Big Screen Blog: Vista MediaCenter

Media Center Show Awards 2007 - Streaming Live Wednesday (or Thurs. if you're an Aussie)..

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 02:15:55 GMT

As per Ian Dixon's Post (Media Center Show/ TheDigitalLifestyle.com) the 2007 Media Center show awards are going to be streamed LIVE on ustream.tv at on Wednesday 6th 8pm GMT (12pm PST). This will be the first Live Awards show that Ian's done (normally the podcasts are pre-recorded - although he's recently had some video's go out live in this manner) - and it's a really great idea! (and hope to see more content done like this).

Hopefully Ian's not going to be involving any "small children or animals" - given the live nature of the show (although I hear some developers and the like might make an appearance - so 'expect the unexpected'... ).

Please see this link below for more information...

The Media Center Show Awards - Live Wednesday!

For any Australian + New Zealand listeners/readers - this is somewhere between 4-9am Thursday (7th) Morning (depending on where you live - given the vast distances... and I think it's maybe around 7-8am for Melbournians + Sydneysiders..) - as unfortunately Ian has to cater for everyone across the globe...(and us poor deprived Australians are only a small % of listeners).... However I'm sure if Ian can make it at a more 'Australian friendly' time next year - we might be able to 'rustle up' some 'cricket' coaching for his fellow countrymen in return... 8)

Big Screen Updates and other News..

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 03:02:05 GMT

I've been neglecting this blog again - so thought I'd post some brief news bits about some of the action going on here at the moment ..

Big Screen Weather 2 + Photos 2 have both been locked down for commercial release - and are now considered 'final releases'. Big Screen Headlines 2 will follow shortly. These will be the first 3 titles launched under the new 'v2' range of Big Screen titles.
A new website + brand combined with online membership system, registration/license management, and online purchasing have been deployed. About 100 brave (site) beta testers have already been giving this system (and final releases) a workout since Tuesday - and so far so good and there's been no problems at all. It was important for me to stagger the influx of users in this manner - rather then having to fix something when the users register en masse. This was due to me completely writing the entire online system from scratch with .NET and SQL Server (and I didn't use any of the portal kits like DNN, Community Server etc as none met my requirements and most perform appallingly under heavy load).

The actual site content (product sites, updated screenshots, faq's, support docs etc) - are still being finished - however since this the 'easy' bit (and no 'sensitive' functionality is being carried out) - the main focus of testing has been all the above account related functionality. (like end to end trial registration, purchase and upgrade - which can be done without reinstalling the addin)

The new site address etc will be revealed soon - I'm hoping mid next week for the official launch (keep in mind EVERYTHING has to be deployed/enabled simultaneously - so this makes it a little more challenging)... If you're adventurous - there's been some leaks already -(however you need special invite codes to register for anything)
The above Big Screen products are tested with one of the popular new PIKA 2.0 Extender reference designs (which is similar/same for Linksys, Dlink, Samsung, HP etc) - and 'automatically configure' themselves so they are not tripped up by the various 'documented' and 'undocument' MCPL rendering ~~bugs~~ issues. This is done both on a 'high level' (ie. on/off switches for things like 3d and animations accessible to the end user - so they can override auto detect settings if fw/vmc updates are made in future) - and 'low level' (numerous changes made to the MCML to avoid situations where these 'issues' would arise). The auto detect/configure features are designed to work silently (user doesn't need to click through any additional configuration - or even understand these settings) - and it's been thoroughly tested with multiple extenders at once (and 'per device' settings are maintained).

This 'extender' compliance/detection excercise threw me sideways for at least 2 weeks (since just before XMas) - and there was little to no accurate information available to help out - so I think the new Big Screen products could quite possibly be one of very few (or only) VMC 3rd party apps which are truely extender friendly/working.
The 'MCPL' online showcase has also been updated to reflect new titles being offered. If your a developer 'purist'- you'll appreciate that I'm actually now dynamically generating the MCML online showcase content off the same underlying .NET code/data that drives the new website (which is HTML). A similar experience to the MCPL online showcase is also being made in Silverlight - so when underlying content is changed - all Front ends will change immediately - which will be sortof a .NET tripple-play (same .NET CMS driving the 10 foot and Rich/Static Web experiences offered by Silverlight and HTML). It will of course allow new products to be added into the catalog quickly and easily (without disrupting online users and making deployment a lot easier).
Big Screen Weather v1 (which was freeware and only useful for Australians) was officially 'discontinued' yesterday. The handfull of users that made 'donations' to this product have all been awarded full versions (and some are already up and running - and are the first guys in the world to have the full unlocked versions of weather 2).
OEM Enquiries. I should also mention - that if any OEM Dealers are interested in immediately purchasing licenses (and preinstalling these products on their systems) - these are available right now for bulk purchase / and serial numbers can be issued (if you are comfortable with the new site not being online for a few more days). OEM Discounts/Bundles are currently available in '10 unit packs' (minimum purchase per title) - so suit small through to very large companies. (And substantial discount scale is available the larger the volumes). If you want to know more (before new site is launched) - please contact me.

Also in other Media Center news -

CES 08 is done... There's some great coverage/opinions/videos (and more) on both Ian Dixon's and Chris Laniers blogs - so check those out. Unfortunately - there wasn't a whole lot of news on the Media Center front (mainly MediaRoom news - which is essentially the 'ip based paytv' version of MediaCenter offered via set top box) - however a couple of new extenders (not previously shown at digital life last year) - were revealed - one from HP (a standalone version of their TV Extender which has removable storage capabilities) - and another from Samsung.

Samsung's extender looks really nice (without doubt the nicest form factor out of the lot) - but there's a problem - "Not Everyone's Invited" (sorry couldnt resist) - and it only works on Samsung TV's (as all remote control input is handled by the Samsung TV and then passed back to the extender). If I owned a Samsung TV right now (nope I don't) - I'd probably be feeling pretty smug right now as it looks to be a nice option.

Like many VMC users - I'm still very keen on the idea of an extender with Blu-Ray or HD-DVD capabilities - so hopefully does one of these soon! (however HDDVD received an almighty blow at CES - so it's looking really shakey for that standard right now).
I've been very slack in terms of reporting on other 3rd party VMC software releases of late (I can barely keep up with my own news) - so thought I'd mention a couple of products that have appeared over past couple of months :
- Media Center 'Health Monitor' from Ian Dixon is a really innovative new addin/website/service combination - which essentially allows you to monitor the status of VMC locally and from remote. (No need to rush home anymore to see if VMC crashed while recording your favorite show). If you want to check it out head here for more info.
- MC Organizer for Vista Media Center (Double B Computers) - which is a hot new front end to playing media/dvd's/movies - and has the ability to work with external metadata . I'm yet to give this one a workout - but I love the fact (from the screenshots) that the author is trying to do something different with the UI and Layout (looks really nice too!) - and not just basing it on the usual suspect templates ("Z", "MCMLLookalike"/"PivotSample" etc).

Anyhow - back to the grindstone .. keep your eyes peeled for the impending announcements/launch of the Big Screen v2 range.

Media Center happenings at CES 08...

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 02:31:06 GMT

CES 08 is alive and kicking and there's sure to be a lot of Media Center related news and announcements over the next few days (some of which have already been leaked..).

I was really hoping to make it this year - but a number of things kept it from happening this year (including health, busy workload and the obscene prices of traveling from AU to Vega in early January) .

It looks like the Media Center action will happen mainly around showing off the new extenders (Linksys, Dlink and HP) - and you can probably expect a large dose of MediaRoom related news (is this where the focus of the Microsoft TV Platform team went in 07?). Bill Gates upcoming keynote will set the pace as always - and will be his last appearance in his current role.

If you want to keep in check of the news as it happens - be sure to keep an eye on - Ian Dixon/Digital Lifestyle Blog. Ian's just landed in Vegas (all the way from UK) - and will be reporting on the spot from CES08. I'm also looking forward to checking out the Digital Lifestyle Video Show segments (which will feature some of the CES action and MediaCenter related interviews/previews).

Media Center Show Awards 2007 - Voting Now Open...

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 01:12:00 GMT

Voting has now officially opened for the Media Center Show Awards 2007 over Ian Dixon's DigitialLifestyle.com site. (Nominations are now closed).

Its been a pretty good year for Vista Media Center specific products (with a large number of nominees being Vista MC only) - and shows that the platform has well and truely arrived (at least into the enthusiast community).

Ian has a good wrap of what's on offer for voters in his post The Media Center Show Awards 2007 are go!.

There's some some strong presence from the Big Screen products+blog (nominated in 3 of the 6 voting categories) - so if you like the work I do don't forget to throw in some votes for yours truely... 8-)... (hmm.. I need to think of some good bribes).

A Very Sad day for Australian Media Center users - XPMediaCenter.com.au sold to Reeltime

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 06:14:19 GMT

An announcement was made today that the hugely popular XPMediaCenter.com.au community site has been sold to Reeltime TV - who will take over the running and moderation of the site (see this press release).

The owner/founder of this site Michael Hancock (a Media Center MVP) has been given shares/equity in Reeltime as part of the deal (and I really do hope he does well out of this - as he's put so much of his life and finances into this over the past few years).

Although this announcement took me by surprise - it was unfortunately something that was pretty inevitable for a while. The situation being faced by Mike was that there was minimal advertising and donations coming in - and no external financial support from the companies that were benefiting from the existence of his site (Microsoft, IceTv to name a couple). So for the most part - Mike was running this site out of his own pocket - and these costs were increasing rapidly as the popularity of the site soared (and greater bandwidth and server side grunt was required).

This was a crazy situation (that I personally echoed to Microsoft on a couple of occasions at least) - as the amount of tech support being handled by this site (for their Product) would have saved them so much more $$$ - than it would ever have cost to contribute financially to the running costs of the site. The 'goodwill' factor and viral advertising generated for the Windows MediaCenter product from this site was also immense - and in most cases allowed users to actually use this product - whereas "out of the box" many vital things like EPG's didn't work in Australia.

What's equally sad is that this site was also built and kept alive (in content) - by the amazing community spirit and 'pass it forward' mentality of giving advice and help. If only a small % who contributed and benefited from this site had made $$ donations (the membership base was over 30,000+) - then this situation might have easily been averted.

I'm not sure what's going to happen (going forward) to this site - and the core users have already expressed very mixed feelings about whether they will continue to support the site in future or not.

The troubling thing is that while I believe Reeltime TV intends to have some sort of presence with Media Center users + technology (I don't think they have any addins as yet accessible from within the Media Center UI) - I think they are also focused on a number of other competing platforms and target audiences. (all their current offerings are not focused at MediaCenter users). So I wonder if this will be reflected in how the site evolves (and if it will evolve away from being a MediaCenter focused site). We have seen this happen recently with the revamped MediaCenter Show on TPN (not Ian's podcast) - and the last few episodes I checked out had very little relevance to MediaCenter users.

Anyhow I'd really like to wish Mike all the best of luck for the future - and say to say a big THANK YOU for all the tireless and thankless effort + work you have put in. I totally get your position and what you have done (and I'm sure most of us would have done the same faced with your situation).

I'd also like to again reiterate how vitally important it is for people in the enthusiast community to support the people who run these sites and write tools/addins/software you use - not just by involvement - but making those small financial contributions when they are needed. (and I'm sure no-one wants to see the green button being sold to some non Media Center focused company like SageTV or Apple....)

More Media Center Extender News (the Final word)....

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 04:44:29 GMT

Chris Lanier has the official Microsoft Press release on Extenders for tommorow's launch - so now it's all confirmed and the speculation is over (for the initial offerings at least). Now we have the long wait to get hold of one (probably not going to be available until November at earliest). The pricing is looking slightly better on the Linksys products (and depending on what the wholesale cost is - there's a chance that combined with a cashback or discount - this could hit the sweet spot).

So anyhow - the four Media Center v2 Extender products being announced are (links now included) :

Linksys Media Center Extender models DMA 2200 US$349 RRP and DMA 2100 US$299 RRP (3 posts ago) :

The Media Center Extender with DVD Player (DMA2200) from Linksys, a division of Cisco, is an elegant solution that combines an upscaling DVD player with a dual-band Wireless-N Extender for Windows Media Center. It allows consumers to enhance their entertainment systems by teaming Extender for Media Center functionality with DVD playback capabilities in a single device. For consumers seeking a smaller form factor, Linksys will also offer the Media Center Extender (DMA2100), which delivers all the appealing features of Extender for Windows Media Center in a compact dual-band Wireless-N solution that is ideal for spaces, such as bedrooms, that call for a smaller device footprint. These new Linksys Media Center Extenders give consumers easy access to their HD television content, digital music and digital photos using just one remote control, and feature both digital and optical audio outputs that enable consumers to utilize their existing custom audio systems. They will be available for consumers to purchase in the U.S. this November at estimated street prices of $349.99 and $299.99, respectively. More information is available at http://www.linksys.com/mce.

D-Link DSM-750 MediaLounge HD Media Center Extender (2 posts ago) :

The D-Link DSM-750 MediaLounge HD Media Center Extender is housed in a sleek, 17-inch, black aluminum chassis, and connects to the home network using Ethernet or dual-band draft Wireless-N networking to make it easy to enjoy the Windows Media Center experience with friends and family on a home entertainment center. The DSM-750 lets customers enjoy HD videos with resolutions of up to 1080i; supports Windows Media Video (WMV), DivX, and XVid formats; and includes a USB 2.0 port for instant access to music, photos and videos stored on removable USB flash drives or hard drives. The suggested retail price for the device is $349.99 (U.S.).
More info at http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=547&sec=1

HP MediaSmart LCD HDTV (With Inbuilt Extender) :

The HP MediaSmart LCD HDTV, currently available in 42-inch and 47-inch sizes, will support Extender for Windows Media Center technology through an optional software download, expected to be available in early 2008. The MediaSmart TVs support 1080p video, 802.11n wireless, and DivX, XVid, WMV and other video formats — delivering all the compelling features of the Media Center Extender platform incorporated directly into a TV. Although existing MediaSmart users can already access photos, music, videos and movies by simply connecting their TV to their wired or wireless home network, Media Extender functionality will provide them with a new set of enhanced features — such as controlling live TV and accessing Windows Media Center Internet TV — all easily accessible using their TV remote control. The HP MediaSmart TV is available in Best Buy stores nationwide, and through a wide range of audio/visual specialty stores throughout the country.
More info on the MediaSmart Tv's at : http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press_kits/2007/ces/ds_de_mediasmart.pdf (Extender additions are not mentioned on this pdf).

Niveus Media Extender - EDGE :

Designed for the high-end home theater enthusiast, the Niveus Media Extender - EDGE offers a high-fidelity experience, uncompromised 1080p video, digital audio and the same amazing 3-D user interface found on the award-winning Niveus Media Center. Additionally, the Niveus Media Extender features the proprietary Niveus Glacier Passive Cooling System for cool and quiet performance and a sleek and stylish audio/visual form factor. The Niveus Media Extender - EDGE is expected to be available in early November. Pricing has not yet been announced.
More info at : http://www.niveusmedia.com/products/extender.htm

Microsoft also announced that the Internet TV Addin "Beta" for Media Center will be rolled out tommorow (unclear if this is a US only product) - which will offer full tv episodes, concerts, movie trailers and news supported by an Advertising platform from YuMe.

More Media Center Extender Stuff

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 03:04:39 GMT

Now that some pricing has been leaked on the Extenders (looking at being around ~US$350 for the basic Dlink and Linksys models) - I'm a little disappointed so far with what I've heard (and maybe used the word 'goodness' a little prematurely).

I think I mostly agree with Chris Laniers comments in his post 'v2 Extenders Let Down Big in Price Points' - and hopefully tonight we are going to get some much better/accurate+confirmed news (there's still some more extender products to be announced/outlined tonight).

If what we hear so far is true - I think the big issue is that they (Linksys, DLink) really need to compete head on with at least (one of) price, functionality or sex appeal - and none of these appear to have been met.

I perceive one major problem is the initial base cost of getting the required embedded o/s and decoder chips that are up to spec to run the v2 extender platform - and unless produced in extremely large quantities - this is always going to push the price up. (so the price point is maybe a large untouchable area). The very fact that they are more expensive than XBox360's (which are infinitely more powerful beasts) - is going to put a lot of people off simply 'out of principal'.

So instead they need to either make it look really uniquely sexy and market it well (the apple approach - they can charge what they like and they do) - or add desirable additional features that allow it to solve a lot of different similar problems (that all require similar cpu grunt, hardware and decoding abilities and share the same internals). We see this latter approach in many areas - most notably in network gear (ie a single cheap device will function as a router/switch, ADSL Modem, firewall, print server, wireless access point and VOIP hub) - but also things like mobile phones (Camera, mp3 player, gps etc on top of being a phone).

For extenders - that similar/complimentary functionality includes things like BluRay, HDDVD, DVD, MemoryCard support, Inbuilt Digital Tuners, VideoConferencing, VOiP etc. LinkSys are sort of on the right track with the DVD Player - except that a standalone dvd player is a cheap $20 item these days - so it's got to be more about the newer devices which a user can't normally get cheaply as a standalone product - and ones they are likely to buy in the future already.

Anyhow I'm with Chris that there's a chance these couple of Extenders in their current form/price are not going to be hugely popular - and will instead push it into the corner as a 'specialist device' (low volumes produced resulting in high price points).

The Niveus Media Center extender (which we have only seen pictures of so far - no pricing or specs yet) - appears to know at least what market it wants to be in (and how to dress the part) - so I have much higher confidence for this one being successful.

More Media Center Extender Goodness - D-Link DSM 750

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 01:39:10 GMT

From Engadget (ahem.. yes I do link to my sources....)

Hot on the heels of the Linksys Media Center Extender - details have emerged on the offering being announced tonight from D-Link - the DSM 750 Media Center Extender which includes (quoted from engadget) :

"high-speed, uninterrupted wireless (or wired) streaming and sharing of HD / SD video, movies, digital photos and music," regardless of where your PC is located. The device features dual-band draft Wireless N technology, silent operation, a wireless remote, USB 2.0 port for accessing external storage, and a 10 / 100 Ethernet jack. Catch it this November for $349.99, and check out a bevy of photos (including a few hands-on) in the gallery below.

Like with the Linksys Extender - it's got a lot of nice features - but looks like it got hit with the 'ugly stick' - and definitely a device you'll want well out of visibility in your lounge-room. (these guys really have to get some italian/french designers in to make it look sexy).

It sounds just a little bit pricey however at US$349 (was really expecting these to be cheaper than a XBox360 - not more expensive).

A picture is included below (more at the engadget photo gallery) .

There's also some other extender device info floating around on a reference design from Digion (based on Sigma designs decoding chips) - and although it has the Windows Media Center Extender Logo plastered all over it - it's possible this is just a v1 extender. Whats nice about this one is the inclusion of a Web Browser and support for a quite a fair few codecs (dvr-ms is not mentioned - but has H.264, Divx/Xvid, M4v and others out of the box). It's even possible this is just a straight UPMP and not really an extender at all.

Media Center Extender goodness coming this week ..

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 09:39:38 GMT

You might have heard the buzz around the Media Center scene that at least four of the long awaited "PIKA" Media Center extenders are being launched this week (Thurs 27th) at the "Digital Life" expo in the US..

Anyhow you can tune in to a live webcast of the event at (thanks Mike for the info!) - or catch it afterwards on demand at : http://wm.istreamplanet.com/customers/ms/09272007_100k.asx

NYC 11:15 > 12:15 US EDT - THURSDAY - SEP 27 (thats 1:15am AUST EST FRIDAY for Australians)

I'm really hoping they are going to be able to bring these in at nice cheap prices - ideally sub AUD$200 - (which allow just enough WAF for me to have a few around the house).

I also caught a post on www.xpmediacentre.com.au (see picture/blurb below for more info) where someone had located some info/pics of the Linksys DMA -2100/2200 extenders (one with a DVD player and one basic model) - there's also some links to hi-res pics down the bottom.

(Please note that this may not actually be one of the new extenders - but it's looking likely)..

The DVD version has upscaling to HDMI - and it makes me think that if they had a BluRay or HDDVD model - they could potentially get a lot of extra sales from people wanting to upgrade to these new formats (in same manner Sony PS3 is also being bought by some for it's BluRay player and not the gaming) - although there's of course still plenty of people who will be pleased with the DVD inclusion.

Bring your digital music, movies and photos
to your TV or Home Theater

It's great to store photos, music and movies on your computer. But it's hard to share them with friends and family. What if you could view digital photos, movies and high definition programs on your TV, and listen to downloaded music on your home theater sound system? With the Linksys Media Center Extender you can!
Access digital content and Internet services from your Microsoft Windows Vista Premium or Ultimate Media Center PC and wirelessly stream it to your home entertainment system.

Easily navigate menus with a single learning remote
Built-in upscaling DVD player with the DMA2200
Uses existing high-speed Wireless-N home network

DMA 2100 | DMA 2200
(High Res Images)

Things are (maybe) starting to look good in media center land... can't wait for Friday...

New Free To Air Digital TV Channels Coming to Australia...

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 02:05:05 GMT

Over the past few weeks in Australia - 3 of the 5 FTA networks have announced that they will be making new Digital (DVB-T) channels available to viewers (via their additional dvb-t channels) - which will offer original/unique content to what they offer on their primary channel.

In the past - FTA networks were only only allowed to use their additional HD/SD channels to show the same content (and if on the HD channel - generally upconverted from SD or worse) - or for showing a basic information service (ie. EPG Channel or Sports Scoreboard). The restrictions around what FTA channels could do were lifted a couple of months ago I tihnk - /or/ are to be lifted soon (which have been in place since 2000 to protect the paytv industry).

The exception to this rule was the two government owned stations ABC + SBS which were allowed to use it to show content which catered for various minorities (SBS News shows news broadcasts from about 30 non english speaking countries - but doesn't have any english subtitles) - and ABC used it to show some additional screenings of existing content (at different times).

So thanks to changes in the laws/restrictions + the increase in LCD/Plasma Widescreen/Digital uptake by the Australian public (it's gone pretty ballistic over last 12-18 months - and you can get STB's as low as AUD$35 in places like supermarkets) - things are going to get a lot better for Australian viewers.

The details on what will be on these new channels is still a little shakey - with the following details emerging so far :

- TEN HD. The new TEN HD channel (not sure if it will replace or compliment their existing HD channel) - will be offering at least 50 hours a week of unique 1080i programming (and promises to be shows not screening on the SD channel). Apart from the focus on 1080i HD content - they have indicated this additional shows will include things like live sports, shows and movies etc (not timeshifted) - and 'theme' marathons (ie. "SciFi Saturday" was one that was mentioned).

In TEN HD's press release (which has some more information) - they have claimed that it's the 'first brand new channel in over 40 years for Australian TV'. The service is due to start in December.

- Seven "Multichannel" HD. Similarly to what TEN HD are doing - Seven plan to offer some unique content via their HD channel. They haven't yet announced any specifics yet of what/how much content will be shown (and the press release sortof indicates there may be more than one HD channel?). This one is also due in a similar timeframe to TEN HD. (sometime in December). Seven also recently announced plans to introduce TIVO to Australia so part of this new offering may be tied in with that.

- ABC 3. This one isn't HD (AFIK) - but will be a channel setup specially for kids content (i guess an evolution of the 'ABC Kids' content shown on paytv and during the day on ABC2). Hopefully this will mean that schedules/timeslots on ABC2 + ABC will be freed up to get used for 'non kids' content. This channel also ties in with the election campaign (being announced/promoted by the PM) - so it's possible it could disappear just as quickly as it appeared.

Hopefully there will be some more interactive/datacasting style services on offer soon too!

MCEDev releases TV-Toolbox Beta

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 03:45:54 GMT

Olcay Buyan at MCEDev has just launched a beta version of TV-Toolbox (this app was previously known as MCEDEV's MCE-Cutter for Vista Media Center and previewed on this blog a while ago). This new MCPL app allows you to edit/convert your Recorded TV from a 10 foot UI.

An excerpt from the news release (on the MCEDev site) -

Ever wanted to edit and convert your recording right from your couch? Now you can! TV Toolbox is the youngest member in our gang. It allows you to edit recordings, convert recordings and define rules to automatically convert just recorded TV shows to a specific format.

Olcay's done a really nice job on the UI - so go check out the news release to get a downloadable version and see some screenshots too.

While I was on holidays o/s (and away from my blog) - Olcay also released some news about MCE-Cookbook - an application designed for kitchen based MediaCenter machines (designed by Ad Notam) - and allows you to view recipies from a 10 foot UI. This one is worth checking out too (not downloadable yet) - and the kitchen mounted displays look really nice in the photos.

Free TV Australia announces plans for Industry Supported EPG

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 14:43:54 GMT

Free TV Australia announced today that an EPG for Australia is in the pipeline - and that the commercial broadcasters have agreed to :

"make their program listings information available to manufacturers of set top boxes, personal video recorders (PVRs) and other service providers provided the equipment displaying the EPG complies with some base level requirements designed to protect copyright, protect the integrity of the program information and facilitate collection of ratings information."

What these "base level requirements" are exactly - and when the actual EPG might appear - are some details I'm a little dubious of - given there's been a few official announcements around an EPG over past few years (from FreeTV an DBA) - and very little action. However it seems like a positive step forward in the journey towards having an EPG - as a basic outline of some requirements was at least given this time (in the past it was just announcements of everyone 'agreeing' to talk).

I'm also a little unclear if this means MediaCenter may eventually get an 'official' EPG for Australia - as there was no real mention computer based PVR's - and it's a big unknown still if MediaCenter will be able to comply with these 'base level requirements" out of the box. (very unlikely)

Going by the past history of government regulated tech rollouts in Australia however (DVB-T "AU")- there's a high chance it's not going to use any 'common' standards and specific "Australia Only" features may need to be implemented by a PVR maker before it can work.

Hence a likely outcome of this - is that we won't actually get an official MediaCenter EPG. Instead, companies such as IceTV will continue to offer a service where this official EPG data is massaged into a format that is MediaCenter ready - and provide the additional components for gathering ratings data etc as needed for compliance. I'm sure that once these rules are decided upon - many other companies (now underground) may also offer similar commercial EPG services to IceTV, and make the market a little more competative (without risk of being sued).

In any case - this announcement *hopefully* means good things are coming for PVR users at some point - rather than later (or never).

Update : Some more articles have appeared in the press this morning - one from news.com.au indicating a "3 month time frame" for rollout of these services. The bad news is that it's very much looking like something not digestible for MediaCenter owners - as even Foxtel's IQ has been flagged as being 'not compliant' with the requirements/conditions being set out. (and hence Foxtel users will not receive this free to air EPG either).

From what I understand of the yet to be activated DRM functionality in MediaCenter/DVB-T/DVR-MS - available functions are mainly based around not being able to copy the recorded tv file to other machines /and/ observing a 'Do Not Record' flag set by the broadcaster (similar to how it works on DRM protected music) - and not around supressing the 30 sec ad-skips (which appears to be one of "basic requirements" for using the Australian EPG Service). Although with a fair amount of hacking / patching (and breaching of the Microsoft EULA) - it's possible some 3rd party may be able to provide a fix which removes the 30 second skip feature on MediaCenter - but you can be assured it won't be an elegant solution at all. Same could be said about ratings/tracking of tv usage - there's some basic stuff built in to MediaCenter - but unlikely it's the exact solution required for compliance.

So it's again looking like whats going to come out of this will be (yet another system) which requires companies to spend large amounts of $$ making their PVR systems complaint with an "Australian Only" set of restrictions. (which in MOST cases means it 'wont' happen - as the Australian marketplace is far to small by world standards to ever justify this sort of investment). We do know however that have already missed out on a lot of the features of Digital TV on MediaCenter in the past (Teletex, Subtitles, ITV etc) - due to our version of "DVB-T" being somewhat different to how DVB-T is implemented in the UK and other big markets. So it's again not looking like the solution we were waiting for - and likely any "compliant" system will carry a hefty price premium at the cash register.

New "Media Center" Podcast on TPN (and my thoughts)

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 02:08:34 GMT

A new "Media Center Show" Podcast appeared on TPN (the podcast network) this week - with a new host Michael Wolf from ABI Research. On this show Michael interviews Joe Belfiore - VP of eHome division at Microsoft.

This podcast is not to be confused however with Ian Dixon's 'Media Center Show' podcast - which is now being hosted via his own site thedigitallifestyle.com .

Michael does a pretty good job interviewing Joe (which is quite an impressive effort given it's his very first show) - and I look forward to hearing Michael's interviews/shows in the future. (and encourage readers to check it out).

However, I do need to have a little bit of a grumble about some 'issues' regarding this new Podcast (and without knowledge of what transpired behind the scenes - I am not sure if these came about via direction from TPN or Michael's own accord).

People know and respect 'The Media Center Show' due to the incredible work Ian Dixon has done with it (not because it's listed on TPN) - and his associated blog, site and other things that all add to the shows reputation. Ian also won over listeners due to having a really good understanding of both the hardware and software side of things - ie one week he'd be talking to a system builder about hw related issues - and the following week discussing SDK issues with a developer from the MediaCenter team - without missing a beat. From what I can tell - the new host Michael seems pretty clued up about hardware stuff - but maybe isn't so strong on the software or dev side of things (which will ultimately take the show in a different direction). Michael even mentions that he's not yet running Vista MediaCenter.

So my more specific points I was a little disappointed with -

First off - It's pretty weird (and confusing for the public) that the podcast is also named 'The Media Center Show'. Yes - I caught the v2.01 bit at the end - but this actually indicates that v1 is obselete/redundant (not - hey the original creator decided to move his show). It would have been a better idea if the podcast had been called something different (given a new host/new direction etc) - no matter who actually 'legally' owned the name (it just would have been the 'right' thing to do).

Secondly - there was pretty much no indication/mention of Ian's involvement with the show in this podcast I listened to (i didn't catch all of it - but if it was there it wasn't prominently placed). I really would have expected/liked that at the start of the show - a few moments could have been spent thanking/acknowledging everything Ian has done with the show (and how you are following in his footsteps) - and clearly explaining to the public about the existence of the two shows. (and repeating this in the associated blog entry).

The other thing I noticed was that the format/length/feel of the show (another bit that Ian defined/created - not TPN) was very much the same as before. I though that maybe some steps could have been taken to looking at a new format and finding some other original way to really differentiate this new podcast over Ian's one. (as it comes accross as more of a 'copy' of what Ian's creation - rather than something that is fresh and original).

Putting these points aside - I do wish Michael luck with his new podcast (and I'll be a future listener). There's definitely room for two of these shows in the marketplace (and more so if they diversify into different areas) - and many I'm sure will listen to both (rather than chosing one or the other). I also think Michael will also gain a lot more kudos/respect/trust from the community doing the 'right' thing in relation to these points I mentioned.

Important DVB-T tuning Hotfix released for Australian Vista Media Center Users...

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 09:46:21 GMT

Microsoft released a very (hugely) important hotfix for Australian Vista MediaCenter users yesterday - fixing a 'localized' issue that caused channels to completely disappear from the EPG/lineup at unpredictable times. For me this would occur every 1-2 weeks - and was normally only fixable by reinstalling the tuner card drivers , rerunning the entire EPG setup process from scratch and then rescheduling all the series recordings - a very unwelcome event. (although a small 'trick' using the miniguide occasionally worked). On quite a few occasions WAF dropped considerably - and MCE2005 was booted instead to restore peace (god forbid should we fail to record desperate housewives - even if the channel disappeared 10 minutes into the recording).

It's not 100% clear who was at fault for this (or if it was even a 'bug') - as a couple of the Australian TV Stations (Channel Seven and SBS) were regularly changing around their subchannel lineup - which even seemed to affect many non Vista MediaCenter DVB-T viewers (ie even those with Set top boxes) . Australia also has a pretty weird/different implementation and set of laws regarding use of DVB-T - so this also makes it much harder for o/s based companies to handle all the subtleties of our systems (ie Commercial stations aren't allowed to run any additional decent content with their subchannels - so use it for more random things like creating a 'scoreboard channel' while televising some live sport - and hence reconfigure them regularly.).

The 'unreliability' factor caused by this issue meant that the only real way to ensure you didn't miss recordings was to doublecheck your system when the show started (so you could actually make sure it was recording) - and you simply couldn't trust it not to happen if you were away on holidays. This also caused considerable headaches for OEM System Builders wishing to sell Vista Media Center PC's - as helping a customer re-setup their tuners every couple of weeks would quite quickly drain their profit margin and might have made selling a machine a liability (and a guaranteed way to get an unhappy customer).

So as you can see - this hotfix brings a great deal of joy to us Aussies. Just to give you an idea - the thread discussing this on xpmediacentre.com.au had a whopping 25956 views (with 579 replies across 58 pages).

There's a couple of people who stepped out well and beyond the call of duty to make this hotfix available- and I thought I'd pay homage to them here -

First off is Keith Chambers (a well-know/respected guy in the MediaCenter community) - who initially raised the issue with Microsoft - and then tirelessly monitored machines, kept logs, ran tests and did everything necessary to make this fix a reality (keep in mind this problem could not be readily reproduced locally - as it might have taken up to 7-14 days or so to occur - and AFIK could not be reproduced in the US at all due to different tv standards/systems). Keith did all this in his own time/expense - and showed considerable patience on this - thanks heaps!!

Also on the Microsoft side of things - ex-patriot Mike Hayton - championed the cause well and truely beyond what was considered part of his job. (he's actually from New Zealand - but generally Australians like to claim any famous kiwis as their own - ie. Rusell Crowe, Mel Gibson, etc). Not only did Mike get the fix created, tested + released - but he also made a huge effort to keep everyone in the loop via the forums - no matter whether it was on the weekend or middle of the night over there. (and this too made a big difference to the community - as many would have switched to other platforms if there had been no light at the end of the tunnel!).. (Update : Mike Hayton tells me Mel Gibson is not a New Zealander... Seems noone wants to claim Mel these days..)

So anyhow thanks guys (and I'm sure a bunch of additional people were working behind the scenes on this too - like the Australian beta testers and devs at Microsoft) - and fingers crossed it brings an end to the problems.

Disclaimer : the author of this article also has a vested interest in having as many Aussies as possible using Vista Media Center (as they won't be able to run his software - and might end up buying an AppleTv - ouch). 8)

Rant: Tivo and EPG's coming to Australia+NZ..

Thu, 31 May 2007 05:19:24 GMT

I was quite stunned to hear the announcements this week that TIVO is (finally) coming to Australia + New Zealand.

It's not that TIVO isn't a great product - it's that along with these announcements is news of a partnership with Channel 7 - and both Channel 7 and Channel Nine saying that they 'support' implementation of an industry wide EPG.

If you've been a user of the multitude of other 'EPG' ready PVR options such as Vista Media Center/MCE2005 or the various Hardware based PVR's (ie Topfield etc) - you'll know that the very reason we don't have any proper EPG's is that these abovementioned companies (Channel Nine + Channel 7 - the two main culprits) have gone to great lengths to actively prevent this from happening.

The EPG data is already there (has been in place for a long time), it's in the appropriate formats - but the reality is that anyone who wants to make this data available to the public (for PVR usage) faces the threat of legal action from these companies. These companies have also blatantly refused to negotiate access to this data - with the numerous companies that have approached them.

The only company brave enough to challenge this has been IceTV - a Sydney based company who have stuck their necks out to make XML compliant EPG Data available to the public for a number of different PVR's - and as a result is now fighting for their survival after being sued by HWW. HWW is a Channel 9 owned company who aggregates a print form EPG to newspapers/media. HWW of course went for maximum damage - and waited until the eve of IceTV's IPO to decide they were going to sue. Their ground's for suing IceTV - that they 'owned the IP on the schedule of programs'. It should also be mentioned here that Channel 7 were also quite keen on suing IceTV as well - and am quite sure if HWW hadn't done it first it would have been them instead.

So in light of this recent announcement - I'm really starting to get annoyed when I see these statements from the TV Stations (as quoted from the related news item in Fairfax Press) :

Bridget Godwin, head of policy and regulatory at the Seven Network, said the free-to-air TV industry supported the idea of an industry-wide EPG, and she was confident that one was "on the way".

and the absolute clicher from Nine (Channel 9) -

A spokeswoman for Nine said: "We support the concept of an industry-wide EPG and we look forward to working with other participants in the industry to develop this further."

Err... there's nothing to 'develop' further here guys... (yes I'm sure they are aware of this)... the only thing needing 'development' is the actual TV Stations commiting not to sue+destroy anyone who actually tries to make this happen.

So really if these stations are really not opposed to have EPG's or PVR's available to the public - the whole situation really starts to stink of anti-competative behaviour and abuse of power from the TV Stations.

In fact the only valid reasoning I can see for the current situation to be the way it is - is that in the past - the TV Stations simply hadn't got their Digital Media strategy together - and are using their monopoly to prevent any new players from entering the PVR and Digital Media market - without offering any equivelent product themselves.

It's not that the EPG Data is valuable IP to the TV Stations - or they seriously think it being available will alter the piracy situation. It's that any new PVR player/maker essentially relies on an EPG for it to be a 'killer' appliance for the mass market. (otherwise it just remains a 'specialist' product used only by those with tech knowhow). Cleverly (and deviously) - by drawing the line in the sand on the EPG access - the TV Networks can then cripple any company wanting to enter this space. It's really crazy behaviour - as they can't/won't get away with it forever - and they are also missing valuable opportunities to obtain realtime/accurate viewing habits/ratings/statistics from users. (not to mention the ability to do historical AND future ratings simply by looking at the user's schedule).

It's also been clearly documented/observered in the US that the majority of TIVO users don't skip ads (in fact a study a couple of years ago found that 80% of users didn't want to touch their remote control while something was on) - and in fact provides a larger potential audience (as users are no have to chose between shows/stations).

I'm no lawyer - but I'm pretty certain anti-competative behaviour like this classed as a serious offence by the ACCC (Australian Consumer/Corporate Watchdog) - and I'm really quite surprised that they haven't been pulled up on this. (or maybe it's simply due to the new players not having enough clout to instigate an investigation). This really is a classic case of the 100 kg gorilla that noone will do anything about.

It's going to be interesting to see what pans out with this TIVO announcement and if a 'industry wide EPG' actually becomes a reality.

And of course the outcome of the IceTV vs HWW/Nine legal battle has yet to be decided - and could really go either way at this stage (however I'm sure Nine's announcements indicating that they wanted to people to have an EPG isn't going to be a great closing point).

Unfortunately on this front - it's unlikely any actual legal precedent will be set over the main question - 'is a program guide / schedule of events considered to be IP - or is it the IP actually just in the products they are advertising?'. IceTVvsHWW instead seems to be simply a bunfight over who created the data being published.

I'm not sure I've ever heard anyone being sued for publishing a list of 'whats on' at local clubs/nightspots, nor any local rags being sued for mentioning what time a Movie or TV Show is being screened. In fact like with an EPG - noone will go to the theatre or pub - if they aren't able to find out anything about the event - or when it's on - so it's no wonder Channel BitTorrent seems to be winning all the ratings of late down under.

New Vista Media Center Addins/Tools

Wed, 02 May 2007 10:36:32 GMT

Its really good to see a few new MCML addins starting to emerge over the past few weeks from the enthusiast community. Many are still in early beta/alpha versions - but worth a look, and the authors would all appreciate any testing/feedback (and most can be seen frequenting Media Center Sandbox forums).

Some of the ones I've caught recently are :

Audiophile (Steven Hattinger) - an album playlist addin for Vista media Center. This addin hooks into the 'More with This' function in My Music - and provides extended information on Albums such as viewing large artwork and other provided metadata not normally shown in Media Center.

This program also allows for some basic actions to be performed such as removing the album from WMP library and copying it into another directory. Please see the information page for download link and more details/screenshots.

(Audiophile screenshots below)

Squirrel Stash (Avaxa) : taken from the website. "Password protect your private media files and view them seamlessly in Vista Media Center. Fully functional version allows you to securely protect your pictures, videos and audio files in a seamless Vista Media Center experience. Media files are stored in a reliable and highly-secure encrypted stash and can only be accessed if a valid password is entered.".

This program is still a work in progess (although I think they might be looking for testers) - and it's looking very Z'ish right now. The free version will allow up to 1gb of storage - and the full version of the software (AUD$34.97) will provide unlimited storage.

(Squirrel Stash screenshots below)

MoreWithMyMusic 0.2.0 (Steven Harding) - an updated version of this addin with a couple of 'Library Processing' features for listening to music - such as Normalize/Denormalize feature and Ultrastar Karaoke support. See Steven Hardings post on Sandbox about this or download the installer.

VMCMusicListener (Gordon Moore) : A description from the author : "VMCMusicArtistLister is a Vista Media Center (VMC) foreground addin application that allows you to display in a list every music artist in your [WMP] library. You can press OK on the remote for any artist and get a list of all the songs for that artist. You can then use the right arrow button and select a song. If you press OK it will give you two option: 1) Play the currently selected song. 2) Add all the listed songs to a playlist that will be labelled VMC-Artistname. The entry is also recorded in a wpl file in your Usename|Music|Playlists folder. Please remember that to remove a playlist you should do it from the library of WMP. if you simply delete the file, the entries remain in the Library. If you repeat the operation for the same artist the original playlist will be replaced." You can download the app installer from www.gfmapps.co.uk

Go check them out...

Windows Vista MediaCenter SDK Update 5.1

Tue, 01 May 2007 23:50:15 GMT

A new update of the Microsoft Windows Vista™ Windows Media Center Software Development Kit v5.1 (formerly v5.0) was made available last night on MSDN Downloads (dated 1-May-07). Note that MSDN currently shows 'v5.0' on the download page - and when you go to install it - the default directory path is 'xx 5.0' (however this IS actually v5.1).

Some of the changes for this new release (pinched from the included Getting Started Document with the SDK)

Incorporation into CHM of previously separate MSDN technical articles and team blog postings.
The MCML Preview Tool Launcher power toy is now included ‘out of the box’ (no separate install).
Q and Z setup projects now based on WiX 3.0 (was WiX 2.0).
Shortcuts for the MCML Preview Tool have been added to the Windows Vista Start Menu: One launches standalone, the other within Windows Media Center.
Registry files (*.reg) added to the \Tools folder to enable / disable of launch debugging and error details.
MCML Sampler source C# files (*.cs) files added.
Minor fixes and tweaks to the Z sample application.

Note that this is purely a SDK update only (ie changes are isolated to documents, examples other included sample files) - and not a change to the MediaCenter API or MCPL (which would require a major deployment via Windows Update - as it would touch the core MediaCenter files).

I'm still in the process of finding the changed content in the docs - and I (think) have seen a few goodies in there (like better explanations) - but not 100% if I just missed them in v5.0 (as my initial cover to cover reads of the SDK started with the beta versions).

New Media Center Book Available

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 02:35:31 GMT

Ian Dixon (Digital Lifestyle / Media Center Show) + Tony Campbell's new book - "Using Microsoft Windows Vista Media Center" has just been released - and is now available to buy on Amazon.

Some highlights on the contents (taken from Ian's blog) -

The book is good for beginners as it covers buying considerations and hardware components as well as seasoned users as it covers upgrading from XP and some of the advanced settings in Vista.
Here are a selection of the areas the book covers

Introducing Windows Media Center
What's new in Vista Media Center
Upgrading from XP
Connecting your PC to a TV
Network configuration
Setting up TV
Working with Recorded TV and advanced settings
Playing DVDs
Burning DVDs
Working with Videos
Working with Music, playlists etc
Working with Pictures
Working with Radio

Plus lots more

Also - its only 7 pounds (around AUD$17) so it's a real bargain - and a highly recommended read!

Anytime on Volt - New Aussie VOD Service (+MCE Addin)

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 08:57:26 GMT

A new VOD (Video On Demand) service + website was launched today from Fairfax media called Anytime on Volt. Anytime joins the growing number of companies in the Australian Marketplace launching Movies on demand services.

Before I mention the MediaCenter stuff - this service seems to be a 'little bit' better value for money then the other offerings here (Bigpond Movies, Reeltime, the soon to be arriving IceTV) - and most of their movies are ~AUD$3.50 each (for unlimited watching on the pc it was downloaded to). Many of the other services are charging a LOT more (with some downloads from Reeltime costing in excess of $30) - so this makes it quite a bit more attractive.

The actual content however seems to be mainly the sort of movies that are either already weeklies (or close to being that) at your local dvd store (and hence borrowable for $1 each/week) - so this doesn't raise much excitement for me at all.

From viewing the trailers and test videos - the video quality also leaves a lot to be desired (although not much worse than the other companies) - and although it's encoded at DVD 720x576 res - the bitrate is very low (160k/s). One trailer I watched for the 'Ant Bully' looked pretty crap due to the large amount of very noticable compression artifacts. (not something you want to see in a cg film). Another was amorphic aspect ratio - but they delivered a 16:9 aspect ratio video file with really crappy black borders (which had lots of light gray artifacts appearing - really making you notice it was there).

Like Reeltime - they have a deal in place with iiNet so that you don't pay for your downloads if you use that ISP (which could otherwise double or quadruple the cost of the download). Bigpond movies also provides unmetered movie downloading - however if you are using BigPond ISP you are almost certainly being robbed blind for your internet access (so there's not much point trying to make out you are saving on bandwidth). iiNet on the other hand has not half bad ADSL2+ plans (if you have one of their DSLAM's in your local exchange).

The Media Center Addin

While I was browsing their site - I stumbled accross a Media Center addin for their service. I use the word stumbled - because there is pretty much no mention of it anywhere on the site (or in the media) - and only found it after clicking on a link titled 'TV View' buried in their website. This button was actually unclickable until I had gone into the 'test video' screen - which had in turn installed a series of DLL's (ie. Download Manager, Some Codecs for whatever DRM system they are using etc). The strange thing is that it is promoted as being for WinXP/IE6+ - so it's odd that they assume people will have media center for that button to work.

The MediaCenter addin is unfortunately a <groan> HTML Addin (remotely hosted) - and hence reeks of 6 yr old technology. It also uses some ActiveX - so it won't work on x64 Vista at all (dies after a couple of screens) - even though all their web based stuff works fine (including the video playback and download manager).

The addin looks quite nice graphically (when your screen 'eventually' loads) - but there's an absolutely agonizing delay between screens (5-10 seconds) while you wait for each page to be downloaded - making it quite an unusable product. Given that they install so much stuff to the local drive for DRM etc (and a resident download manager service) - I really don't understand why they didn't put all the Addin content locally as well (and update it from the site as needed). The navigation was also a little screwy - with some very unlikely buttons acting as back buttons (and given the long wait between screens this wasn't appreciated at all).

Weirdly enough - I don't think there's any subsequent way to launch the media center addin without loading up their website and clicking on that button. (although I'm sure they could get a downloadable version together without too much effort). No icons were installed in either Program Library or the Online Spotlight sections. When testing the addin however - they did mention 'Online Spotlight' (when I got some error) - so this is maybe its intended home.

Anyhow - I don't think I'll be jumping to use this one just at the moment. Maybe if they do a Vista addin that might make it a whole lot more attractive an option.

Anyhow here's some screenshots of it running on my Vistax32 machine. Looks nice - performs, well... er not so nice..

Showtime Vista MediaCenter addin launched (US Only)

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 04:00:28 GMT

A new Online Spotlight addin for Vista MediaCenter was released last night to Vista Media Center usersfrom 'Showtime' (a major cabletv/etc/etc company in US) - however like Vongo this one also appears to be for US residents only (ouch - still nothing decent for Australia as yet). This app I (assume) provides VOD services for Media Center (like Vongo).

Rather than being deployed as a MCPL Web Application - this one actually requires the user to download an setup program (19mb) - which installs all the required bits onto your machine. (inc Showtime Player , local MCML addin and also what appears to be some WCF based background downloader components).

Although I was able to circumvent the 'citizenship test' on the website (so I could get hold of the installer) - I wasn't able to succesfully complete the installation (and it reported some 'Unknown Network Errors' after it installed the player) - so I'm yet to see what this product actually looks like. I assume these 'Network Errors' are actually the result of some stronger citizenship tests (than their website) - and are a user friendly way of saying "You're not from these parts, F#$^ off!"

So - would be great if one of the US based MediaCenter bloggers (Chris? Missing Remote? Charlie? Aaron?) could do a blog on this with some screenshots/videos?

Media Center Show turns 100

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 00:04:50 GMT

A big congratulations are in order to Ian Dixon's Media Center Show Podcast - which turned 100 last night (thats 100 shows - not years). This weekly podcast has been an institution in the Media Center community since it began - and has played a huge part in raising awareness for Media Center related products, services, hardware and the platform as a whole.

Ian has also regularly had guests on from the Microsoft MediaCenter Platform team - which has given us an insiders view into the directions and thoughts of what happens on the 'other side'. (and more importantly - gives a 'human' face to the product - reminding us that they too have budgets, constraints, business objectives and goals which may not always be directly aimed at the enthusiast community).

Ian's guest for the 100th episodee was Charlie Owen from Microsoft - and a very appropriate choice - as Charlie has also played a very prominant role over the past couple of years - evangelizing the Media Center Platform to the general community and to developers. (Charlie was also the guest on show #2). On this episode - they talk about the different offerings from the various launch partners (such as Fox Sports and Vongo) - and also touch on quite a few developer related topics.

I can only imagine how much work must go into putting a show like this together - and it would take an amazing commitment to get a 1+ hour episode out once a week and on time like he does. Ian has also expanded his portfolio recently to include a Vodcast (Media Center Extra), a new MediaCenter Book, and a revamped website/forum known as the Digital Lifestyle. Ian also wrote up an interesting blog post about the experience and some of the initial hitches he faced.

So anyhow - Happy 100th Ian - and hope to see 100's more!...

Raising Awareness for Vista Media Center Down Under

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 05:09:31 GMT

To some extent - Windows Media Center (all flavours) has been the forgotten child down here (AU/NZ) over the past few years - and commercial interest has been somewhat limited to OEM's and System Builders - with not a lot of attention paid to the software/platform development opportunities.

However - partially thanks to the awesome new dev models (namely MCPL and WPF) being offered up with Vista Media Center - and it's inclusion in Vista Home Premium/Ultimate - it's starting to raise a quite few more eyebrows.

What's been the most exciting though - has been the awareness being raised by a number of the dedicated Microsoft DPE's in Australia and New Zealand over past few months - who have been showing off it's capabilities and evangelizing the opportunities to developers and IT decision makers in the various Vista + VS2005 related roadshows.

Some of these shows/people include :

Charles Sterling (Brisbane Based DPE) - has been regularly promoting Media Center related development at various seminars, roadshows and User Groups accross Queensland (and interstate). If you live in Brisbane - you can catch Charles (Chuck) at an upcoming event - New Opportunities on the Windows Vista development Platform (hosted by New Horizons) - on 17th April.

Nigel Parker (Auckland/NZ DPE) - who has also been actively promoting Media Center (and WPF) for the past few months.

Andew Coates (Sydney based DPE) - incorporated Media Center examples into his ISV Innovation Days presentation in Melbourne (and other places). I was lucky enough to catch up with Andrew that day for coffee (who's a great bloke) - and it's indeed refreshing to see this much enthusiasm.

Shane Morris (Melbourne based DPE - specializing in UX) - has also been showing off Media Center in the "Age of User Experience" roadshow. This roadshow started in Canberra on 28th February and is hitting Melbourne mid April.

I should probably also mention that these guys have been demonstrating+plugging my own "Big Screen" products as part of these abovementioned presentations - so I'm even more (shamelessly) happy about this - and hope it brings in lots of new commercial opportunities both for my company and for other Media Center developers in Australia (and I'm definitely not the only one)..

So a big thanks from me (and on behalf of the Aussie/Kiwi MCE community) to the DPE's mentioned above!

Also - with a bit of hope - some of this attention will trickle on to the various content aggregators in Australia - and lead to some decent new Australian + NZ Vista Online Spotlight content.

Rant: LinuxMCE? C'mon give me a break...

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 02:00:24 GMT

"LinuxMCE is a free, open source add-on to Ubuntu including a 10' UI, complete whole-house media solution with pvr + distributed media, and the most advanced smarthome solution available. It is stable, easy to use, and requires no knowledge of Linux and only basic computer skills"

That's the description of a new video posted on google - for (as described above) a Linux alternative to Media Center.

I had a watch - and before it had even finished - I double checked my calendar just to make sure it wasn't actual April 1st. Go have a look for yourself - and you will see what I mean....

While I give full credit to someone bringing out an ambitious product/compilation like this (and doing something for the community) - the thing that annoys me is that he seems to feel the need to attack Media Center 2005 to get publicity. If he had some valid points, good examples etc - this would be fine (and healthy) - but he doesn't - and that's the problem.

There's probably 15 blog posts full of errors, omissions, misrepresentations and complete baloney that could be typed up about this video (and presented product) - but thought I'd just note down some of my initial thoughts :

- The product is described as a 10' UI - but it's quite clearly a 2' UI. The most telling visual sign being that you pretty much couldn't read any of the UI text when Linux MCE was shown - however when MCE2005 was shown - everything was perfectly readable. In most places in LinuxMCE it appears 9-12 point fonts are used - something that won't be visible on a lot of older TV's (and in general you don't want to go any lower then 16-18 point). The presenter also rattles on continuously about how much extra information you can see at once - but again doesn't get that 'less is more' with 10'. Also - 10 ' ui's are somewhat defined by being targeted for use with remote controls - however his entire LinuxMCE demo was using an air mouse (which is wireless and provides mid air usage - but a mouse and 2' by all other names).

- For some strange reason - LinuxMCE was compared against MCE2005 - and non Vista Media Center. If you were doing a fair comparison on games consoles - you wouldn't pit a Playstation 3 against an Xbox 1 and then conclude Sony was superior would you? Same can be said here - Vista Media Center was shipping well before this video - so any fair comparison should have really been LinuxMCE vs Vista Media Center. Also - not to forget the parts of MCE2005 shown were features/UI examples that were brought to market up to 4 years ago(?) by Microsoft.

- The Air Mouse used for the LinuxMCE is actually a product designed primarily for Windows - but there was no mention of this - nor any comparison of it being used with MCE2005. Yes go check the product page for the Gyration Air Mouse - guess which O/S it's primarily targeted at. Oh yes it does say in small print down the bottom that 'other systems supporting USB 1.1 may be supported' - so I guess that means Linux. As most readers will also know - MCE2005 also supports mouse control - so again - why was this important point missed?

- The actual LinuxMCE UI looks absolutely and tragically terrible - yet the presenter spends the entire time bagging the MCE2005 UI. OK - so the video was bad quality - and I'm also no da vinci when it comes to design - but really this UI sux visually - and this fact was really highlighted each time he showed the MCE2005 UI. The LinuxMCE UI very much reminded me of the similarly poor ui's found on the very early set top boxes (not Tivo) - and even to some extent the Ansi based DOS programs from the 80's. I should probably give them some credit here for not ripping off the MCE2005 UI (as almost every PVR software on the planet has done bar Showshifter) - but they would have been a lot better off if they did in this case. Again - the LinuxMCE UI is not 10' and clearly the designers of this just don't get what this is.

Ok there's a load of other things wrong - such as the tired old - 'out of the box' argument - and the complete ommision of mentioning all the great MCE2005 software that is available for home automation, mobile, pda's and non MCE remotes. The comparison table at the end is also woefully inaccurate (see below) - again trying to tell us that only i/r remotes are supported - that their 2' UI is Media Centric where as the MCE2005 10' UI is PC Centric - and the clincher 'Local PC Only' claim at the end (guess they never heard of an XBox360 or an Extender).

Nothing however was more amusing then the message I received when I went to check out their site -

"Our server has been overwhelmed due to a recent Digg story. The demo video referred to is here: Google Video The setup video referred to will be online soon, and will show that the setup really was plug and play. The full website with forums, wiki and mantis will be back soon. Please check back tomorrow. The download link will be restored then."

One of the reasons for investing in a O/S like Vista is that you have a large, solid and reliable company as back up - who understand and worry about lots of real world issues on your behalf (such as 'capacity planning'). So right now - if you are a LinuxMCE user - it appears you can't get any product support from them (or even download it) - because the creator didn't think about that bit....

Well enough said - go judge for yourself.

Anyhow - here's a couple of screens from their video - first their comparison table, and underneath the LinuxMCE 'EPG' view and then the MCE2005 version of this screen.

Preview: MCEDev's Media Center Cutter (MCML) for Vista Media Center

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 01:30:45 GMT

Olcay Buyan from MCEDev (author of MCE Customizer) - has been busy creating a great new 'killer' addin for Vista Media Center - 'Media Center Cutter'. A beta version of this app has been shown for the first time at Cebit 2007 (Hannover, Germany) - which started last week.

As the name suggests - this addin allows you to visually edit/cut your DVR-MS files from within Media Center (ie for removal of ads, or removal of pre/post buffering on your files)- using a MCML based User Interface. 'Jobs' are then sent to a running Windows Service which performs the conversion/processing work for you. (via use of WCF).

The MCML based visual Editor is also done really well (see screenshots below) - and provides a 'storyboard' approach to editing - a huge improvement again on previous MCE2005 offerings.

It's got some really nice 'smarts' included as well (that go well beyond the features offered with the MCE2005 'cutter' programs) - for example :

Automatically scans your Recorded TV folders so you can quickly find your recordings.
Automatic Exporting/Conversion of videos to other formats (such as WMV, PPC etc) for use with Zune, iPod's etc.
Ability to reorder/reposition your 'cut' segments within the final file.
Auto Correction/Resetting/Updating of Pre/Post Padding within the metadata.
Retains all the DVR-MS Metadata saved by Media Center (so the info displayed in 'Recorded TV' section can function as before).
Auto Conversion 'Rules' - ie. 'Always convert new 'The Simpsons' recordings to wmv for my Zune...
Multilingual Interface - German, English for the initial release.

There's no release dates just yet - but Olcay tells me it's coming soon!

Check out these nice screenshots below :