Sometimes you have to wonder what's going on at Microsoft. I just got finished watching the CES keynote from head Microsoft honcho Steve Balmer, and I was pleasantly surprised. Not only did he mention Media Center but they even mentioned Ceton and cable card. Of course using their "TV on your PC" motto, but in an odd fashion--the presenter mentioned it and then followed it up with saying he has his PC connected to his TV. Somewhat conflicting given what we've been hearing but pleasant nonetheless. Of course going through the rest of Media Center like Videos and the TV Guide....but did anyone else catch the "Silverlight Movies" row? I'm very curious as to what that is. Either way, hopefully the fact that so much time was invested by the head of Microsoft will calm some down from calling for the death of Media Center.

ADDED: Here's a link from Microsoft with more details on what was mentioned. Enjoy!

I experienced something this week which I felt I had to share with the community to see if it was a widely known fact or not. I joined the many of you anxious to see "The Hangover" finally be released on Blu-ray disc and quickly headed to my local Hollywood Video to rent a copy on Tuesday while I waited for my Amazon copy to arrive in the mail. I opened the disc and saw printed on it "RENTAL" and did not think much of it. When I played the disc however, I was greeted to a terrible experience--the movie would not let me skip past the movie previews and then went directly into playing the movie. No title menu. No bonus features. No behind the scenes. Nothing except for pause and language selection.

So how common practice is this? I received the Blu-ray and of course the actual retail copy of "The Hangover" has a wealth of bonus features and extras included with it. From a customer perspective, this is pretty ridiculous. I usually use my rental experience to guage whether I plan to purchase the disc or not. I can somewhat understand the perspective of studios--prevent rent and copiers from being able to obtain the full movie and extras....but at the same point I wonder if there is truly anyone out there who will purchase a movie that they normally would just have ripped via the rental. Extras are a nice to have but there are just some movies I will only want to watch once and never again. Why cripple the rental experience even further than it already is? What are your thoughts?

In case you missed it, yesterday there was an announcement of a new plugin for Media Center called MadeForMediaCenter.com. The concept is less than revolutionary--having an online repository where you can download apps for your Media Center as simple as the App Store works on the iPhone, and basically how Meedio had their plugin store--but for one reason or another, Microsoft has never accepted this idea and taken it anywhere. 

This is where the guys behind MadeForMediaCenter have come through! Launched by fellow Media Center MVPs Ian Dixon and Andrew Cherry, this really got my brain churning and wondering! So what better way to get answers to this new product than to ask the creator itself! Andrew took the time out of his busy schedule to answer some Q&A I had for him, and he even promised to check in at our forums if there are more questions!

Good Morning Mr. Cherry (or good evening). Can you tell us a little bit about yourself for starters?

Andrew Cherry: Well, I've been a fan of Media Center since MCE2005 came out, and a developer of Media Center addins almost since then.  I run a company called Digital Living Solutions which develops Media Center add-ins and related apps for OEMs and third parties. I'm also a Microsoft MVP for Media Center, based on my contributions to the Media Center development community.

Tonight at the CEDIA show Microsoft held a press function announcing several very important announcements for Windows Media Center and cablecard usage. For those unaware, Cable card is the method by which you are able to receive high definition programming directly into your Media Center PC without any set top box or other device besides the Cable Card (OCUR) tuner itself. Here's the highlights from their announcements:

• Switched Digital Video to be supported via the Tuning Adapter
• No More OEM BIOS Restrictions
• Appropriate DRM Flagging for content

These are some huge announcements and will all be included in the upcoming firmware for the tuners which should be launched in conjunction with Windows 7 on October 22nd--and yes, you will need Windows 7 for all of this goodness.

While many people might see this and believe the most significant news here is the lack of BIOS restriction, I think it's going to be the relaxed DRM restrictions. Up until this announcement, anyone who was "lucky" enough to own a cable card system was under a LOT of restrictions since Windows copy-protected every show, whether the station provider flagged it or not. What that meant was that you could only view that show on that single system--no copying to laptop for travel, no compressing, no commercial removal! It's such a restrictive process and was more ridiculous when you factor in that a lot of content available is not flagged as copy-protected. It's unknown exactly to what extent the amount of shows without the restriction are, but it's better than before which had none.

I do think that the BIOS restriction removal will be significant as well, but given the hacks around online it was not really a hinderence anymore. Any HTPC geeks who really wanted cablecard could do so easily. It's still unknown how the distribution plan for the ATI OCUR tuners will change, but I would anticipate seeing these available in Newegg and similar OEMs very shortly. 

In the end I think this is fantastic news for both Media Center users and in general, as it can only help to increase the popularity of cable card users and hopefully encourage ATI to continue innovating their tuner for future developments. Once Dell and the other major OEMs left the cable card market it really suffered. Hopefully this announcement will breathe some life into it. I've been a cable card user for quite some time now and it's about time for some great news like this!

Click Read More to read the full Press Release from Microsoft.

I recently came across a post from C|Net regarding Microsoft's Windows Media Center, calling it one of the decades 25 biggest flops in technology. Here's the excerpt:

Windows Media Center Edition was the enhanced version of Windows XP that featured multimedia extras and a special user interface optimized for viewing on a TV screen. It never really took off. Solution: integrate it into Vista. Alas, that hasn't worked out so well either. Early reviews of Windows 7--which includes even tighter Media Center integration in most editions--are promising, but we still think Microsoft will have a hard time convincing users to use a PC in place of a cable box (despite some obvious benefits).

C|Net argues that it never took off, not really offering facts but more just guesses. Ask Microsoft and they will give you numbers of the millions of Media Center users throughout the world. Take a look at TheGreenButton forums and you'll see the thousands of posts weekly from enthusiasts. I would argue that while certain aspects of Media Center have flopped, Media Center in general was revolutionary and an extraordinary vision from a company as large as Microsoft.

The original Media Center User Interface

Nowadays people take the 10-foot Media Center experience for granted, but those of us around the HTPC community in 2001 remember what a fantastic design Microsoft had developed. While there had been other 10' User Interfaces designed for media playback from your PC connected to a television, nothing was as solely 10' as Media Center (most required lots of configurations, settings, tweakings or *gasp* even using a mouse to browse the interface). With the introduction of the classic gray remote control (inexpensive, familiar, comfortable) it inspired a plethora of clones and competitors, all which helped the home theater PC develop into what it has become.

Original MCE Remote Control

Initially the biggest hurdle it had was simply keeping up with the horse-power requirements. As more users adopted the notion of connecting their PC's to their TV's, new more demanding file formats would come out that would make it difficult for playback. Even today, new technologies such as HDMI 1.3 and 24p plague home theater PC builders. But that negativity is precisely the beauty with what Microsoft pulled off with Media Center--an open platform that can continue to evolve with the changes in technologies and times. Want a Blu-ray player? drop in a $100 drive and voila, who needs a PS3. Want to play video games or emulators? Drop in an Xbox-for-PC Windows Controller

Are there flops within Media Center, absolutely. The Media Center Extenders have been a disaster, "Softsled" has never been close to reality and the lack of a true competitor for the set-top box has been obvious. However, I think the longevity of it should prove that it's been anything but a flop. Many careers and companies have been formed directly or indirectly as a result of what Microsoft has done or continues to try to do with the Media Center platform.

It has been 8 years since the launch of Media Center and the overall outlook remains a mystery, and maybe that is what troubled the C|Net authors. I have great difficulty calling an application which has continued to evolve and play such an influential piece in a significant category of products a "flop." Only time will tell, and even 8 years later I would believe that it's still too early to judge...ask me again in 2017...I would venture to guess that Windows Media Center in some form will still be around and will have its own new problems/faults.

The answer has been asked by many and presumed by even more, but ask the folks at Microsoft and they still stand strong around the Extender platform. With Linksys announcing their discontinuing of their Extender products, it leaves us guessing what's to come, since Linksys was one of the original Extender partners for Microsoft. Are they simply discontinuing a 2 year old device to make room for a Windows7 version? Are they out of the game? Nobody outside of Microsoft (and Linksys) knows, but looking back at the Extender history should give us a good idea of what to expect.

5/18 EDIT: In an odd timing from the publishing of this article, HP Announces today that they will also be discontinuing their MediaSmart Televisions and Connect receiver devices. 

For those of you that are familiar with my writings, I often have a case of nostalgia. Having been involved in Home Theater PC's for over 10 years now, I often reminisce at how this all started and where we are today. I think it was Alan's blog about Start Menu's that made me think about the plethora of Home Theater PC Software that has existed over the years, and just how much they've changed--and just how similar some of them are. I hope you enjoy this look back as much as I enjoyed trying to remember them! (Of course, if you remember anything I forgot, let us know in the forums!)

Here's the list, in no particular order...

ATI All-In-Wonder Software

I have the fondest memories of this piece of software. It was bundled with ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon graphics cards, which were REVOLUTIONARY for having the cost savings idea of Graphics AND TV Tuner all-in-ONE! And it even came with a great remote with a touchpad. Keep in mind, this was before any other Media Center taught us how this (left) is NOT a 10 Foot Interface. But it sure was fun trying to teach my non-geek friends how to schedule a recording they could barely read on my old 32" Toshiba tube television's whopping 640x480 display.

BoxeeTV is a new home theater type software, but they have gone a different route in the ways they began distributing. They launched with an initial alpha version for Linux, Apple, and AppleTV's, and shunned us Windows users. That didn't bother me as I wanted to get my hands on it, until I remembered how terrible I was with Linux. So I was content on waiting for an alpha version of Windows, and the wonderful folks at Boxee promised to get me one...that was until they kept releasing such cool features and forced my hand--I had to buy an AppleTV solely for the purpose of installing Boxee on it!

The benefits for me of using the AppleTV over the alternatives were obvious. Already having a dedicated Vista Media Center PC, I did not want to kill my electricity bill by powering an entirely new PC strictly to run Linux and Boxee, so with the AppleTV, which is showing a wattage of between 18-22 Watts is a vast improvement over the 100+ Watts a computer would draw. Do I wish AppleTV was lower like an HP Media Center (7 watts), sure, but given that it's essentially a computer and it allows me to run Boxee...I can live with 22.

As I continue to test, play and poke around the enormous amount of resources that exist for XBMC (Xbox Media Center) on AppleTV, I felt obliged to comment on just how stunning the visuals are. I briefly mentioned the user interface in my last post, but this is the type of appearance that can only be expressed with pictures.

From an HTPC background, the closest memory I have to ever being as impressed with a user interface was with the old Meedio, which had some similar awe-inspiring user interfaces. Keep in mind, the following have all been designed by the community--proving just how important having a loyal following can be. These skins are not that easy to implement properly, as you have to source and install the skin and all the wallpapers used. But again, with the resources from the XBMC forums, I had little problems figuring out how to SFTP into the AppleTV and then uploading. Still nowhere near the simplicity of other HTPC software like Boxee or Media Center, but they don't look like this either.

One of the benefits of the installation of BoxeeTV on an AppleTV, is that XBMC (Xbox Media Center) HTPC Software is basically already installed onto your AppleTV. Remember that BoxeeTV is based on XBMC's code, so it makes the install that much easier. If you are only interested in installing XMBC, there are a number of writeups like this . I have been using BoxeeTV for a few weeks now, and I think it's only fair to give XBMC on the AppleTV a try to see how it compares to its sibling.

XBMC has been around since the original Xbox days, and what initially began as software exclusively for modded Xboxes to have a HTPC frontend (in the pre-Xbox360 days) has since expanded to a multitude of platforms and branched development items such as BoxeeTV and MediaPortal. XBMC is fully open source, which has clearly been embraced among the community while still maintaining to develop on their own.