Michael Gartenberg: "Microsoft Creates Their Own Standalone DVR Platform"

[Filip Norrgard]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://weblogs.jupiterresearch.com/analysts/gartenberg/archives/005784.html' target='_blank'>http://weblogs.jupiterresearch.com/analysts/gartenberg/archives/005784.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"I've been excited about this one since I first heard the news. As part of their digital home efforts, Bill Gates announced as part of his keynote Microsoft is releasing a standalone DVR/DVD-Burner platform to compete with the likes of TiVo. First to market will be a new box from LG later this year. These units will have a look and feel similar to the Media Center PC platform but will not be traditional PCs nor will they be usable for PC tasks such as running Office. They will have the standard Windows EPG and will be able to burn content to DVDs."</i><br /><br />Uhh, OK, so the upcoming DVR from Microsoft will not be a PC but something else? :? Sounds to me like the box will be running on Windows CE, just like the Windows Mobile devices are, and thus a bit scaled down from the normal PC. I would also like to see them over at this side of the Atlantic but that will probably not happen since TiVo hasn't exactly invaded Europe yet.

[Felix Torres]

Uhh, OK, so the upcoming DVR from Microsoft will not be a PC but something else? :? Sounds to me like the box will be running on Windows CE, just like the Windows Mobile devices are, and thus a bit scaled down from the normal PC. I would also like to see them over at this side of the Atlantic but that will probably not happen since TiVo hasn't exactly invaded Europe yet.

1- XBOX is based on PC tech but its not a PC. It lacks some PC features but has capabilities PCs of the time could not deliver. Its an optimized trade-off, not a cripple.
2- The Windows CE kernel is based on the same NT kernel as XP, but slimmed down and adapted for ROM-based execution. It exists in a version that can run on x86 cpus and run x86 code. Which is to say, its not just for phones and PDAs. Indeed, MS built a home-PC architecture for China off WinCE, a few years back. When Balmer talks about the need for a $200 PC that is the kind of creature he's likely talking about; think Atari ST...
3- Windows XP embedded serves as the core for a great many non-PC standalone devices ranging from Point-of-sale systems to ATMs and voting machines. For all the FUD spread about the stability of MS OS products, the basic kernals are as robust as anything out there.

What these facts lead to is that MS has a choice here; they can go with a CE-based architecture like the one in the Media Center Extenders and MSN TV2 or they can go with XP embedded as in the XBOX. In either case they can then tweak and (if necessary) recompile the application code from Media Center 05 (06?) to build a standalone DVR box with connectivity and extensibility unmatched to add into the ever-expanding Windows Media ecosystem.

The choice of path will most likely depend on the hardware and, most importantly, the feature set and extensibility of the platform they wish to create. If MS chose to go with XP embedded, the presence of a hard drive and dvd drive would allow for plug-ins similar to the ones for MCE05, delivered either via retail disks (ala XBOX) or via the net, like the Extenders and the MSN TV boxes. A CE-based device would most likely be Flash-ROM based and be upgradeable, but not necessarily extensible.

The key thing to remember here is that PVR is a *feature* of DVR products, not a product by itself. MS doing a second standalone PVR product (let's not forget Ultimate TV, which may not have sold well enough to survive but was more than competitive with TiVo in its day) because they see an opening for a product nobody is (yet) doing; a product half-way between a set-top box and a Media Center PC. The announced feature set (two-way PC connectivity and disk burning) is a good start. Throwing in local music ripping and burning and maybe PMC and camera sync would be a good follow-up...

And, since they already have all the parts needed to make it work already deployed in one form or another, this is really an exercise in "parts-bin engineering" for MS.

The real question to me is whether the product will be a Media Center Extender-plus or a Media Center PC-minus, cause that will tell us how it will fit in the home media network; as client or server...

[Filip Norrgard]

2- The Windows CE kernel is based on the same NT kernel as XP, but slimmed down and adapted for ROM-based execution. It exists in a version that can run on x86 cpus and run x86 code. Which is to say, its not just for phones and PDAs. Indeed, MS built a home-PC architecture for China off WinCE, a few years back. When Balmer talks about the need for a $200 PC that is the kind of creature he's likely talking about; think Atari ST...
Hmm... I read somewhere that Windows CE is not based on the NT kernel but does have some NT OS properties in common. The Win CE kernel was built from scratch and built for a whole other purpouse than the NT core was built for. But that is just the little I know... ;)

Nonetheless it will be interesting to see if the PVR from Microsoft is going to be an Xbox-ish "PC" or not. Your list of options that Microsoft has got is interesting to read and makes it even more fun to continue speculating what the PVR will be powered by. I can just hope that the list of features it will have will not be too short and missing something "essential".

[Ed Hansberry]

2- The Windows CE kernel is based on the same NT kernel as XP, but slimmed down and adapted for ROM-based execution.
It is based on the same model as the NT kernel is, but after trying to scale the then NT4.0 kernel down to a tight embedded OS, MS changed course and basically wrote CE from the ground up. Much like they did with the original Stinger UI - it started out as a pared down Pocket PC but was scrapped in favor of the Smartphone OS written from the base CE kernel up.

[Felix Torres]

Thanks for clarifying that "based" in thus case doesn't mean "ported"; I just wanted to point out that the core plumbing is architecturally sound and advanced; unlike a certain other single-tasking handheld OS out there. ;-)
And yes, let us hope MS and their hardware partners do take full advantage of the Windows Media app-toolkit and raise the bar for all the other competitors.
The objective here is to drive features down from techie-land into grandma-turf, right? MS has a head-start on competitors, but is by no means assured of success, much less victory. Still, their entry should start a nice scramble for the business...
Whoever does it best will get my money, as long as its reasonably priced...