Watching DVR recordings under Virtual PC

For the last couple of months I have been an avid user of Windows Media Center 2005. One of the features I enjoy the most is the ability to watch shows that I have recorded directly on my computer. Well - for reasons which I will not go into to - my main computer is currently off being serviced (under original warranty) and I am being forced to use my test server as my desktop for a short period of time.

The only real problem I have encountered is that - try as I might - I cannot get Windows Server 2003 to play my DVR recordings from Windows Media Center. So - out of curiosity - I tried to setup a Windows XP virtual machine to watch the DVR recordings on. When I first attempted this the result was very poor quality with so many stutters and glitches that the sound was unintelligible.

However - after installing the Virtual Server 2005 Service Pack 1 beta on my system - Virtual PC is now able to play these recordings with very few glitches at 640 x 480 (see yesterdays post about shared components between Virtual PC and Virtual Server).

So now I have a solution for watching my TV shows - and I have a first hand testimony as to how good the performance improvements in Virtual Server Service Pack 1 are.

Cheers,
Ben

(I have not included any screenshots for fear of copyright infringement :-)