Song of The Day: Here It Goes Again - Artist: OK Go

The last couple of blog entries I dinged Microsoft for a horrendous–at least for me–upgrade from Windows XP Home SP2 to Windows Vista Home Premium Edition. However, this time I’ll focus some energy on the more compelling aspects of Vista.

So what could divert my attention and angst from many hours of upgrade headaches? Well, in a nutshell it’s related to Windows Vista Media Center.

Media Center has been completely overhauled. From these screenshots one can see some of the differences between XP and Vista. The lastest UI in Vista is easy-to-use and Apple-esk flashy.

Furthermore, there was no angst in setting up Vista’s Media Center to work after the initial pain of the upgrade! There was one issue related to media extending, but I’ll sideline that for the moment. Within minutes I was able to browse and view pictures, videos, and TV listings. I thought the interface was pretty good. I know some will point to Front Row, and more copycatting, but I think one has to give Microsoft some credit for being in the media extending game for a while. However, I believe that increased competition has helped advance things. :)

So let’s discuss media extending a little more. I blogged recently about my Christmas gift, eh-hem, family gift, of an Xbox 360. Well, Media Center comes bundled on the console and with a home network that one can extend media a Media Center-enabled PC to the Xbox 360. What does this mean? Well, any stored digital assets on the PC (video, pictures, and tv programs) can be shared and viewed from the couch and TV. As I alluded earlier, I only ran into one snag when I reinstalled Vista and tried to set up the Xbox 360 media extender for a second time. I eventually reverted back to an earlier Vista “known good” configuration and somehow it automagically fixed itself. I’m not sure what fixed it; it’s voodoo; beware.

So why is this media extending stuff cool? Well, it makes video-on-demand (VOD), although faux somewhat, from multiple websites possible. This facet along with the ability to view HD movies from Windows Live Marketplace on the Xbox 360 is VERY nice in my opinion. I honestly have little reason to use Netflix or Blockbuster, and I in fact have not since having the set-up.

For example, I recently rented movies from Movielink and watched them with my Xbox 360. However, I did have to wait approximately an hour for the download before watching them, thus my faux VOD moniker. Some who have cable may poo-hoo this, since VOD is available, but for those like me that have DirecTV and no VOD yet, this is a nice option. However, I would imagine that the personal aspects of a viewable and sharable digital library would still be appealing to anyone.

Although this is all pretty slick, it is still fairly cutting-edge and not all sites work with Vista. For example, I could not use CinemaNow or AOL Video. Even Movielink indicates no support for Vista on its website (i.e., the last I checked), but I was still able to get it working. Caveat Emptor.

In all I think Microsoft made some good strides here. Moreover, with media tools like Movie Maker one can easily create and share videos with one’s entertainment system. I recall the early days of iMovie and various spurious crashes, but I did not experience any of this when creating standard and high definition movies with my installation of Vista. Of course all this wonderful technology requires a Media Center enabled PC with Vista Home Premium and the Xbox 360 - approximately $1500 out of pocket if starting anew, assuming some type of home network to make it possible. However, I think this would be about the same cost using an Apple configuration and the Apple TV.

I still give Apple the lead on ease-of-use and ease-of-setup to do the aforementioned, but for those that want choice, there is some using Media Center, etc. Just expect some initial headaches.

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