We Got Served

We have been waiting on pins and needles for information, any information, on the next version of Windows Media Center, code-named Fiji. It is an open secret that Vista Media Center was not all the Media Center team had hoped it would be and Fiji was to be the update that would bring the major updates in functionality that Vista Media Center users were hoping for. Unfortunately, all anyone has heard about Fiji in the last couple of months is that it is in beta testing, that it might be released late this year, and rumors that Fiji would bring support for the HDPC-20, the DirecTV tuner for Vista Media Center.

At least, that was all we had heard until EngadgetHD dropped a ton of rumors and screenshots about Fiji.
First, the bad news. Turns out the good guys over at EngadgetHD have learned the first release candidate of Fiji has just been issued to beta testers and that it lacks the native H.264 support that was necessary for the DirecTV tuner. Piling on the bad news are rumors that this H.264 support and the DirecTV support are being pushed to Windows 7, the next version of Windows due in 2010, and that Fiji will be called the Windows Media Center TV Pack and will only be available through OEMs.

The bad news is somewhat tempered by rumors that the DirecTV beta is being handled in a smaller private beta to avoid leaks, but Microsoft has not responded to EngadgetHD’s request for information.

There is good news too, according to EngadgetHD’s sources. Evidently the Fiji release candidate is packing native QAM support, expanded tuner support for international users, the ability to assign over the air channels any channel number you want, and additions to the UI and recording preferences for HD. There are also reports that DVR-MS, the file format that Media Center uses for recorded television is being replaced with a new format, WTV.

So what does it all mean?

There was of course the good news in the EngadgetHD article to help us keep our spirits up while we await official details. The demise of DVR-MS in favor of WTV is interesting, though not surprising. DVR-MS is not a real file format, but rather a wrapper holding metadata and DRM around an MPEG-2 file. WTV is likely a similar wrapper, but designed to support a wider range of file encoding types. Hopefully it will offer more robust metadata support, though it will probably also come with more DRM.

If true, the loss of H.264 support will be a big blow. It means that there will be no DirecTV tuner support and that Media Center users will still be restricted to recording television in MPEG-2 with its larger file sizes. It is possible to use Windows Media Center with a satellite set-top box and video input, but it limits users to standard definition recording. The DirecTV tuner was intended to resolve this issue by hooking directly into the Media Center architecture. We can only hope that the rumors about a separate private beta for the DirecTV tuner bear out.

The idea that Fiji will only be available through OEMs is equally disappointing. There is precedent for this. After all, Media Center was only available in OEM versions of Windows XP because Microsoft was concerned about hardware support and configurations. With Media Center now standard in Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate, the two versions that most home users are running, it was generally assumed that Fiji would be available for everyone. If this has changed, the question is why?

One possibility is that Microsoft is trying to give system builders a unique feature to help stimulate sales of systems running Windows Vista. A more tasteful possibility is that Fiji will, like XP Media Center, have some specific and unique system requirements that Microsoft is concerned that less technical users will not be prepared for. One of the big sticking points for XP Media Center was that it required a DirectX 9 graphics processor. When Vista launched, the Media Center team made a lot of noise about how Vista Media Center’s new UI was built using a new code called Media Center Markup Language, or MCML, and that it had been optimized for DirectX 10. It is possible that Fiji will make DirectX 10 a requirement.

A couple a thoughts to give pause before anyone starts worrying too much about the possibility that Fiji will be an OEM only update. First of all, the name that EngadgetHD’s sources are reporting matches up with the name of a Media Center update that Microsoft recently released in Japan to expand tuner support in that country. Perhaps this entire rumor is a matter of crossed wires. Second, if it is an OEM only update, hopefully it will operate in a manner similar to XP Media Center. There were three versions of XP Media Center for 2003, 2004, and 2005. A user could not directly upgrade Media Center, but OEMs had the option of offering upgrades of Windows XP Media Center Edition at little or no cost. In such a scenario, only DIY builders and people who purchased Vista at retail would be out of luck. Finally, if it is an OEM only update, it will probably be possible to purchase an OEM version of Windows Vista with this Media Center update.

On the other hand, if you are inclined to panic, let me leave you with one final, chilling possibility. It is not possible to purchase a stand-alone CableCard tuner or build or upgrade a Media Center PC with a CableCard tuner. One must purchase a CableCard ready PC and tuner from an authorized OEM due to restrictions put forth by Cablelabs, the cable industry’s certification organization. If EngadgetHD is right that Fiji is an OEM only update and that the DirecTV tuner is running in a separate private beta, then it raises the frightening possibility that the DirecTV tuner will be locked into a similar arrangement. Comments from Microsoft and DirecTV in the past have indicated that this was not the original plan, but you know what they say about the plans of mice and men.

Here’s to hoping that all of these negative rumors will prove false and all future Fiji updates will suggest clearer waters.