Media Center TV Pack Gets Buzz Before CEDIA Debut

TV Pack's Dirty Little Secrets

Media Center enthusiasts are enraged about several purported aspects of Fiji, er, TV Pack.

First, it is only available in new Vista PCs, and is not offered as an upgrade. Enthusiasts lament that they spent the extra $100 to buy Windows Ultimate (vs. Premium) in order to get future "Ultimate Extras."

Irate users claim that TV Pack should have been part of that disappointing package.

(There is talk, however, that some PC makers might be able to rebuild your existing Vista PC as a TV Pack-enabled machine using a recovery disc, if you should "happen" to lose your original.)

Second, TV Pack does not support digital satellite, even though Microsoft and DirecTV inked a deal back in 2006. (I wouldn't blame it on Microsoft.)

Big bummer in Media Center circles.

Third – and this is good news and bad – TV shows recorded with TV Pack are saved in the new .WTV file format, which is not backwards-compatible with Microsoft's existing DVR-MS format.

"That's why you only want to put it [TV Pack] on new PCs," Morley says.

Load it onto your existing PC, and your CableCard-recorded shows are no longer available.

By all accounts, .WTV is better than DVR-MS, as it supports more compression schemes, shows 16x9 thumbnails, and does a better job with wireless, among other things.

We hear, though, that developers have not had the appropriate tools to write applications for the new format.

What to Expect at CEDIA

We know for sure that we'll be seeing TV Pack at the S1Digital (Booth 699).

Of course, Microsoft will be exhibiting at the Expo (booth 410), and since the big TV Pack debut is supposed to be at CEDIA, we can expect a big showing by Microsoft.

Microsoft is sharing a booth with Lifeware, one of the industry's biggest Media Center innovators, so I'm guessing that we can see a big TV Pack demo there.

As for Fluid Digital – whom we met in February 2007 – the company makes Media Center products for home systems integrators. In addition, the company is a home systems retailer/integration company that understands the home systems business.

Morley came from Velocity Micro, where he first launched digital cable-enabled media servers in January 2007. His partner Kevin Buchanan is owner of Home Entertainment Inc., an integration firm located in The Woodlands.

For information on becoming a Fluid dealer, visit http://www.fluiddigitalmedia.com.

CEDIAnews.com will break the news on TV Pack as the Expo nears, so keep checking the site!

Update, 8/15: Media Center TV Pack – Vendors Jockey for Position Pre-CEDIA

Hands-On With the Media Center TV Pack

Our friends over at EngadgetHD have gotten their hands on the Media Center TV Pack, beta-testing the update and sharing the behind-the-scenes action.

Check out their coverage of the TV Pack.