I thought that some people might be interested in taking a look at what changes MS is proposing for Vista's MCE. Here's the full article:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=71 Here's some of the things I liked:
The keypad-like search function:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?page_id=70&page=13Context menus at full-screen:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?page_id=70&page=19Burn/Tag/Edit and Save Playlist functions:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?page_id=70&page=14Widescreen Media Searching (maximises screen real-estate)
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?page_id=70&page=12http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?page_id=70&page=17Now, I've never been much of an MCE fan. I do like HTPC's though and all the benefits they can bring to one's "digital life". As an avid JR MC fan, I've been extremely happy with the latest improvements to
Theater View. It's fast, easy to use and most importantly, it has MC at the core. Moving forward though (MC13??) I wonder if one day I'll be able to do the sort of things MCE is trying to encourage people to do in their living rooms with nothing more than a remote control? Things like:
a) rip a cd
b) tag / change / delete
c) burn
d) save playlists
e) schedule tv recordings via EPG
f) download and play on-demand movies and music etc
g) sync handhelds
Granted for most, these are just niceties rather than necessities but they are the sort of things which could potentially bridge the gap for people too afraid to experience a media center pc in the living room because they can't OR don't want to use a PC.
Most people who see my HTPC setup (Theater View) usually can't believe what they see and want to know how they can achieve the same thing. I'm often reluctant to go there though because unless you're computer savey, this is still somewhat of a difficult task. Being able to do the sort of things I've listed above WITHOUT a keyboard and mouse and solely within Theater View would make the sell a heck of a lot easier as the whole experience becomes more like using a cd or dvd player rather than a pc. As I said, MS is trying to go there and so are many others. I wonder if JRiver have any plans for this also? I hope so