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In my opinion, one of the great advantages of having a Media Center in your home is online content. Watching Internet TV, listening to online Radio Stations, accessing other online content, etc.
Then why is it so hard to actually find online content in WMC when you’re not living in the U.S. or U.K.? I noticed the Internet TV (beta) tab in my VMC the other day and (as usual) I get an error message saying there’s no online content available for Belgium. But for some strange reason I can access the American HSN shopping channel?!
I must admit, there have been advances since the early days of Media Center. For example the www.live365.com service integrated in Vista Media Center is one of the best extensions for my VMC which I’ve come to enjoy and love (you can find it under the ‘More Music’ tab.) It’s Internet Radio at it’s finest with a nice integration in VMC with a few GUI bugs here and there. But unfortunately it lacks the support to add your own Radio Stations.
You’ll always have to resort to external plug-ins when looking for Online Media in Media Center like mcShoutCast.
That’s why I’m beginning a series on Online Content plug-ins for Media Center in which I’ll be focussing on (mostly) free plug-ins and media (think of Joost) and if you have any recommendations you can always post them in the comments section.
But I’m wondering what you guys think about all of this? People in the U.S. and UK, do you feel you have all the online content you need or do you too resort to plugins to capture that online media?
3. August 2008 at 9:01 pm
hmmm. Kind of like my post about NBC’s Internet coverage of the Olympics: http://www.wegotserved.co.uk/2008/08/01/nbc-olympics-coverage-on-windows-media-center/
No coverage outside the U.S.
4. August 2008 at 5:39 am
I noticed the NBC tab as well but seeing I don’t have a TV tuner card in my test box I can’t access it anyway.
And people wonder why we look for alternatives such as Mediaportal or XBMC. Off course it’s not all bad. MC still has a great interface and a lot of good features.
But Microsoft should work on allowing users to add their own content (video RSS feeds for example)
4. August 2008 at 6:12 am
Hey Kevin,
I had to change my country settings to Netherlands to have at least some content online. In Belgium there is really nothing to find for Vista Media center.
I don’t understand why Microsoft doesn’t have some agreements with Belgian content providers.
I will follow your initiative closely because I am very interested.
Grtz,
Nic
5. August 2008 at 7:20 pm
My problem with online media isn’t the scarcity of it; It’s the fact that very little, if any ,(even the BBC are pretty poor) of it is subtitled/close captioned, even when they are available on live TV. It feels that as technology moves forward, we’re also taking steps back.
The increasing use of video reviews and interviews by websites is also fustrating when they don’t bother to summarise the content, let alone produce a transcript – it would be nice to get the gist sometimes! (not a criticism aimed at WGS but it is something I feel is becoming very prevalent across many technology sites.