I think it’s fair to say that all Windows Media Center enthusiasts are pinning their hopes on DLNA standards giving us a superb media experience all around the home given the current lack of support between vendors for Microsoft’s own Media Center Extenders. With Windows 7 we all expect things to be gaining even more ground, and it’s quite possible that out of all this we’ll get a better experience, at least that’s my hope.
DLNA have just announced that in the last 3 months 400 TVs have been certified compliant bringing the number to 699 in total. 400 in 3 months!! That means that soon every new TV will be able to stream from your Windows 7 PC. Fantastic.
I love this quote, which helps to show the scope of DLNA and what it means:
No longer are consumers relegated to experiencing their digital media on just one device or in only one room. DLNA Certified products allow consumers to easily enjoy, manage and share photos, video and music across devices, regardless of manufacturer. With more than 5,000 DLNA Certified devices worldwide, and a tremendous growth in the number of DLNA Certified television models, consumers can continue to evolve their digital home with the utmost confidence, knowing that their DLNA Certified televisions can access digital content from other DLNA Certified devices throughout their home.
You could look at this the other way which is bad for Media Center in general, all it will take is a few DLNA streaming devices with a good user interface and the masses will be sold. No Media Center even required. Just any old PC on the network to host the service at the back-end.
good point CW, but I am not that familiar with the whole DLNA thing. Could a DLNA server stream MKV’s to a client. How does the tv decode the content. Would we not run into the same issues we have now, with unsupported codecs? Sorry naive question.
CW, I agree that it could be bad for the application, but less so for the platform (long term). My current dilema is do I love the application or the platform. Ok here’s the thing. Extenders are tailing off because people (outside of enthusiasts) don’t see the relevance to their lives, marketings been lack luster by the vendors and they’ve not created demmand. The “pervasiveness” of the DLNA approach might mean that everyone will be able to use it, we need something different because the extender markets too small for vendors to stick with…apart from for CIs
I however use it because I love the interface and I love how complete everything looks and I don’t really like that every vendor of TVs makes their own interface.
hamiltonguy, the way it works is that the DMS (the server) transcodes the content to a format that the DMR (the TV for example) can understand. So technically MKVs should / could work, I’ve not tested it though.
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I think it’s fair to say that all Windows Media Center enthusiasts are pinning their hopes on DLNA standards giving us a superb media experience all around the home given the current lack of support between vendors for Microsoft’s own Media Center Extenders. With Windows 7 we all expect things to be gaining even more ground, and it’s quite possible that out of all this we’ll get a better experience, at least that’s my hope.
Half of me says …jolly good show , sounds wonderful, the other half says …YEAH, YEAH, YEAH , GET IN THERE …..a rather less measured response perhaps
sounds very promising 🙂
You could look at this the other way which is bad for Media Center in general, all it will take is a few DLNA streaming devices with a good user interface and the masses will be sold. No Media Center even required. Just any old PC on the network to host the service at the back-end.
good point CW, but I am not that familiar with the whole DLNA thing. Could a DLNA server stream MKV’s to a client. How does the tv decode the content. Would we not run into the same issues we have now, with unsupported codecs? Sorry naive question.
CW, I agree that it could be bad for the application, but less so for the platform (long term). My current dilema is do I love the application or the platform. Ok here’s the thing. Extenders are tailing off because people (outside of enthusiasts) don’t see the relevance to their lives, marketings been lack luster by the vendors and they’ve not created demmand. The “pervasiveness” of the DLNA approach might mean that everyone will be able to use it, we need something different because the extender markets too small for vendors to stick with…apart from for CIs
I however use it because I love the interface and I love how complete everything looks and I don’t really like that every vendor of TVs makes their own interface.
hamiltonguy, the way it works is that the DMS (the server) transcodes the content to a format that the DMR (the TV for example) can understand. So technically MKVs should / could work, I’ve not tested it though.