Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 7 (Win7) retail release on Oct 22, 2009 is a highly anticipated release compared to the disaster that was the Vista launch only 3 years prior.  Performance and GUI/UI changes have really helped Win7 grab the eye of most geek and computer user out there.  Most blogs and sites tout the performance boosts and the pretty os tweaks.  Me, i like Win7 for the improvements with Media Center.

keep reading for some quick notes and video of my wind and ps3 streaming tv from my main hp.

What is this Media Center thing you keep blogging about?  Media Center is just a native tv/movie/video/music player.  However it is mainly designed for TV/HDTV viewing and in turn is setup so that navigation can be done via a Media Center remote (bluetooth/ir/rf).  Media Center is micrsoft’s ‘gift’ to the HTPC market or is the result of geeks wanting to use a computer as DVR instead of a cable box dvr or tivo. Win7 Media Center is included in the Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate editions.  This is also the same case with Vista; Home Premium and Ultimate has Media Center.

Two of my biggest problems with Media Center on Vista was the lack of support for ClearQAM tuners and lack of sharing of content/transcoding to devices besides media center specific extenders (xbox / xbox360 and hp/linksys extenders).  One could setup sharing but it was not an easy task.

Win7 Media Center covers both of these problems. I am now able to finally use my HP HDTV Tuner in my laptop and pick up all of my local HDTV stations over cable vs having to use an antenna and not getting all stations.   Also, Internet TV options are being tested in the RC and RTM builds but we’ll see if Microsoft can somehow team up with Hulu to get its content streamed within, also Netflix is available on Vista Media Center but it does not appear to be available yet in Win7’s Media Center. Hopefully we will get that once Win7 hits retail this Oct.

So a pat on the back to microsoft for these two features! however, i still do not see anyway to stream live tv to my wind or other win7 pcs. i may further investigate that and also the ability to set recordings remotely would be nice too (even though there may be a web app one can use).

Finally, here is a quick video showing Win7 and playback of recorded tv on my msi wind from my hp dv6700t and also playback on my ps3.

enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLGPM_eqTuU

Posted by seamonkey420 on Saturday, August 22nd, 2009 at 1:15 pm.