Sitting in the Q&A after the Intel Digital Home Keynote at the Intel Developer Forum.  A few tid-bits:

• Joe Belfiore, GM of Windows eHome Group talked about collaboration and importance of partnership on device interoperability.  Call to action was to participate in the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA)
• Dual-Core processors are going to deliver great new scenarios for home entertainment.  Demo'd an Intel-based LRPC with Pentium-D dual core processor and Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 playing back WMV HD video while also processing a 3D game (eg. Doom3), recompressing the video into MPEG-2 and distributing it to another device & TV for play in the home.  Not a hiccup in video performance on either system.
• Disney is getting into the Media Center pool with their MovieBeam service coming to MCE customers.  Previously available only as a set-top box in the US, the service uses datacasting to download (cache) movies over-the-air.  They plan to offer support for Media Center PCs via a discreet plug & play antenna and demo'd new UI for Media Center.  Also noted plans to support High Definition playback in their next version of their platform.
• Intel showed cool new small form-factors that will support dual-core and noted Dell is first to be shipping a P4 Extreme Dual Core system (giving away 4 at the event).
• Optical Drive, low power dual-core procesor. Lots of comments about "smaller than Mac Mini".  There was a crush of people trying to get pictures immediately after. One of my co-horts snagged a pic shown here.

More to come I'm sure on these developments/announcements. Soon.  I'll see if I can scare up some screenshots between meeting

Just a reminder that Thomas Hawk and I are hosting a geek dinner tonight with folks from the Media Center team. We are going to get together at the 110 Natoma Henry Hunan's at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday March 2nd.

The restaurant is very scalable so no need to RSVP unless you want to drop a comment and let us know that you are coming.

If you want a preview on Henry's menu click here and then click on any menu item. This guy has written a review on everything on their menu. If he is not a Henry's fanatic I don't know who is.

Keep in mind that Henry's has four locations. The one we are going to meet at is on Natoma which is kind of in an alley just off of 2nd Street between Mission and Howard. See map.  Remember this is completely casual and not an officially sanctioned event, just good food and good conversation. See you there.

Update: That would be "hosting" not "hosing" :)

Thomas Hawk contacted Charlie, Matt, and I about the idea of doing an interview on Media Center and digital media topics a few weeks ago. The resulting interview was so big that we ended up splitting it into two parts, the first of which he's published today.

Thomas Hawk writes that my interview w/ Chris Pirillo, "is a great podcast". Thanks Thomas. He also links to a look at Niveus' high-end Media Center PCs and provides some thoughts on what he'd like to see. Word is some of our friends at Niveus will be bringing a system or two to the geek dinner on Wednesday in SF to show everyone what it's all about.

Last thursday, my wife was hosting an evening get-together for the local, "Mom's Club" which meant I was free to hide upstairs tinkering on my PC.  Chris Pirillo popped on IM and asked if I'd like to join his talk show for a chat about all sorts of topics- MSN Remote Record, my new gig, customer feedback, and the upcoming SF geek dinner. I had a bad cold and my voice was hoarse but I figured why not.

Well, after an Internet brownout on Comcast's network, and VOIP bridge issues, I heard Chris faintly on what sounded like an 8-bit audio connection and we did the interview. Fortunately things got better over time but I could only hear about 1/2 of every word he was saying which made things interesting. My favorite part was Chris' fiancee Ponzi and I using an IRC channel to re-connect. :)

Listening to the interview, I'm coming to the realization that I probably wouldn't make a very good podcaster. I have that East-Coast, "Talkasfastasyoucantosayasmuchasisgoingthroughyourheadasquicklyaspossiblewithtoomanyumms" challenge.  Sure, I can slow down for keynotes (strangely enough I slow down when I'm not as relaxed), but this was casual and Chris and I have a way of amping up the speed when we talk.

Anyway, have a listen and give me your feedback.  A few folks have approached me about doing a weekly MCE show.  Is there interest in this?  Maybe as a segment on Chris' show if he's willing? I'm not the right guy to host, but maybe I can be a fill-in guest on the couch :).

Adam Curry podcasts this weekend using the built-in microphone of a Creative Zen Micro and it sounds great. When I heard Adam mention last week that he left his music player back in the UK on his show, "Daily Source Code", I thought this would be a good opportunity to get his feedback on my current favorite device for podcasting, and suggested we supply him with one during our meeting. Unfortunately the only color we had was the one that no one else wanted :). The rest is history, and the first podcast from 42,000 feet sounds pretty good, as does his review of the Player ;).  Adam also discusses the movie Kinsey - FYI, this isn't work-safe material. 

It was great to meet Adam in-person, he's truly one of the great visionaries who shares a passion for digital media.

One of the latest additions to the Media Center Flickr Pool, Steve Owens' Media Center is going to hard to beat in the high-end home theater realm.  The guy has a touchscreen, a massive front-screen projection system, and more hardware than you can shake a stick at. 

Steve has a Replay, a TiVo, and a Media Center for the person who just can't decide. Okay, turns out that Steve owns a home theater installation company called Oasis AVI so this is his day job.  But I have to give him credit for an outstanding example of what you can do. 

I had a co-worker the other day asking me if you could control a Media Center via touch-screen panel and here Steve has shown us how to do it with a Xenarc 700TS 7" touchscreen panel. Here's one for the Engadget crew. :)

Our Media Center Flickr Pool is up to 77 images now. Remember you don't have to have a pro home theater to be highlighted.  It's all about how Media Center fits into your life - family or otherwise.  I'm thinking about having some Media Center t-shirts made up as giveaways to the winners. Hmmm. SWAG.  We need to rediscover the lost art of swag.  Another topic for later I think. Off to another team offsite meeting now.

One of my co-workers, David Caulton, has joined the blogosphere. David is a great guy with lots of passion for digital media, analytics, and competitive analysis.  I recruited him hard "back in the day" to join our team and it's so great to see him jump into the pool. In his own words,

An avid hiker, biker, and father of three, I also work doing industry analysis and strategy for Microsoft. In previous lives, I've worked on the Windows Media Player, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Project, and Microsoft Team Manager 97, been a researcher in Cognitive Neuroscience, a grad student, and a kid.

Yesterday during a discussion over lunch with some folks on a wide range of topics including Podcasting, the point was made that metadata is everything in a world where audio content often doesn't include closed-captioning to search for context.  David outlines the problems/challenges with tagging today in an article he wrote for Digital Media reviewers. The information here is topical and outlines the issues many of us have seen where the artist/album/title information just doesn't match up. Educational and insightful.

My sister has a Ph.D. in Microbiology and is currently working at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). We've often talked about how alike microbiology and programming code are. Yesterday's announcement just reinforces this. I'm looking forward to discussing it further with her:

Microsoft Research is working with leading doctors and scientists to use advanced computer science techniques in the fight to slow or stop the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Microsoft researchers are applying software algorithms similar to those used on computing challenges such as managing computer databases, compressing digital files or blocking spam e-mail to overcome roadblocks in the hunt for an HIV vaccine.

More here including a video interview.

I'm happy to announce that today, the MSN Remote Record Service for Windows XP Media Center Edition has officially launched. Now you can set your Media Center to record with a Passport account and your browser - just select a program in the Program Guide (EPG) on MSN TV Entertainment and click to record. Setup will handle the rest with you  step by step. Never forget to record that special when on the road or in the office. Note: Only one Media Center per Passport account at this time.

Update: Here's the MSN Remote Record FAQ

Over at TGB, you can find details on two new plug-ins being developed by the eBay community, MCeBay, and eAuction. Features include searching entries, bidding, and picture support. Read the criteria and decide if you would make a good beta tester. Great to see folks working on this- I hope they have a feature to pop a notification in MCE (aka toast) when you've been out-bid. :)

Charlie and John's video interview on Media Center is now live and available for download on Channel9.
Charlie and John are directly responsible for almost all of the partner apps you see in Media Center today and two really cool guys to have a beer with. We'll work on showing John how to use the remote right-side up. :)

The Green Button.com has a good thread going on the topic, "What makes a good Media Center Book?"

We need more books on developing applications for Media Center in my opinion.  I see that Intel has a session planned for IDF on creating 10' applications (aka Media Center applications where you're 10 feet away from the display). One would think this is a well-explored area, but with the advent of 16:9 TVs with much higher resolutions than the first-generation of "interactive Television", there are a number of new UI techiques and remote-enabled applications just waiting to be explored.  Time to give the good folks over at MS Press a call and make a few suggestions ;) 

Thomas and I have nailed down a location - Media Center Geek Dinner - 7pm, Weds. 3/2 in San Francisco at Henry's Hunan Restaurant (110 Natoma, Thomas' Map and Directions here).  Keith, David, Rich, Mark, and I will be there from Microsoft's Windows and eHome groups, and a few others might stop by. We're bringing in the big guns that know all about hardware design for Media Center PCs whether in the den or family room.

In fact, I got word late tonight from a friend who is a Director at ATI that a he and a few of his team will be joining us for dinner, and be on-hand and answer any questions you might have about the new ATI TV Wonder Elite, the ATI HDTV Wonder and other products.  You never know, they might even bring a few goodies to give away ;).  The word is spreading, Thomas notes no need to RSVP but for those who have posted/sent me mail- thanks- see you there.

It was bound to happen. 4AA batteries and this joystick has 30 C64 games ready for you to play.

A small group of us are heading to San Francisco for the Intel Developer Forum next week and thought it would be fun to do a geek dinner.  I'll admit it, I've never been to a geek dinner, but a group of us were thinking this would be an great time to connect with other Media Center enthusiasts attending IDF or in the Bay Area, have a good meal and good conversations. Thomas Hawk, a San Fran local is going to co-host with us. 

MCE Geek Dinner - 7pm, Weds. 3/2 in San Francisco. All are invited.
We're working on a venue- go ahead and RSVP here in comments or send me mail so we can get an approximate headcount. I'll update with a venue later today.

A few weeks back, I talked about getting an ATI TV Wonder Elite TV Tuner board for my MCE to test out - the first ISF-certified board for PCs. I've since been putting it through its paces for the past few weeks on my Deskop MCE upstairs and it has operated flawlessly.

Disclaimer: I'm not a video expert.  My impressions are purely subjective and your mileage may vary.

Yesterday, I did an A/B comparision of the ATI board in my MCE on my Samsung HLN-507W HDTV set (MCE connected via DVI) vs. the HDTV cable box (connected via Composite).  First thing you can see here is that this wasn't an unbiased test but for some reason, the new box doesn't like my DVI+HDCP setup- probably need a different cable. But what I was surprised by was that on analog channels, the ATI TV Tuner's output looked better to me than the cable box. The image was less jagged and color shimmered less. Have we turned a corner on PC-based TV quality?

I'd really like to see a site like ExtremeTech or reputed testing authority compare the output of these new ISF-certified TV tuners for MCE vs. Cable boxes/DVRs using an industry-recognized qualitative and quantitative methodology.  Anyone working on this? Any other thoughts on the ATI TV Wonder Elite?