More from around the world of Media Center development:

- mceSAPI - add Speech and Voice Recognition to your MCE apps (HowTo)

- DirectX Shell for Media Center (under development) - Developers are looking for a way to develop rich, animated UI for applications in Media Center.

- MCE Controller (v1.1, source available on SourceForge) - control MCE via TCP/IP commands over home network (all-purpose, designed for home automation)

Know of any other projects- shared or otherwise?  Drop a comment here.

Looking for tabbed browsing in IE?  Faster desktop search?  Check out the new MSN Toolbar with Desktop Search and Tabbed browsing released this week.  I've been running it through its paces and have to say, after using Copernic Desktop Search for a while, I really like it.  It even has a feature to pause indexing if you're running on battery power- I've hated this on laptops and it shows they're thinking through the end to end scenarios.

S lightning fast and if you have Mac Spotlight envy, you'll be sated in the meantime until Longhorn arrives.  MSN Desktop search gets the job done. The implementation is sound and faster than other solutions I've seen.

My favorite feature thought is support for a broad range of add-ins for searching everything from .zipfiles to .chm (compressed HTML help files).  You can get more at http://addins.msn.com.

In other MSN news, they've announced plans for a subscription service. Gee, I don't know how anyone saw that coming... ;)  MSN Music also has a buy 1 get 5 free deal on right now- no subscription required (heh, sorry I couldn't help myself).

I'm not a huge fan of Player skins I have to admit, but I do appreciate a well-designed visualization. Visualizations for Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center move and pulse to your music and are a good diversion when you're throwing a party or cleaning the house. The quality has been getting better- more responsive and reacting more to the music. Psychedelic visualizations are fine- but I like others with purpose, a theme, and a/or a mood.

Warner Bros. recently partnered with Gordon Williams, creator of the R4 Viz used in many popular nightclubs to create the new, "Batman Begins" viz for Windows Media Player and Media Center. While I can't give you the viz yet, here's a small taste that just hints at the coolness. 

One of these days, the video card manufacturers are going to realize that visualizations are a good way to promote their products and demonstrate what their cards can do (I've tried to convince a few of this). Game demos are great, but visualizations are easier and free candy for all. :)

The viz will be available in the next day or so.  I'll post here as soon as it goes up on WMPlugins.com or keep your eye on the RSS feed.

RSS Feed: WMPlugins.com Latest Additions

Mark Cuban (yes, that Mark Cuban) offers up a good blog post/manifesto on the decline of movie theater ticket sales and how to address.
His short answer: Let everyone watch what they want, when and where they want- but at a premium.  I'm not sure this helps the movie theater owner but agree they need to step up the experience. 

Here are some additional ideas:

- SkyBox Seating - people will pay a premium, just like they do for business or first-class tickets. I can see this being used for kids parties and more- maybe even corporate entertaining if the event is right just like a stadium event. 

- Cry Rooms - We amped up our home theater to HD and an improved surround-sound system for one main reason: Baby.  We cannot get out to the theaters.  Who wants to spend a stress-laden night with their child jabbering the whole way through the movie?  One of our local theaters has outfitted a soundproof cry-room next to the projector room.  Unfortunately they only have one screen.

- Day Care - Let's face it- baby sitters are hard to find and matinees are rarely sold out. It works at the Gym, Ikea, and our local grocery store.  The lumbering Ferries in Greece even had a kid's play room.  Why not offer an accredited day-care service? 

- Schwag - People love free stuff.  A movie poster, t-shirt, book, bobble-head etc.- they'll clamor over stuff for their favorite movies. Some Sci-Fi franchises used to do this with local radio personalities. Teens in particular collect movie posters and marketing material like life-sized cutouts. Why not do a better job of recognizing your customers have a choice in whether they wait a few short months to watch at home, or come in to sit in your plushy seats. Work with the studios to offer up free cheap stuff to make them feel wanted.  Sorry, a mint and a thank you from some pimply-faced kid with an "iPod stare" on his/her face isn't going to do it. Sporting events figured this out a long time ago.

- Retail tie-ins - Someone will figure out a way to get customers an instant discount on DVD/HD-DVD movie purchases as they're coming out of a good movie for pre-orders.  Partner with Best Buy, Amazon or another retailer to offer a simple way to preorder the DVD movie for their collection.  Oh and get rid of your own membership programs- tie them into Best Buy or another retailer and a solid recommendation engine with value.

- Soundtrack downloads - Get a discount or digital download of the movie soundtrack through a music service tie-in.

I'm sure there are other ideas out there as well.

RSS Feed: Mark Cuban's BlogMaverick

Well, my site provider took my site offline again without notice and I sent a tersely worded email to them (tech support is outsourced).  They've moved my site onto another server and hopefully things will stabilize.  Just in case they don't... I'm investigating other providers.

Thanks for your patience :)

Not sure how I missed this one. David Berlind exclaims in "Between the Lines, The blog for discriminating IT buyers":

...Is there any doubt that  Microsoft is not only poised to repeat its successful Windows formula, but that that success will, over the long run, actually dwarf the company’s success with Windows?  ...OK, you’re a doubter. The Podderati will surely eviscerate me for being a Microsoft sycophant. If you want to go into denial,  that’s your business.  The facts speak for themselves.  No single company has circled its technology wagons around the digital media universe the way Microsoft has.

That's a pretty bold statement. As one who worked on the Digital Media Division product team (left 1.5 years ago) I'd prefer the term, "partnered with the digital media universe". I'd like to see the "Gilmoor Gang (Reloaded)" duke it out with some special guests on this topic - (Welcome back Steve & co) :).  Say what you will, the PlaysforSure program makes it a hell of a lot easier for me to tell family and friends what devices and services to consider when deciding whether to go the Pod route or another.  Oh, and for the new readers, I own a Creative Zen Touch Micro and an iPod and actually use both. 

RSS Feed: "Between the Lines, the Blog for discriminating IT Buyers."
RSS Feed: The Gilmoor Gang (Reloaded)

(Disclaimer- this is particularly geeky and not a mainstream upgrade yet) :)

Remember the "old days" of playing back a DVD on a PC?  When it required a beefy processor and you couldn't do anything else with the PC at the same time?  Then the video gurus figured out you could free your PC's CPU to do other tasks by moving video decode to your 3D graphics card with a technology called "DirectX Video Acceleration" (or DXVA). Well thanks to a new update for Windows Media Player, if you have a card that supports DXVA video acceleration, chances are you're going to see a performance boost when playing back HD content compressed in Windows Media Video High Definition (WMV-HD).  WMV-HD paves the way for reasonable delivery of HD-quality movies over the Internet and reduces the requirements on CPU speed when pared with a mid to high-end video card.

WMV-HD has been around for a little bit now, delivering true 720p and 1080p video quality in a reasonable package.  Unfortunately, you've needed a beefy processor (recommended 3Ghz) in order to play back.  Thanks to work done in hardware by ATI, Nvidia and others as well as the Windows Media Player 10 team, you can now drop CPU usage by some reports up to 40%! 

According to this support update, the software update enables WMV-HD decode acceleration after users meet the following prerequisites:

• The graphics adapter must support this update. Check with your card manufacturer to see if your card supports DXVA and get the latest certified drivers.

• The user must install hotfix 891122 first<- Very important.
  

• Download the update at http://www.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;888656 

• The content must be WMV-HD clips (720p and 1080p) with a frame rate that is less than or equal to 30 frames per second.

Here's a link to feedback from others who now have WMV-HD playing back on 2.66 Ghz systems and others with reduced

Go download free WMV-HD trailers and clips at http://www.wmvhd.com and enjoy.  I'll check with the team on plans for new trailers etc.

Enjoy :)

The latest episode (#11) of The Media Center Show is now available.  Be sure to vote for the show over at Podcast Alley - it's simple!

This week Ian talks to Jeremy Allaire, founder and President of Brightcove about Internet TV and how the future of TV is changing.

RSS Link: The Media Center Show

I just realized the Seattle P-I's Business Section is perma-linking to me from their Microsoft Blog. I feel honored.

RSS Link: seattlepi.com Microsoft blog

Terry dropped me a line that Warner Bros. and The Skins Factory have just released their new Batman Begins Skin for Windows Media Player 10. The new skin is very cool, a high-res image of the design is below.  You can download it for free yourself at www.wmplugins.com.

While we're at it, a reminder that there are RSS feeds for the latest add-ons for Windows Media Player available anytime. WMPlugins also has forums and a good list of 3rd party codecs that work with the Player. Enjoy.

WMPlugins RSS Feeds:

I've decided to start doing something new.  Every time I link to another blog, and an RSS feed is available, I'm going to include a link to the RSS feed.  Why?  Because it's a pain for users who have moved to Web aggregators to visit the sites I link to, only to hunt for the RSS feed. (No more hunting on my site- it's in the title-bar)

Will this get annoying?  Maybe. You tell me if it's useful.  Or maybe it's just another courtesy we should all extend.  I wonder if Scoble will start including RSS web links in his blog entries too.

Vic Gundotra is Robert Scoble's "Boss' Boss". He's excited about Longhorn.  An excerpt:

[Then] there is "sexier". Some will claim Microsoft doesn't know even what this word means. I can see their point. Yet Longhorn will be the first generation of Windows where we have put very significant effort into the fit, finish and polish of the Windows experience. Look - in the early days of the automobile industry cars didn't have interior lights. Experience refinements like dimming lights on exit came decades later. We've reached the point where "experience" improvements matter. How fast the PC starts up, the feel of the windows, the experience of moving between apps, and many other attributes have received careful and thoughtful consideration from a design perspective.

Vic's RSS feed

First there was Sony's Qualia line of products.  Now, Dell announces their intent to bring a new brand of PCs (not Dell) focused, "...on the folks who recognize what the PC can do". Priced at between $1,200 and $3,500, things just got more interesting. More in the Cnet article here.

What did the automobile industry do when their industry was being commoditized?  Reinvent themselves- establish new brands such as Lexus, Infiniti, and Acura to introduce new technologies, test and invest, and drive down component costs to eventually incorporate into their more value-conscious product lines.  A good example of this is the Navigation system in our Honda Pilot- effectively the "older model" as the Acura MDX had two years prior (Acura had voice-activated navigation, the Pilot did not).

The premium systems will also come with a premium service package, which Dell calls its "white glove" treatment. The service packages will include expanded online and in-home support. Dell is currently conducting extensive test programs on its online support.

Let me ask- how much is peace of mind and hassle-free assurance of customer support worth to you?  Next time my Mother needs a new PC, I'll point her in this direction.  She's had more trouble than any one person deserves with customer support and would be willing to pay a little more for the assurance she'll be taken care of when it happens.

Scoble mentions an important MS Office announcement is being made tonight at 9:01pm. I have a pretty good feeling what this is but check out http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=73329 to find out for yourself- 9:01pm (Pacific) or later.

Update: Office 12 to use standard XML as file format, publish specs for royalty free use. Get ready for .docx, .pptx, .xlsx, and more.  Mary Jo Foley has her report here. More details available on June 6th at http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview

Pictures here.  Note the Green Button on the Remote for your Media Center Extender functionality ;)

Thanks to those of you who pointed out a few issues with the site:

- Comments are now working again. I disabled captcha and we'll see how that goes.

- I turned off a few back-end features and the perf seems to be up a bit. 

- In the new template, the all-up RSS tag was hidden under the calendar.  I've added one to the heading as well.

If you have any other feedback on the site, topics you'd like to see more of etc, send them to me here as always. I'm going to try some new features here shortly as well.