Why I’m an idiot
This is my favorite comment over the last week:
Matt - when MS made you a PM for the MCE application - have you considered that your not the right person for the job… Come on - I dont work in the television industry but I know what dvb-c dvb-s etc are…
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Your ignorance of the rest of the world standards and wanting of features just gives the impression of a 30 something guy who has never left the west coast of the USA. There is a big world out there….
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Seriously Matt - I respect your blog, but read some forums outside of the green button and read some blogs outside of the MS ones, look at some newsgroups - either learn what the people and the community want or maybe move on to the excel team, and let someone who knows more or cares more take the reigns….
Please read my bad decision post again and then read it again, and again.
Two things. Firstly, and unfortunately I likely can’t disclose how many program managers there are who work in eHome but the number is high. Very high. I am just one of a very large number of program managers who themselves are just a portion of our technical team. This means we each have highly specialized feature areas and are somewhat insulated from other technical areas. Secondly, there are two separate teams working on Media Center. There’s the core team of which I am a member and we have absolutely nothing to do with television or television standards. Then there’s the TV team who is responsible for those things. And so, yes, if I worked on the TV team I should likely know what DVB-x is, but I don’t.
And for the record I’m twenty something and have lived on the west coast for two and half years, and I have travelled the world, but spent my time outdoors and not indoors watching TV :P.
Please remember folks I blog because I enjoy blogging. It is not a part of my job. Many of the comments I’ve read recently posted here really take my enjoyment out of sharing with you what is happening. If you want me to continue sharing please show respect to both me, my weblog, Media Center, and Microsoft.
Don’t worry. I only found out what DVB-T and DVB-S were this week!
I like reading your blog and you put up some interesting stuff. There are people who spend every day looking at the insides of their media center PCs and they know a lot sure. But then there is everyone else, some of whom haven’t even heard of MCE. Your posts vary from technical to abstract and that’s great because there is something for everyone.
Just because you don’t know a couple of TV standards - I forgive you! I respect what you’re doing and know you don’t have to. So thanks for what you have done so far.
Come on now Matt, you know half of those people are probably Slashdotters just dying to harp on you, your project and your company.
I don’t understand why people feel the need to make comments like those… perhaps it makes them feel better.
In the end, they’re most likely stuck with their crappy open-source monstrosity that has about 10% aesthetic value and 90% “I’m a programmer, worship my great understanding of usability”… because, you know, programmers are just famous for usability.
Just imagine how Paul Thurrot feels when he gets responses to his articles and you’ll understand why he doesn’t have a comment feature on his blog. There be haters out there!
You’ll be fine, keep up the good work :)
Transparency is good, if somewhat painful when people ignore tact and common decency. Please keep up the good work Matt, both on MCE and on your blog.
I don’t think you are an idiot but with the speed MCE is progressing compared to others i always thought there were only a handfull of people working on MCE.
I don’t get it… why are you an idiot? For letting an idiot commenter get to you? :)
Don’t worry about this Matt, I think most of us know that you haven’t got anything to do with it, but:
1. People outside the US is getting fustrated, and this fustration will start to show even more in almost any comment made on Media Center.
2. The TV team does not blog, your executives does not blog, and well, this is where people can let their fustration show, even though it may not be fair.
3. You blog generally about Media Center, and it makes people comment about Media Center in general as well. Besides, I don’t think everyone knows exactly what a Program Manager is, and knows that such is actually limited to specific features of the product.
The problem here may be the priorities - if the TV team is not able to support the world standards, then maybe there is a resource priority issue on the eHome team. If there is, it’s clearly not your fault, but remember that you are one of few places where people can comment and actually might be heard.
But, don’t tell me that you don’t see the problem here?
Anyway, I for one think it would be good for the eHome team if it were split into more regions, because clearly, some of the people that _should_ now about TV standards either don’t know, or don’t care, and this haven’t got anything to do with you, but with the Media Center product in general.
Having said that, you are Program Manager of some of the features that have been decided to put out as “US only”. I know it’s about meta-data, but generally I see these features as a bad priority if they can’t make it globally.
People outside US just don’t buy the same product, although they pay the same (typically more).
Regards,
Brian Binnerup
hey Matt - enjoying the blog so far, keep it going :-)
re: trolls taking personal potshots…
(Now, I know you probably know this, but…just a word to the wise…)
…Part of bloglife I’m afraid - it’s not easy to deal with…getting personally slagged off like this is a nasty experience. Let’s face it, not many people get to be sniped liked this in such a personal way in their day-to-day lives, so it can be hard to take the potshots when they first start landing.
It’s easier said than done, but you’ll just need to accept that every ecosystem has its bottom feeders and that if you get widely read (it looks like you are / will be) you’ll need to learn to develop a duck-like waterproof back. Sad but true.
I just hope this fact doesn’t discourage you from blogging more good stuff :-)
Alex.
you have a good blog… keep it rolling… I guess people will pass comments as they seem fit… Why do you care ?
Matt - Just ignore those comments about European television formats people think u should know all about. Especially comments with elitist attitude like: “I was already getting very concerned by all the attention that something called cablecard (or ATSC) was getting, to be honest nobody outside the US cares about it but is seems the biggest thing in Vista…”
Maybe they can buy an MCE-type app from the largest software company in Europe instead of the “US-geared” Microsoft product. Now that company would be…? Yea, really leading the world over there.
Remember, that market is the same market that forced(extorted) your comapny to rip Windows Media Player out of Windows a couple of years ago…now they’re wondering why European TV standards aren’t a top priority?!
Hi VJames,
you complain about “elitist attitude” and say something as stupid as “Yea, really leading the world over there.” just some sentences later. This is really dumb! Are you only using American products? I bet not! Maybe you’ve got something from Sony which is a Japanese brand or something from Panasonic which is Japanese as well. Are you listening to CDs? Well CDs were invented by Philips - a company from the Netherlands. Dou you listen to MP3? The MP3 format was developed by the Frauhnhofer Institute - a German research institute. I’m not saying that we’re ruling the world over here. But you should really use your brain before you say something as stupid and ignorant as that! It’s because of guys like you that people outside the US have such a bad opinion of American’s general knowledge.
And by the way… what has the removal of Media Player to do with Media Center support for European standards? Do you honestly think that Microsoft is kind of punishing its European customers just because the European Union has enforced Media Player removal? Come on… please think!
Microsoft in Germany is abouth to release a KB to enable support for DVB-s in MCE.
http://www.mce-community.de/forum/index.php?showtopic=10919&st=275&#entry92958
(DVB-s= the european digital sat-tv system)
Matt you might want to post this link… (and read it ;) )
http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/b/9/5b97017b-e28a-4bae-ba48-174cf47d23cd/MED076a_WH06.ppt
It is a Microsoft WinHEC 2006 presntation that shows that MS are very well aware of ALL of the new digital TV standards and that they know they currently do not support enough of them. But they do understand the problems, realise the importance and have a roadmap.
This is not about US vs Europe standards it is about the march of global digital broadcasting. Some of the more ‘insulated’ US based commentaors may also find the presentation very interesting…. especially the maps.
Enjoy
PS Matt after viewing this presentation you might know enough to be a Program Manager on the TV Team :) :)
PPS I first came across this presentation on a post on Mark Salloways blog http://home.salloway.org.uk/mceblog/ So all kudos to him.
@Herold: The thread you have linked is actually a good example which shows how desperately people in Germany, Austria and Switzerland are waiting for a DVB-S solution by Microsoft. Nevertheless, the patch you mention is nothing but a mapping solution. DVB-S frequencies are mapped to DVB-T frequencies which are recognized by Media Center natively. The same thing has been done before by Hauppauge and Technotrend. It is a workaround but nothing more. It’s impossible to watch encrypted channels that way and it’s also not possible to receive HDTV data via DVB-S2 like that. Videotext doesn’t work either. Still it would be better than nothing. I doubt thogh that this patch will ever be released. It has been announced many times before but nothing happened.
@BuellPilot: This is a great presentation you found there! Thank you for linking it. I’m really happy to see that Microsoft is at least aware of some of Media Center’s deficiencies.
@Matt: Matt, I don’t know about your influence on Media Center development but maybe you can do something to speed up things a bit. Maybe if you only tell your bosses that there are quite some people waiting for broader support of TV standards… By the way, I really like your blog a lot. It’s very interesting to read it and I hope you keep on writing. Don’t take those stupid comments (like the one you quoted above) too serious please!
DVB-T?
UK, Germany, France, Italy ahhh four old European countries! Australia… one new world country full of convicts ;)
Ohhh yes and the 99 other countries…
http://www.dvb.org/news_events/news/over_100_countries_now_co/index.xml
and updated maps too :) the world is turning blue…
http://www.dvb.org/about_dvb/dvb_worldwide/index.xml
Anyone for ATSC…. ermmm maybe 2 or 3 interested regions…
There is no doubt that DVB will become ever more important for MS in the race to win the living room, it is just that it will take longer than we would like and come in the years after Vista… 07/08/09!!! But what can we do about it! If you don’t like the slow progress adopt another software vendor…. but who would that be….. Media Center for all its flaws is a market leader, it is true that others have their eye on this market but at present Media Center is by far the most polished solution. What we just hope is that Microsoft don’t blaze the trail and then loose the plot by not delivering fundamental improvements and features which the userbase needs. Or getting confused over the 2ft and 10ft worlds or believing their own marketing hype that because they have shipped 14 million MCE units that they won 14 million living rooms. My evangelism for Media Center has aquired Microsoft only 4 of those 14 million units… but those 4 users consume all of their media in the lounge with media center at the hub of their home. Media Center is still a word of mouth product as the PC vendors don’t know how to sell it, and don’t want to get involved in supporting a PC hooked upto a TV as it is outside of their comfort zone. The whole eHome concept needs a happy installed userbase and that means MS listening and learning from our experience as early adopters.
@Steven pherhaps You are right…but, have a look at the german Microsoft pages…tey are announcing a lot of DVB-s MCE PC`s
http://www.microsoft.com/germany/windows/windowsxp/mediacenter/kaufinformationen/wohnzimmer.mspx
Also, i know about the workaroud, guess I was the one who gave Robert the idea ;-) Then abouth s2….had some interesting email corrospondance wit Technotrend..they claimed their s2 card would work in MCE…did not say anything abouth MPEG4 & HD thow
Don’t let these people get to you. You do a great job here and I enjoy reading up on all new features in the Vista version of Media Center and I’m looking forward to its release.
As mentioned above, this is the same Europe that blasted MS for embedding WMP in Windows. They should learn not to bite the hand that feeds it because they might not get noticed later.
Keep up the good work.
Take a chill pill lads… what’s with all the sensitivity about the European ruling on WMP… didn’t know it upset you that much…. it doesn’t mean that us foreigners don’t luv u all ;) It was just an antitrust ruling… you do know that the good ole US of A Department of Justice Antitrust Division has also had a few issues with MS, surely you don’t suggest that MS should get grumpy with the US market because US courts are just as much of a pain in the ass as European ones. So lets not be too silly with comments about biting hands etc it just makes for such a poor discussion.
Bottom line MS is a global corporate and they are after everyone’s money whether it be dollar, euro, yen or my blood sweat and tears, and as consumers non US citizens have just as much right to bitch. And as for Matt getting scathing comments… he is a big boy who uses plenty of smileys ;) in his punctuation so he aint to bothered… lets face it if truth be told the comment that offended him the most was the 30 something jibe… after all he is only a youthful 20 something…. ;) or perhaps a late 20 something getting grumpy about an upcoming 30th???? :) :)
“I likely can’t disclose how many program managers there are who work in eHome but the number is high. Very high. I am just one of a very large number of program managers who themselves are just a portion of our technical team. ”
This single statement is very, very worrying. Is this yet another sign of just how bloated MS has become, a huge beast lumbering along but going nowhere?
Take a look at GVPVR (www.gbpvr.com). Not the most polished program ever to look at, has some issues, possibly not the easiest thing to set up either. But new features appear all the time, it supports a myriad of television standards. And, its all achieved by just one guy in his spare time.
Seriously, so few features are forthcoming from MCE version to version maybe you need to question if the team is just too large? Likewise, Snapstream and Sage seem to acheive more with less. Decisions dont take an eternity to make. Right now, I don’t think MS would look out of place in a Dilbert episode.
Im very pro-MCE and pro-Microsoft, but right now some of the decisions seem ludacris. As another poster noted, don’t believe your own hype. Just because OEMS are shipping millions of copies of MCE, doesnt mean those buyers are using it as anything other than a copy of XP Pro and have never run the Ehome shell.
Since most of the world needs DVB-S/T support in an English language edition of MCE, and Microsoft UK appears to be indifferent (they have SkyTV and probably don’t want Vista MCE to compete) perhaps you should look into shifting some of the MCE development work to the Australians…
Chill down about the number of Program Managers….
This is from one of the chat transcripts:
Jack [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: How many PMs are working in the MCE TEAM?
A: About half of the PM’s are working ;)…No, we have a great but relatively small PM team (
Binnerup, looks like it at the last bit of your post, but I believe their answer was less than/around ten. Keep in mind that’s just the Extender team, the smallest of the three eHome teams.
Matt: I don’t know - I just took it directly from the transcript.
And - the question what not how many there were on the extender team, but it actually said “MCE TEAM”. I will try post it again, as your comment blot did not like the less than sign ;-)
Jack [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: How many PMs are working in the MCE TEAM?
A: About half of the PM’s are working ;)…No, we have a great but relatively small PM team (less than 10).
Regards,
Brian
That number doesn’t include the two other teams.
Ok ;-)
Hey Matt,
First up… thanks for the great blog. I read it as often as I can remember to (and when I have the spare time it’s one of the first bookmarks for a catch-up read).
I’m a non-US based MCE enthusiast who has struggled to get a system I’m happy with (Australian flavour of DVB, AC-3 Audio, talking to an Xbox360 extender) and most of my struggles are because I won’t leave the stable platform well alone and so suffer for it … not because some Canadian who managed to score a great job doesn’t know what he’s doing.
I’ve got a lot of respect for this blog and the work you and the whole MCE team do. And I’ve got a whole lot of respect for MCE as a product.
The fact you (and other members of the team) are (a) allowed and (b) bother to engage with your audience in such a frank and open manner has been one of the things that has kept me going with MCE (and I’d tried a number of alternatives that I didn’t always like). Sure, my blog and forum posts will ocassionally pick on the feature du jour (ah, multi-culturalism) that’s bugging me… but I’ve not swapped if for a PVR, Cable STB or a TiVo clone and turned the box back into a Vista test bed.
Please don’t let one or two morons from the “Microsoft is evil” crowd get you down. They seem to think that because the alternatives are unstable and have little or no support… but are free and developed by people with penguins on their desktop… they are somehow better. My 7 year old can use our Media Centre and thinks it’s normal.
Sure MCE is currently not all things to all people. And in Vista it probably still won’t be (does it have an espresso maker attachment? and if not… why. geez!) but it’s getting better with each release. If the jump to Vista is more significant in terms of stability, usability and support than the one from the 2005 release to ru2 then I’ll be happy.
But I’ll still post a wish list of things that you should have included about a week later!
Matt: After reading abit in your responses to some of the dumbest comments I’ve read in a blog in awhile….I must state this.
Respect is earned, not given or bought. Your candor, humor, and overall professional demeanor for someone of your age earns respect. period ;)
Microsoft, on the other hand, seamingly has done it’s best of late to ruin, if not utterly destroy what respect it had earned with me over the years. The more truth I learn about them, both overtly and ‘accidentally’ when things are leaked onto the net, just erodes it further.
So, you’ll understand that complying with that one request from you won’t be a strong suit for me. :)
I do however respect that you hafta work there and at least try to defend them, s’cool, you have to eat too.
All this aside, while we’re on bad descisions….to clarify something for me? Who exactly on the MCE tv team thinks software decoding is better than hardware? I ask this as an owner of a hardware based, non-BDA capable card. I’ve run tests on every single high end, off the shelf MCE machine in my local area. That is when the store managers were nice enough to let me test them openly like this. I ran a test stream, in .ts format, thru both MCE and thru VLC player on each(yes I brought it with me, sue me lol!). The results were shocking. Even on Purevideo enabled machines, there was tearing evident in fullscreen. I used two clips, one of a basketball game in 720p, for 5 minutes. The next was a PBS broadcast in 1080i, it had lower motion speed, but was the worst in tests. Tearing and skipping was bad enough to stop the tests in 30% of machines tested.
Not one of these machines…which btw, dwarf my P4 2.8ht prescott with 1g pc3200 and a 6600gtoc256, could run these samples properly, without looking amateurish and incomplete. Meanwhile, I go back home, and pop the files thru my card, and wouldn’t you know….seamless, and somehow, more depth, this could be a visual thing though. Now this is both in Overlay mode, using VRM9 and Full Screen(this is thru loopback cable and thusly doesn’t count). I can only surmize, beyond the obvious greed behind 90% of MS descisions, that the lack of direct hardware decoder support in BDA and DirectX is a result of direct intent. I say this due to the fact that non-HD, hardware decoders ARE supported in MCE for analog tv. As are all the other DirectX calls for 3d objcets, etc..
Why?
As the source of control in this matter, it falls on MS to try to get hardware to work, even moderately popular hardware. In the past this has been the case, shoot, they’ve even integrated drivers for crappy modems into service paks….are we to believe it’s actually IMPOSSIBLE to get these current, and well performing I might add, cards to work in MCE the way they should?
On top of this problem, it now seems every other HTPC package now wants to make sure they support this broken BDA standard. So the possibilty of getting integrated support for my card in ANY package, including the one I paid for…now rests in Microsoft’s hands…..great. The same company that took XP from working fine with this card, to not at all for it’s strengths…in one fell swoop. Thanks, you guys rock!(nothing personal Matt :))
It’s just that we don’t really get a realistic chance to talk to a dev like this that might actually bring something like this up with the type of feeling I tried to get across. Even if that chance exists with someone like yourself…it’s like gold, you must understand this.
I’m sure we’ve all received enough automated support responses to no avail to be sickened by the very sight of the email header upon receipt.
Matt, once again, I applaud your effort…keep pluggin’ away, hopefully it will get better, I sorta wish you were on the TV team, then I’d know at least one guy there wasn’t a numbnut. ;P
‘
m0
PS…I’ll keep my espresso maker thank you, just cough up the hardware support and we’ll call it even! haha
Started in Europa: Universal DVB Receiver für MCE 2005
http://www.mce-community.de/mceBlog/index.php?/archives/94-Nachschlag-Universal-DVB-Receiver-fuer-MCE-2005.html
I just really laught at you when I read you, as projectmanager of MCE did not know what DVB-x is.
It worried me, because I always had the most fate in MCE over other media center software, because I thought all of the knowledge and experience gained gave you the edge, but now I read this…
I’m now considering changing to other media center software.
Still, it really disappointed me to read the poor state of your knowledge…
YS
Kasper
[…] Matt had some pretty harsh comments a few weeks back on his blog. I certainly hope these comments did not influence Matt’s decision because if you take a real good hard look at many of his posts, you will realize how much Matt has put into Windows Media Center. He says he feels he hasn’t given it all he should have but from his blog posts, you would never have guessed that. I am very thankful for the time that Matt has taken to elaborate on MCE and wish Matt all the best as he departs on his new adventure. Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. […]
Don’t forget about those of us in the US who need DVB-S support. I can’t beleive Microsoft wouldn’t include this support. At least the compeating products such as MythTV has had this from day one. I can’t switch to MCE until MS decides to look at world TV standards.