Niveus press release, Niveus Media Announces Patent-Pending Network Virtualization Technology for the Niveus Disc Changer:

Niveus Media, Inc., manufacturer of media entertainment devices for the high-end audio/video market, has announced the development of network virtualization technology for the Niveus Disc Changer – Ice Vault 200. The latest of Niveus proprietary add-ons to the Windows XP Media Center Platform, Niveus virtualization technology allows single, or multiple, Niveus Disc Changers to serve up an entire collection of DVD Movies to any zone on the home network powered by a Niveus Media Center.

Great to see a company like Niveus not just doing hardware innovation but also software innovation on top of our platform. This additional functionality should also justify their high price tag for the Ice Vault as compared to the Sony XL1. Of course, the first question that comes to mind and everyone with an XBox 360 is, will it stream to the XBox 360 or just other Media Centers? I suspect not since Niveus’s motivation here is to sell more Niveus machines and not XBox’s and very likely this requires both client and server software to work.

I’m excited to see this first hand on Thursday down at CES.

Comments(1)

After a month of parties I’m a bit burnt out but none the less will try to rally for CES 06 later this week. Interested in chatting about Media Center? Want to know more about movies, DVD changers, networking MCE? Have a cool MCE related product that I should blog about?

My plans for CES are as follows:

• Wednesday
  • 8pm - Arrive in Vegas
• Thursday
  • 1:45-6 - LVCC booth 7144 at the DVD Changer station
  • 7:30-11:30 - Microsoft/MTV party at Pure (Caesar’s Palace) w/The Killers
• Friday
  • 12:00-1 - Lunch with Ian, Thomas, Sean
  • 1:45-6 - LVCC booth 7144 at the DVD Changer station
  • 5-6 - Media Center Show Party Hilton Towers Suite #HC1010
  • 6-8 - eHome Team Dinner
• Saturday
  • 8:45-1:30 - LVCC booth 7144 at the Vista MCE Movies station
  • 7 - Cirque de Soliel
• Sunday
  • 2:08 - Depart Las Vegas

Comments(2)

Someone recently asked about their DVD audio being too quiet. The problem is a mis-match between the dynamic range of high quality audio sources (DVD, HDTV, WMV-HD) and low dynamic range sources (FM radio, analog TV, Windows system sounds). You can sort of compensate for this by setting the NVidia audio decoder to “Dolby Night Mode”.

Comments(7)

Twice today I have been asked which changers work with My DVDs in MCE 2005 UR2. They are:

• Sony XL1 - PC+Changer for $1100 at Amazon
• Sony XL2 - PC+Changer for $2300 at Amazon
• Sony XL1B2 - Standalone changer for $799 from Sony Style
• Niveus Ice Vault - Changer only for $2500
• PowerFile R200DL (requires a firmware update that I don’t believe is publicly available)

No RS-232/serial changers work with My DVDs.

Comments(10)

Ian Dixon, Media Center Show - The Award’s Show.

First off a big thanks to all of you who voted for my blog! For a long while I was the only blog but now that there is some serious competition from some of my co-workers I’m going to have to work hard over the next year to maintain the ‘Best Microsoft Employee Blog’. So while posting has been slow here the last few months expect things to pick up once we can talk about the Vista December CTP, CES and all the other exciting things going on in the living room PC space.

I was also psyched to see that, TweakMCE, ‘an off the schedule’ power toy that Hugh and I work on won the Best Media Center Utility Award.

And I’m totally surprised that MCE Messenger beat out Skype. While I’m currently the communications PM, my co-worker Ian is the one who did the amazing work of bringing Messenger to Media Center in MCE 2005.

Comments(0)