Okay, I don't work officially on Windows Media Player 11, but some friends let me know about a new screenshot showing how it's shaping up in Windows Vista. The form and function of the Player is still evolving so I've been asked not to comment on any of the features you see here.  But as you will be able to easily discern for yourself, the media library is getting a nice facelift.

Full-size screenshot available for download here:

• WMPlayer_Vista.png (341k, 1024x768)

Again, this is actual work-in progress and shows the latest thinking.

It's really great to see the team opening up like this and sharing more proactively.  Feel free to post your feedback here and I'll pass it along to the rest of the team.  I for one am excited at the direction they're taking.

Update: This screenshot was first posted to The Hive, a surprisingly hip Microsoft community for insiders. Be sure to check it out for yourself at www.hive.net.  

One of the really great things about Media Center is its extensibility model for adding new applications.  One of the most requested has been an email reader/client and this update does not disappoint.  Just as reading email on your cell phone is appealing to a number of us, there are times when you want to quickly catch up w/ your email.  For me, it's the times when my wife asks me to pause a movie or show for her to take a call.  I'd like to quickly check my mail without having to

After receiving approval from the team developing the add-in, here's a sneak peek at the upcoming release of the Hotmail add-in for Media Center. Currently under development, a preview release will be made available next week:

As you can see, the login screen is clean and readable.  Email name is cached on login, however the user must enter the password on next login for. I expect this is because Media Center is often used in a shared environment. An on-screen keyboard displays making it easier to tap in with a remote, but I really recommend a keyboard at this point.

The inbox again is clean, and well styled for MCE, MSN and supporting 10'.  I was concerned they might try to overload with features but as you can see, it's easy to use.  Sorry for the blurries- but privacy comes first for those who send me mail :)

As mentioned before, this first preview release will be a Hotmail Reader.  That means you can catch up on your mail, but you're not going to be able to delete/edit/reply via 10'.  Personally, if I get an important mail, I'll go back to my 2' desktop and respond there.I understand expanded features will work their way into a later release.  I'm encouraged to see the team releasing this earlier to get feedback rather than delivering monolithically and making minor updates over time.

Another thing I noticed is how fast this add-in runs.  It's snappy on my systems and should work fine on Media Center Extenders as well (such as the upcoming Xbox 360) ;).

Availability: I've been told the add-in will work its way into the new Media Center on Windows Marketplace catalog for free download next week.  It's clear last week's releases were just the beginning of a new wave of goodness. Nice.

Okay, I've never bought into the Satellite radio thing... until now.  Sirius partnered with world reknowned design firm, Ziba to create a one of a kind portable satellite tuner and recorder with support for MP3 and WMA all rolled into one called the Sirius S50, slated for release on 10/31 with a $359.99 SRP.

See, I'm a closet "Howard Stern" fan. Growing up in the Tri-State NY metro area, I listened to Howard in high school and was happy to rekindle the relationship when his syndicated show came to the Seattle area a few years ago.  Now he's leaving the regular airwaves and frankly, sports isn't enough of a reason to get me to satellite.  But neither is Howard- I want a device that lets me record radio and more.

Call it podcasting via satellite- the device doesn't include a satellite receiver in it- it can compress up to 1GB (50 hours) of radio broadcasting you can listen to when, where, and how you want to.  BusinessWeek called it, "Radical" in a recent study on the creation of the device.

What is?  The one-two punch of my Creative Zen Micro's audio plug crapping out after too many flights shoved into my bag, and a strong desire for CD-quality radio in my Toyota Prius (that is before the engine cuts out on the highway, but so far, so good. 

If this thing supports subscription Windows Media content such as Yahoo Music Unlimited (sorry Napster- your personalization stinks in comparison), I'm set and have approval from the wife for two in-car mounts- hers and mine.

Damn, that's a lot of product links, and I don't even get compensation for them.  Anyone wants to give me a Sirius S50 for extended eval (or any other digital media gadget) let me know :).

Finally, someone gets the memo- stop trying to copy the Cupertinos and do something unique.

Image courtesy of OrbitCast.com

Just got off the phone where a little birdie gave me the go-ahead to let folks know the release of a Hotmail Email add-in for Windows Media Center 2005 is happening as early as next week.  I'm working to get a screenshot to share.

Speaking of screenshots, another little birdie is giving me approval to release a screenshot of something I think will be very popular next Monday.  Sorry, I can't say more yet. Stay tuned here for more :)

Charlie and I were just brainstorming that sometimes, you just gotta have some fun with the community and give back a little.  Last year, we started a Media Center Flickr community at http://www.flickr.com/groups/mediacenter. 

Inspired by the faceplate design competition Major Nelson from Xbox360 did last year, how about a little competition on the best Media Center setup?  We're going to have winners in different categories.  The goal will be to ensure you don't have to pour thousands into your Media Center. Prizes will be things like the Remote Keyboard for Media Center.

A couple of ground rules we're proposing:
- Media Center 2005 UI has to be up on the screen
- Photo has to be your own- no faked photoshop pictures of Magnolia's showroom.
- A short description of your setup and how you use media center.  Annotation of your equipment is a plus.
- Any MCE posted to the Flickr group (past or present) meeting above is eligible.

Voting will likely be done by a bunch of eHome folks.  Winners selected in December. We'll see if Joe Belfiore can lend his vote as well for a Grand Prize

What do you think?  What kind of categories do you think would be fair? 
What kind of prizes would you like to see in the max $200 range?

This isn't officially sanctioned, just an idea we have.  What do you think? Let's start the conversation ;

Yesterday I posted about Update Rollup #2.  One of the coolest features IMO is the ability to view a library of DVD movies. While designed for DVD changers, guess what, this works for DVD images stored on hard drives too ;) Note this doesn't work for CSS-encypted movies such as those you get from your DVD rental store. But that's right, those personal DVDs you have stored on a monster hard drive will show up automagically.

Courtesy of Matt Goyer who couldn't let me scoop him, here's the key.  Below I've added a download to do this automatically

If you don't have a changer you can enable the 'My DVDs' functionality with the following reg key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\SettingsDvdSettings

There you'll find a setting that says "ShowGallery"="Play". Double click it and set it to "Gallery" 

If you're unsure how to do this, choose Start, then Run, then type "RegEdit".  This will launch the registry editor then look for the above. I haven't found a way to make WMVs show up here- I don't think this is supported.

For the lazy or regkey infirmed, here's a file that will do this automatically. Just save locally and double click

• Download ShowMCEGallery.zip (.59kb)

Includes two files- one to show the gallery, the other to show Play DVD in main menu.

Now just add a watch folder in My Videos to look for the root folder the DVD image(s) are located in. You can play them from My Videos or My DVDs. The major downside is that your home-made DVDs don't have cover art, which DVD drives/jukeboxes do.

Other Settings in the same regkey hive:

• GallerySort
• SearchNetworkFolders
• ShowDiscsInDrivesAtTop
• FolderSearchDepth
• ViewByCover

I haven't had a chance to play with all these- hopefully Matt will post a few thoughts :)

Note: If you're looking for another cool movie add-in check out http://www.mymovies.name 

Disclaimer: Use at your own risk, sorry I don't offer support yada yada.  Enjoy.

From eHomeUpgrade:

Niveus Media, Inc., manufacturer of media entertainment devices for the high-end audio/video market, is excited to announce its newest digital home solution, the Niveus Disc Changer. With support for over a thousand DVD discs, the Niveus Disc Changer paired with an award-winning Niveus Media Center running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 with Update Rollup 2, enables the “My DVDs” feature within the Windows Media Center interface.

Niveus Disc Changer Availability
The Niveus Disc Changer will begin shipping in November via select Audio/Video Retailers and Dealers. For further details, visit the company website at: www.niveusmedia.com

I'll post a regkey later this weekend that enables the My DVD feature in Update Rollup #2

Congrats to Tim and all the folks at Niveus. 

Joe Belfiore is one of my favorite people to work for/with.  I first had the opportunity during the Windows XP launch, and he's just a great leader.  Thomas writes with some interesting conclusions on Joe's open letter to the Media Center community.

Oh and can you say 4 million Media Center PCs?  I remember a short while ago when they announced 2 million. 

In the immortal words of Thomas Hawk, "Hot Donkey!" Update here. Update Rollup #2 for Media Center adds the following features:

• Xbox 360 Extender functionality. Customers can seamlessly access digital music, video, photos, and standard and high-definition television and movies on Media Center Edition 2005-based PCs through any Xbox 360 game console in the house.  (Come on, you know you want one...)
• Away Mode. Away Mode will bring the convenience, quiet performance and instant on/off functionality of consumer electronics to the Media Center PC.   (BTW: This is a kick-ass feature that almost all new Media Center PCs will have. Now you can save electricity and still record in the background or serve out to devices.
• DVD changer support. Media Center now offers integrated support for external DVD changers, enabling consumers to watch movies and manage DVD selections (up to 200) from the Media Center interface. (Ok, we all want DVD ripping, but take that up with the MPAA.  This just shows the team's heart is in the right place)
• DVD-burning improvements. Updates to the Sonic DVD burning engine improve the performance and capabilities of DVD burning in Media Center. Now consumers can convert high-definition TV shows to standard definition and burn to a DVD all in one step.
• Additional HDTV tuner support. Update Rollup 2 provides support for up to four TV tuners. Users will now be able to utilize two NTSC (analog) capture boards and two ATSC (digital) capture boards. (I'm not positive but I think you can do more than two NTSC tuners here as well ;)).  I'll double check.
• Performance Optimization. This update enables a new feature to "clean house" like most PVRs do today, Ed Bott has a good write-up on what this does here. You won't see this advertised, but it's a great great feature IMO.

Go to Windows Update and get your update.  Also a good time to make sure you have the latest Video Card, DVD, and Tuner drivers for your MCE.

Looking for an add-on for Media Center?  Wondering what this whole Media Center thing is about, go check out the new Media Center Marketplace.  Too bad there isn't an RSS feed for the latest and greatest, but still pretty darn cool.  You'll find over 35 software add-ons, Extenders and lot more.  I'd like to see a more friendly home-page, but other than that, this site is functional and a great diversion.

If you're an ISV- submit your stuff here and get promoted. This is going into my list of permalinks tonight - nice work MCE team.

Update: You can also find the catalog of software for Media Center on C|Net's Download.com here.  Get your downloads rollin for the weekend- tell us what's best.

The Media Center service rollout continues.  While Apple announces FrontRow, Media Center puts customers front and center with big-name content from a slew of providers. Interactive TV?  Bah. It's already here.

Digital Interactive Systems Corp. (DISCover) My Games. Designed exclusively for Media Center PCs, DISCover’s My Games gives customers access to a wide range of PC games that they can digitally demo, buy and stream. Customers can view an in-depth game guide with screen shots, box art and descriptions for thousands of top games, and can purchase "boxed" games via top online retailers with the ease of a Media Center Edition remote control.

Game xStream. Game xStream’s now-live gaming-on-demand service for Online Spotlight connects users to its extensive catalog of video game titles from leading game developers, from which they can buy and stream games instantly. Within minutes of pressing the Buy button from a Media Center Edition remote control, gamers can begin playing graphic-intensive games from publishers including Merscom LLC, Global Star Software and Encore Inc.

The Tech Report has an in-depth  review of Creative's new 51 Million Transistor X-Fi audio processor for PCs.  So, is this the new "de-facto standard" for audio/video and Media Center enthusiasts?

A big "pro" idea:

While the X-Fi architecture is impressive and its ability to accelerate 3D audio unmatched, one of the chip's more interesting features is that it can be paired with onboard memory that Creative calls X-RAM Onboard memory is nothing new in the sound card world (the AWE32 was available with 2, 4, and 8MB of RAM), but X-RAM is different because it's there specifically to be used by applications. Creative hopes that game developers will utilize X-RAM to cache decompressed audio, potentially saving precious CPU cycles in the process. Developers are also encouraged to use X-RAM to store higher quality audio assets that would otherwise be infeasible to decompress on the fly or stream from the hard drive. At least one developer is already taking advantage of X-RAM, with DICE's Battlefield 2 using it to cache in-game audio.

From the "missing the point" category:

Despite its fancy new architecture, onboard memory, support for Dolby Digital ES and DTS-EX output, and THX certification, the X-Fi won't encode Dolby Digital Live. According to Creative, Dolby Digital Live support would make the X-Fi more expensive due to both licensing costs and the need for additional tank RAM on the chip. Creative also asserts that Dolby Digital Live encoding introduces a small amount of latency, and points out that it's limited to 5.1-channel output. Perhaps more notably, Creative says that Dolby Digital Live encoding can't handle DRM-protected content since it passes unprotected data through a digital output. That's an interesting limitation, although PC enthusiasts have never really been enthusiastic about DRM-encrusted content.

I find this statement interesting.  I regularly download music from MSN Music and Yahoo (also did from Napster) but I've never had a problem with my S/PDIF out audio in PCM. Dolby Digital wouldn't do anything to mux this.  So, the 80% scenario is now negated?  Am I missing something here?

Then there's the lack of a S/PDIF (optical) connector.  There are many affordable receivers starting to show up with WMA Pro support built-in.  Too bad- we'll still have to go with analog/coax digital.  I was really hoping for DD Live encode like Nvidia supports in their NForce boards.

At $110 online, it's not a bad board by any stretch,but lack of a PCI Express version as well keeps me in the "waiting to upgrade" camp.

An interesting tid-bit:

"Finally a word about Apple's big announcement next week. I'm told that if you try to access a page on the Apple web site that doesn't exist, something like http://www.apple.com/cringely you get a "page not found" redirect. But if you try http://www.apple.com/movies you get a "forbidden" message."

I had a great meeting today with Catherine in the Developer Evangelism team. She turned me on to a webpage I missed at PDC which articulates how to archictect applications for Windows Vista.  There's a lot of good detail here- beyond the traditional marketing fluff.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/top10/

But what do you think?  What would you like to see covered/detailed further? I'll pass the team your feedback.

Link here. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9659973/

I for one am happy to see this happen.  RealNetworks has a # of good, smart folks who have learned from past mistakes (as does Microsoft) and we're all still learning.  Harmony is a good subscription service, though I personally prefer Yahoo! Music Engine for their personalization system.

In the end, I think this agreement will be good for consumers.  Rob hints that this could pave the way to better interoperability on everything from mobile phones to alternative OSes.  I don't have any data to back that up one way or another, but I do see this as a step in the right direction.  What will be telling in the coming year is whether a relationship of trust can be established between key members of the organizations.  Microsoft has done it with others (eg. AOL in Media Center). I think it can.

I've been using the new Hotmail for about a month now and I love it. It's so much more interactive and Web 2.0ish.  Learn more here on how to sign up.

A few enterprising developers have built an emulator for Windows Sidebar to run on Windows XP.  I'm not going to link to it because of a few things:

• We didn't officially release Windows Sidebar... yet. Think around Beta 2
• Developers who build on this platform will be disappointed b/c it is evolving
• Gadgets will be available on XP - officially (Ed. Note: I've since changed teams and understand this was the POR at time of writing however is no longer the case.)

I'm super-excited to see all the enthusiasm around Windows Sidebar but I also don't want developers to get frustrated building on the wrong platform. We have big plans in the works- when the timing is right :)

Universal just released the first 9 minutes of the motion picture Serenity online.  Now that's smart marketing- in order for this one to get out of orbit, more folks (than just the fanboys) need to see just how good it is.

Watch here.  Enjoy.

Unfortunately they're missinga # of MS properties' RSS feeds (WMPlugins, Startsomethingpc.com, and www.microsoftgadgets.com to name a few) however this is a GREAT start.