Charlie Owen - Windows Media Center 'Diamond' Walkthrough

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Windows Media Center 'Diamond' Walkthrough

I recorded this on Sunday night and got around to narrating this evening. Enjoy...

Categories: Media Center | Windows Vista | Comments [7] |

| Posted on Thursday, September 14, 2006 8:28:19 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Thursday, September 14, 2006 9:44:41 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Nice video, nothing wrong with 80's music :)
I can say that diamond works just as well as on your video on the XBOX 360 Extender, I was very impressed (see my video on youtube)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=DEKUtxQRIMc

Ian Dixon

Thursday, September 14, 2006 12:00:07 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Charlie, I really enjoyed that video. The commentary with the "why" and "what it's doing" was the best part for me but I'm sure others who haven't seen Vista yet will enjoy seeing the "first run experience" as well.

Some suggestions:
- showing a mature system would be very cool too, so people can get a feel for what a system that's been in use for a awhile might look like. I'd hate for people to judge Diamond based on the first-run performance. It comes off much way more painful in this demo (wait times) than it actually is in real word usage
- if possible, a little tighter on the screen next time. Very hard to make out what's going on with the YouTube resolution and the wide shot.

Good stuff!
Pete

Peter Near

Thursday, September 14, 2006 3:10:19 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Good thoughts, Peter. I debated showing a system with a *perfect* setup, and decided to go with exactly what the consumer will see. It has a few rough edges (how many times did I say 'it's generating thumbnails'...?) but it does give you a real world sense of what Joe Consumer will see the very first time.

There were zero wait times (except for the EPG download, and we tell you onscreen it could take 'minutes'). Any pauses were for narration's sake. I could have buzz sawed through everything -- but you wouldn't have had time to breath or take it all in. :-)

Charlie Owen

Thursday, September 14, 2006 9:57:29 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

thanks for the demo this has spured me on to get round to installing RC1 this weekend, i currently have a running mce2005 and had a few issues getting my twin nova-t pci cards working with the last beta but ill try again becasue it looks great

mike t

Friday, September 15, 2006 1:21:03 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

That's was really cool. Please do some more going into more details on the new features like the mini-guide. I also notice that the guide doesn't seem to differentiate between what's playing now versus what's not (which MCE 2005)?? Or did I just miss something?

Keith Hill

Friday, September 15, 2006 1:22:16 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Oops. I meant that MCE 2005 does indicate what's playing now versus what's not. How come Vista MCE doesn't do this anymore?

Keith Hill

Friday, September 15, 2006 12:09:36 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Hi Charlie,
thanks heaps for the video - it's neat to 'see' it all working and to get a visual tour.

I've been using mce2005 since it first came out and i've always wondered if the "Rotate Picture" function was lossy? Does it do something similar to ACDSee's lossless Jpeg rotation? I've always avoided the ease-of-use and done it with a tool i know is lossless.

thanks again,
Matt.

Matt Hermans

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