Green Buttons: I followed up on this. The program is US only at the moment, but its success will bree plans to go international. (Sorry from me for those of you not in the US). There are still some spots available. Hope this helps - Pete

 

****

Windows Media Center

Consumer Video Testimonial Program

 

Make a 2-minute video about how Windows Media Center has benefitted your life and receive a $140 Flip Camera.

 

As a Windows Media Center enthusiast, you are invited to participate in the Windows Media Center Consumer Testimonial Program. We are excited to see what Windows Media Center means to you and truly appreciate your willingness to become involved. As a token of our appreciation, you will receive a new Flip Camera to keep upon the completion of your video.

 

Program Basics

 

We supply you with all you need to record and edit your own video testimonial…

• One Flip Camera for filming your video testimonial
• Testimonial Participants packet with example testimonial and both written and video how to/best practices and video editing guide

 

You send us back…

• The loaner Flip Camera supplied by us for video testimonial filming
• One or Multiple CDs containing:
  • A Windows Media Video (WMV) file of your video (approximately 2 minutes in length)
  • The Windows Movie Maker project file used to edit your video and all utilized video clips

Upon receiving your video testimonial, we send you back a brand new Flip camera just like the one used for shooting your video.

 

We have also included a link to a sample customer testimonial video created for this program.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K5S6aE_ZnM 

 

We anticipate a high level of response so the sooner you reply the better your chance of being a part of this fun and exciting program.

 

Send an e-mail to tvlife@microsoft.com and we’ll get back to you with all you need to start!

 

Thanks,

 

Elliot

Is this available in the UK, or is it US only?

 

and DK (or to europe in generel )?

I asked that on the other post and didnt get a reply :(

Cool, I have 2 vmc in my house - I think they are a must have.... But I cant make a video - I'm just so damn ugly.

Am I supposed to get a reply on what to send in for this, or are they only selecting certain people?

send an email and hope for a reply. Several have asked whether or not this applies outside US, but none have received any replies. So best guess is to send en email.

/Jesper

Hi Jesper:

I followed up on this an djust heard back. The program is US only, but if the response is good, they plan to go international. Sorry about that.

Pete

 

Hi Jesper:

I followed up on this an d just heard back. The program is US only, but if the response is good, they plan to go international. Sorry about that.

Pete

 

ok, thanks for the feedback.

Just let us know, prettyr sure there will be voulenteers in europe as well :-)

/Jesper

Are their programs usually so slow to respond/get going? I sent an inquiry about a week ago and they replied saying "Yes it is still on/planned" but didn't offer a date. It has been 2 months heh.

Can I put together a 2 minute video expressing how I built an HTPC in August of 2007 and it worked just great for over a year? 

Can I tell people that with the introduction of TV Pack that now it jitters and hesitates playing back my local NBC affiliate in HD and is unwatchable?  Can I tell them the same content played through Media player plays fine?

Can I give a 2 minute summary of how the MCE community has had an open ticket with Microsoft since November of 2008 and nothing has been done? 

http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/29/315197/ShowThread.aspx

 Can I tell them that Microsoft's response was "We have not been able to reproduce this in a test environment however we do have a system that is under review with the developers on this issue, hence the reason we did not need you to send your system to us." . What the heck does that mean?

Can I tell them that MCE doesn't work for alot of people and Microsoft is dragging their feet to fix it? 

Can I tell them to pay monthly for their local cable DVR and tell Microsoft to fix their products and quit worrying about giving away free flip cameras?

 

Funny, after I posted last night I get an e-mail. Weee

I am on both sides of this fence.  I want to create positive buzz that will bring WMC to the masses, because it's just that good.  But, like Darin, I am quite disappointed in Microsoft's inward, uncommunicative, and unresponsive approach to problems that are quite severe and affects a lot of people.  

Microsoft has unfortunately allowed a core base of evangelists down to the point where we're now actually a bit embarrassed to recommend WMC to our friends and family.  If they experience the same jidder/judder/skipping that we do, then our good names are tarnished.

It's impossible to evangelize a product that you do not feel will live up to the hype.  And, thanks to the serious judder/stutter/skipping issue that occurs across most all DX10 graphics cards playing back specific types of TV content, we cannot honestly evangelize. 

I have still put my name in to support this program, but it'll have to be limited to the other multimedia aspects... not the DVR.  

Enough complaining -- now some constructive advice:  Microsoft eHome team -- put a program manager or resolution manager on this case, and have this person reach out to the community to really get a full understanding of the problem.  Once a full understanding is uploaded to this individual's brain, he/she will work closely with the dev teams to work through a resolution, and act a liason between the community and the dev teams (and GPU vendors).   This is the only way this is going to work.

We've seen the back-and-forth from the open ticket monkeydeathsonic has issues to MSFT re: this issue, and the dev team's responses are unintelligable.   We have no idea if they really understand the issue, and have no confidence that they are going to be able to resolve it.

Give us a single, temporary resource.  You need to, because it's not "just" TV Pack users, and it's not "just" Vista users... it's Win 7 users too.  So if this problem bleeds into Win7 WMC, then there's really no hope in success.  The negative buzz will drown out an otherwise fantastic solution.

I seriously cannot understand how this dynamic is lost on the largest, seasoned software company in the world.  

Jon

darinvedwards:

Can I put together a 2 minute video expressing how I built an HTPC in August of 2007 and it worked just great for over a year? 

Can I tell people that with the introduction of TV Pack that now it jitters and hesitates playing back my local NBC affiliate in HD and is unwatchable?  Can I tell them the same content played through Media player plays fine?

Can I give a 2 minute summary of how the MCE community has had an open ticket with Microsoft since November of 2008 and nothing has been done? 

http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/29/315197/ShowThread.aspx

 Can I tell them that Microsoft's response was "We have not been able to reproduce this in a test environment however we do have a system that is under review with the developers on this issue, hence the reason we did not need you to send your system to us." . What the heck does that mean?

Can I tell them that MCE doesn't work for alot of people and Microsoft is dragging their feet to fix it? 

Can I tell them to pay monthly for their local cable DVR and tell Microsoft to fix their products and quit worrying about giving away free flip cameras?