It's Vista based, not a "new" OS.  Search TGB or my blog for "Fiji".  That should be the Codename for this beta. 

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Chris Lanier
The Green Button Forum Moderator

Thanks Jessica. I think everyone here provides some great feedback and would be a great addition to the beta program, especially since we're all so passionate about Media Center.

Yeah, so everyone for whom I can correlate your Green Button username with a real name...just kidding. :-)

I'm told that a very high percentage of people who applied for the beta today said they're QAM users on the survey. I find that very interesting. Are there really, really that many of you?

 

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This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Quick comment. They survey asks which transmitter we are on if we are DVB-T users. I assume this doesn't apply in Australia?

Slight problem with the form: it asks if I'm already using Vista. So I choose "No". The next question then asks which version of Vista, if I've chosen Yes. But I chose "No", so I left that box blank.

When I submitted the form it was rejected as I hadn't chosen my version of Vista. I selected Home Premium, as that's what I would choose if I was paying for an upgrade, but I left the am I using Vista question as "No". Form submitted fine then. There wasn't a Not Applicable option.

But, unless MS wants to give me a nice shiny copy of Vista, I guess I'm gonna be out of luck with getting into the test as I'm still running XP MCE2005.

Mark

 

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MCE2005 (Reluctantly decided not to upgrade to TV Pack - will see if 7MC fixes the issues) | AMD64X2 3600+ | 1Gb Ram | 3x500Gb SATA | Hauppauge PVR150 | nVidia 7300LE silent GPU | Pig ugly big black case | Virgin Media cable | Xbox 360 wired extender

Thankyou Jessica!

I hope we are all in this beta test.

I've found myself using QAM more and more due to FOX not being broadcast over the air, however it is available from my cable co. Also, I don't have to worry so much about dragging my antenna into my bathroom just to pickup CBS. My wife really never liked that solution!

Shahn

JessZahn:

I'm told that a very high percentage of people who applied for the beta today said they're QAM users on the survey. I find that very interesting. Are there really, really that many of you?

On my main machine I'm using it for everything I was using OTA ATSC for by using the HDHomerun unit.  I do still have the antenna on the roof and the cards in other machines just so I can test some things, but QAM via the HDHomerun unit is working better for me.

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My Media Center Blog

>> I'm told that a very high percentage of people who applied for the beta today said they're QAM users on the survey. I find that very interesting. Are there really, really that many of you?

Why is this a surprise?  More and more channels are going HD and almost none of them are being broadcast over the air.  I can get abc, cbs, nbc, fox and pbs free over the air but hd channels like mtv, espn/espn2, tnt, discovery and many others are QAM only.  My over the air PC based tuners are quickly becoming obsolete. 

Only about .01% of people will be able to MTV, ESPN, TNT, Discovery, etc over unencrypted QAM.  Microsoft knows all about QAM in general, it's already supported via CableCARD's.  Unencrypted is much different, and not natively supported at this point.

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Chris Lanier
The Green Button Forum Moderator

JessZahn:

Yeah, so everyone for whom I can correlate your Green Button username with a real name...just kidding. :-)

I'm told that a very high percentage of people who applied for the beta today said they're QAM users on the survey. I find that very interesting. Are there really, really that many of you?

 

Hi Jess!

Yup...I applied as a QAM user!  It'll be interesting to see how this is set up...especially with those of us who are using the HDHomerun. 

Just so you can "track" me... raykuss@hotmail.com 

 

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Ghostlobster
Very happy convert to SageTV! Finally, watching ESPN-HD in real HD on my HTPC without having to deal with the CableCARD fiasco!

JessZahn:

I'm told that a very high percentage of people who applied for the beta today said they're QAM users on the survey. I find that very interesting. Are there really, really that many of you?

This is a testament to the popularity of the HDHomerun unit. Almost every user I know of htpc's has a custom built system. Since the powers that be have locked us out of ever using a cablecard on our systems we have no choice but to go OTA or QAM. If you live an apartment where you can't get an external antenna (like me) that really just leaves you with one choice. But believe me direct support of QAM in one fashion or another would open the floodgates to this technology and provide more options for builders which would be fantastic.

I like the copy dvd to your computer question. Answer yes and the MPAA comes knocking at your door and makes you had over your computers.

Or answer "Yes" and Microsoft might get the idea to use the technology they already have to enable DVD streaming legally. 

Note: Don't take all my comments as it's going to happen in this release.  As Jessica pointed out questions don't anyway relate to the specific beta which they are asked for.  That said, DVD changers would go over much better if I could stream and/or rip the DVD's to my hard drive for streaming.

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Chris Lanier
The Green Button Forum Moderator

> I like the copy dvd to your computer question. Answer yes and the MPAA comes knocking at your door and makes you had over your computers.

I think your forgetting that media center is a worldwide product.   Also not all dvds are protected.  most people I know that do the most ripping have direct to dvd cameras which I could see being a feature end users would want to get their home movies into media center easier..

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Bryan Socha
Media Center MVP