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I don’t believe that Hulu has a large interest in Media Center, but those very same mockup’s that show Media Center’s “PCTV” marketing also show Hulu as a key experience.  My guess is that the material Microsoft provided to Lippincott said Media Center provides an Internet TV experience, and the designers took that as Media Center providing access to the most popular service for online TV shows. I don’t believe that the content providers are interested in seeing Hulu on the big screen as it would jeopardize traditional content delivery.  Hulu’s entry into the 10-foot UI marketplace is heavily designed … Continue reading Is Hulu Coming to Media Center?

Microsoft rewrites the rules on fun with controller-free entertainment, Facebook for your TV, plus instant on 1080p HD streaming video. LOS ANGELES — June 1, 2009 — The future of home entertainment has a new name: Xbox 360. Today, Microsoft Corp. opened the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) with a historic Xbox 360 briefing that rocked, tweeted, revved and awakened the world to a new era of fun and entertainment. In addition to premiering 10 exclusive new games, revolutionizing the way we watch TV, and making it easier than ever to connect to friends, Xbox also welcomed visionary filmmaker Steven Spielberg … Continue reading Xbox Unveils Entertainment Experiences That Put Everyone Center Stage

This week Microsoft took the wraps off the next Zune, dubbed Zune HD.  It seems to be your basic next-generation touch screen only media player with the common additions of WiFi and an web browser (IE based).  There are some other interesting parts such as a HD Radio tuner, an OLED screen, multitouch, and even HD output at 720p via a dock. The most interesting part of the announcement is not the device, but rather the service.  The Zune Marketplace will now integrate with the Xbox LIVE Marketplace, finally drawing a realistic picture of Microsoft’s “3 screen” vision of the … Continue reading Microsoft Connects the Dots with Zune HD, Zune Marketplace, and Xbox

Today Microsoft released their native Netflix application for Windows Media Center to much fanfare.  The release comes with a catch, but let’s back up a bit before we get to that. I’ve talked about the need for Microsoft to get Netflix within the Media Center ecosystem, and ever since Reed Hastings joined Microsoft’s board I knew it was coming.  A year ago Microsoft announced Netflix would be coming to the Xbox 360 Dashboard and that rekindled my thoughts about the Xbox 360 being Media Center biggest enemy in the marketplace.  Today those thoughts are confirmed once again by the Netflix … Continue reading The Story Behind Netflix for Windows Media Center

Latest content addition offers more than 12,000 choices of movies and TV episodes that can be watched instantly on a PC with Windows. REDMOND, Wash. — May 19, 2009 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that more than 12,000 movies and TV episodes from Netflix Inc., the world’s largest online movie rental service, are now available to watch instantly on the PC using Windows Media Center on PCs with Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate. This newest content addition builds on Microsoft’s goal to create a consistent experience on the PC for consumers to easily enjoy the entertainment of greatest interest … Continue reading Microsoft and Netflix Enhance Movie and TV Watching on the PC

You might have noticed I’ve been quiet for the past month, sadly that might continue for another month but I’ll be sure to try and fill the gaps (meanwhile tons of other Media Center blogs covering everything new out there). I’m not sure yet when it will be posted, but in a few weeks several of us in the Media Center community will have a big surprise that everyone will be interested in.  You’re going to want to watch here for that. On a completely separate side note, if anyone involved with Yahoo’s Connected TV Widgets please let me know … Continue reading Short Bits: DivX, Links, News

Julie Jacobson at CE Pro speculates that Hulu (who has been all over the news for killing third party apps) is holding out for Windows 7 Media Center support. As great as this would be, don’t get your hopes up.  Hulu has very few reasons to even look at Microsoft here.  All Microsoft really brings to the table is a very small number of users (none of which are really going to add new pageviews that Hulu isn’t already getting).  Microsoft internal numbers are actually quoting a good amount of users, but I’m not really convinced that the numbers represent … Continue reading Unlikely That Hulu is Holding Out for Microsoft

I shouldn’t actually call it a fight because that implies one actually gave effort, but CES 2009 has shown that Microsoft is effectively out of the race to provide a platform for streaming and downloadable content via the PC.  I say via the PC because the Xbox is still alive and actually putting up somewhat of a fight. With every major display company now pushing integrated online content embedded or easily attachable to their displays the PC is now becoming irrelevant.  No longer is the concept PC-to-TV, it is Web-to-TV and Microsoft fails to offer compelling products that work under … Continue reading Microsoft Loses the Online Content Fight

Media Center 10 million Media Center users a month Average Media Center session time is ~90 minutes Xbox 360 Xbox LIVE membership that has grown to 17 million active members. Xbox 360 has sold 28 million consoles sold to date More than $1 billion spent on Xbox LIVE since the launch of the Xbox 360 Xbox 360 has largest game attach rate Xbox LIVE Primetime channel brings together the best of TV and gaming in an interactive way. Primetime will create scheduled programming, offer interactive and social features. Average Halo player playing 150 hours on Xbox LIVE Two new Halo … Continue reading Random Notes from Microsoft’s CES Keynote

Developing… “This month, Microsoft and Netflix, the world’s largest online movie rental service, will offer software that enables Windows Mobile customers to update and view their Netflix movie queue. Changes will appear instantly on Netflix on Xbox LIVE, extending the existing service that launched in November. Xbox 360 is the only game system that lets people instantly watch thousands of movies and TV episodes streamed from Netflix, many in HD.”