Posted 07/23/08 at 11:02:50 PM by Mark Edward Soper

For Windows Vista users who use Windows Media Center, there's good news and bad news:
The good news? The long-awaited "Fiji" update to WMC, officially known as the Windows Media Center TV Pack, was released to manufacturing last week. The bad news? Pick a pair: a) TV Pack is currently available only to OEMs. b) Nobody who knows exactly what TV Pack includes is telling, and the rest of us don't know.
Some long-rumored features, such as support for H.264 encoding (used by DirecTV), didn't make the cut, but exactly what's in "Fiji" is still a mystery. To find out the best guesses we've found about TV Pack, and when the rest of us might finally get our hands on it, join us after the jump.
Posted 06/29/08 at 10:04:36 PM by Pulkit Chandna

The government of the small island nation of Fiji is not too pleased with Microsoft’s purported use of the country’s name for the upcoming revision of Windows Media Center. According to reports, Fiji’s government is still trying to convince Microsoft that it needs to seek official permission first – and impute more respect to the tiny country, before going ahead with its plans to launch Windows Fiji.
The country’s Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum wants the dispute to be resolved cordially. Interestingly, Microsoft’s annual turnover is many times Fiji’s GDP. But something could be more interesting then the economic disparity between the two: Microsoft’s possible obsession with the name Fiji, which might eventually cost it a few million dollars.
Posted 06/24/08 at 09:19:55 PM by Mark Edward Soper
Redmond rolls out a pair of updates for Vista's version of Windows Media Center, improving support for newer set-top boxes and enhancing support for Media Center Extenders. Media Center Extenders enable you to bring the Windows Media Center desktop and content to your TV or HDTV. Whether you use an Xbox 360 or other extender, the updates Redmond rolled out today will improve how extenders work. If you use Windows Media Center, you'll want these updates.

Posted 05/09/08 at 10:13:37 PM by Mark Soper
Tired of "Fifty-seven channels and nothin' on?" Tune into Windows Media Center. Here's a taste of the latest attractions.
Posted 04/16/08 at 05:00:01 PM by Michael Brown & Will Smith
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Vongo’s subscription business model puts it in a category all its own: The service’s primary focus is to provide an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord of movies and other video content that can be downloaded to your PC for a $10 monthly fee. It doesn’t offer any for-purchase content, and its TV offerings are nearly nonexistent.
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Posted 04/16/08 at 04:59:51 PM by Michael Brown & Will Smith
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Movie-rental outfit Blockbuster Entertainment acquired movie-download service Movielink in August 2007, but the company seems to have lost interest in its latest asset. When we contacted Blockbuster’s corporate communications department in preparation for this story, they couldn’t be bothered to provide us with Movielink’s phone number (which wasn’t listed on either company’s website). It’s easy to see why.
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Posted 04/16/08 at 04:59:07 PM by Michael Brown & Will Smith
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CinemaNow offers newly released movies on the same pay-per-view model that most of the other services here (with the exception of Vongo) use, but the service also sells a limited collection of movies that can be downloaded and burned to a DVD that can be played anywhere. CinemaNow’s optional subscription service allows unlimited downloads, but these titles cannot be burned.
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Posted 10/03/07 at 11:06:05 PM by Mark 'Marcus Soperus' Soper
Microsoft's Zune digital music players got slimmer and bigger at the same time this week, but that's not all that's new.


