Microsoft are talking feedback on Windows Media Center in Windows 7 from the Media Center integrator Alliance (MCIA) in a private Windows 7 beta focusing. MCIA is aimed at Custom Integrators and their feedback will mean that the custom integrator issues get some focus in the beta program. Checkout the article on CE Pro for all the details. The article also says that new integrators must join MCIA by February 6th to participate in the beta.
"This is an entirely different program than the public Windows 7 beta," says a Microsoft spokesperson. "Inclusion in this private beta will allow Microsoft to provide an additional level of scrutiny to the particular issues that you are seeing that are related to the custom installation channel."
3 thoughts on “Integrators Get Opportunity to Influence Windows 7 Media Center”
Thanks for the link, Ian. I revised the story slightly — actually, bug reports and feature requests must be received by Feb. 6. So integrators need to join MCIA and submit that info by then. Not a lot of time!
Media Center is certainly not dead. However a year from now I could see it being dead for the average consumer.
At the same time I could see it being the standard for custom installers. They’ll come up with extra software to do the audio and video syncing (Ian showed this at CES 2008) between zones and whatever else is missing after MC7 comes out. All the cool software will only be available to people who have the money for such installations. I could easily see this.
I hope that you are right about the custom market. MediaCenter has always been dead for the average consumer(little to no computer experience). The biggest problem with Mediacenter is and always has been how it doesn’t cater to anyone. It is too complicated/expensive for the average Joe, and not robust enough for the custom market. MCE is never going to be a main stream product. The sooner Microsoft realizes that the sooner we will all win.
As long as Microsoft keeps improving the publically available SDK, the enthusiast will still be able build a setup as good if not better then the custom Mediacenter shops.
Mediacenters success for the enthusiast falls on projects like Music Browser,OML,MediaBrowser. Its community open source projects like these that brings in new developers and keeps enthusiasts coming back for more.
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Thanks for the link, Ian. I revised the story slightly — actually, bug reports and feature requests must be received by Feb. 6. So integrators need to join MCIA and submit that info by then. Not a lot of time!
Media Center is certainly not dead. However a year from now I could see it being dead for the average consumer.
At the same time I could see it being the standard for custom installers. They’ll come up with extra software to do the audio and video syncing (Ian showed this at CES 2008) between zones and whatever else is missing after MC7 comes out. All the cool software will only be available to people who have the money for such installations. I could easily see this.
I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am.
-Scott
Scott
I hope that you are right about the custom market. MediaCenter has always been dead for the average consumer(little to no computer experience). The biggest problem with Mediacenter is and always has been how it doesn’t cater to anyone. It is too complicated/expensive for the average Joe, and not robust enough for the custom market. MCE is never going to be a main stream product. The sooner Microsoft realizes that the sooner we will all win.
As long as Microsoft keeps improving the publically available SDK, the enthusiast will still be able build a setup as good if not better then the custom Mediacenter shops.
Mediacenters success for the enthusiast falls on projects like Music Browser,OML,MediaBrowser. Its community open source projects like these that brings in new developers and keeps enthusiasts coming back for more.
Lets hope the SDK continues to improve!