Is it time for Microsoft to ditch Mediaroom and push forward with Media Center?

I was reading about Microsoft’s attempts to stop Tiva from importing set-top boxes and saw in Mary Jo Foley’s post she mentions that there is some kind tie-up between Windows Media Center and Mediaroom (Mediaroom is Microsoft’s platform for RV and video service providers)

Last year at CES Microsoft showed off how Mediaroom could be added to Media Center as an extender for a Mediaroom system but this hints to being more than that with a project coded named “Monaco”

With Windows Media Center coming to low cost set top boxes with Windows Embedded I can’t see why Microsoft don’t just push Windows Media Center for IPTV providers and ditch Mediaroom or at least merge the projects. It doesn’t make sense to develop two set top box products and seeing how good the Windows Embedded devices looked at CES I think Windows Media Center would be the best platform to go forward. Looking at the rest of the post it looks like Windows Embedded is Microsoft chosen direction for these type of products anyway.

Does all of this add up to “Microsoft TV” — a la Google TV or Apple TV? (Or is running Xbox as an IPTV set-top box Microsoft’s answer to its competitors?)

Here’s an intriguing hint that there might be more to come from a recent Microsoft “help wanted” post:

“Internet TV is taking over the traditional TV steadily. One of the Microsoft mission goals is to provide a TV solution. Consumer media device (CMD) is one of the exciting products we are currently working on and we are looking for strong SDET to come in and help us deliver this product. The project vision is ‘Windows Embedded Powers TV worldwide’ and our mission is to provide both broadcast & internet content to meet future demands of consumer media devices.”