Media Center TV Pack Gets Buzz Before CEDIA Debut
Formerly known as "Fiji," Media Center TV Pack is being rolled out by Fluid Digital and S1Digital, with more announcements expected at CEDIA Expo.
Image courtesy of Fiji Suva Mission
By Julie Jacobson
August 13, 2008
Get ready for the next generation of Windows Vista Media Center, originally known as "Fiji" and now officially dubbed "Media Center TV Pack."
Microsoft is expected to tell all during CEDIA Expo 2008, but for now, even the savviest Microsoft followers are scratching their heads.
Microsoft released TV Pack to OEMs on July 17, and PC makers are beginning to talk about their products – first S1Digital at The Green Button, and now Fluid Digital.
Fluid Digital, based in The Woodlands, Texas, announced this morning its new Media Center with TV Pack.
What is TV Pack?
Even with all of the controversy surrounding Microsoft and Media Center in the past, it seems that Fiji has generated more angst and ire than other Microsoft initiatives.
TV Pack is still shrouded in secrecy. OEMs still are not allowed to talk about its innate features and cannot even mention the word "Fiji".
What they can say goes something like this, in the words of Chris Morley, executive vice president of Fluid Digital. "I can't speak for what other OEMs are doing. I can just tell you that these are the features of our PCs."
Let's start with the biggest and most controversial feature of TV Pack: It is not available for existing Vista PCs. You must buy a new computer to get this "upgrade."
Apparently, Microsoft believes that only OEMs are in the position to "ensure that users get the best experience possible" from TV Pack, according to Ben Reed of Microsoft's
Windows Media Center product marketing.
Of the five key TV Pack features outlined publicly by Microsoft, four of them concern enhancements for Europe and Japan; one of them offers relevance to U.S. customers: integration with Clear QAM tuners.
Clear QAM tuners enable the free reception of unscrambled digital programming sent "in the clear" by cable providers. They are becoming popular among home theater PC (HTPC) users who don't care to mess with (or pay for) digital content through CableCards, also known as digital cable receivers (DCR).
Today, integrating CableCard and QAM content within Media Center is inelegant, to say the least. TV Pack remedies some of the challenges.
What Do You Expect from CEDIA? Share Your Thoughts and Win!
Sanus is giving away 100 units of its Elements Screen Care Kit during CEDIA Expo 2008.
All you have to do to qualify is participate in this discussion at CEDIAnews.com. Tell us: It's been almost a year since 2007 -- what products introduced at that event have stood the test of time? And, what are you excited to see this year?
"If you have digital cable receivers and clear QAM, mapping the tuners is seamless," says Fluid's Morley. "If you try to record ABC and the DCR is busy, it will ping the clear QAM."
In a related feature, the electronic programming guide (EPG) overall has enhanced functionality with TV Pack. For example, users create their own "Favorites" lists, so they don't have to scan thousands of channels just to get to one of their five or ten faves.
In addition to QAM integration, TV Pack supports four CableCards natively. With today's Vista Ultimate, Morley says, "to get four CableCards, you need to tweak the registry."
In addition, there is a TV Pack option called PlayReady, which is a new digital rights management (DRM) scheme that is a bit confusing. Ostensibly developed for transferring protected content to mobile devices, PlayReady now seems poised to help users stream CableCard content – that isn't flagged -- from one PC to another PlayReady-enabled PC.
"If you have two PlayReady-enabled PCs, along with an unreleased firmware update to the ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner," says Morley, "you will be able to share non-copy protected (free and clear) channels when you are using the tuners in conjunction with CableCards."
He adds that, currently, even clear channels are "locked down" the minute you use the tuners with a CableCard.
"PlayReady relaxes DRM a bit," he says.
Finally, we hear that there are some new audio options available through TV Pack. Allegedly, for example, you can create surround-sound set-ups for different modes.
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.
Return to full story:
http://www.cepro.com/article/media_center_tv_pack_gets_buzz_before_cedia_debut/D2
Filed under:
News: http://www.cepro.com/topic/C5/
Product News: http://www.cepro.com/topic/C1/
Events: http://www.cepro.com/topic/C342/
CEDIA: http://www.cepro.com/topic/C297/
Media Center: http://www.cepro.com/topic/C315/
View all topics: http://www.cepro.com/topic/all/
Formerly known as "Fiji," Media Center TV Pack is being rolled out by Fluid Digital and S1Digital, with more announcements expected at CEDIA Expo.
Image courtesy of Fiji Suva Mission
August 13, 2008
Get ready for the next generation of Windows Vista Media Center, originally known as "Fiji" and now officially dubbed "Media Center TV Pack."
Microsoft is expected to tell all during CEDIA Expo 2008, but for now, even the savviest Microsoft followers are scratching their heads.
Microsoft released TV Pack to OEMs on July 17, and PC makers are beginning to talk about their products – first S1Digital at The Green Button, and now Fluid Digital.
Fluid Digital, based in The Woodlands, Texas, announced this morning its new Media Center with TV Pack.
Even with all of the controversy surrounding Microsoft and Media Center in the past, it seems that Fiji has generated more angst and ire than other Microsoft initiatives.
TV Pack is still shrouded in secrecy. OEMs still are not allowed to talk about its innate features and cannot even mention the word "Fiji".
What they can say goes something like this, in the words of Chris Morley, executive vice president of Fluid Digital. "I can't speak for what other OEMs are doing. I can just tell you that these are the features of our PCs."
Let's start with the biggest and most controversial feature of TV Pack: It is not available for existing Vista PCs. You must buy a new computer to get this "upgrade."
Apparently, Microsoft believes that only OEMs are in the position to "ensure that users get the best experience possible" from TV Pack, according to Ben Reed of Microsoft's
Windows Media Center product marketing.
Of the five key TV Pack features outlined publicly by Microsoft, four of them concern enhancements for Europe and Japan; one of them offers relevance to U.S. customers: integration with Clear QAM tuners.
Clear QAM tuners enable the free reception of unscrambled digital programming sent "in the clear" by cable providers. They are becoming popular among home theater PC (HTPC) users who don't care to mess with (or pay for) digital content through CableCards, also known as digital cable receivers (DCR).
Today, integrating CableCard and QAM content within Media Center is inelegant, to say the least. TV Pack remedies some of the challenges.
"If you have digital cable receivers and clear QAM, mapping the tuners is seamless," says Fluid's Morley. "If you try to record ABC and the DCR is busy, it will ping the clear QAM."
In a related feature, the electronic programming guide (EPG) overall has enhanced functionality with TV Pack. For example, users create their own "Favorites" lists, so they don't have to scan thousands of channels just to get to one of their five or ten faves.
In addition to QAM integration, TV Pack supports four CableCards natively. With today's Vista Ultimate, Morley says, "to get four CableCards, you need to tweak the registry."
In addition, there is a TV Pack option called PlayReady, which is a new digital rights management (DRM) scheme that is a bit confusing. Ostensibly developed for transferring protected content to mobile devices, PlayReady now seems poised to help users stream CableCard content – that isn't flagged -- from one PC to another PlayReady-enabled PC.
"If you have two PlayReady-enabled PCs, along with an unreleased firmware update to the ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner," says Morley, "you will be able to share non-copy protected (free and clear) channels when you are using the tuners in conjunction with CableCards."
He adds that, currently, even clear channels are "locked down" the minute you use the tuners with a CableCard.
"PlayReady relaxes DRM a bit," he says.
Finally, we hear that there are some new audio options available through TV Pack. Allegedly, for example, you can create surround-sound set-ups for different modes.
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.
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
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.
Microsoft is expected to tell all during CEDIA Expo 2008, but for now, even the savviest Microsoft followers are scratching their heads.
Microsoft released TV Pack to OEMs on July 17, and PC makers are beginning to talk about their products – first S1Digital at The Green Button, and now Fluid Digital.
Fluid Digital, based in The Woodlands, Texas, announced this morning its new Media Center with TV Pack.
What is TV Pack?
Even with all of the controversy surrounding Microsoft and Media Center in the past, it seems that Fiji has generated more angst and ire than other Microsoft initiatives.
TV Pack is still shrouded in secrecy. OEMs still are not allowed to talk about its innate features and cannot even mention the word "Fiji".
What they can say goes something like this, in the words of Chris Morley, executive vice president of Fluid Digital. "I can't speak for what other OEMs are doing. I can just tell you that these are the features of our PCs."
Let's start with the biggest and most controversial feature of TV Pack: It is not available for existing Vista PCs. You must buy a new computer to get this "upgrade."
Apparently, Microsoft believes that only OEMs are in the position to "ensure that users get the best experience possible" from TV Pack, according to Ben Reed of Microsoft's
Windows Media Center product marketing.
Of the five key TV Pack features outlined publicly by Microsoft, four of them concern enhancements for Europe and Japan; one of them offers relevance to U.S. customers: integration with Clear QAM tuners.
Clear QAM tuners enable the free reception of unscrambled digital programming sent "in the clear" by cable providers. They are becoming popular among home theater PC (HTPC) users who don't care to mess with (or pay for) digital content through CableCards, also known as digital cable receivers (DCR).
Today, integrating CableCard and QAM content within Media Center is inelegant, to say the least. TV Pack remedies some of the challenges.
What Do You Expect from CEDIA? Share Your Thoughts and Win!
Sanus is giving away 100 units of its Elements Screen Care Kit during CEDIA Expo 2008.
All you have to do to qualify is participate in this discussion at CEDIAnews.com. Tell us: It's been almost a year since 2007 -- what products introduced at that event have stood the test of time? And, what are you excited to see this year?
Sanus is giving away 100 units of its Elements Screen Care Kit during CEDIA Expo 2008.
"If you have digital cable receivers and clear QAM, mapping the tuners is seamless," says Fluid's Morley. "If you try to record ABC and the DCR is busy, it will ping the clear QAM."
In a related feature, the electronic programming guide (EPG) overall has enhanced functionality with TV Pack. For example, users create their own "Favorites" lists, so they don't have to scan thousands of channels just to get to one of their five or ten faves.
In addition to QAM integration, TV Pack supports four CableCards natively. With today's Vista Ultimate, Morley says, "to get four CableCards, you need to tweak the registry."
In addition, there is a TV Pack option called PlayReady, which is a new digital rights management (DRM) scheme that is a bit confusing. Ostensibly developed for transferring protected content to mobile devices, PlayReady now seems poised to help users stream CableCard content – that isn't flagged -- from one PC to another PlayReady-enabled PC.
"If you have two PlayReady-enabled PCs, along with an unreleased firmware update to the ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner," says Morley, "you will be able to share non-copy protected (free and clear) channels when you are using the tuners in conjunction with CableCards."
He adds that, currently, even clear channels are "locked down" the minute you use the tuners with a CableCard.
"PlayReady relaxes DRM a bit," he says.
Finally, we hear that there are some new audio options available through TV Pack. Allegedly, for example, you can create surround-sound set-ups for different modes.
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.
Return to full story:
http://www.cepro.com/article/media_center_tv_pack_gets_buzz_before_cedia_debut/D2
Filed under:
News: http://www.cepro.com/topic/C5/
Product News: http://www.cepro.com/topic/C1/
Events: http://www.cepro.com/topic/C342/
CEDIA: http://www.cepro.com/topic/C297/
Media Center: http://www.cepro.com/topic/C315/
View all topics: http://www.cepro.com/topic/all/
News: http://www.cepro.com/topic/C5/
Product News: http://www.cepro.com/topic/C1/
Events: http://www.cepro.com/topic/C342/
CEDIA: http://www.cepro.com/topic/C297/
Media Center: http://www.cepro.com/topic/C315/
View all topics: http://www.cepro.com/topic/all/