Charlie Owen is back blogging and seems to have gone straight for a controversial post! He has posted this thoughts on why DVD streaming is not a feature of Media Center (and properly never will be). So far it’s been left to the community to come up with the feature and I can’t see Microsoft ever implementing it and I think that is mainly down to due Charlie’s point 8 and 9

8) There are (significant) legal issues to overcome.

These have been discussed ad nauseum -- MPAA, DMCA, Copyright, Fair Use, etc. Suffice it to say this part of the problem is very complex and costly to resolve -- and an intertwining of stakeholders few consumers grasp.

9) There are (significant) business model issues to resolve.

In a nutshell, we must attempt to please both the content owners and the content consumers. Content owners don't want to give up their current business model until a better one is firmly established. Note the content owners specifically do NOT want a replacement business model, and would rather it be in addition to the current business model. Content consumers could care less about the content owners business model because the overwhelming majority do not realize any direct financial gain from that business model. Rock | Microsoft | Hard Place.

 

Some may see the points as a cop out but I think they are worth reading and considering. I would like to hear your point of view maybe we can discuss it on a future The Media Center Show

I would like to see it built in to Media Center as the community solution is still complicated for the beginner whoever I would rather see the time spent on better integration with other Microsoft services such as Zune, Windows Live, Windows Home server etc. and getting digital download services in to Media Center

Read Charlie’s full post:Historical Perspectives on DVD Streaming Feature