wrightin.gs

The "Wow" starts after you get over the lame displays

Frank LaVigne posted a picture of the Best Buy displays for Windows Vista.  One word sums it up for me.....lame.  Come on Microsoft, lets see....five years in the making, the biggest upgrade to your operating system to date, and the largest risk Microsoft has taken and this is the display you have come up with?  I realize that Best Buy has had some constraints in the display size, etc., but listen paper flyers, small posters, and a couple of shelves does not really scream inviting.  How about using some technology?  How about using some of that marketing budget?  This display just screams Windows 3.1.

CES 2007: Best News So Far

The coolest gadget so far in my opinion that will come out of CES is the SlingCatcher.  This is basically an extender for the Slingbox.  It allows slinging media from the Slingbox to another TV instead of just to a PC like today.  This is awesome.  This will allow me to set a recording anywhere in the house and watch that recording at another TV.  You could take this with you on trips and sling your recorded shows to the hotel TV instead of watching it on your laptop.  There are also rumors about being able to sling media from the internet like YouTube and the like.  Sweet!

Media Center Removal Complete

I told everyone that I was done with media center and the removal is complete.  It is a pretty powerful PC so I wanted to keep the PC but I needed a new case.  The first thing that I did was choose a new case.  I picked up some extra memory as well since the Media Center PC only had 512.  My wife picked up a couple of the Motorola DVR boxes from our local cable company.

I moved over the guts from my Media Center PC to my new case and reimaged the drive with Vista.  The new box totally rocks.  I hooked up the two cable boxes and I now have many more HD channels.  Yeah!  I moved my XBOX 360 to my HD tv since I no longer need it's extender capabilities.  The only problem with this new setup is we can't share recorded tv shows between the two boxes but thats a small price to pay because of all the added bonuses.

Here is my old setup (box):

Here is the new setup (box):

Since I didn't put everything in my new PC, I am going to be putting some things up for sale on eBay.  If you are interested in any of these items, email me at jwright [at] wrightin [dot] gs and I will give you some more details.  I will placing these on eBay sometime over the weekend if I don't hear anything by then.

These are the items for sale.  They are all in good condition with the original contents.

• Ahanix MCE 601 Aluminum Case
• Gyration Optical Air Mouse and Compact Keyboard
• ATI HDTV Wonder  SOLD
• Hauppauge WinTV PVR 250  SOLD
• Microsoft Media Center OEM Remote Control and Receiver

UPDATE:  The above items that are now striked out have been sold.  I will put the remaining items on eBay tomorrow and Sunday.

I'm Done With Media Center

I have been struggling with Media Center lately.  It just does not have all the features I want it to have.  I want the ability to stream other video formats other than wmv to other Media Center Extenders.  I envisioned all my movies ripped on the media center and allow them to be viewed anywhere without even putting the movie in.  I have tried Transcode 360 but the audio and video were never syncronized.  I know I could spend 12 hours ripping them from DVD format to wmv but it would take too long.

I also want HD content other than over the air available on my media center.  Vista is supposed to have cable card support and so I was excited for this.  The problem is that I need to buy a PC from a manufacturer in order to get a cable card.  I can not just add one to my already existing home built PC.  That is stupid but I was just going to get a cheap one to use as a media center server.

So this news was the last straw.  Not being able to stream recorded content from the cable card to other extenders is just rediculious.  Media Center is a really cool concept but the delivery by Microsoft is horrible.  Nothing will change because they will just hide behind the numbers of the number of Home Premium or Ultimate copies of Vista that are sold.  They won't acknowledge the fact that most customers don't even know that Media Center is even on their copy of Vista.  Hell, they probably don't know what Media Center is.

Zune : Don't Believe the Hype

I'm sick of hearing all of these Zune things coming out right now.  I must admit that I was excited at first to hear that Microsoft is coming out with their own player.  The biggest of course was the WiFi integration but since hearing details about the WiFi, I am (once again) disappointed in Microsoft.  I was thinking about how many times I was away from my computer and I wanted some new content on my iPod.  How cool would that be to be able to go to iTunes at work or whever where you can't dock your iPod and download a new CD that came out that day or a TV show that you missed the night before or a new podcast that was just released?

Everywhere there are reports that the Zune WiFi is only going to be used to just trade songs with someone else.  What are the chances that a.) you bump into someone with another Zune player, b.) you have WiFi access, c.) they (or you) say that you are excited about a new song or video, and d.) you actually transfer the song and it works.  Thats dumb and is not enough of a reason to kill battery life for WiFi.  Who comes up with these stupid requirements?  Someone can pay me and I will tell them whether or not an idea will work and I don't even have a marketing degree.  Prediction: this player won't make a dent in the iPod market.

Why not make my tablet an extender?

OK, in the last week or so, Microsoft has said publically that the Origami/UMPC will get special Media Center extender software to allow the use of the UMPC device as a Media Center extender.  Why can't they enable all PCs to become Media Center extenders?  It just uses Remote Desktop for christ sakes.  This would be especially cool on my tablet to be able to sling my media all over my house and watch it wherever I take my tablet.  It would be cool to be able to watch my Media Center content in my office on my second monitor while I'm banging away on some code.  I know that I can use the Media Connect but it is not the same.  I want to be able to watch live TV on my tablet or my other PCs.  I just don't get it.  Does anyone know why this is a problem?  Is it not a problem and Microsoft just hasn't thought of this?  Hard to imagine if that is the case.

I Finally Got One

I went to Target today during lunch and say that there were two XBox 360 premiums sitting out.  I snatched one up because I can't wait to play the new Ghost Recon that comes out tomorrow.  It is the only game that I am looking forward to all year and I wanted to get a 360 before it came out.  Looks like I got one just in time.  I have already set up my 360 to work as a media center extender for my Media Center.  It is awesome.  Now all I have to do is get my ripped movies that are on my Media Center in wmv format so my extender can play them.  Does anyone know of any good tools to rip full length movies into wmv?

I have not been impressed with any of the games that have come out for the 360 and in fact I have been pretty disappointed.  Hopefully Ghost Recon will keep my attention.

ORB F'ing Rocks

I installed Orb on my Media Center PC and I am pretty impressed.  The app runs in the system tray and allows you to connect to all your media and even live TV from any internet connection via http://my.orb.com.  You don't even need Media Center.  It will install on any PC running Windows XP.  This allows me to watch my recorded shows on my tablet or even my phone.  I can really only watch it on my phone when I'm in an EVDO area but it is really smooth and almost effortless.  I can even get to all my music, photos, and movies.  It is so Star Treky.

My Media Center

I never posted the specs or pictures of my Media Center PC that I built March of last year (2005), so I decided to do it now.  Below are the specs of the Media Center PC I built along with some pictures of my setup.  If you are not interested then why are you still reading this?

SPECS:

• Case: Ahanix MCE 601


• Motherboard/Processor: Intel D925XCV Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz


• Memory: Crucial 512 M DDR2 533


• Hard Drive: Seagate 200G SATA 7200


• DVD Burner: Sony DW-D26A


• Graphics Card: ATI Radeon X700 Pro


• Analog TV Card: Hauppauge WinTV PVR-150


• Digital TV Card: ATI HDTV Wonder


• Remote Control: One For All Kameleon URC 9960


• Keyboard/Mouse: Gyration Media Center 2.4 Ghz Optical Air Mouse and Compact Keyboard

PICTURES:

Apple to Introduce a Media Center Killer?

There are rumors that Apple is going to introduce some HDTVs with built in Mac OS X at tomorrow's MacWorld keynote.  That would be big and would make me think twice about Media Center.  If this rumor were true, just think how much of the consumer market they would gain.  If lots of people start buying these TVs, Apple would gain a big share in the consumer market and maybe could eventually overpower Microsoft especially if they have the same success they have had with the iPods.

You have to admit that there are several problems with the Media Center PCs vs the Apple model of building the OS right into the TV.  Here are some problems with the current Media Center PCs:

• Hard to build because of drivers, hardware, etc.


• Lack of Cable card support


• Hard to use APIs to extend the functionallity


• Not as stable as it should be


• Extender support is lacking (no DVD video on extenders...weak)


• Not very friendly UI for non-geeks (try having your girlfriend or parents use MCE)

If Apple built the OS right into the TV and packaged it with Front Row, they would solve most of the problems listed above.  You know it would be beatifully designed.  You know it would be easy to use.  There is no hardware to purchase.  There is already plenty of content.  How about an iPod dock built right in to solve the mobile content issue? 

I think Apple is on the right track if this rumor is true.  I paid over $1000 to build my MCE PC plus another $4000 on the 42“ plasma television.  The rumored prices are $2999 for a 42” TV and $3999 for a 50” TV.  Those are good prices just for a TV but it would also be a fully functioning computer as well.  Microsoft, you should start paying real close attention to what Apple is doing.