Diamond, What Little is Known?

[Jeremy Charette]

http://www.jamesproud.com/index.php?id=64

"For those who do not know, Diamond is the next version of Microsoft Windows Media Center Edition. Diamond will be based on Windows Vista like the past versions of MCE have been based on XP...DRM will be much improved with Diamond, I am not sure how exactly, but the way DRM files are handled and verified will be much easier and quicker...No one outside Microsoft knows what level of graphical power and memory Diamond will need. But I am hazarding a guess that the GPU power will need a recent DX9 card and around 2GB of RAM..."



This all sounds very speculative, but it appears that the next version of Windows MCE will be very hardware intensive, and focus on streamlining the user experience. I sincerely hope DRM is in fact handled quickly and easily, otherwise it will turn users off when it comes to listening to music or watching movies on a PC. It also looks like the desktop and everything on it will be rendered in real time using DirectX, which should make for a pretty dynamic user interface. This is something that's been tried by 3rd party companies in the past, with little acceptance by consumers. I tried such a 3D interface myself, but gave up using it because of the immense CPU and GPU load it created. Let's hope Microsoft can make it seamless (regardless of hardware), otherwise it might tank just as badly.

[Jeremy Charette]

http://www.jamesproud.com/index.php?id=64

"For those who do not know, Diamond is the next version of Microsoft Windows Media Center Edition. Diamond will be based on Windows Vista like the past versions of MCE have been based on XP...DRM will be much improved with Diamond, I am not sure how exactly, but the way DRM files are handled and verified will be much easier and quicker...No one outside Microsoft knows what level of graphical power and memory Diamond will need. But I am hazarding a guess that the GPU power will need a recent DX9 card and around 2GB of RAM..."



This all sounds very speculative, but it appears that the next version of Windows MCE will be very hardware intensive, and focus on streamlining the user experience. I sincerely hope DRM is in fact handled quickly and easily, otherwise it will turn users off when it comes to listening to music or watching movies on a PC. It also looks like the desktop and everything on it will be rendered in real time using DirectX, which should make for a pretty dynamic user interface. This is something that's been tried by 3rd party companies in the past, with little acceptance by consumers. I tried such a 3D interface myself, but gave up using it because of the immense CPU and GPU load it created. Let's hope Microsoft can make it seamless (regardless of hardware), otherwise it might tank just as badly.

[Brandon Miniman]

I think Microsoft now has enough headroom to make software that requires potent hardware. I don't quite see how a media player could call upon 2gb of RAM, but if that's the case - I'd be happy to upgrade to bring the experience to a new level that is reflective of the progressive change in technology. There needs to be some basic expectations of the consumer at this point -- to keep pace and have the "richest experience" (as MS likes to say), you must upgrade.

[Jason Dunn]

Nah, I think James Proud is making an unfair assumption. The MCE interface is already purely DirectX, and does require a decent video card, but all the heavy lifting is done by the GPU not the CPU. As for RAM, it's doesn't have a very big footprint.