The Race for the Living Room is over

                                               

A Bold Prediction           The race for the Living Room is over.

Its over, Microsoft has won the race for the living room(unless they screw it up, which they are very capable of). This media center is really for real and it should run over  all competition shortly. Here are the 3 key reasons Microsoft has won.

They have an O.S. in your living room     Tivo,TimeWarner dvr or other Set Up Boxes can not currently match this.  A fully operational Operating System( XP or Vista  ) gives Microsoft the ultimate advantage and flexibility.

The 3rd Party Developer Market is about to  Explode   The smartest thing about Media  Center is that it has an open add-in  architecture that allows anyone from a 14 year old gee wiz programmer to Big Time  brand owners to add their custom media application to Media Center.  So very soon if you are a sports fan, when  you sit down to watch the game of your favorite team, you will not go to CBS  but rather an interactive branded channel of your team that allows you to  access all kinds of interactive content as the game progresses.

It extends beyond the living Room       With third party extenders and the xbox 360, you can take  the media center experience into any room in your house.

Comments

[Nigel]

I dont agree - the number of formats supported by Media Center is kinda lame - give me an open source Media Center anyday, or the ability for MediaConnect to support movie files - or a hacked 360 :)

[Michiel]

I built a MythTV box around a year ago and it STILL beats the pants off winMCE at all fronts. (http://www.mythtv.org/modules.php?name=MythFeatures)

While I don't see mom and dad building one themselves, I am sure many embedded device manufacturers are looking at it or comparable sources (see freevo and about a million others).

These system will provide a complete OS in your living room (linux boxes), feature open architecture (so ANY developer can step in, not just those that can afford the tools), it extends beyond the living room (in fact, it has a type of clustering technology that is WAY beyond MCE extender)

I'd say that the living room race hasn't even started; most of the older people in my surroundings still have DVD/VCR machines, and many don't even know about PVRs.

[Sam]

I agree with you, that if MS plays their cards right they will have it locked up.

One way they could do this is by giving the extenders the ability to play any format(as long as the right codec is installed).

Linux is good but it will not break out of it's niche.

[paganCrow]

whoa! got to this page late...

MCE supports any format that has a DirectShow filter installed.

i can play almost any format via MCE (including AAC, OGG, MOV, QT and others) with the exception of RealMedia, but i'm sure there's a suitable filter out there that's MCE-friendly.

you're right, man. MS has it licked... as long as they don't screw up.