Thanks to a commentor who found this WinHEC 06 Presentation, Preparing For TV Beyond Windows Vista [PPT] by my co-worker (on the TV team) Bernhard. This Power Point deck lays out what our plans are for supporting worldwide TV standards. If you’re passionate about DVB-x, ISDB, etc, read this.

The deck doesn’t address why we focused on what we focused on for Windows Vista but it does show that we understand what standards are popular throughout the rest of the world, the challenges being faced and what we’re enabling in the future.

In the comments I’ve heard several concerns that while they won’t see the next version of Media Center until 2009. We can’t talk about future plans but historically the Media Center team has shipped a new version or major rollup every year.

I’d also like to point out that Media Center can’t be everything to everyone around the world. If a different program suits your needs then please use it. While I love Media Center if you can’t watch TV in it by all means use Media Portal (it’s built on .Net afterall!). Or if you require the stability and simplicity of a standalone CE device try a Tivo (though I sure hope you give Tivo hell for not even supporting DVD changers or non-US countries!).

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