Top 10 Improvements I’d Like to See in the Next Media Center Release

By David Walker | January 11th, 2008 (1)Comments

Having recently upgraded to Vista MCE for my home PVR and media needs, I’ve been mostly pleased. The interface is a definite improvement over MCE 2005 and so far, competitor offerings just can’t compare to what Microsoft has done with the GUI. However, there are still some short-comings that I’d like to see Microsoft overcome with the next release of MCE that I believe would make Media Center an unbeatable home media solution. Here are the top 10 improvements I’d like to see in the next release of Windows Media Center.

1. Native Support for more than 2 Tuners

   This is a must. Granted, with a simple registry hack, you can support as many tuners as your heart desires (and that your harddrive can handle). However, other PVR products give you great customization options in this area – allowing you to maintain which card gets used for which recordings, for instance. Microsoft should be providing leadership in these areas, not following someone else’s lead.

2. Support for Multiple Hard Drives for TV Recordings

   The more TV you record, the more hard drive space you need. Right now, if you want to expand the storage space dedicated to your TV recordings, you have to add a new hard drive and reassign it as your drive of choice for TV recordings. Again, other products in the PVR space have already built-in support for putting different programs on different drives – allowing you to control how your storage is used. When you consider how much space HiDef recordings need, this feature becomes almost mandatory.

3. Better Integration with Online Video Sites

   I’m not just talking about YouTube either. Amazon Unbox and CinemaNow come to mind. Granted, plugins enable some of this functionality, but what I’d really like to see is the ability to order videos from these sites from directly in the MCE interface. Searching for videos should be fast and intuitive. Saving favorites seems like such a no-brainer as well. If Microsoft really believes that online video is the wave of the future, then one of their flagship products should do a better job of supporting it.

4. DVD Streaming

   As already mentioned in a previous post, it looks like this feature may well be on its way. Up until now, if you wanted to view DVDs on your Media Center (or an extender), you had to convert it into a compatible video format, or download a plugin to support DVD rips – which subsequently won’t work on extenders. Either way, something so simple should be built-in and I hope the next version of MCE does finally deliver.

5. Better Support for Blu-ray/HD-DVD Drives

   Right now, the only way you’ll get Blu-Ray or HD-DVD discs to play in Media Center is to purchase some other software that enables playback. MCE just doesn’t natively support either. If Microsoft truly wants the media center to be your all-in-one center for media in the home, it needs to support one of (if not both) of the current HD formats.

6. Automatic Conversion of TV Shows to Smaller File Formats

   Snapstream’s BeyondTV is already doing this and it’s both brilliant and simple. Take your bloated MPEG2 TV recording and during non-use hours, convert it to a DivX file that takes up about 1/10th the amount of hard drive space as the original file. It’s a great way of saving disc space without sacrificing quality. While we’re at it, it would be phenomenal to see native MPEG4 compression built into the hardware tuners as well.

7. Improved Photo Interface

   Right now, viewing photos in MCE is hit and miss. The transitions and slideshow options are wonderful, but only if you’ve already fixed your photos and eliminated photos you don’t want. If you’ve got photos that need to be rotated, you have to go through several button pushes to get it fixed. Being able to mark photos as favorites, or rate them on a scale of 1 to 5 would also be a great way for managing the photos. Seriously guys, how hard would it be to implement these things?

8. Easier Creation of Playlists for Music

   I’ll often setup my Media Center (or extender) to play music during parties, but more often than not, I end up picking a single album because creating a playlist is virtually impossible on the 10-foot MCE interface. With several years of development and multiple released versions, it’s almost unbelievable that this hasn’t been handled properly yet. Let’s hope the next release finally knocks this out.

9. Simple Video Importing and Editing for Camcorders

   Vista did a great job of improving the built-in video editing tools with Windows Movie Maker, but that’s still a tool designed for desktops. What I’d really like to see is the ability to plug your camcorder in and have MCE automatically import it and create a video file that can be shared with your extenders. Taking it one step further, how great would it be to get some simplified editing or automated “music video” creations ala muvee Autoproducer?

10. Full Support for Divx/Xvid/h.264 Videos

    Finally, it is about time that Microsoft stopped trying to make WMV the format of choice. Users have overwhelmingly shouted that MPEG4 derivatives like Divx and Xvid are the codecs of choice. They offer better quality and better compression. C’mon, Redmond. It’s time to build in that support. It’s not that we don’t like WMV, it’s that we already have a relationship with DivX.

I know it’s a lot to ask, but really, most of these items are already in place in another product or should be simple enough. Don’t get me wrong, I believe Media Center is the most mature product in its class right now. But as with all things, there are still areas where the product can be improved.

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