Cool Tech Reviews

We all know that Microsoft would like everyone to install a Windows PC at the heart of their home entertainment centers, but how well does it really work out in practice? Andrew Schmidt points us to a review on AnandTech:

Anandtech has an absolutely horrifying review of the trials and tribulations of setting up a Windows Vista home theater PC [HTPC] with the first HD capable TV tuner from ATI (AMD).

Even with the on-site assistance of Dell (DELL) and Time Warner Cable (TWC) (with promptness and technical expertise you or I could never hope to see) it took two days to get the Windows Vista PC, external HDTV cable tuner, and Time Warner Network integrated and up and running. The resulting experience was great, though most consumers would have never had the patience or technical fortitude to get it up and running. It makes one wonder why anyone would bother to do this at all.

Some good lines from the review:

Prior to Dell’s arrival we had a handful of telephone conversations and email exchanges to clear our intentions for this article. Dell is used to dealing with sending review samples of complete systems that it has built and tested time and time again. Dell was not used to sending a platform out that was buggy, not yet ready for prime time and dependent on a cable network that it had absolutely no control over. In short: Dell was nervous.

Dell asked us if it was alright if a handful of representatives accompanied the system to our office in North Carolina, just to make sure things went smoothly. We didn’t anticipate any problems but said that if it made them feel more comfortable, they were welcome to oversee the initial setup. From our perspective the setup couldn’t be simpler: 1) Setup the system, 2) Insert CableCARD, 3) Watch TV. It turned out that we were a bit optimistic.

The ordinary home user like you and me is more than nervous already. A key part of the trepidation has to do with using a PC as a digital cable box:

Vista changed everything; it was chock full of DRM and was secure enough to make just about everyone confident that high definition content could be stored on it without being easily compromised. While it’s far too early to determine if that holds true over the coming years of Vista’s existence, the important part is that it’s enough today. At CES 2006 ATI demonstrated what had the potential to become one of the biggest features of Vista, the first working Open Cable Unidirectional Receiver (OCUR) for a PC running the upcoming OS.
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We were impressed by OCUR, as it had the potential to make media center valid and useful once more. The downside was that we had to wait; we saw the first demo of OCUR at CES in January 2006, and we were told that it wouldn’t be released until Vista was available to the public. At CES in January 2007 ATI, now owned by AMD, introduced the final product: the ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner (DCT).

Gosh! It seems really simple to me!

Dell came prepared; upon landing at RDU International Airport, we got a call asking if it was okay if a Time Warner technician was present during the install to help with any problems. The more the merrier we thought, so Dell made a phone call and a Time Warner technician was present. As a side note, the last line was exactly how it happened. Apparently the magic number Dell called dispatched a Time Warner technician to what is known internally as a “VIP Customer”. There were no vague time windows, no waiting, and no arguing; just a phone call and poof: instant technician. After discovering this magic ability that Dell possessed, we asked Dell to move in with us permanently. Regrettably Dell declined and its representatives did not confirm whether or not they had similar influence over the local phone or utility companies.

There’s a nice picture of the Time Warner truck with flashing lights pulling up. Despite that, let’s just say things did not go smoothly.

At the end of the entire ordeal, the senior TWC representative that was with us turned to us and asked us what this system could do. We explained, to which he responded with the most priceless of facial expressions. It was an expression that needed no explanation; his reaction asked the question “why on earth would you go through this when you can just rent an HD-DVR from us for $9 a month?”

There’s a lot more in the review, but I have to conclude that Windows Media Center Edition, now replaced by Vista Premium Edition is not really ready for prime time - at least as far as home entertainment is concerned. Yes, they finally got it working and yes, there are a few bugs, but the real problem is that it doesn’t pass the simplicity test. If the average consumer can’t just buy the the PC, take it home and plug it in, it isn’t going to garner any share. Ordinarily, I’d say “Keep working on it, guys!” but it’s clear that Microsoft’s OS development cycle lags the home entertainment development cycle and that has to change for a Windows PC to even have a chance in home entertainment.

Chris Lanier provides a tutorial on setting up the Media Center editions of Windows XP and Vista for automatic commercial skipping using DVRMSToolbox:

Everyone should know about DVRMSToolbox that lets you do just about anything with your Recorded TV files. However, the more time that goes by the more I see that people are not taking advantage of what DVRMSToolbox has to offer. Today I wanted to give everyone a basic introduction to one of the coolest features, automatic commercial skipping!

Get it while it lasts before the movie and TV studios find a way to rain on the parade.

Ben Fritz at Variety reports that the Xbox 360 video download service announced in November may be a surprise hit:

In a topsy-turvy year for the digital download biz, a videogame service in just a few million homes is ending 2006 with more momentum than the world’s biggest e-tailer.

The relative success of video downloads on Microsoft’s Xbox Live and disappointment of Amazon.com’s Unbox point to two factors that differentiate Xbox from Amazon and its many other competitors — consumers who download a movie want a simple way to watch it on their TV, and those with high-def TVs want high-def content.

Thanks to the Xbox 360’s direct connection to a TV and the console’s focus on HD content, Microsoft can deliver both. Though exact sales figures aren’t available from any Web site or studio, insiders agree that it’s the most, and maybe only, positive story in digital movie downloads this year.

Many in Hollywood had high expectations that Amazon’s strength in DVD sales would spur the nascent Web download biz. But the Netco faces the same problems as competitors such as Movielink, CinemaNow, Guba and AOL that launched before it: It’s difficult for consumers to burn downloads onto DVD (save for a few titles on CinemaNow), and it’s tricky for all but the most tech-savvy to watch downloads on a TV.

Part of it is the tech savvy Xbox 360 demographic and part is the ease of watching a movie on a box already connected to a TV (which says something about where Windows XP Media Center systems are installed). There aren’t really any hard numbers, but the buzz is that despite the limited audience, Xbox 360 download numbers are equal to any of the PC download sites. While that’s certainly good news for Microsoft, it also illustrates the current sad state of Internet video downloads.

Microsoft News Tracker mentions a rumor that Microsoft is planning to build their own iPod or more precisely, an “iPod killer.” Aside from the advisability of Microsoft going head to head with Apple in the portable media player arena, it would also seem to create difficulties for Microsoft partners Creative, Samsung, and iriver who have built players based on Windows Mobile using Microsoft’s Portable Media Center specification.

Since you don’t seem to hear much about Portable Media Centers, I thought I would see what I could dig up. Below are the three contenders with some typical reviews and they are apparently nice players with big screens and easy to use, if somewhat bulky and expensive. However, they have a major negative. All of the Portable Media Centers are effectively accessories for Windows PC’s running Windows Media Player (WMP) 10, because that’s the only way to get media files onto them. And if you don’t have a PC running Windows XP Media Center Edition (or at least a PC with a TV tuner/recorder), you are limited to whatever video content you can obtain or purchase through the services offered within WMP 10. Because of this, they haven’t been a rousing success.

Creative Zen Portable Media Center

- Generally most highly rated
- Retail about $485
- Reviews at CNET, Engadget, and PCWorld

Samsung Yepp YH-999 Portable Media Center

- Seems to have been discontinued
- Available refurbished for about $275
- Reviews at CNET and WhiningDog

iriver PMC-120

- Retail price: about $440
- Reviews at CNET, PC Magazine, and Trusted Reviews

As always, you may find lower prices at your favorite online or offline emporium.

Yesterday, Microsoft released an update to their Tweak PowerToy for Media Center:

Tweak MCE gives you access to systems settings and options not normally exposed in the Windows XP Media Center Edition user interface, including remote control settings, Skip and Replay time customizations, user interface options, and more. It also helps you to optimize Media Center Extender for plasma and non-CRT displays.

Requires Update Rollup 2 for Media Center.

Microsoft had an odd press release the other day - Q&A: Microsoft and Sony Team on Digital Entertainment Content Management System:

Though rivals in the gaming-console market, both companies find they have much to gain from working closely to integrate the new Sony VAIO XL1 Digital Living System with Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005.

The kids are asleep. The popcorn’s ready. Time to watch that favorite old movie on DVD. You pop open the case, but instead of “Dr. Zhivago,” you’re staring at a copy of “Dr. Seuss.”

Another misplaced disc, another frustrating search through the entertainment center shelves – it’s one the more familiar and irritating drawbacks of owning large collections of entertainment content stored on DVDs and CDs. But with today’s launch of the Sony VAIO XL1 Digital Living System, a new digital content management product developed in close partnership with Microsoft, movie and music buffs can get back to enjoying their discs instead of playing hide-and-seek with them.

Consisting of a 200-disc media changer and recorder console that connects to a Sony VAIO PC running Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, the Sony VAIO XL1 Digital Living System lets users control their media library in one location using the wireless keyboard and remote control. In addition to storing and indexing up to 200 CDs or DVDs at a time for playback on audio and video devices linked to their home entertainment center through the PC, VAIO XL1 system owners can use the Media Center Edition capabilities to manage content such as downloaded movies and music, digitally recorded TV shows, personal photos and high-definition camcorder video files.

The challenges involved in tightly integrating Sony’s disc changer, media recording and archiving capabilities, and other feature sets with Media Center Edition required deep – but not unprecedented – collaboration between the two companies.

There’s more about the collaboration which is mildly amusing, but I was mostly interested in the box itself and Joel Santo Domingo at PC Magazine has done a review:

The Sony VAIO XL1 Digital Living System ($2,300 direct) disproves the notion that all the cool technology is found only in the Japanese domestic market. Designed to be the true Media Center in your home theater, the XL1 can replace your TiVo, CD changer, DVD player/changer, DVD recorder, and any older Media Center PC you have put in your rec room. The XL1 looks more like a piece of stereo equipment than a computer, and that is part of its appeal. It uses the latest Update Rollup 2 for Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 and brings added convenience to those with extensive media libraries. This is the system for the true media collector: Movies and music won’t be the same after you load them up in the XL1’s changer.

The XL1 Digital Living System consists of two halves: the VGX-XL1A main unit and the VGP-XL1B 200-disc CD/DVD changer. The XL1B is the muscle of the system. You can load 200 CDs into the changer, call up the MCE interface, select the “manage discs” menu item, and rip all 200 CDs onto the VGX-XL1A’s 200GB hard drive. This is a much better way to copy your music than what the typical MCE PC allows you to do, which is come back every few minutes to swap discs. The saving in time and convenience would be significant for the person with several hundred (or a few thousand) CDs. In our testing, the XL1 still took 3 to 4 minutes to rip a CD, but it does all 200 consecutively; so once you load them in the changer, you can leave the system alone, say overnight, and in the morning it’ll be done. Loading and unloading the slot-loading changer was a snap; loading or ejecting each disc took only a few seconds.

After you’ve ripped your CDs, you can keep as many as 200 DVDs in the changer. The XL1 system keeps track of them, so they can be called up and played at a moment’s notice.

Yikes! We’re talking a serious collector here. Much more by following the link, but he mentions something I was wondering about:

One major issue we have with the XL1 system is the relatively small 200GB hard drive. Although 200GB is sizable for an average desktop user, it is barely adequate for a heavy DVR user who wants to record entire seasons of shows regularly. Since the XL1 is designed for the living room, it is not the type of product people will want to crack open and upgrade every time a new hard drive capacity comes out. Sure, there are two spare internal drive bays (for up to 1.2TB of hard drive space) and several i.Link/FireWire ports for external drive upgrades, but living-room PCs typically follow the consumer electronics model: Buy it, set it up, and forget it.

So I guess the drive size is fixable although you’d think that in a $2300 machine they could go a bit higher to start with.

In a nutshell: “Sony VAIO XL1 Digital Living System won’t replace your notebook or desktop PC, but it fast approaches Media Center nirvana.”