Comments on: Sony Standalone Changer $799

By: Channel 10

Channel 10 — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 23:22:52 +0000

Re: MCE Home Server Manager Update…

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By: BigDude

BigDude — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 17:43:47 +0000

I purchased one of these and have been fairly happy with it, but the software provided with it is pretty limiting. I have been writing a Delphi program to control the changer and most of it works except for one detail. I was wondering if there was any information out there about the details of the SPTI calls for updating the primary and alternate volume tags within the device. I want to run this non-MCE and the MCE based software does nothing for me at that point since it initializes the tags when it scans. Since you had a discussion earlier about the MCE object I wondered if you could help me with this.

By: Chris Lanier's Blog

Chris Lanier's Blog — Wed, 10 May 2006 02:12:46 +0000

Custom MCE Install Using XL1B2 Standalone DVD Changer

First
Install! Sony Vaio XL1B2 DVD Changer with 3rd-Party MCE | CE Pro has
published a piece Home…

By: TPJ

TPJ — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 17:17:47 +0000

On a somewhat related note, ripping the DVDs to the hard drive would work. But what I can’t seem to find an answer to is whether the 360 attached to a 16×9 monitor would display the movie in anamorphic widescreen.

I surely like the option of being able to just use the changer, but I already have a bunch of movies ripped – so purchasing a 360 for use in the bedroom would work for now, if it can display the movies correctly.

By: ChrisL01

ChrisL01 — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 23:15:24 +0000

True, however Microsoft might lose people as MCE users if it can’t provide basic features using hardware already being sold. For DVD Changers being such a “big” feature in RU2, only having them in a single room will vastly limit adoption (eg. If i can’t have it stream , I personally never going to purchase one).

While I’m sure there are several other factors, Microsoft has the technology to do it, I say, DO IT. =) Give the users what they are looking for (and that’s not a single room solution). Managed Copy will be great, I know it will. However, I (and every other MCE user) have a much larger percent of DVD’s then we have HD DVD’s, and this trend will continue over the next 3 years.

Chris Lanier

By: Matt Goyer

Matt Goyer — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 22:29:13 +0000

Chris, actually it’s Sony who has lost the sales not Microsoft :P.

(It’s also more complicated than just wrapping in WMDRM).

By: ChrisL01

ChrisL01 — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 17:03:50 +0000

I would caution buysers too, however I know that it’s not hard to take what’s output from Firewire and wrap it in WMRM to ten be sent out. If this isn’t a feature that will appear, Microsoft has just lost the sale of a few DVD Changers to me. :(

Chris

By: demilune

demilune — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 06:11:54 +0000

Matt,

I completely agree with Paul here. As an installer / integrator and IT person the best option for us to stream movies, HD content, music, etc… to places around the house is via a computer.

With the changes in DRM and adoption of HDCP we are at a loss of how to accomplish this. It used to be as simple as installing a large component video matrix switch in the basement of the house and you were set, but with HD content protection it is is alot different.

I am putting a lott of faith in Microsoft offerings in the very near future. I continue to tell my clients that Media Center PCs are going to be the thing of the future for everything type of content.

Summary, DVD (even HD-DVD / Blueray) streaming capability would solve a lot of issues. You mentioned Media Center PC sales have reached a new high; that’s great. But what about the extenders or XBOX 360 as the extender. Image if people knew they could stream their DVD changes to an extender? Now we would be talking about whole house media. Saying that right now is not entirely true.

On another note, I am a Niveus dealer and showcase the Denali and IceVault in our showroom. People LOVE it, but it would be nice to have the XBOX 360 in the other room of the showroom play a DVD from the collection. :)

-H

By: paul

paul — Sat, 25 Mar 2006 17:15:12 +0000

Matt,

As a system builder, I can tell you that one of the most frequently asked questions is “how can I play movies around the house?” Maybe most of the 10 million MCE users don’t even think about the potential capabilities of this system. You can’t just think in terms of how many users there are for this. You need to think about the whole ecosystem. There’s custom installers, hardware OEMs, etc etc. I can assure you that if streaming of DVDs via extenders was implemented, all customer installers, system builders and OEMs who implemented MCE based enetertainment solutions would be ALL over this. Look at Kaleidoscope. They have a $20K solution that we could now all implement for $3000. If they think there’s a market for their product, I guarantee there’s a market for this. MS wouldn’t have to push this product, the system buidlers, OEMs and customer installers would do it for you!

Paul

By: Matt Goyer

Matt Goyer — Sat, 25 Mar 2006 01:22:56 +0000

I know a subset of you are really excited about changers, extenders, streaming, ripping, etc. I would caution you that when we make decisions about features we’re going to do we consider how many users will use the feature (simple cost/benefit analysis). Right now the number of changer users plus potential changer users is very small compared to our overall user base.