Attention TV manufacturers: only having a power button on the remote control is a bad design. While it may save you a few pennies in COGS, it's a real pain for the user when the batteries die in the remote and causes them to have to get behind the TV to yank the power cord to turn off the TV.
After the MSNBC article listing Media Center as a miss, Endadget lists Media Center as one of it's hits (but surprisingly left Clippy out as a miss). Gizmodo lists Media Center as one of the 10 reasons why Vista isn't so bad, so I guess that puts Media Center +1 on the pundit scale. But yes, we know we still have much more work to do.
There is a new update available for Extender users on the Xbox 360. It addresses three key issues:
- This update addresses a picture quality issue that occurs when you use Media Center Extender on an Xbox 360 console that has a High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) connector to the TV for video and a Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format (S/PDIF) connection to the audio device for audio.
- This update addresses an issue in which the Media Center Extender stops responding (hangs) when you play a large non-WMV video over an HTTP session.
- This update provides support for 50Hz output together with better quality for HD models. This feature applies primarily to regions that use the PAL video standard.
More details on what's in the fix can be found by reading KB950125.
Well, if you believe MSNBC's Suzanne Choney, Media Center PCs are one of the "misses" during BillG's tenture. I obviously disagree. What do you think?
Those of you who have an HP MediaSmart TV should be getting a firmware update in the next 24 hours to add Media Center Extender functionality. I've been testing this in my family room and it's so nice to just be able to plug in the TV, connect to my wireless network and have access to my TV, music, video and photos.
Let us know what you think!
HP has put up a vdeo on their website to promote the Extender functionality of their MediaSmart TVs. I think it does a great job of explaning what the benefits of Media Center and Extender are. This may be the best Extender advertisement out there -- I hope they put it on TV during prime time.
Now if I could only stop being freaked out by the headless people in HP's ads...
At CES Samsung has announced that they will be incorporating Extender functionality into their TVs later this year. Having a TV with MCX built-in is the way to go for a second TV in the house, particularly if you have wireless. I (and my wife) think it's nice to only have to plug on the TV, configure wireless and set up MCX and then boom, you're done -- no extra box to connect, no wires to run.
Also announced is the HP MediaSmart Receiver x280N to with the already announced MediaSmart TVs. Engadget has a few pics of it on their site. I've played with one briefly and the case is quite nice. I wish it had a DVD player in it though so that you could reduce the number of boxes connected to the TV.
And finally, over at on10.net you can see the home of our marketing guy, Hakan (yes, we actually have someone who works on marketing of MCX!). Hakan's house is tricked out with Extenders. You can see both the DLink and Linksys MCX devices in action, as well as the Xbox 360 and a Niveus Media Center.
Steven Lindsay, who has been helping us test 3rd party Extenders, shows us his Media Center setup. I'm not worthy.
You can now pre-order the Linksys Extenders from the Dell website. Hopefully those who order them now will get them before the end of the year. I know these and other Extenders are taking longer to make it to market than you'd like (and we and the OEMs would like), but they are coming!
Watch for more announcements at CES. Microsoft will naturally have a big presence there and Media Center and Media Center Extenders will be part of it. Unfortunately I will not be able to make it, but if you are there please stop by and let us know your thoughts.
A few weeks back the IE team moved into the 4th floor of our building and proceeded to put their unique touch to the decor. Today, the eHome team said welcome:
sorry for the poor quality photo
Chris Lanier asks whether you would buy a Media Center server. I would. Leave him a comment with your thoughts
Charlie Owens offers to help with providing help on how to get MCE, Xbox, Zune to work together. Let him know if he has all the scenarios covered.
Sometime in the next couple of weeks you'll be seeing Media Center Extender commercials on Internet TV. Why Internet TV? Well, there are many Media Center users out there that don't know they can have that great Media Center experience they have on their PC extended to their living room through the use of an Extender. This provides a way for those users to know they have this option.
For those of you who did not get to see JoeB's keynote at Digital Life, where he talked about and showed v2 Extenders and Internet TV, is now available on Internet TV in Media Center.
Today I learned that you can start watching a TV show on the MCE PC, stop it, and then resume it on an Extender (and vice versa). Not sure I'll do that all that often, but nice to know that I can roam around the house and pick up where I left off.
As others have pointed out, we've finally said something about the availability of v2 Extenders. As OEMs can add functionality to differentiate their offerings we cannot give specifics as to which Extenders will do what, but expect announcements from the OEMs at Digital Life later this month.
And with that, I'm off to the company meeting.
Microsoft is at CEDIA Expo this week to bring awareness to the home installer world about Media Center and Media Center Extender. The booth (#320) will be showing solutions from many of our partners, with Media Center being featured in the Life|Ware village in the parking lot. Additionally Microsoft has created a website at http://www.microsoft.com/ceinstaller to provide resources for CE Installers. Check it out!
Also we have announced that WebGuide, a solution for remotely managing and viewing your TV, is now free as an offering from Microsoft. Try it out and let us know what you think.
CNN has an article outlining some of the other exciting announcements as CEDIA, including Niveus providing a 4 tuner OCUR solution. w00t!
Wow, it's been over a month since my last post. Sorry about that.
Daniel Lyons (of Fake Steve Jobs fame) wrote up an article over at Forbes talking about how good Media Center is in Windows Vista and how easy it is to hook up an Xbox 360 as a Media Center Extender in comparison to Apple TV. It's nice to know that there are people out there who can compare our offering to Apple's and see that we are the best solution. And when our partners come on line with their Extenders I believe the solution will be even better as consumers will now have multiple options for what form factor they want their Extender to be.
And he makes a key observation: Microsoft hasn't touted Media Center much in hyping Vista, but surely it should.
I couldn't agree more.
