Last time I talked about the average consumer and his/her relationship, or lack of, with Windows Media Center. This time, the discussion at hand is the Total Microsoft Package. Perhaps I should say the Total Windows Media Center Package.
Before I can talk about the Total Windows Media Center Package, I need to delve into a bit of history.
In the Golden Age of television, one had access to 3 channels on the TV (in the U.S.): ABC, NBC, CBS. PBS? Yea, right. I had already graduated from high school when the Atari game console first came out. My oldest kids grew up on Nintendo (the original!). Today’s game consoles are a slight bit more sophisticated and can do just a bit more than those dinosaurs of yesteryear.
Fast forwarding a few years, we find that in the average home, most everyone has a television set. In the U.S., cable and satellite providers have become the leading source of access to entertainment programming. The options may vary a bit depending on where you are in the world, but the general point holds true. Combining a TV, and cable or satellite hookup with a Digital Video Recorder (DVR), gives you have the basic Home Theater choice of the Average Consumer. A DVD player completes this HT package.
Is this state-of-the-art? Does this perform all the tasks of a Media Center? To the average consumer, the answer to both questions is probably yes. What more could there be to a Home Entertainment Center?
To me, a complete Home Entertainment Center, centered around Windows Media Center, would allow the user to stream all types of media throughout the home. This Total Windows Media Center Package would give you following capabilities:
- digital photo viewer
- music player
- video player
- TV receiver
- digital video recorder
- video games
- and more
Discussion about Windows Media Center brings us to the present. Windows Media Center, with the appropriate hardware, is capable of providing a complete Home Entertainment package. This “latest” Home Entertainment package is as big a step forward as going from 3 OTA channels to cable TV. So, what is required to setup a Windows Media Center package, or as I term it, the Total Microsoft Package? Well, here is the short list:
· A TV. Duh! A big widescreen LCD would be nice, but an analog TV will also work.
· A 5.1 (or better) sound system
· A Media Center computer. MC on WHS would be better! Microsoft: hint hint.
· An Extender.
Those are some rather scary terms for the Average Consumer. Sound system. Computer. Extender. Those terms all sound expensive, and the term “extender”, sounds like a foreign language. Not only that, but where does one buy this Total Windows Media Center Package? That answer is basically nowhere, as the “Total” package does not exist. Microsoft has designed this software as the centerpiece of a Home Entertainment Center, but has left it up to the consumer to figure out how to piece it together and what to do with it. You can go to the Microsoft website and read up on all the features of MC, and obtain some basic information on what is required to complete the hardware side of the Package.
But what is contained in the above url is mostly marketing hyperbole. It extols the features of Media Center, and gives basic information on hardware requirements. It touches on all aspects of Media Center and the associated hardware, somewhat similar to what I have done above. If you wade through enough linked pages from that url, you might be able to determine what you would need.
Nowhere does it give you, Average Consumer, a detailed breakdown on the hardware needed to buy, setup, expand, and “easily” integrate all this. To “work out of the box”, that is.
Which, since you ask, is the point of this whole post. Microsoft needs to develop a model that allows the average consumer to quickly and easily make an informed decision as to what he needs to have this Microsoft version of the Total Entertainment package. And Microsoft needs to develop a strategy to make their vision a “must have” package. This is not something that Microsoft can do alone. It will have to be a part of a larger marketing and educational message and include as many PC manufacturers, or perhaps vendors, as possible.
Regarding the model, Microsoft needs to develop what I would call the “base” Microsoft package. It would include all the hardware items I mentioned above. The enthusiast might not ever consider this worthy of consideration, however, the Average Consumer may find this “work out the box” solution quite appealing. Especially, if Microsoft can convince the consumer that this is a “must have” Entertainment Center.
Well, that is about it for this time. In my next part, I plan on putting together a potential package, or packages, some cost estimates of the Total Windows Media Center Package, and go into more detail about how Microsoft can reach out to OEMs and consumers alike.
July 20th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Agree with you completely. And I absolutely love Media Center. I couldn’t take being without my Media Center for a week. And Microsoft definitely needs to make it more “user friendly”, so that it isn’t just us enthuasists enjoying it and proclaiming it’s awesomeness!
WHS+WMC+XBOX360+PCs are the absolutely best network setup ever!
Not to mention that GaMeR and myself have proven that Media Center will run on Home Server, now we just need to get Rollup 2 working, and we will have done what MS can’t/won’t do. And heck, I would be willing to pay more for a Media center version of WHS, and some better integration with Media Center. Or even softsled.
July 20th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
My previous attempt at posting a comment failed with a Javascript error. Apologies if this looks like a duplicate, but I’ll summarize:
As someone who has been involved with all of these products from the beginning, I think it’s important to voice a little caution here. Microsoft’s media products are good, but the integration gaps are huge and surprising. So beware.
Examples:
* Zune has next to no integration with MCE. Additionally, in mind-numbing fashion, it requires a separate media player. And to think, Microsoft has this cool underutilized Sideshow feature and a neat little wireless device on which it could run. No dice. They should take some pointers from the iTunes Remote application just released for the iPhone/Touch.
* Sadly, WHS has pretty much zero integration with MCE (nothing that any other PC can’t do anyway).
* Unlike other extenders, Microsoft’s own X360 can’t play Xvid/Divx while in extender mode. But it can play these outside of extender mode!
* The cool high-res X360 visualizations? Also not available in extender mode.
* Let’s be clear for the new MCE users: Unlike other competing solutions, you cannot use a computer as an extender. You can hack together some media sharing solutions, but forget about live TV or even TV recording scheduling. Where art thou, oh Softsled?
* Be prepared for a cluttered media library. Vista MCE took media organization a giant step backward. Of course, the eHome team blames this on the WMP team (just to give you a little insight into the inner workings of MSFT).
* CableCARD: At least someone new to this game can think to purchase a new machine with CableCARD. Those of us existing loyal followers can’t upgrade and take advantage of the hottest new feature in Vista MCE without buying a new premium PC.
* Fiji: If the rumors are true then again existing MCE users won’t get an upgrade. But it’s okay, because those same rumors tell us that the first major MCE update in 2 years won’t include anything to write home about.
* Don’t get me started on my V1 extender paperweight.
So the Microsoft solution is still one of the best, possibly *the* best…..but it’s so far from perfect. And if you’re prepared to spend thousands on the full-Microsoft solution, then also be prepared for some let-downs.
Just my 2 cents.
Aaron
July 20th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
@ Aaron
I certainly cannot disagree with on any of your points. I certainly do not consider myself a MCE expert (yet), which is the reason I felt it was a good idea to put something like this together. This mini series is not for the experienced user, as he/she already has gone thru the “hoops of despair”.
Anyway, by the end of all this, I just hope that someone at MS reads some of this. Integration of MS products is sporatic, at best. Media Center seems to be a prime example.
The single biggest problem with media, whether pixs, music, DVDs, etc. is that there are so many standards out there currently. New ones keep cropping up. Some based on standards, some are proprietary. It is hard for anyone in the industry to keep up with it all, let alone the consumer.
Let’s see, 720p, 720i, 1080i, 1080p. What’s next in that series, for example?