And when have they changed the basic network model in the 12 years Microsoft has been into R&D on this? Yep.
But why does it need to be changed? That same model quite happily connects to a network that is chucking Terrabytes of data around at my work location, and can freely let multiple devices communicate at home – I don’t see that there is any need for fundamental alterations. USB2.0 has enough bandwidth to transfer uncompressed video, home wireless networks are more than enough for compressed streaming video, and there are no issues with that on the network model employed currently.
Well, I could easily point to yesterdays CES presentation by Bill Gates and the 3-4 problems they had with networking (Who is incharge of Microsoft anywa... ohh..) and getting the system to work when set-up by professionals. But that's a cop-out.
Problems with getting the extender and PC to identify and stay connected. Problems playing video over the extender, problems with the web-radio. I can ask him later about what model and more problems.
Shrug – a demonstration at a show is not indicative of problems everywhere Vince, generally speaking they are more prone to issues at shows since its outside of its normal operating environment, the equipment has been lugged around all over the place and they may have been running at higher temps.
I disagree fundimentally with the premise. It doesn't have to operate on Windows and it doesn't need to center around using the PC as a hub for everything from the icons it displays to the MP3's it plays, et al.
Something thing has to be able to record the media and something has to serve the media – it make no difference if that something is one or more devices. But the more that CE devices start doing these things the more PC like they become – my TiVo unit already does these things, and a very similar manner to a PC doing them, and yet I end up with the frustration that I can’t get the files off in a fashion that I want.
Saying it's "here, now" just goes to show how much of a failure it is in the consumer's eyes. Where's the hype, where's the demand? it just doesn't exist, nor does the added value to the typical consumer -- of which you are not.
Evidently MS, the IHV and the OEM’s are seeing worth video content devices has very much been the focus of many of these groups – what did Gates spend his time speaking about at CES? What did JHH talk about in the recent “Fireside Chat� Alternatively, if you see these capabilities as a failure now then there’s no guarantee they won’t be a failure if delivered by someone else.
I don't agree on the first one at all, the current [hub] + [dumb terminals] will not be carried over by Toshiba and Sony. And I think history and common sense will show that CE vendors are just a bit ahead of Microsoft when it comes to ease-of-use. Again, I recommend that article on the comming synergy in the livingroom as it backs-up my case.
Again, who’s talking about a “hub and dumb terminals� I’m talking about something that can freely share files around multiple devices that I have in my house – I can’t do that at the moment thanks to TiVo’s, or any other CE vendors limitations, I could with an MCE system. I suspect that we’ll start to see more variety of systems as well already have the Xbox MCE extender, we’ll have to see what Xenon does, embedded devices running MCE are likely to appear, extenders are already available and other standard methods already in place in the home can be utilised. The fundamentals of how the system can be used is up to the end user and how they take advantage of it and the components they want to talk to each others – whether it be stand alone or a media networked environment. Again I don’t really see any differences with what you talk about from Sony / Toshiba – under both models a or multiple device(s) will record the content and a or multiple device(s) will serve the content.
As for CE vendors being “ahead of MS on ease-of-useâ€, its hardly the case since they don’t offer any devices with similar functionality ergo they are clearly behind. If we take the PVR element alone, as there are CE devices already, then there probably isn’t much difference.
As I stated, Sony is in the hardware buisness. They sell PCs, they run Windows, they support many versions -- No surprise here. Your comment was a useless attempt at a "look, even they support it." Sony, obviously, isn't in the buisness of believing in the Microsoft Media Center paradigm; as I asked and you avoided, where are the Sony HDTVs or Blu-Ray or Audio-systems that are compatable?
The comment was in relation to them seeing the value in selling it since they do.
As for you other comment , how do I know since I’m not part Sony nor do I know how their business operates, all I can say is plainly they see value in the “paradigm†as they sell solutions based on it. And, why does an HDTV need to be compatible, since you’d be plugging the MCE system into it?
Which doesn't answer which a consumer should buy. If they're all the same, why are they priced differently? What can one do that the others can't? As I said, they're still too PC-centric in their modeling.
Buy the default options if you want, make no difference unless you want extra functionality. But, there are other vendors with other models for selling systems if that one baffles you too much.
Again, I don’t see MCE, as it is at the, moment as the panacea, if I did I’d probably already have one, and there are more basic factors that concern me (noise, hardware reliability) that I look at, but in reality these issues are very little different to the TiVo unit that I already have. But, personally, the “hte paradigm is fzit†mentality doesn’t really concern me since I don’t see that there are going to be vastly different “paradigms†from other vendors as they will basically be doing the same things; the paradigm I have at my home at the moment is broken since it I have electronic devices recording media electronically that logically should be able to talk to one another but can’t. If a device turns up and breaks that limitation and offers me at least the same functionality that I have at the moment then I’ll look at it, but the fundamental fact of the matter is that there is the capability to break those limitations is already available via MCE and for a computer literate household such as we have the fact that Windows is available creates a value added proposition.
