Microsoft’s Home Media Center 2.5
We used to have a saying: “never trust any Microsoft software until v3″. So the latest build looks good - I bet one more turn of the crank might actually produce something cool.
For now - here’s some feedback from Matt Hughey and Michael Gartenberg:
Michael Gartenberg from Jupiter Research has long been a fan of Microsoft’s Media Center over TiVo. Today, he posted a lengthy piece explaining why the release of MCE 2005 is a milestone without peer:
MCE 2K5 is important. This OS will serve as the hub for Microsoft’s home strategy and is the cornerstone for a vision of allowing you have your content live in one central location but still have the flexibility to access that content in other rooms in your home on TV screens or stereos, take that content with you on your laptop, burn it to DVD or CD, use a portable media player to take audio and even video and pictures and with WM10 Mobile, take it on your PDA and Smartphone as well. No one else has this clear and articulate a message about the PC as a hub for the digital home for all content, including TV, Video and Pictures.
I must admit, with MCE 2005, Microsoft does have an entire digital lifestyle, end-to-end solution. My only worry is whether or not the market exists for such a device, as it seems people are only slowly adopting each new technology and aside from a few gadget freaks like myself, few would be able to take advantage of every available option in the new release.
PC World also has a first impression review.
[PVRblog]
I just love it when other people talk about a digital lifestyle. So where’s the blogging? Social networking? Mobile gateways? VideoBlogging, Podcasting? RSS reader?
Digital lifestyle - I don’t think so. And I won’t even go into shared public servers of new kinds of micro-content.
