From what many might recall, Vista shipped with what was to be a new version of Media Center, but what many didn’t realize is that while the shipped version is all brand spanking new with cablecard support, extender 2.0, and many other nifty features, one only need look at the setup menus to see that the old media center code still exists within.
Apparently due to time constraints for the Vista Launch, the media center team decided to release an upgraded WMC version with vista, that included the main features but lacked some of the pizazz that they had originally hoped to include. Many industry insiders and bloggers heard the rumors of a 2007 beta coming of an out of band Media Center upgrade, that would be like Vista MCE +1, well apparently Microsofts getting the WMC team closer and closer to ready, with a request going out today for WMC beta testers to take part in the upcoming out of band release.
While no featuresets or other information has leaked out on the next release that if rumors are correct should ship towards the end of 2007 or early 2008 in one form or another to existing Vista users (and probably included on retail discs and oem pc’s after its release if i’m not mistaken) No one can tell how long it will be till we see the final incarnation, but we do know that beta testers will be notified of their acceptance by May 31st.
We’ll have to keep track of this beta and see how it progresses, hopefully we’ll also see more extenders coming for vista, beyond just the xbox360. I mean sure the 360 is the ultimate extender, but i really still need a sub 100$ MCX thats nice and tiny like the appletv, then i’ll be jumping out of my seat with joy… for now beta testers get ready to start your engines :)
Source: Connect.Microsoft
