engadget: "How Microsoft’s Media Center Will Save Television"

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.engadget.com/entry/1512075763129497/' target='_blank'>http://www.engadget.com/entry/1512075763129497/</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Much of the credit for the flexibility of Microsoft’s digital home strategy belongs to the Media Center Extenders, the $300 tails that wag the $2,000 dog. While still overpriced for what they offer, Media Center Extenders allow consumers to experience much of Media Center’s functionality while running the actual operating system on a boring desktop PC tucked away in the basement. Alternatively, you can purchase an HP Digital Entertainment Center - the best implementation of a living room PC to date - and keep all of your media local to your television, potentially reducing or eliminating the serious bandwidth challenges of transmitting video over a wireless network."</i><br /><br />Worth the read - think he's right?

[James Fee]

I'm not sure about "saving TV" until HD is really available on MCE, but I'm very impressed with what I've seen so far. Now it is up to companies to develop implementations of MCE that will sit next to TVs rather than the large workstation footprints that seem to be popular.

[Felix Torres]

"...holistic media-distribution system in the home that mostly works on commodity components..."

Myah, he likes his buzzwords, don't he? ;-)

Translation: MS has built a cheap media server system that works.
(Cheap in context to what you get, not in context with a $400 desktop.)

As for saving TV?
Hyperbole at best.
Tech-wise, TV doesn't need saving; content-wise, it is beyond saving; business-model-wise, it isin dire need of reconstruction.
The days of "by appointment-only" viewing are just about over and PVRs are just a band-aid that obcures the need for a 100% on-demand video distribution system, modeled on the magazine publishing industry, most likely.

MCE is an excellent product with a few rough edges that is boldly creating a new market (anybody notice that MCE PCs are out-selling MACs and Linux? 3% market share...) but it isn't going to "save" TV, but rather the opposite; it highlights its weaknesses and, quite possibly, paves the way for its transformation or replacement...

Or to put it another way: MCE PCs are needed only because the current video publishing business is broken; its a patch. If the studios and their distributors got their act together, there would be no need for MCE...