With Fiji so close, my pessimistic side starting making me wonder, How big of a disappointment would Fiji be without DirecTV?

I mean, what if for whatever reason h.264 wasn't as easy as they thought it was and conversely DirecTV and HD PVR support got pushed back to Window 7?

Would the update even be worth it if all they did was add native QAM support and some new HD recording features?

And with the HD PVR out, and the still relatively limited availability of CableCARD tuners (not to mention the uncertainty surrounding SDV), without DirecTV this could cause a paradigm shift away from Media Center.

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Ben
How good can it be, if it isn't HD?
Engadget HD

Yes Yes and Yes

I know I will be dropping it without at least h.264 support natively.

But then again wouldn't suprise me one bit.

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Dell xps420 w/ dual ATI cable cards
Hdhomerun for QAM
Panasonic 50" Plasma fed by xbox 360
Panasonic 42" plama fed by xbox 360
3TB in storage and counting

Oh yeah and native QAM support would be a joke to me seeing as we already have perfect support with hd-homerun.

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Dell xps420 w/ dual ATI cable cards
Hdhomerun for QAM
Panasonic 50" Plasma fed by xbox 360
Panasonic 42" plama fed by xbox 360
3TB in storage and counting

But for those of us wihout an HDHomeRun, QAM support is a much welcommed adition.

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* Intel Petium D 820 on Intel Desktop Board D945GNT
* Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 150
*VistaView DA-1N1-E Combo PCIe tuner
*Linksys extender - :( No more old extender, after upgrading to Vista. So sad.

PLUCKYHD:

Oh yeah and native QAM support would be a joke to me seeing as we already have perfect support with hd-homerun.

VMC still needs easier native QAM support and from some of the posts I've seen Fiji has already been proven to provide native QAM support.

My guess is, Ben is trying to get us all stirred up, even though he knows DirecTV support will be there :P

-D

Yep, Ben's the "go to" guy with insider information.

And yes, I would be pissed if DirecTV support isn't released in Fiji.

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Brian Zellinger

You heard me! You hear me?

You guys can believe whatever you want, but rest assured if I knew anything about Fiji it'd be on the front page of Engadget HD.

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Ben
How good can it be, if it isn't HD?
Engadget HD

bjdraw:

You guys can believe whatever you want, but rest assured if I knew anything about Fiji it'd be on the front page of Engadget HD.

It's hard to report on things when so far the only build that was leaked was the one from I believe April.  From what I've seen, that one only added QAM, no h.264 support, but don't take my word for it.

We just have to wait for more info from MS, more leaks, or more leaked builds. 

-D

We know RC0 is out as we've seen others mention it, but so far the file hasn't been leaked.

What concerns me is that I have sources that say the DirecTV tuners have not been sent to beta testers despite them receiving the agreement and returning it. But there is always the chance that my source was caught leaking data to Engadget and doesn't know it yet.

But I just received a private message, that makes me believe my pessimism may be warranted.

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Ben
How good can it be, if it isn't HD?
Engadget HD

directv is a huge part of what im excited about (since media center might be the only one who gets these tuners) but i would be satisified if they fixed all the other little issues with media center and left directv support out.

things like a color coded guide, bringing xbox live hd movie rentals to media center, allow themes and total customizing of the icons/strips, fix all the codec support issues (add divx, xvid, mkv and fix the wmv-hd vbr studdering bugs to extenders), fix the media library issues, add a tuner status page, integrate webguide into media center so it works better, video thumbnail previews (similar to how the ps3 does it).   

there are more too but thats off the top of my head.... if most of those were solved and there was no directv support i would be happy with fiji.

and thats not even mentioning what i most want to see....  media center brought to whs so i can buy one box and run exclusively off extenders.  i do this now with vista acting as a server but i want all the things whs does well on the same box.

the fact that people havent gotten tuners yet doesnt make me worry at all.... ive always said the tuners will not come out before ces09 (and it will be one of their "announcements").  so there is still ample time to beta test.

One xfactor in this is the HDPVR, if they didn't support DirecTV but did the HD PVR, then I would be fine with leaving DirecTV out, but we need something for premium HD beyond CableCards.

-Josh

 

I was wondering something. Could anyone buy a DirecTV tuner from a retailer or is it directly from DirecTV? These days, they usually give you the hardware if you sign with them for a year or two. Ben? Does your "source" have any info?

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Brian Zellinger

You heard me! You hear me?

From what I've read on other forums it's looking better for those outside the US.

• MHEG
• Subtitles
• Teletext
• In stream EPG

I still can't believe the secrecy surrounding this beta. I either have to take my hat off to Microsoft for keeping details underwraps for so long or there isn't much to come! 

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Steve

My Media Center Setup

Media Center Version Info

There is absolutely no reason to believe that DirecTV would offer any device without a renewal of a commitment. It's like asking if you can buy the new iPhone without a contract, DirecTV just doesn't do it.

As for my sources. Other then the fact that they haven't received a DirecTV tuner to test they've been quiet. And based on the response from this thread, I'm convinced we're not hearing anything about Fiji, 'cause there is nothing to talk about.

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Ben
How good can it be, if it isn't HD?
Engadget HD

I would be very very sad if there is no direct TV support.

I took TV off of it over a year ago because I really really wanted to record HDTV that was more than just OTA and there was no QAM (HD homerun not out), cable cards require an entirely new PC. 

I love media center but if MS can't get the other players to make it easier to integrate in, it will never be what we want it to be.