Computer World, Visual Tour: 20 Things You Won’t Like About Windows Vista: 6. Media Center isn’t all there and falls flat.

The author’s primary compliant is that live tv isn’t working on beta 2 with his graphics card. I can understand how this would drive a user crazy, but I don’t believe that you should fault Media Center for an issue that we will surely resolve before shipping.

If we put that aside what else does the author have to say:

The important issues with Media Center are that it needs more content, should be easier to install and configure, and must be 100% reliable.

Needs more content? I don’t think I understand that issue. Media Center will ship with a small amount of sample content. Just enough to give the user a sense of what Media Center can do, but not so much that it interferes with their content, once they have content on their machine. Though I have feeling his issue isn’t about the amount of sample content… ?

Should be easier to install and configure. I disagree about installation, since Media Center comes pre-installed with Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate. Though on configuration I totally agree, it should be simpler, but it’s a hard problem to simplify. …No promises but we may see some changes that come in after beta 2 to further simplify our configuration.

Must be 100% reliable. Totally agree. My Media Center 2005 machine rarely gets rebooted (no more than once every three weeks) and it runs 24×7. I completely expect Windows Vista Media Center to have or surpass that same level of reliability.

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