CRN talks about A Linux Alternative To Windows Media Center PCs. Looks like it has a lot of features, but:
Video Without Boundaries also is hoping for success with the low price of its products. PCs running Windows Media Center cost between $1,200 and $4,000, while the MediaReady 5000 costs $699.
Hmmmm. You can now get a MCE w/tuner for around $650.
Following our announcement at WinHEC enabling third parties to build their own MCE Extenders, we now have a MCX Partner Site:
If you’d like to receive more information as it becomes available, including developer documentation, resources, and the Media Center Extender Platform Adaptation Kit, please send an email to mcxprtnr@microsoft.com
I know this article is a few weeks old… Google aims to take over your TV screen:
Attaching a Microsoft Media Center player or an Xbox console will enable consumers to use a digital television to browse the internet for whatever video content they wish. This will enable viewers to use Google to realise Schmidt’s vision of allowing viewers to use a television-enabled Google search engine to watch any film or programme they want via the internet.
Krunker.com has a lot of screenshots of Media Center in Windows Vista if you’re not running the beta, Windows Media Center Preview in Vista Beta 2:
Windows Media Center is arguably one of the best home theater personal computer user interfaces out there today.
The Sony VGP-XL1B2 Media Changer is only $399 at Amazon (after $100 rebate). Its sales rank is currently #17 in computers. Wow!
People on the beta newsgroup were wondering why the Media Discovery modules (Add Music, Add Pictures, Add Videos) require that you stop the now playing experience.
So I asked around. Originally (i.e. MCE 2005 timeframe) the framework used
by the First Run modules did not support having a background ‘now playing’
experience. The rationale to not build this support into the framework from the start was because for many First Run modules (i.e. TV Setup) you can’t have something in the background because the module is changing the underlying settings. Then when the Media
Discovery modules were built the team decided to not bother extending the
framework to add this support becuase of the cost of doing so. And so MCE
2005 shipped with you having to stop the now playing experience if you
wanted to launch Media Discovery modules.
However, for Vista we did add this support to the framework. Now users
listening to music can now add music/pictures/video without it interrupting
their music experience. While we could do the same for video and TV there is
not only the additional dev cost but also an additional cost to our design
and production team who need to re-design the First Run template to support
a ‘PIP’ (picture in picture) down in the lower left corner. Now considering
how many other improvements we made to Media Discovery that were truly
important to make (most were post 2 beta so you haven’t seen the changes yet) I think it’s acceptable that we dropped this cosmetic work item to the bottom of the list. And for the most part I don’t believe that people are adding new folders to their libraries every day. Rather this is an infrequent, occasional task.
To get your DVD changer to work with Windows Vista Beta 2 you need to be running Media Center ‘elevated. To do this:
If you don’t want to do this every time you run MCE you can disable ‘UAC’ by launching the control panel and type ‘UAC’ into search and it will bring up the setting to turn it off.
Yes, we’re fixing this for RTM :).
In his post, Windows Vista screencasts, Long Zheng, has a video of MCE in Vista [mov].
I’ve received reports of users with machines purchased from big name OEMs that are unable to burn video DVDs. The first thing I’d recommend is following up with the OEM since the encoders should be installed correctly when you buy the machine. Though, a user did email in this fix, which I haven’t verified and which you can attempt at your own risk if you’re having issues:
- Uninstall the Sonic Solutions burn engine:
Start->Control Panel->Add or Remove Programs->Add/Remove Windows Components. Uncheck the box next to Sonic DVD and CD Burning and click Next.- Reboot.
- Reinstall the Sonic Solutions burn engine:
Start->Control Panel->Add or Remove Programs->Add/Remove Windows Components. Check the box next to Sonic DVD and CD Burning and click Next. *If there are errors finding the required files (CD2 is requested), perform a Search on the file names and then Browse to the folder containing each required file.- Reboot.
Looks like you can now: Download Windows Vista Beta 2.
Download it, install it and send us feedback either via newsgroups, blog comments, or by emailing us.
And for what it’s worth, I’m running beta 2 at home in my living room.
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