The site makes the excellent point that the music you get on Zune Pass—unlimited song downloads, 10 of which you get to keep every month—is protected under the same DRM supported by Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center. The video above explains the process in detail, but the gist is that by using the Zune desktop software, you can sync your downloads to Windows Media Player and onto your phone. You may miss out on some features that the Zune HD carries, like the ability to stream music wirelessly and to email your content to friends, but that's a small price to pay for what you're saving yourself in hardware. [PocketNow via on10]

Engadget got them to say that, depending on your order, the four-tuner version of the card will retail somewhere between $300 and $600. In comparison, an ATI Digital TV Tuner is $230, so four of those would bring you up to $920. And, you would need four separate CableCARDs from your cable service provider. which at $5 each, runs you an extra $20 on your bill. And the savings get better when you go to the 6 card version.

The official launch is 2010, so we won't be seeing these cards for a little while yet, so there's time for the networks to collaborate to make and air six shows that are worth recording in the same time slot. [Ceton via Engadget]

First, the Windows 7 stuff. The ability to add any old CableCARD tuner to your setup is realized, as we just shoved on a tuner and Windows 7 automatically recognized it and installed the correct drivers. The setup with Comcast was fairly simple, as all we had to do was run through the Tuner setup program, and all Comcast had to do was read some numbers back to home base and have them activate the CableCARD.

The copy freely features work just as you'd imagine. There's not much to "show", in that all it enables is the ability to watch your recorded shows on any other PC. So we copied a recording off of the Zone Pro, onto another Windows 7 PC, and it played back fine.

To enable this, you need Windows 7 and you need to upgrade your firmware on your ATI Tuner—the latter will be available for free from ATI and other OEMs, depending on where you bought your current tuner. The new format for recorded TV, .WTV, is also key, so if you recorded something on a Vista machine, you wouldn't be able to share it with other computers on your network (obviously). Eventually there will be third-party transcoders that can take the .WTV file and make it capable of being read on Zunes and iPhones. And with the Zune HD, you'll be able to handle HD recordings as well.

As for Windows 7 media center itself, the Zone Pro handles it just fine. All the effects are there, such as transparent overlay, are there, and the box can handle two simultaneous tuners at once. Pretty amazing, seeing as the size of one of the external tuners is basically the same size of the Zone Pro itself.

Niveus will start shipping the Zone Pro with Windows 7 to arrive by Win 7's launch. [Niveus]

What it means to you, theoretically, is that you should be able to go out and buy CableCARD tuners and add them to your Windows 7 machines to turn any old machine you have lying around into an HTPC. Also, they've raised the limit to four tuners per "tuner type", so you can have four digital cable channels simultaneously without any kind of special setup.

There is also a new Firmware update for ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuners to mark copy-freely content—the content you can move around your network and portable devices. [Microsoft]

(Before we jump in, here's our ultimate codec primer, if all this "code" talk is confusing.) Here's how a directshow developer lays it out: MPEG-4 and H.264 codecs are hard baked into Media Foundation, and you can't override them, since Microsoft's list of preferred codecs in the registry can't be edited, even in admin mode. Which means basically that Microsoft has "blocked the possibility to use alternate codecs in their applications," according to the developer, so you couldn't use them in Windows Media Player or Windows Media Center.

The flip side is that we are talking about a beta (the 7057 build, in between the public beta and the upcoming release candidate), not a final release, so maybe this won't apply in the final version of Windows if developers bitch loud enough. Also, third-party applications should be able to find a workaround, postulates DigitalWerks, so VLC should be okay. Oh, and with so much codec support built in, it's likely the average person won't need third-party codecs anyway.

Still, pretty lame and non-open on Microsoft's part if it stays this way. [CoreCodec via DigitalWerks via Zatz Not Funny]

I wish it was even larger. Large enough to control the TV with my butt. [Michbex via Hacked Gadgets]

The channel goes live now, and gives men's college basketball coverage by providing 1-2 minute highlights of every game, post game interviews, buzzer beaters (the last 2-10 minutes in a very tight game), and full games in "condensed" form. The condensed form means you won't see time-outs and half-time, but you will see all of the standard play. It's free for Windows Vista media center users, which is kind of a fantastic deal if you're a sports fan.

Microsoft plans to add more content in a similar vein (more sports, possibly TV and movie content) in the future, but they can't give any details.

News of the Secondrun.tv first appeared on The Green Button forums, and is being developed by a forum poster calling himself Yaggs.

The plugin is still in public beta, but a video demo is available. Secondrun.tv bascially takes selected RSS data from Hulu, and repackages it in a more TV-friendly format. Instead of a UI that absolutely requires a mouse, Secondrun.tv fashions itself in the likeness of Roku's Netflix box UI, with big cover art and a brief description below.

Shows are organized by network at the moment, but once you start playing a video, the Hulu website rears its remote-unfriendly head. But the guys at Secondrun are working on getting the basic functions working with the remote, and improving the playback UI.

Admittedly, it looks a bit more difficult to search for specific, obscure items that might be on Hulu (and TRUST ME, there is some OBSCURE shit). But if you want to browse the major and/or popular items from the video site, this app seems like it will do the trick.

No word on a release date, but the creator says it will be out soon. There's also no word on how it works with the Windows 7 version of Media Center or the Xbox 360 Media Extender. [The Green Button via TheDigitalLifestyle via Geek Tonic via Download Squad]

New Context/Details Menu
Most menus share this new look, which pops up whenever you select a song, album, photo or video for playback. In each case, the page looks similar in structure but the information it provides is different. In the case of music here, you can select a track from the album on the first menu; in the secondary "actions" menu, you get choices like "Burn a CD/DVD."

Pictures and Slide Show Creator
Not only has the main pictures browser been tweaked, but now in a new slide show creator, you can hand-pick the photos you want for a slide show on the fly. If you go into the Picture Library, then select "slide shows" from the sub-menu, you can create a new list that puts you in control of the photos in your slide show.

New Video Now Playing Menu
The on-screen context menu while watching videos is also redesigned, and it's pretty unobtrusive. One thing Microsoft figured out with Media Center is how to use a gradual fade as a transition between menus and content in their UI. To check out the new Now Playing bar, just use the left/right keys to move through the options at hand. I'm a fan of it, personally.

Chronological Turbo Scroll for TV Schedules

In most on-screen TV guides, trying to browse a few days ahead is either slow and tedious or so fast you miss your target. In Media Center, the Turbo Scroll feature speeds things up a lot. If you hit the left/right arrow keys for a few seconds while browsing the onscreen guide, the channel listings become a blur, but over that blur appears a marker showing day and approximate time, so you can speed up, then stop on a dime when you get to the spot where you think your show is listed. It's probably quite useful, but as you can see in the video above, it's so cool, you'll do it even if you're not looking for anything.

Alphabetical Turbo Scroll for Music

Similarly, the music player also has a Turbo scroll feature. Again, if you hold down one of the left/right arrow keys while scrolling through any of the categorized music lists for a few seconds, it also begins to zoom through the album cover thumbnails/song titles/artists, with the general section of the Alphabetically organized library that it's in (Ab, Gi, Se, etc...). When you see you're getting close to the name of the album you want, the scroll also stops fast, and you are free to browse.

Video Playback Behind Menus
If you're watching a video (or listening to a song) and you want to exit to the main menu to look at something else, the video (or album art) will continue to play in a slick-looking dissolved background behind the UI. To check it out, just start watching a video or listening to a song, then exit to the main screen while selected media is playing. It's like multimedia multitasking.

Start Menu/Taskbar Launcher
The nice thing about bringing up Media Center in the Start Menu (or right clicking while pinned to the taskbar), is that it displays a list of frequently accessed sections of Media Center. This can be either specific files, like photos and videos, or functions, such as TV. This saves the trouble of having to burrow through 4 menus to get to something you already have in mind. After hitting the Start button, just click the arrow next to the Media Center icon to bring up the secondary list.

Album Art Grid
When you play a song in Media Center, not only is the album art for the selected song shifting from side to side on the screen, but there's a quilt of all the other album covers cascading down behind it in a fluid motion. It's nice to look at, not to mention a bit hypnotic.

Media Center on Xbox
Connecting Media Center to Xbox is pretty simple. You start Media Center on your Xbox, and if you haven't set it up as an extender with another machine already, it will ask you if you want to add one, then give you an 8 digit number. Then, you go into settings in Windows 7 Media Center and select Add extender and plug in that number. The setup process will begin, and voila, you have Media Center on your Xbox. Much of it looks and acts the same as it's Windows counterpart, with one added feature: If you use the Play To feature in Windows Media Player on your PC, it will work with Xbox Media Center. Pretty neat.

Inside Tip: In the beta, we learned that it was better for the Media Center PC to be connected via Ethernet or Wireless N to the router. (The Xbox can be connected wirelessly or via Ethernet, it allegedly doesn't matter.) If you have been experiencing a very sluggy Media Center Extender experience on the Xbox, try ditching slower connections and to your computer.

Virtual Channels
One of Win 7 Media Center's most anticipated new features is virtual TV programming, or virtual channels, that make up the enhanced IPTV features hinted at previously. More than just running promotional 2-minute clips, the goal for Microsoft is to offer on-demand full episodes, possibly even from Hulu and other content providers. MSNBC is currently up and running, and the feature looks promising with a nice looking on-screen guide, regularly updated content and the ability to make on-demand video playlists. You can eventually find these virtual channels under Extras. For now, it's just MSNBC that actually works, but the basic idea of mixing on-demand functionality in media center is pretty awesome.

Video Thumbnail Scroll
When you're playing back any HD video, and you're scrolling along the timeline (back or forward arrow keys, or dragging the timeline) there's a thumbnail that pops up, providing visuals on the scene you're about to skip to. It's like fast forwarding while using Netflix streaming, and it's a pretty useful, if subtle feature. I'd love to see it extended to all video playback.

Photo Wall During Music Play Back
When listening to music, if you select to "Play Photos," it will begin a slide show of sorts, that arranges your photos into a giant wall, then pans and zooms through the lot, fading in from grayscale to a full color view.

The key is that you have to have compatible networked "digital media renderers" at the receiving end. Right now, the list is verrrry short: Sonos is the poster child for the feature at this point, and when you right click a song and send it to the Sonos ZonePlayer in any room, it starts playing no problem. But Sonos is for music only and so is Roku's SoundBridge, which has a variation of the feature enabled on its latest firmware. Video is the holy grail, but for now, the only thing you can send video to is the Xbox 360—and then only when it's running Media Center Extender.

This will change soon, when the DLNA rolls out its "Play To" certification as part of the 1.5 specification. The functionality will likely find its way into loads of media-rendering products: The PS3 is key, but ideally this will be in TVs, connected stereo systems, media adapters and digital picture frames too. Can you imagine how nice it would be if sending a photo to a frame was a right-click away, instead of some convoluted 12-step process requiring proprietary software and a steady easterly breeze?

In other words, though Play To is first coming to life as a Windows 7 attribute, it will hopefully not be just some Microsoft (TM) thing, but a platform that all computers and devices can get with, a whole-house "This just works" thing. Yes, I can see you naysayers wrinkling your noses already: It's a dream that potentially has nightmare written all over it. But at least with Windows 7 and supported devices, Microsoft is burning some midnight oil to make it work.

And the PC is potentially good for getting around kick-in-the-stomach file-format rejections we see in connected products: Windows 7 will automatically render files that it knows the networked device itself can't accept. For instance, a media player that doesn't like AAC will be delivered a more palatable WMA audio track in realtime. Microsoft even says conversion will work with video files—as in, flipping an XviD of The Big Lebowski into WMV as you're watching. It's early in the beta, so there's no telling how pleasant or painful that experience will be. Needless to say, it's not testable just yet.

The other reason the PC is so cool for this is that you can browse files that live somewhere else on your home network. When you find one, you right-click and send it to some other device, clear at the other end of your house. The computer isn't a media player at all anymore, but a big expensive universal remote that also does email.

The experience today isn't life changing, but I was able to play networked music on the Sonos, control its volume, build a playlist and skip around, all with no problem, and with no Sonos software installed. Play To isn't entirely compatible with official Sonos controllers yet (those show that the ZonePlayer is doing something, but won't name the track or show any metadata). It's possible that these issues will be solved by the time Windows 7 is released.

I mentioned that the Xbox 360 needs to run Windows Media Center Extender to use Play To. I think this is a design flaw. I hope that the developers will see fit to make Play To work with Xbox's native media players, because they're much better than the Extender in a lot of ways. In testing so far, we've been able to send WMV and certain AVI files over—even, as you can see in the image, while sending music to a different media player. Still, not all files work yet, not even all the ones supposedly supported. I chalk that up to the beta status, though, and I know Microsoft is doing some serious problem-solving in that area even now.

I don't want to sound like some hippie, but there's no telling what Play To could achieve if everyone—Mac and PC, PS3 and Xbox, and any digital media renderer, be it a Samsung Blu-ray player, a Philips photo frame or a Sony Bravia connected LCD—got on board. Here's to hoping, and to this first step looking none too shabby. [Windows 7 on Gizmodo]

For those unaware, there are two ways you can stream media to your Xbox: through media center or through your windows media player library. Media Center gives you the advantage of a visually-oriented UI and some advanced features such as live TV and movie rentals. Streaming through the Media Player library, conversely, is an easy, no nonsense way of accessing music and videos.

The problem is, getting everything setup isn't such a breeze. Let's start with Media Center.

In theory, you should be able to start Media Center on the Xbox it will already have a prompt to initiate the setup process (If you already have another MC computer up and running, you can go into the Computer menu under System Settings) In theory, it should offer an eight digit number, which you then plug into the setup screen on the desktop Media Center client, and the rest is taken care of.

This worked the first time, but because the UI on the Xbox media center was painstakingly laggy, I attempted to unlink the Xbox and PC, and try the setup again. A handful of failed configurations took place, and I ultimately had to make sure no trace of previous MC setup attempts were present on either the Xbox or the PC, then clear the Xbox Cache.

After that, it managed to setup OK, but kept saying the bandwidth was extremely low, when it was actually fine. And even after setting it up again, the Xbox Media Center App is really, really slow to navigate over wi-fi. Apparently, according to Microsoft, the beta version of Media Center streams better with your computer hooked up to Ethernet. They say this will not be a problem in the final version, but for now, it is what it is.

Music playback is pretty smooth as it picks up anything in your library, and provides a bright quilt of album art to view in the background while a song plays. Videos show up in your video library, and playback, though there seems to be some freezing, and difficulty with playback controls. The new Play To feature, which uses Windows Media Player on your PC as a remote control also worked well inside Media Center (we'll have more on this feature soon).

As for accessing your files through the Windows Media Player Library, it's as easy to set up as it was on Vista. Except now, all you have to do is go into Windows Media Player, click the Share in the menu bar, and select the share media option up at the top. A box should pop up with a one-click option to enable media sharing, and all the music and videos in your Media Player library should be available to stream via the Video and Music library options in the Xbox interface.

The only problem is that video seems to be finicky. Windows friendly formats, such as WMV, seem to work best, while AVI files tend to have problems. The Media Center team at Microsoft says that the beta version of Media Center isn't handling third party video formats particularly well, especially DivX and Xvid, but they expect to work the kinks out on that soon. Wilson has been able to get a couple of AVI files streaming properly using the above steps, but Jason and I have not, and the video folder registering as empty.

In any case, it may not be perfect yet, but with a bit of tinkering, you can get Xbox streaming working with Win 7.

View our other Windows 7 tips and our continuing coverage here.

Toshiba doesn't look like they're showing any of said MCE-equipped products here. So we'll just have to take their word for it, but if you're a Media Center head, this might be the way to go later this year. At least it's something to make up for their still-gaping Blu-ray hole.

TOSHIBA INTRODUCES NETWORK DEVICES DESIGNED TO DELIVER ON THE
PROMISE OF THE CONNECTED HOME
New TV, LCD TV/DVD Combo and Standalone Player Utilize Widget Channel, Developed by
Intel® and Yahoo!®, and Microsoft’s Windows Extender for Media Center Platform to Deliver
an Exciting Content Solution for the Home

CES, LAS VEGAS – January 7, 2009 – Toshiba America Consumer Products, L.L.C.
(“Toshiba”), announced its new audio/video (A/V) devices with Network Player capabilities,
which deliver on the promise of digital convergence in the home. Toshiba is launching this
initiative across three product categories – REGZA® LCD TVs, LCD TV/DVD Combos and
standalone players – in an effort to meet individual consumer needs.

Toshiba’s new A/V devices offer consumers access to a diverse range of rich content over the
Internet. With an extensive library of TV shows and movies, music, sports, and information
services such as stock prices and weather forecasts at their fingertips, consumers will be
provided with greater flexibility to easily customize and enhance their entertainment experience.

“Toshiba took the initiative to bridge the ways consumers normally access Internet content and
entertainment media with the introduction of network devices that will bring the Internet
experience to consumer electronic products in the home,” said Yoshi Uchiyama, Senior Vice
President, Corporate Planning. “According to a recent study conducted by NPD for Toshiba, a
large majority of consumers cite simplicity as the essential issue for adoption of Internet content.
Therefore, key to Toshiba’s home network strategy is a focus on simplicity – making it simple to
2
 
connect, simple to operate and simple to access content. The new line of Toshiba AV devices
with Network Players will open up an entire new world of content delivery in a way that
consumers will like.”

Getting Connected
Toshiba’s A/V devices with network player capabilities use a combination of two core
components, including the Widget Channel, developed by Intel and Yahoo! and Microsoft’s
Extender for Windows Media Center.

While consumers may be familiar with widgets from the PC world, TV Widgets, enabled by the
Widget Channel framework, now take that simple to use “dashboard” experience and place it
into the TV allowing consumers direct access to numerous sources of content simply via their
remote control. While some TV Widgets may be pre-installed, consumers now also have the
flexibility to customize their experience by adding widgets of their own selection based on their
interests or needs. TV Widgets will feature a rich array of content and as more TV Widgets
become available, consumers can add them to the Network Players to enhance their assortment.

By integrating Extenders for Windows Media Center in Toshiba’s new A/V products with
Network Player capabilities, the devices will act as “hubs” for delivery of content anywhere in
the home. Using a home network, Extender for Windows Media Center technology allows users
to access a wide range of digital content from Windows Media Center on the PC to their big
screen TV. Windows Media Center also delivers an extensive amount of Internet TV and movie
content, live and recorded TV with the addition of a TV tuner, plus photos, music, home videos
and more.

The combination of the two software platforms in one hardware device will deliver on the
promise of the new digital lifestyle.

Toshiba will approach the market by offering several choices from which consumers can select
the product that best fits their particular needs.
3
 
The Network Player capabilities described above are scheduled to be built into certain models of
Toshiba’s REGZA LCD TVs. This will provide consumers with easy access to the rich media
experience without the need for an external set top box or device.

As the market leader in the LCD TV/DVD Combo category, Toshiba will also integrate the
Network Player capability to offer flexibility and simplicity for consumers whether they choose
to use it as a primary TV in the home or in the bedroom, kitchen or children’s room.

Toshiba will also develop a standalone player, which acts as a hub for content delivery into the
entertainment space. The new player can deliver content directly from the Internet, content from
the PC with Extenders for Windows Media Center or from its built in DVD player with 1080p
upconversion. With an SD card slot and USB port for added flexibility, the device allows
consumers to access their entertainment content in any room of the house and all at a value that
consumers have come to expect.

Toshiba’s A/V devices with Network Player capabilities will feature picture quality enhancement
technologies, allowing viewers to enjoy a wide range of content upconverted to near HD quality.
The new models are planned to ship in the second half of 2009, and product pricing and
availability will be announced later this year.

A company spokesperson noted that the decision was made after "assessing the impact of missing the August 2008 release of Windows Media Center update and considering timing of the next release." How disappointing. If it is any consolation, DirecTV knows that we want Windows integration and they have expressed a commitment to making it happen. Nah, that doesn't make me feel better. [Gearlog]

The Price: $299

The Verdict: The Mediasmart Connect is a decent video player, Media Extender and photo viewer, but it doesn't shine in any area other than video quality. We compared the Mediasmart Connect to an Xbox 360, streaming the exact same episode of Entourage from the exact same Windows Home Server and the video quality was noticeably better on HP's unit. Great, except you wouldn't really notice the difference unless you had them side by side like we did.

One other problem we noticed is that browsing speed (browsing a folder file system) is pretty damn slow. Paging down takes upwards of seconds to refresh, forcing you to hold the down button one by one to save yourself from the delay. The same "page down" action on an Xbox 360 is near instantaneous, so we know it's not a server issue.

It does, however, have features that other extenders or media streamers don't. For one, there's the ability to aggregate videos from various networked sources, including DLNA-capable servers. Again, nothing spectacular, but it's a feature that's nice to have. 802.11n streaming (a/b/g are also there) is another nicety for people who hate wires. More bonuses are YouTube, Snapfish, CinemaNow and Live365, services you may or may not use and want on your set-top streamer.

Compared to the Xbox 360, both can act as Media Center Extenders, both can play back DivX and XviD files and work as a photo viewer, but only one can play a donkey-load of video games. On the other hand, the Mediasmart Connect does have on-board storage, which is great if you want to dump a bunch of videos onto it and delete them out of your BitTorrent folder on your PC.

At $299, it's hard to recommend the Mediasmart Connect over something like an Xbox 360 because of everything else the 360 can do. If extras like YouTube and CinemaNow (as well as media aggregation over all servers), built-in 802.11n wireless, DLNA compatibility and better video quality appeal to you, this may be your ticket to streaming video anywhere in your house. [HP]

Hug your DVRs, people, because while NBC might be the most anal network about how people watch its shows (very likely because it's last place in ratings), they may very well be just the first to use broadcast flags this way (CBS would probably be the last, they're oddly the most forward-thinking network on the digital front). While the broadcast flag was conceptualized to protect premium and PPV content, it could increasingly be used to protect marquis shows like Heroes, to force you to view them on NBC's terms, like at NBC.com. Why? Ad dollars.

But while it's expected for networks to act like this, it's sad that Microsoft is effectively choosing content producers over consumers, when it doesn't have to, and as the EFF points out, "the only way customers know what Microsoft has agreed to is when the technology they've bought suddenly stops working." And that's just wrong. [Cnet via Slashdot]

You can add or subtract movies from your queue, sort through your history and recs, browse top movies by genre, etc., and here's the killer part: Browse and play "Watch Now" streams (especially since they're all-you-can-eat.) It's in public beta, so it might have a few rough spots, but he wants the feedback, so be sure to check it out if you've got a Netflix account and a Vista box. [Anthony Park via Chris Lanier via Engadget]