A quick jaunt over to SonyStyle.com and you'll find the flagship Sony Vaio VGX-XL1 Digital Living System. Sporting a 200 disc DVD changer and Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 w/ Rollup 2, this sleek looking system is a flagship of home entertainment integration, showcasing exactly why the My DVDs feature was added in Rollup 2.

That's the good part- here somes the less stellar: The system ships with only 512MB RAM and 64MB of on-board video memory in a GeForce 6200.  Fine for 80% of customers, if you're buying a $2300 home entertainment addition, you should at least get 1GB and 128MB of memory, respectively. A 50% off offer on a paired receiver with WMA Pro 7.1 audio support would be another nice addition or even cross-marketing with a Digital Walkman.  But alas, these are separate organizations under the Sony flag so I guess that's a non-starter. 

Back on the plus-side, the thing supports just about every DVD burning format including dual-layer (no HD DVD or Blu-Ray support... expect Blu-ray only in an update in the future is my guess).  If you're rich and have the moxy, this is a good system for you.  Given the specs, it should serve you  into the Windows Vista timeframe as well.

Back during the dotcom bubble, there were a number of sites popping up that offered a simple way for folks to share their playlists (not music). Some services like Napster do a so-so job of this, and even iTunes Music Store has the concept of Celebrity Playlists (I still have no idea what Jackie Chan is listening to, and that's okay).  Let's face it, celebrities (ahem their publicists) aren't any better at building playlists than most of us are.  But a useful way of finding music that works well is elusive- unless you use iMix on iTunes, and then you're locked into their service.

The topic struck me a few weeks ago when I was looking at the latest version of MoodLogic. We were throwing a dinner party and let's face it, listening to Aerosmith and Kanye West doesn't really set the mood for a sit-down dinner.  What I wanted was a site for playlists where I could search on tags like, "November", "Fall", "Dinner" and get a list of good songs.  Then I could sort based on popularity (and here's an idea- opt-in popularity based on age group. Sorry, I don't listen to the same music a 16 yo does downloading heavily off of MSN Music).  I asked Chris Pirillo if such a service existed, we couldn't find one anymore.  MoodLogic comes close, and Yahoo Music has a great personalization engine, but they're based on your own music library.  Search engines do an abysmal job of cataloging mixes too. I tried again the other day when building my ultimate Gym Mix (6 miles of pain!)

With the advent/re-emergence of Tagging, RSS, media player plug-ins, and a number of legitimate music stores now available, I think there's an interesting opportunity for personalizing music based on playlist sharing and moods.  And I don't think it should be locked to any one group or service.

Radio networks spend hundreds of thousands to millions programming their stations, but they're so formulaic.  Isn't it time that we start aggregating our own playlists via an online service?  We do it for collections of photos on Flickr, so where's our Mixr?

And with that, I offer my latest:

Sean's Gym Playlist - Soundtracks
Tags: October; Mix; Gym; Soundtrack; Power; Pump Up;

1.  Jesus Walks - Kanye West (from Jarhead trailer)
2.  Precious - Depeche Mode (from Smallville Vol II: Metropolis Mix)
3.  Anvil of Crom - Basil Pouledouris (from Conan the Barbarian)
4.  Dragula (Hot Rod Herman remix) - Rob Zombie (from the Matrix)
5.  Learn to Crawl -Black Lab (Spider-Man)
6.  Everybody out of the Water - The Wallflowers (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation)
7.  Would? - Alice in Chains (Singles Soundtrack)
8.  Lose Yourself - Eminem (8 Mile Soundtrack)
9.  Blow Me Away - Breaking Benjamin (Halo 2 Soundtrack)
10. Gladiator - Hans Zimmer (Gladiator Soundtrack)

Got some others?  Send them my way.

HDBeat asks why there are no HD trailers up on the Xbox360 web site. I agree this would be great to see, but the trailers are out there and have been covered considerably.  Check out the complete list of HD trailers available for download from Microsoft here. I'm sure a new wave of trailers is somewhere, waiting in the wings. I'll check into it.

Brandon over at www.longhornblogs.com asks,

What would be your most desired Gadget you could throw onto your desktop and "pin" to your Sidebar? Let me know by simply commenting to this blog entry! I really would love to hear what you all would like to see in terms of Gadgets!

Feel free to post your comments over there or here.

Quick note that www.xbox.com has relaunched with a new look and goodies for the Xbox 360 launch. Only 28 days away!

A few weeks ago, David Streams, myself, and Sanaz Ahari (of Start.com fame) did an interview on Gadgets: Windows Sidebar and Start.com with Robert Scoble on Channel 9. The video has been posted here. Enjoy.

Visit Microsoft.com and download now by clicking here. Coming soon as an optional update via Windows Update.

The obvious question is, "What is Windows Media Connect and why do I care?".  Windows Media Connect 2.0 is a feature of Windows that enables other digital media receivers such as the Roku Soundbridge, D-Link MediaLounge or Xbox 360 to play streamed music, photos, and video* on plain old Windows XP.  Xbox 360 you said?  Yes. 

And it works with services like Napster, MSN Music, FYE, and Yahoo Music in your Windows Media Player library. Whatever you say about DRM, the team is working hard to make sure this stuff will go around your house or on your devices as easily as possible given requirements.

Personally, I have a Roku Soundbridge connected to an older set of bookshelf speakers in our living room and I love it.  During Halloween, I create a playlist and point a speaker out the window to scare the kids. Thanksgiving, it fills the dining room with mood music, and Christmas we use it to play our "opening presents" music. The rest of the year, I use it to listen to internet radio from Virgin UK while cleaning the front side the house that the MCE doesn't cover. 

The best news is that Windows Media Connect 2.0 is over 5x faster than version 1.0 and all with a smaller memory footprint.  This really appeals to me- when you have over 10,000 songs indexed, this becomes pretty important.  The teams are finally prioritizing this as key customers have large media libraries and digital media around the home needs to better support.  Congrats and thanks to the Windows Media Connect 2.0 team- my son can hear "Freight Train" before he starts crying out of frustration and that's worth more than you know to this father.

*Note: Not all devices support all media types.

In a former life, a few of us had an idea to engage the design and enthusiast community in a competition about future Windows PC design.  The results have been phenomenal, the number of entries over double the expectation. 

The Competition Updates Blog notes that the competition has ended:

On Oct 27th, 2005, a group of internationally renowned designers will meet at Microsoft to review the entries and select the winner of the Judges’ Award.

Beginning November 1st, there will be a whole new look to this site. From November 1st through December 16th, 2005, you will be able to view all the entries from the competition and vote for your favorite. The winners of the 3 categories: Judge’s Award, Chairman’s Award and Public’s Choice Award will be announced at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas in early January, 2006.

 I personally can't wait to see the designs.  I'm really excited that the community at-large is getting an opportunity to weigh in on this.  I'm sure there will be some wild designs to consider.  For more on the judging panel, click here. Heavyweights from Bose, Nike, and even Ziba (the outfit that designed that ultra-cool Sirius S50 mentioned earlier).

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.