I've been using Windows 7 Media Center as my dedicated media hub for the last few weeks, and it's been a nice upgrade from Vista Media Center. Some improvements include support for up to 4 tuners for each type (QAM, ATSC, etc...), a lot of interface improvements, and HD support to name a few. It can even play AVI/DivX files natively without needing any add-ons.
In the past we have mentioned The Green Button, a site dedicated to Windows Media Center. They have all kinds of great information available to those needing questions about their Media Center answered. Over-time it has become even more helpful with actual members of the Microsoft Media Center team dropping by to personally answer questions.
Today we're taking a look at Apple's Front Row vs. Windows Media Center. We're not really sure if Front Row can be compared to Media Center because right now, they serve different purposes. Front Row is more of an interface for controlling the media already on your computer while Media Center will do that in addition to recording television shows.
If you've got a video recording device and two minutes to spare, you could end up with a $10,000 Digital Home Makeover, courtesy of Microsoft. They started a contest to help celebrate the availability of several new Extenders for Windows Media Center.
I've had a Vista machine setup for over a year whose sole purpose is to record my television shows, and I have to say that I've fallen deeply in love with it. Prior to owning the Vista Media Center computer I was using a ReplayTV unit to do the recording, and I didn't think that it got much better than that.
I've been using a Vista Media Center computer for over a year to record all of my favorite shows, and overall I have been really impressed with it. The commercial skipping add-on is a real gem, and the WebGuide add-on makes it possible to access and schedule shows no matter where I am.
Netflix subscribers and Windows Vista Media Center users now have at their disposal an awesome plug-in that is available as a public beta. It's hard to believe that this hasn't been done before (at least to my knowledge) because it's extremely useful.
Microsoft briefly announced in one of their press releases today that they hired on the developer of the popular WebGuide software for Windows Media Center (both XP and Vista).
There is some bad news for those of you taking advantage of free media center software, such as MythTV or Media Portal. As it turns out Zap2it couldn’t continue to provide the television listings that many free media center applications were using.
Microsoft has filed a new trademark for a service that sounds remarkably similar to Joost. The logo being trademarked is pictured to the right, and is supposed to represent “” While the symbol doesn’t seem all that intriguing, the services behind it certainly grab your attention:
