Every blog and news site seems to be running various Bill Gates stories as he steps down as CEO at the end of the month and this one caught my eye. It is an article from MSNBC listing Microsoft's hits and misses.
The first miss is "Windows Media Center PCs". MSNBC says that Media Center's complexity and the rise of devices like Tivo have meant that Media Center PCs never made it mainstream. While I disagree that Media Center is a miss I can see the product has failed to take off outside the enthusiast community and is only just making inroads in to the Customer Installer Market. So what to do?
A PC connected directly to a TV will always be a niche product but I also think that Windows Media Center has a big part to in the digital home by being a service and not a product. I see it as a Digital Media Server, where you have a TV card installed (either CableCARD, DVB-T, Sky etc) and then Extenders around the home, which could be devices like the Xbox 360 and the new generation of Extenders or smaller devices like ROKU Sound Bridge.
It could also perform the role of home automation server, security system and many other services. Obviously there is huge crossover of functionality with Windows Home Server and an ideal future product could combine the best of both products.
So while I kind of agree with the article, there's still an opportunity to make Windows Media Center a service that could be hosted on a server or a PC; independent from the 2002 style Media Center PC.
I am not including the Home Theatre PC in this. If you're a home theatre enthusiast wanting the latest technology and formats then the Home Theatre PC remains the best platform.
Ian Dixon runs TheDigitalLifestyle.com, a community dedicated to the digital home.
Your comments (2) Click to add a new comment
sanderton
July 15th 2008
2. I've taken the server-plus-extenders route. It's great, but not exactly for the non tech savvy.
For the moment, standalone DVR boxes represent the better way for most people.
Alert a moderator
mediavue
July 12th 2008
1. Ian, I totally agree with you. But I also thing that it has been down to a large extent to the Media Centre's themselves. They are mostly large where as Freeview boxes or Sky boxes a small.
However - I think that we are heading in the right direction now, especially since Paradigm have release their new Media Centres http://www.mediacenter-tv.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=ParadigmHT130D and then there is the budget MJR2 which is slimline http://www.mediacenter-tv.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=TsunamiMJR2&cat=33.
As cooling gets better the machines get smaller. Therefore popularity increases....
Alert a moderator
Tell us what you think
You need to Log in or register to post comments