All Articles Tagged Windows Media Center

Julie Jacobson | 09/20 05:08 AM, 9 Comments

Niveus Media, one of the early champions of Windows Media Center, has discontinued its line of WMC-based hardware, including Media Center PCs and extenders. Back in 2003, when WMC – then known as Media Center Edition – showed some promise as a living-room PC, Niveus began making products that compensated for the platform’s shortcomings. The pricey Niveus boxes employed high-performance processors, quiet fans, and special software that masked the bad stuff that comes with Microsoft territory. For a few years, WMC was all the rage in the custom installation market,… View this story

Julie Jacobson | 08/11 05:45 AM, 15 Comments

Exceptional Innovation, best known for its Lifeware home automation system, has parted ways with AVAD distribution and will go back to selling direct to dealer. EI, which generally goes by the name of Lifeware, is best known for almost single-handedly bringing Windows Media Center to the custom installation community. Working closely with Microsoft and investing heavily in the platform, Lifeware opened integrators up to the possibility of running a home with WMC and its 10-foot TV interface. After selling direct to dealer for three years, in 2008 Lifeware appointed AVAD… View this story

Arlen Schweiger | 06/24 10:25 AM, 0 Comments

We love it when Microsoft and Apple play nice. Sometimes it takes some third-party intervention to bring the corporate giants together, so fans of one can still use the other’s products if need be. That’s what VidaBox has done with its media server controls. The manufacturer of Microsoft Windows Media Centers has jumped on the iPad bandwagon, debuting its iPad Media Center controls this week at the Asian Pacific CEDIA Expo; the company says it’s the first “to offer such a solution for Windows-based Media Centers.” “We’re all absolutely thrilled… View this story

Julie Jacobson | 05/03 04:21 AM, 2 Comments

Microsoft is late to the TV apps business, but it has finally arrived with the new Windows Embedded Standard 7 (formerly Windows Embedded Standard 2009), which the company recently released to OEM developers. The application could bring Windows Media Center to TVs and set-top boxes, without the need for a dedicated PC. Then again, that’s what they all said as early as 2005, when we thought Intel Viiv, AMD Live and Microsoft TV would be built into CE devices. Those initiatives fell flat. The closest near-miss might have been HP,… View this story

Julie Jacobson | 04/07 05:47 AM, 1 Comment

Amulet, which makes a voice-enabled remote control for Windows Media Center, will soon make its technology available for third-party development. “We’re coming out with an SDK [software developer’s kit] to use with automation,” says president Patrick Lawless. The SDK will be available shortly after the company’s first product, the Amulet Remote, is released this summer. Lawless demonstrated the product during the Electronic House Expo (EHX) in March. Move the remote toward your mouth and the voice recognition kicks in. You can, “Play Movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” or… View this story

Julie Jacobson | 03/15 03:59 AM, 2 Comments

It's been a strange ride for the Ceton multi-channel digitial cable tuner from Ceton Corp. The product allows a single multistream M-Card from the Motorola to fit within a small chassis, eliminating the need for space-consuming CableCards and slots required for today's PCTVs. Long before the Ceton product officially debuted at CES 2009, fans of Windows Media Center and other PCTVs waited impatiently for M-Card progress. During CES 2009, the company maintained the multistream tuner would ship in Q1 2010 and at least one third-party supplier, Cannon PC, as well… View this story

Julie Jacobson | 03/11 12:18 PM, 10 Comments

The new CETON Quad Digital Cable Tuner (DCT) from Cannon PC had the Windows Media Center geeks all atwitter at The Green Button. The CETON tuners, which can stream up to six HD digital channels over a single cable connection, has had Windows Media Center fans salivating for quite some time. So imagine how thrilled they were when Cannon PC, a maker of Media Center PCs and CableCard products, posted its CETON Quad Digital Cable Tuner on March 4. The $399 tuner was supposed to be available by March 31,… View this story

Julie Jacobson | 01/13 03:10 AM, 0 Comments

Niveus Media, one of the original developers of Windows Media Center systems for the channel, has added Sirius XM satellite radio to its content offerings. To be sure, you can access Sirius XM via other Media Center interfaces, but none looks quite like this one. Niveus is well known for taking traditional services – like home control, movie management and multizone content distribution – and wrapping them into a seamless Media Center interface. “You’ll notice it looks a lot like our Niveus Movie Library,” says Niveus CEO Tim Cutting. “Like… View this story

CE Pro Editors | 01/07 12:13 AM,

The TouchClient20 is a touchscreen HDTV with a control touchpanel and Windows Media Center for streaming Blu-rays, DVDs, music, photos and other digital content. The networkable TouchClient20 includes VESA-compatible mounting provisions to allow the device to hang on a wall. It also includes a SPDIF output for surround sound audio and HDMI inputs. View this story

Julie Jacobson | 12/13 07:30 AM, 9 Comments

Microsoft will suffer in the consumer space, according to Mark Anderson, author of the Strategic News Service newsletter, and an influential technology watcher. In his annual Top 10 list of technology predictions, Anderson proclaims 2010 the year that Microsoft "loses" in the consumer space: Microsoft loses in its Consumer play: except for gaming, it is Game Over for MS in Consumer. This will make Consumer the place to be, where the most robust and exciting change artists will work. Anderson believes that Microsoft's vision of integrating front-end platforms with a… View this story