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Big News: Microsoft utters the words “Media Center” (updated)

By on September 2, 2011 11:33 AM
24 comments

media-center-whiteAs usual, the buildup to Build, and what will be revealed about Windows 8 and its surrounding ecosystem, is much more about what Microsoft is NOT saying than what it has.  After the Windows 8 demo at this summer’s D8 conference, where Steven Sinofsky and Julie Larson-Green revealed that the new tablet interface for Windows 8 would run apps written in HTML5 and JavaScript (throwing .Net developers into a tizzy), not much new has been revealed about the new OS, expected to be previewed at Build and released sometime next year.  Oh yes we’ve heard about the Ribbon in Windows Explorer, and a bit of esoterica about faster file moves, but much remains to be revealed.

Well yesterday, in another epic (or at least epically long) blog post, Steven Sinofsky hinted for the first time about the future of Media Center:

In this, and a subsequent post, I want to talk about four topics in particular: Feedback (which I’ll cover today), the Ribbon, Metro, and Media Center. I hope to add a bit of additional “focus, light, and magnification” without distorting the bigger picture here.

Granted, he didn’t say much, other than that it’s on his list of things to talk about, but at least (we think) we know now that Media Center will be included, in some form, in Windows 8.

…

UPDATE:  A new blog post by Steven Sinofsky has just been posted, and he makes it clear that Windows Media Center will continue to be included with at least some versions of Windows:

While not a central topic of feedback, I received about 50 emails about Media Center. I want to reassure customers that Media Center will definitely be part of Windows 8. No doubt about it.

Sinofsky goes on to say that Media Center will not be included in early builds of Windows 8, along with things like DVD Creator and Windows 7 games, but that Media Center will make it into at least some SKUs of Windows 8.

Sinofsky also notes the low usage numbers of Media Center, with only 6% of Windows 7 users globally launching it.  Perhaps if it was better marketed, with fewer conflicting products (see below), it might be faring better?

…

There has been a lot of speculation recently that Microsoft would seek to consolidate its various Media player offerings: currently we have Window Media Center, Windows Media Player, the Zune software, Windows Live Picture Gallery, Windows Live Movie Maker, and probably a few more in nooks and crannies lurking about in Windows somewhere.  Then there’s Xbox Live, of course, coming as we know in some form to the PC.

The truth is, we really don’t know what direction Microsoft is heading in regards to both Media Center and the media capabilities now available through Windows Live, or how they will fit into Windows 8.  Will we get a full blown consolidation?  Would Windows Live Essentials even make sense anymore in a Windows 8 app-centric model (and what becomes of Windows 7 users?  Will Microsoft maintain two sets of apps for the two operating systems?)?

We’re going to be packing in a lot of information to parse coming out of Build, that’s for sure.  Here’s hoping we leave with more answers than questions.

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Comments

  • http://www.windows7update.com Onuora Amobi

    Umm…to be fair, we don’t know if it’s included in Windows 8. All we know is that he plans to talk about it.

    For all we know, he plans to tell us why they felt they needed to remove it.

    Onuora
    http://www.windows8update.com

    • http://www.LiveSide.net Kip Kniskern – LiveSide.net

      That’s certainly a possibility, too - but MSFT won’t be dropping media player capabilities (in some form or other, and hopefully consolidated in some way) - at least he’s promising to reveal more on their plans soon.

  • Anonymous

    i hope its all consolidated under whatever they will be calling zune. Media center UI really is outdated and never really worked well. With the new Win 8 UI and even xbox…its kinda a duplicated effort.

    • Anonymous

      It didn’t worked well? How can you say this? I think it still has the best interface for a TV setting. The only problem I see is that lack of support for global TV standards.

      • Anonymous

        I’ve fiddled with it on a number of occasions going back to 2005. Its a tinkerer’s program and I think that’s what’s frustrated me so much on it. Everytime I’ve evaluated using it and tried to set things up it never worked or there were too many concessions to make it viable. I just never had the time or desire to sink the money into it. My experience and from looking at MS telemetry data it looks like I’m not alone in this. The current UI on the xbox I like a lot better and the new xbox UI looks to be even better for slinging media around. I”m not saying they are the best but I do prefer them.

        • Anonymous

          The telemetry data isn’t as bad as Microsoft want us to believe. If 6% of Windows 7 users are using Media Center and let’s say that 50% of those PCs were used on work and in offices, that means that 12% of home users are watching TV. On their PC. That’s really not bad considering that, as I said, MC doesn’t support the latest HDTV standards in many countries and that you need additional hardware.
          The major problem is (like with Windows Phone 7 and Zune) the lack of good PR and advertising for this.

    • Chris

      Where does the new Windows 8 UI have TV and media capabilities? 

      • Anonymous

        I didn’t say that it had TV media capabilities… who knows at this point beyond MS.  What I was getting at was the new win 8 UI is more scaleable (From tablet to tv) than the current Win UI is. So its not hard to imagine that this design won’t carry over to their media player. Which begs the question why have a separate media center (which the UI of is really dated)? I am of the opinion that zune, media center and media player all need to unified under one program. Its about time and with the windows UI overhaul…probably the best time to do it.

  • Chris

    I hope for an overhall of windows media player. Perhaps a new app bulit from the ground up with some streaming services. I’d also like to see media center and xbox merge and added functionalty such as web and email from your couch.

  • http://twitter.com/harlemS Travis Pope

    Come on Microsoft pull the plug on Media Center and Media Player. This is out of hand. One media team. One vision. One brand. One bleeding software solution. You are short changing all of them.

    • Chris

      yeah. Merge everything in to Media center. Zune. Media player and media center. Boom. You are done. 

    • Anonymous

      amen to that!

  • http://twitter.com/harlemS Travis Pope

    Come on Microsoft pull the plug on Media Center and Media Player. This is out of hand. One media team. One vision. One brand. One bleeding software solution. You are short changing all of them.

  • Caschatte

    One would think that someone there somewhere would come up with an original idea to save the company instead of re-hashing old into “new” over and over again… 

  • http://twitter.com/surilamin surilamin

    I think Media Center is really being held back by being tied to Windows.  It’s a great product with great potential, but I don’t think you can expect everyone to dedicate a PC to their tv.

    • http://www.LiveSide.net Kip Kniskern – LiveSide.net

      That’s what Xboxes are for, or at least that’s what Micrsoft would like you to think ;)

  • N_Isr

    i want windows 7 supported with new versions of apps. i dont want to change the os  (i changed to windows 7 this year).
    Microsoft can drop media center. i dont know anybody that use it.

    • Chris

      Windows 7 supports new apps. It won’t run your dated copy of Britannica ’99. Its not Microsofts falut you choose to run old software

  • Anonymous

    I don’t care about Media Center so much per se (as much as I used to), but I hope they just don’t throw out 10 years worth of DVR technology out the window.

    • Anonymous

      I do remember seeing a dvr box on the new Xbox UI. So maybe they are putting that knowledge to good use.

  • Mikko Kunnari

    “…written in HTML5 and JavaScript”

    Did he really say that? Or did he actually say that the new UI takes advantage of those technologies? It is well possible that coding can be done just like today but the UI components are just rendered using HTML5+JS instead of GDI+ (WF) or DirectX (WPF)

  • Shola

    I recently started using Media Center as I bought an all-in-one pc (with TV tuner) for general use. I have to say it’s very impressive. Strange that I never heard of this app before. Well, the 6% usage is obviously down to poor marketing.

    As most people hve been saying, I hope to God that they combine everything, say into Zune? The current Zune application is probably the closest thing to a Windows 8 UI/UX – they just need to integrate the TV tuner/DVR features and i’ll be happy.

    • Chris

      I remember when Media center first came out. It was shipped only on select HP machines and dubbed “Windows XP Media Center edition” Then slowly other vendors got the “license” to use media center but you still couldnt buy a copy of XP that had media center. It had to be from the vendor. Finnaly Microsoft got smart and started shipping it with windows. I just hope this time around its the center media app that comes bundled on a single OS

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