Firs there was Windows XP Media Center Edition. Then there was Windows Vista with media center features built into the operating system. But while Microsoft has built an excellent 10-foot interface for interacting with TV, video, radio, and and pictures from your couch, the company has never put together a simple interface for accessing your content from further away. Say, from the office or a friend's house.
Developer Doug Berrett stepped up to the plate and developed WebGuide, a popular tool for scheduling recordings remotely and for streaming recorded television programs over the web from your home PC.
Well, it looks like Microsoft noticed Berrett's work, and the company went and hired him. While this is great news for Berrett, it's also good news for you. Because it means that WebGuide is now available as a free download. No more $18 fee to register your software.
Berrett will be working with the Media Center team to push Media Center "into the high-end custom installation market," which means he won't be offering updates to WebGuide anymore. But he did push out one final release yesterday. Updates for Windows Vista and Windows XP MCE 2005 editions include:
Updated "now playing" screen to not update the progress bar as often in full screen mode
Fixed login text entry on Xbox 360
Added auto-redirect to mobile pages for mobile devices
Seems like there's a new Ubuntu-based Linux distribution coming out at least once a month. Last month it was Ubuntu Studio, a distro designed for creative professionals interested in audio, video, and image editing. This week we saw the alpha release of Mythbuntu, a distro for those who'd rather consume media than create it.
Just as Ubuntu is designed to make Linux accessible to the casual user, Mythbuntu is designed to bring media center software to the masses. Of course, that's what Windows Vista does, but for anyone interested in open source applications, MythTV is the way to go, and Mythbuntu makes installation a relatively painless process.
The current version is a public alpha, so don't expect everything to work perfectly. But if you download the disc image, burn it to a CD, pop it in your computer and reboot, you should load up a MythTV frontend. That's the part that lets you interact with media. If you want a fully functioning media center that can record record television shows, you'll want to install the backend as well. If you've already got a backend machine running, you can access it from the frontend included on the liveCD.
Still, the LiveCD is a great option for anyone who wants to see how MythTV works without having to repartition or reformat their hard drive.
MythTV, the popular Linux based PVR project, has been around for some time. It's nice, and it functions well, but it's only as functional as Windows Media Center Edition plus, it can be difficult to install and configure. Linux MCE, which wraps MythTV up into a nice package and places it squarely on top of the leading Linux distribution Ubuntu -- may be poised to change some of that.
Take the leap to watch a demonstration of the Linux MCE project running on a home TV, and a comparison to Windows Media Center Edition.
Microsoft seems to have left out from Windows Vista the ability to log in to your PC without logging out another user. While this was something that was technically only supported on earlier Windows Server products, there was an easy hack that allowed you to replace a dll file in Windows XP.
Okay, so why is this important? Well, if you want to access files on your computer, or install updates, or pretty much do anything while someone else is using your computer, tough. For example, say a family member's watching a movie using Vista's media center functionality in the living room, but you need access to the computer? You're pretty much out of luck.
On the other hand, if you could login from a remote computer without logging off the first user, one user could continue to use the media center while the other user performs tasks in the background.
Well, as tends to happen when Microsoft leaves a useful feature out of their operating systems, the user community finds a way to enable it. The fine folks at The Green Button are have found a way to enable concurrent sessions. Alan Cook at Missing Remote has written up a nice tutorial explaining how to install the hack.
Basically, what Windows Live for TV does is add a ten foot interface to a number of Windows Live services, such as Spaces, Messenger, and Live Call. The program is meant to work with Windows Vista Media Center. That means you can plug your PC into your TV and access Windows live services from the comfort of your couch.
Here's a few of the things it'll let you do:
Browse Windows Live Spaces in 3D graphics, with keyword searches
Have text and voice chats with other Windows Live Messenger users
Make PC to telephone calls using Verizon Web Calling
Navigate with a mouse, keyboard, or Media Center remote control
You'll need a PC running Windows Vista Home Premium or Vista Ultimate RC2 or higher to run Windows Live for TV. It looks like Windows XP and Windows XP Media Center Edition users are out of luck.
The developers have launched a blog, which already features a couple of tips, such as keyboard shortcuts and quick search tricks.
GBPVR is a free PC PVR software package including media-center-like functionality, free for download. Unfortunately, it didn't support the PVR card I have in my PC, so I couldn't tell you how well it works. The interface looks nice, and it seems that the setup isn't too hard, so you'll have to let me know what you think of it if you install it on one of the supported cards listed. The currently supported TV tuner cards (as listed on the GBPVR website) are:
Hauppauge PVR250, PVR250MCE, PVR350, PVR USB2, PVR150, PVR150MCE and the dual-tuner PVR500MCE
ATI Theatre 550 Pro
Emuzed Maui-I, Emuzed Maui-II, Emuzed Maui-III
DVB-T and DVB-S devices with BDA drivers including:
Hauppauge Nova-S
Hauppauge Nova-T
Hauppauge Nova-T USB2
Pinnacle MediaCenter 300i
Twinhan DVB-S, DVB-T, DVB-C
FireDTV DVB-S, DVB-T, DVB-C
Dvico Fusion DVB-T
V-Box DTT-150
Blockgold GDI DVB-T
Lifeview FlyDVB-T
...and lots of others
GO7007SB based capture devices, such as Plextor PX-M402U, Plextor PX-TV402U and Lifeview TV Walker
The program requires Windows XP or 2000, and the Microsoft .net framework 2.0 installed to run. Windows 2000 requires MDAC 2.6 or higher as well. GBPVR is not open-source, but you can get started writing your own plug-ins in C#, VB.NET or C++ for it by visiting the developer's forum.
PRV Wire's Chris Tew has written an interesting editorial in which he argues that "There is one company that Google, Microsoft or Yahoo could acquire to ensure they will be well placed on the living room TV, and that company is TiVo." Chris rules out Microsoft because they've already got their foot in your living room with Windows Media Center and because TiVo runs on Linux. Yahoo! and TiVo already have a partnership and YHOO has a history of big acquisitions. "Securing its services on TiVo," says Chris, "could give Yahoo an advantage it desperately needs" over Google. Google, of course, is also a big spender, and would love to get its ads into the living room.
In the end, Chris puts his money on Yahoo!, but I wouldn't rule out Microsoft so quickly. Microsoft already has a hardware arm and could easily merge the Media Center and TiVo product lines with a branded TiVo version of Windows MCE, and many of the TiVo faithful wouldn't bat an eyelash. In the end, I think it would be ideological, rather than technical, differences that would hamstring a MSFT-TiVo buy-out. But I guess I'll side with Chris on this one--of those three companies, Yahoo! seems like the best candidate, and may be foaming at the mouth for a new avenue of expansion to pursue.
Microsoft has unveiled a Vista upgrade matrix, detailing which present versions of Windows are eligible for upgrading to one of the four relevant versions of Vista (Starter and Enterprise are targeted for specific markets and therefore not included in this matrix). To make matters a bit complicated, however, some editions (such as XP Pro or Win2K) are only eligible to upgrade to a "corresponding or better" version of Vista, i.e. - Business or Ultimate. As icing on the cake, some ugprades will require a fresh wipe and install, while others can be upgraded 'in-place', retaining your applications and settings.
To be clear, however: all present versions of Windows listed in this chart are eligible to purchase upgrade editions of Windows Vista. Previous versions, such as Win98 and ME, will have to purchase a full edition of Vista.
Blogger Jake Ludington wrote in to tell us about his "semi-exclusive" screenshot of a Gadget (read:
widget) in the works for Windows Live that recommends TV shows and then lets you
remotely (read: from anywhere in the world) set your Windows Media Center Edition PC to record them. Jake
describes it as "the only useful Gadget I've seen so far," and, though I'm not sure I'd call it the
only useful Gadget in the wild, it's definitely high on the list. No word on when this Gadget's going to see the light
of day, but while you wait, head over to Jake's blog for the full screenshot and some more details.
Want to turn your Mac into a media center but need an alternative to Apple's Front Row? MediaCentral might be what you're looking for.
It's a freeware media center app for OS X that integrates with iTunes and does most of what Front Row does, plus a few
tricks it doesn't. It works with eyeTV devices, will let you tune into Internet TV stations, lets you access the most
recent movie trailers from Apple.com, and works with a variety of remote controls. Cool.
CyberLink has announced PowerCinema Linux,
media software that "transforms a Linux PC into an entertainment center featuring analog and digital TV, radio,
Teletext and electronic program guide browsing." It looks like it's aimed primarily at PC and set-top box
manufacturers and provides most of your standard media center features including music, movies, and photo
slideshows.
In what sounds like a show across the bow of the likes of Orb and the Slingbox, according to BetaNews
Microsoft is testing an add-on to Windows Media Center which would allow users to stream live TV from their Media
Center PC across the Internet through their web browser. BetaNews says Microsoft is being "wary of copyright
issues," so expect the software to be DRM-heavy. The product is currently in internal testing but Microsoft will
likely conduct an open(ish) beta in the future.
The Wall Street
Journal is running an interesting profile
on Joe Belfiore, Microsoft's VP in charge of its Media Center division. It's fairly fluffy, yes, but it gives an
interesting peek into Microsoft's Media Center strategy: Unlike the very, very slow progression of the classic Windows
product line, Belfiore's team has pushed out a new version of Media Center every year, and it will be fully integrated
into Windows Vista when it's (probably) launched later this year. The article also touches on the competition heating
up with Apple's Front Row. Worth a look for Microsoft-watchers.
Firs there was Windows XP Media Center Edition. Then there was Windows Vista with media center features built into the operating system. But while Microsoft has built an excellent 10-foot interface for interacting with TV, video, radio, and and pictures from your couch, the company has never put together a simple interface for accessing your content from further away. Say, from the office or a friend's house.
MythTV, the popular Linux based PVR project, has been around for some time. It's nice, and it functions well, but it's only as functional as Windows Media Center Edition plus, it can be difficult to install and configure. 
Microsoft seems to have left out from Windows Vista the ability to log in to your PC without logging out another user. While this was something that was technically only supported on earlier Windows Server products, there was an easy hack that allowed you to replace a dll file in Windows XP.
GBPVR 
