inspiron 6000 Won't Be able to support Media Direct 2.0 because of its older version compared to the new DUO Core's?

And that The Inspiron 6000 won't have the feature / capablity of Playing Media files without actually booting up WinXP OS?

[Amber]

Originally Posted by DonnaB

Hi SG,
Different user has different preference
To me, to be able to watch video, listen to music or simply browse the media files without booting to windows is a breeze feature of a notebook. Also not much resources (CPU usage) is running while doing the task while I'm in bed watching the movie.

LOL, I'm sure if I had the 9400/6400, I would probably have a different opinion. Unfortunately the older version on the 9300/6000 is not capable of playing DVDs without booting into XP.

This is why i said it was useless IMO. If i have to boot into windows, I might as well just load Cyberlink by myself. I might be wrong, but doesn't MediaDirect use Windows Media Player to play music?

Originally Posted by -boom-

I can see that the I6000 has an older version.

So does this mean that the Inspiron 6000 Won't Be able to support Media Direct 2.0 because of its older version compared to the new DUO Core's?

And that The Inspiron 6000 won't have the feature / capablity of Playing Media files without actually booting up WinXP OS?

lI'm not really sure if the 6000 could support the new version or not. My guess is that it probably can't because if it was I would think that Dell would be offering it on their website.