Wow, 40+ posts today on this thread. Knowing that Windows7 is less than a week away from RTM (and MSDN subscribers will likely have it by month end), I thought surely some major news had surfaced about the Draco initiative. Unfortunately, few posts (if any) are directly related to the Draco project. Is this thread supposed to be about the Draco project, or general MC rants? I'd like to keep an eye on any Draco progress, but I'm afraid I'll need to drop the email alerts on this thread if we can't stay on topic. ;)

So, any news about Draco?

Wow, some discussion you guys had today!

I think Media Center rocks, it's perfect for my needs, maybe better than perfect because I came up with additional things to do with my "TV PC" and added even more value for myself and my family.  My needs are, however, not all that exotic and don't rely upon OEMs and partnerships and such, so in that way I'm fortunate.

My only real beefs with Media Center are that 1) They don't do enough to allow/promote/reward third parties to extend the platform, and 2) It should not be part of the main Windows OS baseline.

I see #2 as being one of the most significant issues for us, the enthusiast crowd.  Let's say Dish does want to keep the project alive, but they didn't make the drop-dead date for Win7 (good assumption at this point) on some critical piece of software that needed to be built into the OS, perhaps for DRM reasons.  We're boned until the next version of Windows if that missing change was significant enough.  (OK, they'd probably go "OEM only" like TV Pack and we'd all illegally download it, but you get my meaning here).

I'd really like to see the Media Center team get the leeway that the IE team has as far as out-of-cycle updates and whatnot.  Of course ship the 'latest' with the OS, but go ahead and replace the whole thing if you want to a year later.

Oh well.  $0.02 'tis all that text is worth :) lol.  Frustration abounds 'round here lately!  (myself included)

An incredibly active thread with no real new information.

I'm very interested in what happens with Draco.  Ben really believes it's only a matter of time and I don't doubt it is a possiblility.  I hope it's true.

Flashiness is nice but I think there's a lot folks are missing out on.  There must be some functionality in there I'm missing - I just don't see it thus far.

I know, i really was kidding, looking forward to sage 7.

FSUGrad1999

Oh I'm definitely not complaining, just stating my gut feeling...  I think Chris makes a lot of valid points about the lack of revenue related to media center...   It just doesn't make M$ that much money...  and when it does, its hard for them to tell if its just another PC purchase or it was a PC purchased with the intent of it being a DVR...

I guess they can look at all the registered copies of cableCard versions of Vista, and see those numbers....  but that only gives you the cablecard PC's.

I wonder if they have a way of tracking how many xbox 360's connect or are registered with a WMC pc?  I doubt they have a way of querying the 360's out there... and I doubt the 360 tells XBL that it has been used as an extender in the past for M$'s own statistical uses

Plus, you have all the DIY'ers out there...  Who knows how to track how many of those there are, but you're not going to make much money off of them either, other than the initial cost of the OS purchase.

Makes me think about that MC as its own OS idea more...  or a WHS/MC OS.... I both of those have been suggested a zillion times, but it would definitely give a way for the media center team to get the revenue they deserve from their efforts, and give M$ an idea as to who's buying into that platform, and how much revenue its generating....

 

They could track off the number of unique IP addresses or whatever other data the media center computers send to the guide data servers to download guide data.

Chris - Moderator

(Posted Jul 09, 2009 12:40 PM)

Given the platform that is Media Center, I'd be surprised if Dish or anyone else still had the least bit of interest in shipping a tuner.

http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/08/19/media-center-dish-network-tuner-is-on-hold-indefinitely/

Hey Chris,  When I read the article I immediately thought of you.  I should have known better than to be an optimist.  dammit! 

 Somehow based on this post I have a feeling you knew this was coming.  I actually had hope for MS on this one and again we get let down.

At least it isn't "dead"...

 This is a devastating blow. Media Center is all but dead if it won't have integrated support for one of the major sat systems. It is a shame, it could have been a great product. Time to start installing sage :(

Well, my only option is cable cards now to keep Media Center and get HD content. Sigh. Well, my PC needs a face lift anyhow as its getting to be 4 yrs old. Win7 + Cable Card + extenders for me soon. I was waiting on this decision before I made the jump.

 Does anyone have the latest on the hauppauge hd-pvr? Is it going to work with Windows 7?

I almost forgot about this thing all together. It seemed so promising when it first came out but then the reality of the TV pack shattered that dream with no h.264 support. This would actually be a better solution for us as a whole, as it would work with any cable/sat system out there and no drm, no copyright flags etc.

 

I like the first comment on the article.. it expressed exactly what I feel... Sonofabitch.......... I was SO looking forward to this!! Someone needs to do something about this. I'm pissed!!

 Time to dust off my liscense of Sage TV I bought about 3 years ago , and get me an HD PVR.

 This really Sucks!!!

 

                                         Tim ;-(

redwoodhomemedia

I like the first comment on the article.. it expressed exactly what I feel... Sonofabitch.......... I was SO looking forward to this!! Someone needs to do something about this. I'm pissed!!

Thanks, that was mine....the funny thing is, I live in Canada and can't even get Dish.  MS needed this to come out - correction Media Center Enthusiasts needed this to come out.  Unless MS has a surprise partner waiting in the wings, Media Center is done.