Movies on flash memory cards

By Mack Male | March 5, 2008 at 6:43 pm

movies A couple days ago I came across this article at CNET News.com about a company called PortoMedia and their plan to make movies available on flash memory cards. I’ve touched on the subject before, but for a different reason that PortoMedia seems to be interested (I was interested in the small form factor). They see flash memory cards as an alternative to Internet delivery:

PortoMedia is setting up kiosks that will let consumers download movies to a flash memory key or portable hard drive.

The kiosks will be packed with hard drives that can hold 350 to 5,000 titles. Users then plug in a memory device from the company, enter a PIN code, and buy or rent a movie. When consumers get home, they simply slide the memory device into a dock connected to a TV.

Evidently they have come up with a proprietary USB interface that can load a high-definition movie onto the memory card in less than 45 seconds. There are some big advantages to this model:

Sadly, but not unexpectedly, the company plans to use DRM from Microsoft to protect the movies.

PortoMedia did a trial run last year, and plans to go live with the service in four U.S. cities sometime in Q2 2008.

Read: CNET News.com


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Topics: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Media Center development with Visual Studio 2008

By Mack Male | November 21, 2007 at 9:00 pm

Visual Studio 2008, the latest version of Microsoft’s popular integrated development environment (IDE), launched on Monday as reported by Somasegar. You can download the free C# Express Edition here. In a post today at the Windows Media Center Sandbox blog, Charlie provides some useful information for Media Center developers:

We put the template support in for Visual Studio 2008 towards the very end of the 5.3 development cycle as a ‘bonus’ to fulfill community requests — you’ll notice we don’t even mention it in the What’s New section of the SDK documentation at all since we didn’t know the street date for Visual Studio 2008.

He notes that if you only have one of the Visual Studio 2008 SKUs installed, then a template will be missing after installing the Windows Media Center SDK 5.3. To solve the issue, make sure you have a Visual Studio 2005 SKU installed alongside 2008 (they can happily live side-by-side). If you install VS2005 after VS2008, you’ll need to a repair on the Media Center SDK.

And as a best practice, install the Media Center SDK after you have installed the IDEs.

For more information on version 5.3 of the Windows Media Center SDK, see this post.


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Topics: Windows Media Center, development | 1 Comment »

It’s Official: HD Photo is JPEG XR

By Mack Male | November 3, 2007 at 3:17 pm

Back in August I mentioned that Microsoft’s HD Photo format would very likely become the new JPEG XR standard. Now it’s official! All that remains is the actual work of making the standard a reality:

“The country vote is done, and it passed,” Bill Crow said. “That means the International JPEG committee has decided to go ahead and create the standard. Now it’s just a process of doing that work,” a process that will begin later this month in a meeting in Kobe, Japan.

Support for HD Photo isn’t as broad as it could be, but becoming a standard will likely change that. Still, with support built into every copy of Windows Vista and a firm vote of confidence from Adobe, the future for JPEG XR looks very bright indeed.


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Topics: HD Photo | No Comments »

Development for Windows Media Center

By Mack Male | September 22, 2007 at 8:18 pm

Wondering how to get started developing applications for Windows Media Center? Wonder no more. Uber geek Scott Hanselman and Windows Media Center program manager Charlie Owen talk all about on the latest Hanselminutes podcast:

The result is a pretty nice introduction to what you need for development, the tools included in the SDK, some of the samples which are included in the SDK and some basic beginner concepts.

The episode is just over thirty minutes in length. Here is a great list of links to topics covered during the podcast, and here is the MP3 download.


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Zune price cut to $199

By Mack Male | September 4, 2007 at 8:06 pm

A price drop for the Zune has been rumored for quite some time, and now it’s official. Cesar Menendez over at Zune Insider explains:

Some of you may have already heard, but tomorrow we’re dropping the suggested retail price for Zune to $199. It’s part of the normal product lifecycle, something we’ve had on the books for months. We just got some research back and customer satisfaction with the 30GB device is really high (around 94%) and we expect even more consumers will now want to discover the Zune experience at the new lower price.

Engadget says, there’s “a whole heaping helping of irony that the Zune is getting a price slash on the very day Apple is ostensibly outing brand new iPods.” Regardless, we’ll take the price cut, thanks!

Does the price cut mean that new Zunes are just around the corner? Hope so!


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Topics: Zune | No Comments »

Some Windows Media related items

By Mack Male | August 12, 2007 at 12:59 pm

Here are some Windows Media related items that caught my eye recently:

Hopefully I’ll get back to some more regular posting soon.


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HD Photo to become new JPEG XR standard

By Mack Male | August 2, 2007 at 12:02 am

Microsoft’s fledgling digital image format, HD Photo, is set to become a new standard file format. The Joint Photographic Expert’s Group (JPEG) announced plans to standardize HD Photo as a new format called JPEG XR (for “extended range”). From Microsoft’s press release:

The ballot deadline for this new project is early October 2007. Finalizing and publishing the completed standard is expected to take up to one year after that. Throughout, Microsoft will be working closely with JPEG to ensure that this new proposed standard serves the needs of the next generation of consumer and professional photographers and delivers the next experience in image display. If approved, Microsoft will offer a royalty-free grant for its patents that are required to implement the standard.

Congratulations to the HD Photo team! Bill Crow explains that his team has been working on HD Photo for a long time:

Our group at Microsoft’s Core Media Processing Team has been working on HD Photo for over five years. The underlying compression technology is based on work from Microsoft Research that goes back even farther than that.

We’re excited to be contributing to the next great standard for digital photography, enabling a whole new level of feature and technology innovation, improving photo quality and creating exciting new applications and services.

Awesome to see things work out so positively. I guess this means we’ll see an explosion of support for HD Photo sooner rather than later!


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Topics: Codecs, HD Photo | No Comments »

News Roundup for 7/29/2007

By Mack Male | July 29, 2007 at 7:34 pm

Here are some Windows Media related headlines that caught my eye recently:

Hope you had a great weekend!


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Topics: General | 1 Comment »

Podcasting Zune by Xmas?

By Mack Male | July 24, 2007 at 10:36 pm

Podcasting support is coming to the Zune! Though as the Zune Luv guys point out, it was always a matter of when, not if. Here’s the news from Whiz Byte:

Features – we’ll move towards parity with iPod building in support for video, podcasting, etc and at the same time build on key differentiators such as the wireless feature, the FM tuner, etc.

The other two areas of focus for expanding the Zune are device family (sizes, styles, etc.) and geographic markets.

Here’s what Cesar at Zune Insider had to say about the story:

We have not confirmed any new devices or features. We have, for several months, been saying that we intend to develop the Zune business along three axes - expanding our device offering, adding new features and scenarios and considering new international markets when the time is right.

Somewhat vague, but essentially a confirmation.

Will a new Zune with podcasting support be in stores by Christmas? There’s a good chance the answer to that question is yes. Stay tuned!


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Topics: Zune | 1 Comment »

Windows Media Player module behind invisible Live Spaces

By Mack Male | July 23, 2007 at 9:01 pm

If you’re a Live Spaces user, you might have run into a little bug recently. If your Space is unavailable, it might be due to the Windows Media Player module. The LiveSide blog has the scoop:

So for anyone with the Windows Media Player module installed on their space and set to “invisible” before the update, that site is now “unavailable”, but there’s a pretty easy workaround…

0. Sign in passport

1. Go to “http://youralias.spaces.live.com/?_c=WMP ” (no quotes, insert your spaces name)

2. Change “Display mode” as full — DO NOT Set “Display mode” as Invisible

3. Save

Not too hard to fix, but kind of annoying. Evidently the bug should be fixed soon. Good luck!


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Topics: Windows Media Player | 2 Comments »

Microsoft preparing Media Center Extender websites?

By Mack Male | July 21, 2007 at 10:41 pm

Windows Media Center Extenders are devices that allow you to “extend” the experience you get with Media Center to other locations on your network. The most well-known example is the Xbox 360 - you can look at pictures, play music, and watch recorded video that is stored on your Media Center PC. The Xbox 360 is the only so-called “version 2″ extender, but Microsoft has long promised that other extenders would be available, and now we have some proof:

Nathan Weinberg points to another post that shows some of Microsoft’s recent domain name purchases. Some of them on our radar would be MediaCenterExtender.net, MediaCenterExtenderSandbox.com, MCExtender.net, and ConnectsToMediaCenter.com.

Okay, so all we’ve got are domain names, but still - that’s better than nothing right?

Come on Microsoft, give us some new extenders!


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Topics: Windows Media Center | 2 Comments »

Recipe help from Media Center in your kitchen

By Mack Male | July 20, 2007 at 9:16 pm

Who decided that you can only eat bacon and eggs for breakfast? Seems like a useless “rule” to me, and thankfully restaurants like Denny’s allow me to order breakfast food 24/7. Similarly, who decided your Media Center has to be in the living room? That “rule” is also useless, and thankfully there’s MCEDev to make the devices useful in other rooms, like the kitchen (via TV Squad):

The idea is simply – why not use the powerful Media Center platform in the kitchen? Watch news, your favourite episodes or let the Media Center play some music while you’re cooking.

What would be the most interesting application for a kitchen? Correct - a cookbook.

Sounds like a pretty cool application - an interactive cookbook that helps you with recipes, everything from preparation to a step-by-step walkthrough.

Even more amazing are the mirror displays that adnotam makes (they approached MCEDev about the app). They make the kitchen look like a normal kitchen when the Media Center is turned off.

Awesome! What other rooms would be good for Media Center customizations? Maybe the garage?


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Topics: Windows Media Center | No Comments »

Over 1 million Zunes sold

By Mack Male | July 19, 2007 at 8:01 pm

Today Microsoft released financial figures for the fiscal year ended June 30th. Notably, they announced that annual revenue has surpassed $51 billion. As you can imagine, that gigantic figure is attracting lots of attention, meaning that this announcement from Microsoft’s Cesar Menendez has been somewhat hidden:

Today on the earnings call Microsoft announced that Zune has achieved our goal of one million units sold in, as well as Microsoft earning over $50 billion in annual revenue. We actually went above and beyond our goal: we sold 1.2 million units.

That’s good news for the Zune team! In the comments on that post, Brian points out that Zune’s sales are probably lower than iPod’s in the first year, though it is difficult to compare (given the differences in the size of the market).

Time for a new goal Zune team!


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Topics: Zune | No Comments »

Microsoft loves television

By Mack Male | July 17, 2007 at 11:03 pm

I recently did a couple of guest posts for the last100 blog that WindowsMediaBlog.com readers may be interested in. In part one, I looked at the history of Microsoft’s television-related products and services. In part two, I took a closer look at what the company offers today, and speculated on some of the things that we can expect in the future.

I had fun writing the two posts, and I’d love to know what you think!


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Topics: Mediaroom, Television, Windows Media Center, Xbox 360, Xbox Live | 2 Comments »

Zune DRM Hacked as Microsoft announces Zune Spots

By Mack Male | July 16, 2007 at 9:32 pm

A couple of Zune news items for today. ClicZune reported earlier that the Zune Marketplace DRM has been hacked! BoingBoing has the details:

Abdul sez, “A new version of FairUse4WM v1.3 Fix2 from Doom9 is available that claims to remove the DRM license protection from songs and music downloaded from Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace allowing you to play them on any portable media player.”

You can read the doom9 posting here. Users are reporting mixed results, but for the most part, it seems legit.

Also today, a press release from Microsoft announcing that Zune will “have a significant presence at 28 Live Nation concert venues” in the US this summer.

Zune will have a strong on-site presence with its Zune Spots, inviting consumers to try the devices and see the latest summer colors. The innovative Zune Spots are actually converted freight containers that have been redesigned to bring the brand to life for concertgoers.

For more information, check out Zune.net and LiveNation.com. Also, here’s the Wikipedia entry for Live Nation.


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Topics: DRM, Events, Zune | No Comments »

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