Isn't there suppose to be one?

I think back to last year. (http://msmvps.com/blogs/chrisl/archive/2007/09/11/1186971.aspx)

4 cable cards! h.264 and DIVX support!!!

What will it be this year?

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http://www.joshuadanielsmith.com

If this rumor is true and what our mods here have said is true (mostly the statements shooting down many rumors), my bet is that TV Pack has an unannounced feature that Microsoft will announce at CEDIA. Our mods tell us it's not h.264 or DirecTv. Seeing that Comcast plans to make a working demonstration of tru2way at the show indicates that true2way will be a hot hyped up subject. That being and the fact that Microsoft was heavily involved in the development of tru2way through its CableLabs membership, my bet is that the Microsoft announcement has something to do with tru2way.

We already know that tru2way is planned as a native feature of Windows 7. So, the possibilities are (a) making it offially announced as a planned feature of Windows 7, (b) that the TV Feature Pack makes VMC tru2way capable and ready, or (c) some mundane announcement of development of software for a CE hardware partner.

I doubt you will find anything about Microsoft and tru2way at CEDIA.  They have yet to say anything about it, Windows 7 is just the earlist it could be integrated into Media Center.  The developments with CableLabs and ATI (or other mfgs) have to come first.

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Chris Lanier
The Green Button Forum Moderator

Haven't seen that TV Pack announcement yet either.  Will I have to buy a new PC to legally get ATSC subchannels in my EPG with TVPack?

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Deane G Vista SP1 Home Premium 32 w/Pack, 2x A180, 550 Pro, HD4350 at 1080i to plasma, Intel D945GNTLR w/Pentium D 2.80GHz, 2GB, Seagate 300MB + Hitachi 1TB, Linksys DMA2100, Harmony 550, TMT

DeaneG:

Will I have to buy a new PC to legally get ATSC subchannels in my EPG with TVPack?

Yes.

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Chris Lanier
The Green Button Forum Moderator

I'm still waiting on them to entice me to go Media Center Again.

I guess that's kinda silly, huh?

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http://www.joshuadanielsmith.com

inmodify:

I'm still waiting on them to entice me to go Media Center Again. I guess that's kinda silly, huh?

I'm with you.  I decided last night that I'm done with Media Center until the DirecTV tuner comes out.

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My Vista Media Center Setup:

Vista Home Premium 64-bit
Intel Core 2 Duo E6420
Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L
4GB DDR2-800 PC6400 SDRAM
500GB Maxtor SATAII (OS and Recorded TV)
1TB Seagate SATAII (Media, Storage, Backup)

XBox 360 in the living room

Yeah, I've been holding out for the dtv tuner, too. Since it didn't appear, I picked up an hr-22 and with the Directv/Tivo announcement, it's unlikely I'll ever be back with Media Center.

Chris - Moderator:

DeaneG:

Will I have to buy a new PC to legally get ATSC subchannels in my EPG with TVPack?

Yes.

Wow.  Pardon me, but there is something very, very wrong with a solution that has required a new PC for each of the last two major software updates (Cablecard and now just TV Pack).

It's inexplicably incompetent.

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Deane G Vista SP1 Home Premium 32 w/Pack, 2x A180, 550 Pro, HD4350 at 1080i to plasma, Intel D945GNTLR w/Pentium D 2.80GHz, 2GB, Seagate 300MB + Hitachi 1TB, Linksys DMA2100, Harmony 550, TMT

Chris - Moderator:

DeaneG:

Will I have to buy a new PC to legally get ATSC subchannels in my EPG with TVPack?

Yes.

But only if you're not Canadian. 

If you're an international user who's not American or Canadian, the TV Pack is for you.  If you're American and not Canadian, the TV Pack is for you.  If you're Canadian, politely comment in some threads about the features that you don't have or that don't work, then go eat some bacon. 

g.

(PS:  Sarcasm only, the above post is not meant to offend.  I'm going to eat some non-offensive, non-ATSC bacon now)

Could be worse, you could be an Australian like myself.
Absolute rubbish for us Aussies, all this talk about we are listening and care nonsense means jack crap if you live down under.
An option for me now is the new tivo that channel 7 recently introduced, and perhaps just stick with VMC for myTV and my movies.
Just make vmc a seperate component to the OS all together and let us pay for it.
Be cheaper for me considering i shelled out a heap for ultimate just for the media center component.

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Always willing to help.

To be fair though, Australia got itself in this mess.  If the Howard government hadn't given the networks (and channel 9  in particular) so much control over how digital tv would be implemented you might have a mature digital tv industry.  Instead, it insisted on HDTV to satisfy Packer and set the whole industry back by ensuring that no manufacturer would bother to cater for the tiny Australian market with it's unique form of DVB-T.  Added to that is the problem of the networks doing what they can to ensure that users don't have adequate guide data and any way of skipping ads.

What I find harder to believe is that Microsoft won't cater properly for the large European markets.  DVB-T comes in many shapes and sizes over here but the large markets involved should make it harder for Microsoft to ignore European requirements.  Unfortunately it doesn't seem to though.

DeaneG:

Chris - Moderator:

DeaneG:

Will I have to buy a new PC to legally get ATSC subchannels in my EPG with TVPack?

Yes.

Wow.  Pardon me, but there is something very, very wrong with a solution that has required a new PC for each of the last two major software updates (Cablecard and now just TV Pack).

It's inexplicably incompetent.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/microsoft-showcases-windows-media-center/story.aspx?guid=%7BC13A3D65-2C68-497C-8B23-992316598EC4%7D&dist=hppr

From the "Big" announcemnet at CEDIA, its clear that Microsoft wants to concentrate on the Custom Channel partners, in other words OEM than homebrew enthusiasts like us. This sounds to me that any new enhancements are going to be through OEM. I'm getting more and more inclined to Linux for homebrew projects now.

 

 

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Silverstone LC-16M
Vista Home Premium (x64) SP1
Vista TV Pack 2008
Intel Core 2 Duo E7200
Gigabyte GA-EP45C-DS3R
4GB Memory
2 x Samsung 1TB Hard Disks
nVidia Geforce 8600GT

Now hold on a minute jakem!!!

No H.264 when Ireland, Norway, New Zealand (& Australia?) broadcast their FTA DVB-T in this format? It's a disgrace, especially when we can't even change codec to get it to work. Fair enough if MS won't pony up for it, at least let us change to a codec that will work?!?

paulm187:

DeaneG:

Chris - Moderator:

DeaneG:

Will I have to buy a new PC to legally get ATSC subchannels in my EPG with TVPack?

Yes.

Wow.  Pardon me, but there is something very, very wrong with a solution that has required a new PC for each of the last two major software updates (Cablecard and now just TV Pack).

It's inexplicably incompetent.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/microsoft-showcases-windows-media-center/story.aspx?guid=%7BC13A3D65-2C68-497C-8B23-992316598EC4%7D&dist=hppr

From the "Big" announcemnet at CEDIA, its clear that Microsoft wants to concentrate on the Custom Channel partners, in other words OEM than homebrew enthusiasts like us. This sounds to me that any new enhancements are going to be through OEM. I'm getting more and more inclined to Linux for homebrew projects now.

That's the conclusion I came to also, that MSFT sees their media center sales as being driven primarily by their integration partners, so they are favoring them and leaving existing customers to eat sand.

It's not wise to alienate your current customers, guys. I have already told three coworkers (software engineers and managers at that) to stay away from Media Center, and that was before this last blunder.

In my case, all I want is a functional EPG for ATSC.  If Tivo had shipped a DTV product three years ago without a functional guide, then taken three years to fix it, then informed current customers that they would need to shell out another $1000-3000 to get the new software, they would be out of business.

How long will MSFT's deep pockets let them continue to play around?

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Deane G Vista SP1 Home Premium 32 w/Pack, 2x A180, 550 Pro, HD4350 at 1080i to plasma, Intel D945GNTLR w/Pentium D 2.80GHz, 2GB, Seagate 300MB + Hitachi 1TB, Linksys DMA2100, Harmony 550, TMT