Microsoft post details on the Windows Media Center TV Pack

I know the main bone of contention will be the availability of the update which is OEM Microsoft's Ben Read explains the reason as:

In order to ensure that users get the best experience possible, this update will only be available from OEMs, as they are best positioned to provide the testing and hardware configurations for a great customer experience. This is due to the fact that in some geographies there are specific technical and hardware requirements for the Windows Media Center TV Pack that are best handled by the OEMs

I am sure enthusiast community will be very disappointed with this decision especially as there are feature the community has been waiting for in the update. 

Here are the official list of new features:

The Windows Media Center TV Pack is primarily targeted at adding support for additional international broadcast standards including:
o   Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting - Terrestrial (ISDB-T) Digital television standard for Japan
o   Digital Video Broadcasting - Satellite (DVB-S) free-to-air satellite standards  in  Europe
o   Digital Video Broadcasting - Terrestrial (DVB-T) digital television with  improved user experience in Europe
o   ClearQAM (Unencrypted Digital Cable)in the United States
o   Interactive television with integrated Broadcast Markup language
(BML) in Japan and Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group (MHEG) (MHEG5) in Europe

I have only been able to test DVB-T and the update has added subtitles, MHEG support, inband guide data and favourites which are nice features and do improve the experience but I can’t say I would be that upset to go back to the standard build

What is not included in the update is H.264 and native support for subscription-based satellite tuners which were pulled from the beta, there are no reasons given for the late removal of this feature and no information on when and if it will be supported in the future

The other major change is the TV file format, out goes DVR-MS and in comes WTV. My non fiji machines would not play the new format and as I share content between machines that was a problem. Also the Zune software would not sync the WTV files to my Zune.

Overall there are a lot of nice little updates to the TV side of Media Center when the update is applied and it’s a shame it will not be available to all. Having played with the beta and had some pain with it I can see kind of see why Microsoft have gone down the OEM route but I still think its a missed opportunity to improve Media Center for the existing customer base especially as we have waited so long for the update. The silence around the beta has meant that fiji got built up to something it is not and will leave a lot of disappointed enthusiast in the community.

I should have more details on next weeks The Media Center Show

 

Here is the full text of the post

On July 16th, 2008, Microsoft released an update to the version of
Windows Media Center included with Windows Vista Home Premium and
Windows Vista Ultimate to our OEM partners - this update is referred to
as the "Windows(r) Media Center TV Pack". In order to ensure that users
get the best experience possible, this update will only be available
from OEMs, as they are best positioned to provide the testing and
hardware configurations for a great customer experience. This is due to
the fact that in some geographies there are specific technical and
hardware requirements for the Windows Media Center TV Pack that are best
handled by the OEMs. We are working closely with our OEM partners as
they finalize their decisions on Windows Media Center TV Pack products.
The Windows Media Center TV Pack is primarily targeted at adding support
for additional international broadcast standards including:
o   Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting - Terrestrial (ISDB-T)
Digital television standard for Japan
o   Digital Video Broadcasting - Satellite (DVB-S) free-to-air satellite
standards  in  Europe
o   Digital Video Broadcasting - Terrestrial (DVB-T) digital television
with  improved user experience in Europe
o   ClearQAM (Unencrypted Digital Cable)in the United States
o   Interactive television with integrated Broadcast Markup language
(BML) in Japan and Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert
Group (MHEG) (MHEG5) in Europe
This version does not include native support for subscription-based
satellite tuners or the H.264 video standard. We test many features in
beta releases, and optimize our feature set in the final code for the
best user experience.
We do want the Windows Media Center community to know that Microsoft
will continue to improve upon the Windows Media Center experience for
our customers worldwide, by adding content partnerships and enhanced
features.  We will share these developments as they become available.

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Posted Aug 08 2008, 06:30 PM by Ian Dixon