We didn't get the chance to play with HP's MediaSmart Connect when we were reviewing the various Vista Media Center Extenders, but recently our friend Chris Lanier did and he was impressed. After reading his three part review, we're a little disappointed to read that the HP uses the same chip to do the heavy lifting as the D-Link and Linksys extenders, because this means it still doesn't achieve the graphic bliss that the 360 and a real Media Center can. Ultimately aside from the price, Chris recommends the HP over the rest, but admittedly there still isn't much difference if you think it is silly to leave Media Center to play your media.

Read - Part 1
Read - Part 2
Read - Part 3

With Blu-ray drives for PCs selling for less than $150 -- and only getting cheaper -- many HTPC fans are left wondering, what is the best HTPC Blu-ray software? While the old favorites were the first on the scene with PowerDVD and WinDVD, ArcSoft has recently been bragging how popular its TotalMedia Theater is with high end HTPC vendors like NiveusMedia and Vidabox. We assume the reason is because these companies are keen on Vista Media Center and ArcSoft works harder on integrating with Media Center than the rest. But Media Center integration isn't the end all be all for Blu-ray playback, and it isn't that difficult to integrate the other players yourself. So this left us wondering, which is the best Blu-ray player software for Windows?

We've got this sneaking suspicion that we'll be forced to digest bucketfuls of Olympics news as the run-up to August continues, and Wavexpress is making sure our thoughts are accurate. Said outfit has just announced a partnership with NBC that will see the former "develop, host and support a service for viewing NBC's coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in Microsoft's Windows Vista Media Center." The NBC Olympics on the Go will utilize Wavexpress' TVTonic internet video application to enable Media Center users to "watch channels of NBC's coverage of Olympic events in up-to-HD quality on the go on their laptop." As expected, the service will be free to all who choose to take advantage, but this time you'll actually need to download the TVTonic application (versus just logging in via the web portal).

Vista Media Center really sets itself apart from any other DVR solution out there, and the single greatest advantage Vista Media Center (VMC) has over the other options -- like the TiVo HD -- is the ability to have multiple Media Center Extenders. There really isn't any better way out there that will allow you to watch premium HD cable in every room of your house while at the same time centralizing all your media in one place. When VMC first hit the streets, there was only one HD extender: the Xbox 360. But the problem, of course, is that the Xbox is noisy and will always be a gaming console first and a Media Center Extender second. Well, things have really heated up in the extender market recently when both Linksys and D-Link released Media Center Extenders and HP upgraded its MediaSmart HDTVs.

Vista Media Center users got a rude awakening a few weeks ago when they were unable to record some of the favorite programs on NBC. What really got us scratching our head, is that unlike the normal improperly flagged content cable customers have grown all to accustomed to, this one affected over-the-air (OTA) users as well. We thought this was odd because the broadcast flag was struck down, and we'd thought we'd heard the end of it. The problem was actually a cable content protection scheme called CGMS-A, and when NBC inadvertently flagged some OTA content copy-never with it, users were left in the dark. While there's no way to tell if NBC learned its lesson the good news is that Microsoft has, and the Windows update KB950126 will change the behavior. Now content inadvertently flagged content coming into VMC via OTA or analog cable will be recorded regardless of how it is flagged. Unfortunately the same can't be said for those with CableCARD tuners or connected to a STB via S-Video, you're still out of luck, sorry.

Folks possessing a Hauppauge HVR-1250, HVR-1600, HVR-1800 or HVR-2250 -- have we got an interesting tidbit for you. A fresh new beta plug-in has surfaced, which promises to give the aforementioned cards ClearQAM support within 32- and 64-bit Vista Media Center environments. Initial reports are somewhat disappointing, but encouraging nonetheless. Those with nerves of steel can hit the read link and proceed to download the beta -- but only if you promise to tell us how it goes in comments below.

[Via Chris Lanier's Blog, thanks Will]

We've already seen Orb play nice with DirecTV's HR21, but what about integrating Netflix's "Watch Now" content into one's Xbox 360? vmcNetFlix, a brilliant add-in for Windows Vista Media Center, enables users to manage their Netflix subscription, stream Netflix "Watch Now" movies directly from the Media Center player or download those movies for playback at a later time from a "WatchLater" gallery. Theoretically, this will enable any Vista Extender to play nice with Netflix, but for those with an Xbox 360 laying around already, there's no need to go out and purchase a standalone unit. There's a plethora of additional information and near daily updates with changes and bug fixes going on in the read link, so be sure to give that a look if this sounds like something you'd be interested in.

[Via Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection]

The good news is that after four weeks of being in Beta the super cool Niveus Movie Library is ready to go prime time. The bad news is that we can't afford to buy a Niveus Media Center, so we can't use it. But for those lucky few, you can now download the ultimate software that gives you access to just about every movie stored on your Media Center, no matter if you recorded it, ripped it -- yes even Blu-ray discs -- or downloaded it. And not only does it look cool, but you also get easy access to the cover art and meta data of each movie. As for the rest of the Vista Media Center community, we continue to wait for a nice plug-in that still looks like Vista Media Center, but with any luck Niveus will eventually be kind enough to share its new toy, the way it has with its Media Center Companion software.

March is almost over and we've just learned from our friend Brent Evans, that the most exciting HD product expected this year is delayed until May or June. What's so exciting about an HD PVR card for a computer? Well, with this USB device you can record anything you want, from wherever you want, using whatever PVR software you want. No longer will you have to wait for DirecTV's HDPC-20, or deal with ATI's CableCARD OEM requirements. You'll be able to slap this USB device into just about any computer and roll your own PVR, just like you could before HD came along and ruined everything. In fact, the only bad thing about this device -- besides the wait and the $250 price tag -- is that it captures the uncompressed HD signal and encodes it in real time with H.264, which opens up an opportunity for a degraded signal. Speaking of H.264, because it's required Vista Media Center isn't supported yet. Many have their hopes up that the Fiji release, that's also due this Summer, will include it.

[Via ZatzNotFunny]

If you want the ultimate HD media machine, it is hard to beat Vista Media Center. Seriously, you've got HD CableCARD support, HD DirecTV tuners are right around the corner and for less than $300 you can get a dual format HD DVD and Blu-ray drive. And no matter what your feeling are about Microsoft, it's hard to argue that the Vista Media Center isn't a pleasure to use. But the are a couple of caveats that are keeping us all from the ultimate HD media experience. The first -- which should be just a matter of time -- is the lack of support for any of the next-gen audio codecs, but the second might not ever happen. Vista Media Center can seamlessly playback DVDs, HD DVD or Blu-ray discs require a 3rd party application. Sure, it still works, but the overall flow is lost. Many had hope that eventually MS would come around and at least add native support for HD DVD, but considering the Blu-ray spec requires BD Java -- and we know how much MS loves Java -- MS insiders like Chris Lanier don't think it'll ever happen. So if HD DVD does go away only leaving with Blu-ray, we might not ever see the ultimate HD media experience all in one box.

Media Center extenders are one of the coolest features of Windows Media Center. Having access to your content on any HDTV in the house is beyond cool, but unfortunately not every feature of Media Center is currently available on the extenders and the biggest missing feature is the ability to stream DVDs to each TV in the house. Currently MS expects you to walk your DVDs around the house and load them for each TV. Well that might change soon as Jerold from The Green Button was tipped from Jessica at CES this year that she's actually seen this feature in action, but didn't say when we'd actually be able to enjoy it in the comfort of our own home, so stayed tuned.

[Via Chris Lanier's Blog]

Like your home rolled media center do ya? Well tell us this, can yours throw down against dual integrated CableCARDs, Blu-ray, HD DVD and more than 3TB of RAID-5 protected storage? Definitely not since you haven't managed to skirt the CableLabs certification process... have you? Well, VidaBox's latest all-in-ones can, at least they will once they begin shipping in March 2007. Each new media center system will be engineered to record two HD shows while playing back your choice of a pre-recorded show from disk, Blu-ray or HD DVD media, high fidelity music, upscaled DVD, or digital picture slideshow. Not sure if those optical drives will be writers or read-only devices but we'll guess the latter -- just like their MAX and LUX dual-drive systems. While pricing or specific models were announced, you can expect 'em to drop for more than $5k as their new, top-o-the-line systems.

Update: Looks like Vidabox spoke too soon. Their press release neglected to mention that they have yet to receive a Microsoft license to enable CableCARD support in their box (which also leaves us wondering whether they received CableLABS certification, or if they're building that aspect of the process into their launch date). Either way, We're a little sketched that they'd announce before approval; we'll let you know what turns up.

Update 2: We heard back from Vidabox, they claim that they "are indeed receiving Microsoft licenses to enable CableCARD support in our VidaBox media centers" and that "the bottom line is that our VidaBox systems that will be released in March are fully licensed with Vista Ultimate & certified for CableCARD." Sounds like some licensor / licensee he said she said, but until Vidabox can confirm their license to vend CableCARD Vista boxes we may be inclined to take the word of the project manager in Microsoft's Windows group that contacted us. Either way, we'll let ya know.