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CEDIA 2008: Microsoft's Media Center Starts Anew
By Jose Fermoso
September 03, 2008, 3:41:11

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/09/cedia-2008-micr.html

Denver, CO - At this week's CEDIA 2008 conference, Microsoft is coming clean with one of the most disappointing aspects of its Vista OS, the Windows Media Center.

Microsoft is expected to announce a new Media Center alliance and partner directly with custom installation hardware companies (some outside the mainstream), in order to push the entertainment system into more devices and better compete with other media centers. Microsoft has been criticized in the past for a hands-off approach with its software integrations.

Lifemedia_streamer_2 According to industry insiders, the Media Center Integrator Alliance intends to provide users with best practices on how to make the best of the Media Center in their Windows-based PCs. More often than not, Media Center users get stuck on the fact that they can't set a TV tuner preference for an individual channel or that it lacks a record HD content-only feature.

The recent release of Media Center's new TV pack update enables such requests, but it's a Media Center-enabled device like the just-announced Lifemedia (streaming) Server from Lifeware that shows its full potential.

The Lifemedia comes with customizable UI's, support for the iPhone (to make it a useful remote control), and a fully integrated wireless connection. Basically, the promise is that if every Vista owner had one of these boxes, the 'Vista Sucks' jokes would be hard to come by. OK, maybe not. But it does seem to be a step forward.

OnlinemediaOther companies, like Niveus and even Samsung and Sharp, are expected to come out with Media Center extenders that will easily tie their new media players to the PC.

When it was first released, Microsoft's Windows Vista OS was expected to accelerate the transition of the PC into the main home media entertainment center. You were supposed to be able to watch all of your digital movies and shows on your computer (through any satellite or cable service), stream them to big TVs, and record anything you wanted, easy.

But a funny thing happened: Windows Media Center, while pretty to look at, got caught up in the wars between content providers, different TV tuners couldn't be lined up natively, and people didn’t want to buy an extra TV tuner anyway. For most, the whole thing turned out to be more complicated to set up and maintain than a regular box with better options (like TiVo's HD box.)

The fact that some hardware makers are setting up their own content deals will make it harder for Microsoft to establish a strong presence with Media Center, but no one has the OS penetration of MS. It recently showed that it can learn from its mistakes while giving Media Center a big marketing boost -- the recent deal with TV Tonic for the Olympics gave the Center its biggest role ever.

So Microsoft just might just learn how to make a technically strong Media Center package easy enough for it to be useful for everyone.