A few days ago we mentioned that EngadgetHD was reporting on rumors that Fiji, the forthcoming update for Windows Media Center, was no longer going to include support for the long anticipated DirecTV tuner. Well, EngadgetHD is back with an update.
Evidently the Media Center beta testers are still all atwitter, but EngadgetHD is reporting that they have received new information that indicates that the DirecTV and H.264 support were taking too long to implement and had to be cut because Microsoft had promised an update to OEMs by the end of July. Said update is still expected to be called the Windows Media Center TV Pack and will be bringing a host of tuner support improvements to WMC. There will be ISDB-T and BML support for Japan, clear QAM support for the US, and new support for DVB-T and DVB-S tuners for Europe. Windows Vista Ultimate may also be getting a boost with official support for four tuners, though Home Premium users will still be limited to two.
The upshot to all of this is that EngadgetHD’s sources are now optimistic that the DirecTV support will still be arriving this year, it will simply arrive a bit later.
So what does it all mean?
Last time, I tried to provide some thoughts on what all of the rumors implied for the near-term future of Windows Media Center. These newer rumors do potentially clear up my question about the validity of the name: Windows Media Center TV Pack. Microsoft’s announcement of the TV Pack for Japan is nearly three weeks old now, but these updated rumors would explain why that name is popping back up again now. The possibility that it had been promised to OEMs by the end of July may also be why early reports suggested that the update would be an OEM-only release. Hopefully that whole rumor was, as I suggested, a matter of crossed wires, even if it wasn’t necessarily the wires I expected.
The rumors swirling around the DirecTV tuner and H.264 support remain. It is not impossible to imagine a scenario in which Microsoft felt that it needed to delay the DirecTV tuner. There could be driver issues, hardware malfunctions, incompatibilities between DirecTV’s software and Media Center, or even issues properly integrating the EPG sub-systems. But why delay support for H.264?
The DirecTV tuner requires H.264, but adding H.264 support to Media Center should not require the DirecTV tuner. Any enthusiast willing to download a codec pack can add H.264 support to Media Center right now. Windows Media Center uses DirectShow filters to provide the interface between the video renderer and supplemental codecs. Given the right filters, just about any codec support can be enabled in WMC. Unless…
The scary possibility is that all of this relates to DRM, and the H.264 support that Microsoft is adding is going to be so hobbled that it will only be of use in specific, limited scenarios. The other possibility is that all of this relates to DRM, and the H.264 support that Microsoft is adding is intended to also provide support for something else; Blu-ray support may be closer than we think.
As I mentioned above, Windows Media Center uses DirectShow filters to interface with codecs, but Microsoft has already baked DirectShow’s replacement into Vista in the form of Media Foundation. Moving Media Center over to Media Foundation and its enhanced video renderer would serve to make Media Center Protected Media Path-compliant, one of the requirements necessary for Blu-ray support.
Of course, basing Media Center’s H.264 support on Media Foundation might complicate things for users. Would Media Center be able to use Media Foundation and DirectShow simultaneously? If not, a whole lot of Media Center applications are going to break. Any application or codec using a Directshow filter would need to be reengineered to access the enhanced video renderer through a Media Foundation Transform instead. I suspect that DirectX 10 compatible GPUs would become a WMC requirement. It is also possible, depending on how the Protected Media Path is enabled, that an HDCP-compliant video connection would be a requirement in order to play back any H.264 material.
In the end, perhaps I am reading too much into these rumors of delays. Either way we will wait with bated breath to see what Microsoft is planning.
July 10th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Interesting thoughts, need to hunt this down.