Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[candycane]

A suggestion for your future direction:  I'd love a single integrated solution for playing back my media, including DVDs and Blu-rays, throughout my home.   I'm sure I'm not unique in this or in thanking you for your efforts to continually enhance MC.

My eye has wandered to considering a media streamer solution, since some seem to allow Blu-ray ISO playback (for example, Netgear NeoTV 550), and I like the look and feel of the XMBC front end.  

It would be great if, similar to what you've done with the Id, you could find a reference design based on an upcoming media SoC chip (like http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Sigma-Designs-Launches-First-Studio-Grade-Set-Top-Box-SoC-NASDAQ-sigm-1374816.htm ), and integrate MC as a front end in an inexpensive box.  Perhaps greater integration of Blu-ray playback in the chips is the solution to providing this ability without the coding, licensing, and maintenence issues of doing this mostly in software.

My guess is that firms are lining up now with their plans for this and similar upcoming chips and resulting boxes, and it would be great if MC were in the mix.  I fear that waiting to act until after public rollouts of the resulting boxes and reference designs will put MC at a disadvantage in the marketplace.  Maybe Ubicom is planning on a reference design using a new Sigma or Realtek chip, or you can talk them into it!

I think front ends are the key differentiating factor in this space (duh), and I'd love to see MC take advantage of the upcoming capabilities of the media chips and boxes.  Thanks!

[thedude]

If you want something with different capabilities than MC15, then you should look at a different product.  MC has and probably always will be PC-centric.  I think the move to DLNA and and smart appliances is a fad, so PC-based is the way to go.  Those media boxes are turning into PCs anyway.  Besides, those boxes are Linux and MC is Windows - different markets.

And if I'm wrong, it'll be at least a year before anything you mentioned will actually be available.  Better to wait for it to come out, if it comes out, and then wait a bit to see if it catches on, and then begin to plan something.  Everyone who jumped into HD-DVD wished they did that.