Nice short show for you this week, Microsoft’s Ben Reed senior product manager for Windows Media Center talks supported TV formats in the Windows 7 version of Windows Media Center. Windows 7 adds support for some new formats and builds on the Windows Vista TV Pack, Ben explains the updates and talks multi-tuner support. Plus I have a round up of the weeks news.
0 thoughts on “The Media Center Show No.218 – Microsoft’s Ben Reed”
Ian, thanks for the Podcast,
I have to ask why no harder questions for Ben? I know it’s hard to balance between letting people come and do their corporate speak and asking real questions, but with so many changes and concerns going on in the Media Center Community it puzzles me why you didn’t ask any harder questions. (Possible death of extender Model, Dish\DirecTV Tuners, Netflix on Extenders, Push back from content providers for online video on your TV, just to name a few).
@alton your right but the focus of the interview was TV formats only, the PC on the TV is a topic for another time and something I will be talking about on the show next week
Something i feel Ben is failing to understand is the Uk Tv standard
Ben we have 2 main Tv suppliers here in the Uk Sky ( sat ) and Virgin Cable, freeview and freesat are already catered for in Media Centre if the user needs them but they are the least used formats
IF Microsoft want to make Media Centre a winner in the Uk they MUST intergrate Sky and cable Tv
Some points that perhaps point to Ben being out of touch with the Uk standards :
The Uk already has digital Tv delivery, we moved over before the US
We do not have a large distribution of people with aeriels and dishes as mentioned, thats completely incorrect , we have 3 main standards only
OTA TV aeriel ( DVB-T ) with flavours like 2
Sky Tv Via Satellite ( DVB-S )
Cable Tv ( DVB-C )
Thats it , so it is no good saying the Uk is complex and having lots of differences it simply does not, we do exactly the same as Germany except as part of the Satellite buying package a man does the installation for you from the company you buy from ?? why is that different to Germany ?? it isnt
There are NO changes due to the UK broadcasting standard now or in the future , each country has exactly the same delivery method the only differences are International standards ( NTSC , PAl , PAL 1 ) and so on
i like listening to Ben and his thoughts but to be completely truthfull i feel Ben is well out of date and is not getting the correct information from the many sources he has at his fingertips
The Best value to the largest number of consumers in the Uk is adding SKY and Cable …. now if you cant intergarte them OR if they dont want to play ball with Microsoft just say so for goodness sake, dont reel out the Corporate speak, its annoying and frustrating
adding Sky into an Xbox is not the same as adding Sky into Media Centre and does not fit within the Media Center Eco system , Media Centre by definition presently is not a Media Centre, it needs proper Tv intergration from the main providers and not the fringe providers
my feelings are that Sky Tv is refusing to let Microsoft intergrate, if that is the case then get Virgin Cable into Media Centre and then push UP the price to sky for intergartion as Sky realise what a mistake they have made, it would serve there arrogant ar**s right
Hey, if i`m wrong and Sky do allow proper intergration i`l gladly retract the above but only after sky has been running with proper EGP and record funcionality on my Windows7 Media Centre Pc for a week without a glitch .
blimey getting of this high horse looks tricky from here .. ( smiley face )
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Ian, thanks for the Podcast,
I have to ask why no harder questions for Ben? I know it’s hard to balance between letting people come and do their corporate speak and asking real questions, but with so many changes and concerns going on in the Media Center Community it puzzles me why you didn’t ask any harder questions. (Possible death of extender Model, Dish\DirecTV Tuners, Netflix on Extenders, Push back from content providers for online video on your TV, just to name a few).
Thanks
Alton
@alton your right but the focus of the interview was TV formats only, the PC on the TV is a topic for another time and something I will be talking about on the show next week
Something i feel Ben is failing to understand is the Uk Tv standard
Ben we have 2 main Tv suppliers here in the Uk Sky ( sat ) and Virgin Cable, freeview and freesat are already catered for in Media Centre if the user needs them but they are the least used formats
IF Microsoft want to make Media Centre a winner in the Uk they MUST intergrate Sky and cable Tv
Some points that perhaps point to Ben being out of touch with the Uk standards :
The Uk already has digital Tv delivery, we moved over before the US
We do not have a large distribution of people with aeriels and dishes as mentioned, thats completely incorrect , we have 3 main standards only
OTA TV aeriel ( DVB-T ) with flavours like 2
Sky Tv Via Satellite ( DVB-S )
Cable Tv ( DVB-C )
Thats it , so it is no good saying the Uk is complex and having lots of differences it simply does not, we do exactly the same as Germany except as part of the Satellite buying package a man does the installation for you from the company you buy from ?? why is that different to Germany ?? it isnt
There are NO changes due to the UK broadcasting standard now or in the future , each country has exactly the same delivery method the only differences are International standards ( NTSC , PAl , PAL 1 ) and so on
i like listening to Ben and his thoughts but to be completely truthfull i feel Ben is well out of date and is not getting the correct information from the many sources he has at his fingertips
The Best value to the largest number of consumers in the Uk is adding SKY and Cable …. now if you cant intergarte them OR if they dont want to play ball with Microsoft just say so for goodness sake, dont reel out the Corporate speak, its annoying and frustrating
adding Sky into an Xbox is not the same as adding Sky into Media Centre and does not fit within the Media Center Eco system , Media Centre by definition presently is not a Media Centre, it needs proper Tv intergration from the main providers and not the fringe providers
my feelings are that Sky Tv is refusing to let Microsoft intergrate, if that is the case then get Virgin Cable into Media Centre and then push UP the price to sky for intergartion as Sky realise what a mistake they have made, it would serve there arrogant ar**s right
Hey, if i`m wrong and Sky do allow proper intergration i`l gladly retract the above but only after sky has been running with proper EGP and record funcionality on my Windows7 Media Centre Pc for a week without a glitch .
blimey getting of this high horse looks tricky from here .. ( smiley face )