One thing I’m learning about being an MVP at this summit is that you get asked a huge amount of questions from other MVPs about the product area you represent - particularly when you represent a new, exciting product like Windows Home Server.
Top 2 questions this week:
1. What’s happening with that Drive Extender bug?
2. When are Microsoft going to make Home Server and Media Center work better together?
Clearly, one is a question for today, and the second one for tomorrow. If you’re an MVP and you attended yesterday’s deep dive session at the Seattle Sheraton, you know the answer to Question 1. For everyone else, the team have announced there will be a public beta test some time soon.
Question 2 is actually a bigger question then just Media Center and Home Server working well together - across the digital home, you’ll find the fall out from terrible media sharing experiences. Proprietary or otherwise weird media formats, DRM carnage, inconsistent UIs, poor device communication, the list goes on. As the amount of media display and distribution devices explodes in the home, there’s more companies fighting for a share of your cash, who don’t like talking to the other guys fighting for a share of your cash.
Over the next few years, we’ll have to see more convergence, both in devices (i.e. hardware doing more than one thing) and software (consistent UI, codec/standards support, DRM). HP this week announced the release of their new MediaSmart TV which brings Extender for Windows Media Center functionality to an LCD panel. No separate box, less cabling, tidier solution, works well with Media Center PCs and other UPnP devices (such as Windows Home Server).
It’s a great start, but we’re nowhere near the pervasive access to our media that we all want in our homes, delivered by hardware that’s small, unobtrusive, easy to install, configure and manage. So, let’s build a list - what’s currently broken in how your digital devices work together? What are the big pain points and frustrations in using Windows Home Server with other media devices in the home? What hacks, workarounds, add-ins, and other software do you use to make life easier?
I’m about to take a fresh look at using Windows Media Center at home (I used it heavily a couple years ago, but grew increasingly frustrated with it as a solution for my media). I have a brand new box I’m going to install Media Center on and am considering a V2 extender for the lounge - let me know what pain to expect!
April 18th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Terry, I’m not sure what to make of your paragraph starting with…
“Question 2 is actually a bigger question then just Media Center and Home Server working well together”
Are you suggesting the WHS Team is heavily handicapped by legal issues (around licensing) to pursue some sort of Media Center integration? That might be the case if we are talking about transferring DRM’d recordings to WHS and having WHS serve that up around the house. Indeed that will be vital for Media Center’s future. But I think Microsoft can avoid this in v2 by focusing on three things:
- Create a common entertainment UI for the home. Essentially letting WHS serve up the Media Center UI.
- Provide Online Services (CinemaNow, MovieLink, soon NetFlix etc) via WHS Media Center.
- Do not provide Media Center DVR capabilities in v2. That will eliminate alot of the complexity and other support issues.
If they take this approach of porting Media Center (minus perhaps the TV/DVR) then I don’t see WHS being any different then the existing Vista/Media Center sku. The licensing agreements are already there for that. What you end up with is a 247 WHS that can serve up the *common* Media Center UI around the home and its attractive MC online services such as CinemaNow, etc. That would be a great first v2 step in blending the two products together. If a WHS partner wants to promote their own entertainment platform..their is nothing stopping them from building it around WHS either. And if partners are still flaky on that..then perhaps Microsoft should *sell separately* a Media Center add-on for WHS. We’ve all the seen the avalanche of requests made 12-16 months ago.
What else could possibly be holding them back?
April 18th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
Media center through an extender is painful in that the experience is very limited. There are two things that could change everything:
1) A web browser that you can use on the end client (XBox360, etc…..) MS makes a point of the Web Browser being the domain of the PC, but why could a browser not be hosted by Media Center? It is the limited amount of content that makes Media Center painful. A small amount of your digital media is available in a spoon fed manner.
2) The ability for an extender to interact with the Media Center machine in an RDP like manner.
At this point, you actually need a computer as part of your entertainment center with the TV as the monitor in order to get a satisfying experience. Once you have this, you have no need for Media Center edition, because you essentially have a full computer in front of you.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Tom, I’m not saying Media Extenders don’t need more improvements or additional features but overall I’ve had a very satisfying experience with Media Center/Extenders. If there is something on the internet that I want to share in the living room..I simply download it to my Media Center PC. And if you like more direct access to things like YouTube…there are add-ins for Media Center. The thing I absolutely don’t want in my living room…or any big screen in the house..is something that feels like a PC experience.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Hi John
I honestly have no ideas around the DRM implications, but it’ll need to be figured out for each of the DRM media providers (iTunes, Zune Marketplace, the video guys you mention etc) to ensure media licences for your content are tracked, backed up and seamlessly distributed (if required) to the various devices and computers around your home, as well as any mobile devices you have and that’s no straightforward task.
What I was actually getting at is that there’s a massive digital ecosystem in the home now that has to work perfectly with WHS if we want the perfect media experience we all have in our heads. It’s not just WHS and MCE, it’s about working with various DMRs, Digital Picture Frames, etc. As we’ve seen, a couple of the large hardware suppliers are now bundling PacketVideo/TwonkyMedia to support WHS working with more devices, which is a good move forward.
Let’s then have a think about hardware - the great thing about WHS is that (by and large) they do not require a high hardware spec, they can be pretty small, cool and quiet. So, what kind of server hardware would you guys want in the future. Lots of storage certainly for all of your music, video and recorded TV. But how about tuners? What kind of tuners, how many? Are they located in the box in the server or elsewhere? The more you pack into the box, the hotter/louder it’s going to get. Is that okay?
Completely agree with you regarding the Media Center UI - for me it’s better than anything out in the market and the TV guide is phenomenal. I’ve really missed using it since Vista was released and I moved away from Media Center. Looking forward to having another look at it to recall just what I’m missing.
So, do you foresee the home server replacing the media center desktop completely? Or being used to back up from and distribute to other devices around the home?
April 18th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Hi Terry, yes I do see WHS replacing the serving aspects of Media Center *in the home*. The Vista/Media Center solution is ideal for say college students using a laptop in their dorm. But in a home entertainment system…Microsoft needs to make some fundamental changes. In our home, we’ve replaced our 3 desktop computers with laptops. Thats a growing trend and laptops don’t make for a stable/always available home entertainment system. Although OEMs could embed tuners in a WHS product..I agree that would drive up costs and hardware specs. Though what I am suggesting would no doubt require more memory compared to today’s WHS offerings…but hey, hardware is constantly improving. A mass market WHS probably doesn’t need DVR and I’m not sure thats the long term future as IPTV grows and younger consumers opt for more online content. A WHS that is able to serve up the common entertainment UI (throughout the home) and give consumers a central place to access online stores (CinemaNow, NetFlix, YouTube) would satisfy a large percentage of consumers. I wouldn’t prevent custom high-end OEMs from building a complete WHS/Media Center/Tuner solution though. Heres what I like to see…
- Media Center remain part of Vista
- Media Center ported to v2 WHS and configurable from WHS console
- No TV Tuner built-in to mass market WHS products (though could be offered via optional USB Tuner with hardware encoding)
- Media Center only enabled on v2 WHS products with 2GB
- High-end OEMs offer WHS with built-in tuners and sell Media Extenders
- Microsoft enhanced Vista/Media Center to include a PC based Extender mode to connect to Media Center Server
April 19th, 2008 at 8:06 am
I would use Media Center with my Xbox360 under the following two conditions:
1.) It is included and or can be installed on my WHS. Why should I have two PCs running the whole day? Why waste energy and money for nothing?
2.) It plays much more formats like divx/xvid, mkv and isos. Otherwise it’s useless. The whole point of the WHS is for me to digitalize my media (like dvds, blu-rays…). So I need to be able to playback this media.