Microsoft Debuts Mediaroom
I was a little confused by the name of the product, which half-sounded like a virtual press area (they were announcing it from a trade show after all) and also somewhat Media-Center-ish. The new platform is really just the next iteration of their Microsoft IPTV software, and the new features include the ability to share home photos, video and content on your PC with your IPTV set top box. Sound familiar? Details are scant at this point, but I am curious if there are any of the same underlying pieces of code powering media center extender with the new Mediaroom. I have a feeling there is. I’ll try and get a Microsoft TV person on the show sometime soon.
June 19th, 2007 at 8:35 am
I’m wondering how much of this is in preparation for the XBox 360 IPTV roll-out. It’s going to be very interesting to see how they integrate Mediaroom with the 360 with Media Center Extender features. In a way this allows Microsoft to test out a lot of the features they are probably going to offer with 360 IPTV, or as it will probably be called, 360 Mediaroom.
Personally I’m as excited about 360 + Mediaroom as I have been for a long time about a MS property. I’m tired of waiting for cheaper CableCard machines to come out, I don’t need an expensive HTPC, I just want a machine I can hide away and use to extend my media around the house. If the 360 Mediaroom allows me to use my 360 instead I’ll be in heaven.
On the flip side I fear that Mediaroom will be just another plug-in the 360 and we’ll end up with *three* separate ways to share media. Either via Media Center, or native sharing in the 360 or a Mediaroom blade/plug-in. That would be a huge mistake on Microsoft’s part but seeing as how a lot of the divisions seem to hate communicating with each other this is a very viable future.