I didn't write it.  Marius Oiaga (Technology News Editor) wrote this article. 

It is dated 2nd June 2008, 13:17 GMT (Copyright (c) 2008 Softpedia)

What's horrible about the writing?

---

PM me with your ASUS Striker Extreme Horror Story..

LASooner:

. With the update, Ultimate edition will officially support four tuners of each type, while premium stays at the current limit of two.

 

What is this horse crap?!

 

Well there has to be a reason Ultimate costs twice as much! and it's not Ultimate Extras ;)

---

Ashleigh

My Blog and my My F1 Blog and Blogcritics

The "source" of that article is a post from May.  Nonetheless, Fiji is still the next version of Media Center no matter how it ships or what is in it.  The article is just horrible in the way it attempts to make a broken point. It is just anther person who goes and reads an article online and puts their own spin on things without linking to a real source or having any knowledge of the product.

---

Chris Lanier
The Green Button Forum Moderator

Chris - Moderator:

The "source" of that article is a post from May.  Nonetheless, Fiji is still the next version of Media Center no matter how it ships or what is in it.  The article is just horrible in the way it attempts to make a broken point. It is just anther person who goes and reads an article online and puts their own spin on things without linking to a real source or having any knowledge of the product.

Isn't that the truth.

---

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

USArcher:

Before everyone gets into an uproar, remember these are just rumors.

No, they are not.
Someone posted a link in one of these forums to a Russian site that featured a supposed beta of this service pack.
I tried it, in this version H264 DID work (BBC HD played), but I could not choose Diseqc, but mixed tuner (satellite + analogue cable) was possible now.
BBC HD is a special channel though, as it still uses DVB-S, and not DVB-S2, which is almost always used for HD in Europe.
Checking further, the DVB-S2 channels did not work...
It only allowed me to enable 2 tuners simultaneously.
For satellite, both tuners had to point both to the same satellite.
It allowed me to use both satellite and analogue cable and have one unified guide.
The WTV format is there for recordings, but the utility for ripping Teletext subtitles from DVR-MS files still works, so not that much should have changed to the format, although it should now have H264 recording in it.

USArcher:

Now, your comment about support for other satellite providers is abit unfair.  DirectTV and Microsoft have partnered in this development which means that DirectTV is incurring development costs.  Have European Service providers designed a PC based satellite tuner for their systems?   If they did or planning to then I'm sure Microsoft would be happy to partner with them.

You apparently have not read what I wrote.
I am not talking service providers here !
I am talking about the fact of being able to tune in to Astra1,2,3, Hotbird satellites via a (built-in) diseqc switch or a motorized dish.
I saw none of that here, though it is possible that for diseqc to work natively it would require a new type of BDA drivers.

---

PAL territory, using analogue cable Hauppauge PVR-350 and Hauppauge PVR-250, living in Belgium, Europe
http://www.extrabuttons.net

H264 is essential in Europe.
We do not use ATSC, with HD in MPEG2, here H264 is used for our HD.
No H264 = no HD !
Who wants to pay for it again anyway ?
Vista was supposed to contain all that stuff, then they let you wait a couple of years, and ask money for it again ?

---

PAL territory, using analogue cable Hauppauge PVR-350 and Hauppauge PVR-250, living in Belgium, Europe
http://www.extrabuttons.net

spplutchok:

....From the signals that I am getting, Microsoft continues to focus on Content Protection technologies. Just as Windows Media Center in Vista, Windows Fiji will also feature Windows Media DRM (Digital Rights Management). Fiji will also advance the current multimedia capabilities of Vista's Windows Media Center, signal the creation of new Media Center Extender solutions and provide support for DirectTV. One of the key aspects of Fiji orbits around taking TV and video playback to the next level. But nothing is set in stone, especially since Microsoft has failed to even confirm that a Windows Fiji is now in Beta phase....

.. and nothing is set in stone, as microsoft has a demonstrated capicity to underdeliver, and has a track record of pulling promised technologies from pending releases.

Basically, the article is tripe. It say nothing, just regurgitates blather just to bolster the believers, put fear in the hearts the wayward and distract the non-believers.

There is nothing here, why was this published?

---

New System: Vista/AthlonX2BE/GigabyteGA-MA69G-S3H/HD3450/(2) M780/3GB Ram/320GB&750GB Drive/Westy 32 LCD via HDMI/

Old System: MCE/ Athlon3000+/Asus K8NE Deluxe/vBox Catseye 150/NVTV Dual SD/2GB RAM/250GB HD/Ahanix DVine 4/Westy 32 LCD/

Honestly, I cannot wait until this is released.

And why?

Not because of the 4 tuner change....

Or mixing tuners....

Native QAM....

or whatever else they put in it.

I'll be glad that we will be able to get back to normal posting and not having 20 different posts all having a pissing contest about Fiji.  It's getting to the point where I just browse the site less because of all the infighting......

Wonder if the Aussie site is the same way......

Let's just quit arguing about it, and let it come out.  Truthfully most of us don't care what the people on the other side of the argument think.

-D

dravor:

I'll be glad that we will be able to get back to normal posting and not having 20 different posts all having a pissing contest about Fiji.  It's getting to the point where I just browse the site less because of all the infighting......

Wonder if the Aussie site is the same way......

Let's just quit arguing about it, and let it come out.

Isn't it normal for people to tell what they would like to see in the next upgrade ?
And if there are so many different views on that it most probably is because Mediacenter is lacking so many basic features :

H264, DVB-S, DVB-S2, mixed tuner support, more than 2 tuners, the list is endless.
What I cannot understand is how so many other programs manage to get these features without it taking ages for them to implement.
Besides, pointing out errors in other's postings is not the same as infighting.

---

PAL territory, using analogue cable Hauppauge PVR-350 and Hauppauge PVR-250, living in Belgium, Europe
http://www.extrabuttons.net

Right, but surely they've got their idea now - they know where they are going to go with it (whether we like it or not...) so how about we wait like good people ;)

Seems no one from Microsoft has commented on this important thread?

Why would H264 be in the earlier beta builds as some screen shots suggest and then removed ? If that is the case. How do you know its now been removed? 

 

---

Stu

aka C-Dub



The Windows Media Center Blog

Tips Tricks & News!

I have no idea why Microsoft won't make a statement on this, but more than one tester told me that the explaination they were given was, because it was too comlex because of the dependecies involved to add in time the amount of time they had.

---

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

Chris - Moderator:

The "source" of that article is a post from May.  Nonetheless, Fiji is still the next version of Media Center no matter how it ships or what is in it.  The article is just horrible in the way it attempts to make a broken point. It is just anther person who goes and reads an article online and puts their own spin on things without linking to a real source or having any knowledge of the product.

In all honesty, are not most of the blogs out there just based upon an article posted somewhere else?  How many blogs out there, are really about people interviewing the actual source?  It's not like everyone has an inside source to Microsoft developers working on this.  If we are going to bash this person writing this poor blog, let's bash all the posts on the forums lately 'attempting to make a broken point'.  It's no different than 95% of all the fiji posts as of late.  Everyone takes their interpretations of events, and molds them into their own view.

In the same manner that the news of the updates being split into two has caused Ben to come out and said it could happen this year, and your coming out on the other side saying it will never happen this year.  Neither of you have a real inside source at Microsoft, so it's all based on your interpretations, without any real source or knowledge of what is going on behind the scenes? :)  Unless of course you do have a real source and if that's the case, spill the beans. 

In closing, no wonder the country of Fiji is so pissed off ad the use of it's name, so much negative publicity, lol.

-D

Dravor,
You are 100% correct that most blog posts are just opinions in response to someone else's work. The reason why Chris and I think that post is so bad is because rather than add another opinion to someone else's work, the author simply riped off someone else's work without crediting them. You'll be hard pressed to find a single blog post on Engadget or Chris's blog that doesn't link to the topic in question. To use someone else's information without linking is basicaly plagiarism. Now someone in the traditional media might try to say it is plagiarism if you don't mention the name of the source, but everyone in the new media knows that a link to someone's work is 100% more valuable than a mention. But that is why the old media is dying while new media is thriving in the Internet age.

As for sources -- my sources are beta testers for Microsoft's eHome team. I don't have a problem telling you this since it is very obvious to MS. But I can't tell you who they are because they have signed NDAs with MS and if I expose them, then they'll most certainly be sued and I'll be going agaist my word. Despite what anyone might think, if someone tells me something off the record and asks me not to post it, I won't.

The reason Chris can't say more is because he is restricted by an NDA, and he has said this in his blog posts many times before.

From here in response to my first leaked Fiji post.
"Sadly, I can’t really comment on anything because of various NDAs, but it wouldn’t be an understatement to say such a non-release would be devastating to the market."

---

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

dravor:

In all honesty, are not most of the blogs out there just based upon an article posted somewhere else?  How many blogs out there, are really about people interviewing the actual source?  It's not like everyone has an inside source to Microsoft developers working on this.  If we are going to bash this person writing this poor blog, let's bash all the posts on the forums lately 'attempting to make a broken point'.  It's no different than 95% of all the fiji posts as of late.  Everyone takes their interpretations of events, and molds them into their own view.

In the same manner that the news of the updates being split into two has caused Ben to come out and said it could happen this year, and your coming out on the other side saying it will never happen this year.  Neither of you have a real inside source at Microsoft, so it's all based on your interpretations, without any real source or knowledge of what is going on behind the scenes? :)  Unless of course you do have a real source and if that's the case, spill the beans. 

In closing, no wonder the country of Fiji is so pissed off ad the use of it's name, so much negative publicity, lol.

-D

Making a post in a forum is a bit different then posting something as "news" and trying to make your site appear news worthy.  As a "news" site, I'd expect someone do some research into the topic before posting about.  What you have here is the "source" being some guy who downloaded a leaked beta via Bittorrent and then a "news" site taking what the guy says as fact.  I know myself and Ben (and countless others) attempt to do a little more digging OR clearly note that we are just pointing out site x has posted about something and that it is not endorsed by us re-posting a link to it.  At the end of the day, most "tech news" sites exist for the traffic and could care less about how correct they are.  I, personally, try and just make sure people understand decisions from a well rounded point of view.  This doesn't get you nearly as much traffic, but I hope the people I really care about reading (you guys at TGB) keep comign back because you are getting good information and not just a headline that doesn't come true.  And no, I'm not directing that at Ben, I just feel that I knowwhat his sources are basing this on and I would be more skeptical of a second release this year.  Am I right?  Only time will tell.

As for sources inside of Microsoft, I think I have several seeing as MVPs have pretty open communication with Microsoft.    That said, because I'm under several NDAs (MVP, beta, more) I can't base my posts off of any information learned from these sources.  I can however make a statement that I wouldn't count on a release on this time, and then later go into detail why I think that.  For those who have read my blog for a while you most likely have noticed I don't bring a lot of good news early, instead I general say why I don't think things will happen until a specific time frame (ex. CableCARD being in Vista only, Fiji beta starting 1+ year after beta invites, etc)

---

Chris Lanier
The Green Button Forum Moderator