Wow! What a surprise?! Media Center will be in Win 8!?

[vinylfreak]

There has been a lot of fanatical speculation recently by bloggers and pundunts, about the likelihood of Media Center being included in Windows 8.

 

Guess What!! The Sky Is Not! Falling!!!

 

M$ announced today that Media Center is alive and well in Windows 8.

 

What a surprise?

 

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/09/02/reflecting-on-our-first-conversations-part-2.aspx

[geek-accountant]

I just hope they spend a little time updating it. IMO, it needs an over haul.

[vinylfreak]

I just hope they spend a little time updating it. IMO, it needs an over haul.

 

I agree.

 

Since it looks like, at least early on, that M$ has made what looks to be some drastic UI changes for Windows 8.

I certainly hope they apply some of that UI philosophy to Media Center within Win 8. Eye candy is one thing, I hope we also see some better integration and functionality.

 

That all being said, Windows 7 Media Center was a Huge leap forward from Vista and an even larger jump from Windows XP days. Windows 7 Media Center is by far the best version of Media Center to date. Third party developers have also contributed to make the current version of MC a much better piece of SW.

[JediTim]

I am pleased that they are keeping Media Center in Windows 8. I would have seriously considered not upgrading.

[ImTheTypeOfGuy]

Some of the usage numbers are a lot lower than I would like to see. It would be nice if it could be at least double digits. That would probably deliver more updates and focus on advancing the product.

 

It would be awesome if they had an embedded product meant for consumers and not just OEM's.

[JediTim]

Some of the usage numbers are a lot lower than I would like to see. It would be nice if it could be at least double digits. That would probably deliver more updates and focus on advancing the product.

 

It would be awesome if they had an embedded product meant for consumers and not just OEM's.

 

I agree...when I read the article I was very disappointed...I wouldn't have been surprised if they had removed it.

[vinylfreak]

Some of the usage numbers are a lot lower than I would like to see. It would be nice if it could be at least double digits. That would probably deliver more updates and focus on advancing the product.

 

It would be awesome if they had an embedded product meant for consumers and not just OEM's.

 

Here is a quote from the Windows blog on usage.

 

"Our opt-in usage telemetry shows that in July, Windows Media Center was launched by 6% of Windows 7 users globally with the heaviest usage in Russia, Mexico, and Brazil (frequency and time). However, most people are just looking around; only one quarter (25% of 6%) of these people used it for more than 10 minutes per session (individual averages), and in 59% of Media Center sessions (by these 6% of users) we see almost no activity (less than a minute or two of usage). TV was the most common scenario we observed, and not surprisingly, traditional media (DVD and CD) are less common (and declining over time) than streaming and file-based content. By comparison, Media Player (66% of Windows users in July) and IE (88%) are popular rendering engines for all types of media content, including an increased volume of "premium" and streaming content. This is another place we’re reminded of the tremendous diversity of Windows activity."

 

My questions would be, what about the users that did Not Opt-In to M$ usage telemetry program?? and the blog uses the phrase "Windows 7 users globally" does this mean that Enterprise PCs were included in the calculation of this 6%. A sampling of Home users would probably be a more accurate assessment of Media Center usage. These figures seem skewed to me.

 

It is however, not really a surprise to me that Media Center usage numbers would ultimately be on the low side, Microsoft has really done a Piss Poor Job of marketing and getting the word out about the feature set of Media Center over the last 8 years. =(

[ikon]

I agree...when I read the article I was very disappointed...I wouldn't have been surprised if they had removed it.

Here is a quote from the Windows blog on usage. "Our opt-in usage telemetry shows that in July, Windows Media Center was launched by 6% of Windows 7 users globally with the heaviest usage in Russia, Mexico, and Brazil (frequency and time). However, most people are just looking around; only one quarter (25% of 6%) of these people used it for more than 10 minutes per session (individual averages), and in 59% of Media Center sessions (by these 6% of users) we see almost no activity (less than a minute or two of usage). TV was the most common scenario we observed, and not surprisingly, traditional media (DVD and CD) are less common (and declining over time) than streaming and file-based content. By comparison, Media Player (66% of Windows users in July) and IE (88%) are popular rendering engines for all types of media content, including an increased volume of "premium" and streaming content. This is another place we’re reminded of the tremendous diversity of Windows activity." My questions would be, what about the users that did Not Opt-In to M$ usage telemetry program?? and the blog uses the phrase "Windows 7 users globally" does this mean that Enterprise PCs were included in the calculation of this 6%. A sampling of Home users would probably be a more accurate assessment of Media Center usage. These figures seem skewed to me. It is however, not really a surprise to me that Media Center usage numbers would ultimately be on the low side, Microsoft has really done a Piss Poor Job of marketing and getting the word out about the feature set of Media Center over the last 8 years. =(

I just sent an email to Steven Sinofsky telling him basically the same things: i.e. many WMC users probably have the telemetry option disabled, mostly because their HTPC's are low-powered and so they disabled all non-essentials in order to maximize performance. Unfortunately, I did not make the very valid point that the figures likely include corporate users, which really does skew the results badly.

[ImTheTypeOfGuy]

 

My questions would be, what about the users that did Not Opt-In to M$ usage telemetry program?? and the blog uses the phrase "Windows 7 users globally" does this mean that Enterprise PCs were included in the calculation of this 6%. A sampling of Home users would probably be a more accurate assessment of Media Center usage. These figures seem skewed to me.

 

It is however, not really a surprise to me that Media Center usage numbers would ultimately be on the low side, Microsoft has really done a Piss Poor Job of marketing and getting the word out about the feature set of Media Center over the last 8 years. =(

 

Very valid points. Those numbers would be more accurate and would like to know that data.

[eagle63]

I'm actually not at all surprised by the low numbers - even if you took away enterprise users I'd be shocked if it was more than 2%. Think about it, does anyone here know anyone (not counting techie friends) that use WMC as a DVR? I certainly don't. The general public just gets the DVR that their cable/satellite provider offers. A very small number of others go for a Tivo. There's just no way the average person could get WMC up and running with tuners, etc. And it's not just that you have to be a techie to want to use WMC, you have to be a DVR hobbyist as well. (I know lots of very technical people that have no interest in a do-it-yourself DVR like WMC)

 

Yes MS doesn't market it at all, but I think the reason they don't is they're fully aware that the this just isn't the right solution for the average non-techie individual. (as much as they would like it to be)

 

So having said, that I am a little surprised they didn't drop it in win 8. I'm very glad they didn't, but I can't imagine they'll spend any real development effort at all on it.

Edited September 13, 2011 by eagle63