HDTV: Snapstream vs. Microsoft

[Halibut]

Hello everyone,

I'm an unhappy owner of a Media Center. I've been planning on jumping ship, and purchasing Beyond TV 3.5 when it is released (hopefully soon).

Yesterday, though, I spoke with a Media Center developer who told me that the next version of MC has been "Released To Manufacturing" recently. This release includes the ability to have 3 tuners; 2 regular tuners + 1 HDTV (OTA) tuner.

I was wondering if the Snapstream devs have talked about the addition of HD tuning, or is this a "some time in the future" kind of addition? I did a forum search, but only found BTV users speculating this kind of support.

Thanks,
Halibut

[Okieace]

A few weeks ago I E-Mailed snapstream about the possiblity of HD support and I was told there was no plan to support HD any time soon.

[viguera]

I haven't heard anything about this RTM copy of MCE... I know the buzz would be deafening at places like the green button, but all you see is that MS has a very "hush" attitude about it -- even in a dev chat that they had online 2 days ago, they talked about everything but "couldn't confirm" that there'd be HD support -- which means either they're still working on it, it's in there but it has some issues or it's just not there. Or they don't wanna tell you about it...

There's no question that MCE 2005 will support HDTV and multiple tuners, but the question is when. Still, if HD OTA is that important to you, you might as well wait and see what happens. Chances are that it will be several months before you can pick up the product at the store anyway.

Keep in mind that this is OTA though... so your choices of programming will be somewhat limited. I personally wouldn't trade the flexibility of BTV (or even Myth, which I hate or freevo/meedio) for the restrictive environment that MCE puts you in, even if it was in exchange for OTA HD programming.

[EnochLight]

Sheesh, taking into consideration that NBC's Hi-Def coverage of the Olympics has been absolute *ASS*, I'd be surprised if Snapstream ever starts to support HDTV recording. We can only hope...

Cheers,

EnochLight

[alternex]

Can't you install BTV on top of a Windows Media Center Edition box since that's just WinXP under the covers?

[jamesivie]

Yes you can. I've done it.

[darkuni]

Yeah, the real Bad Thing(tm) about trusting MS with your capturing needs is ...

1) Last I saw, they ONLY support WMx formats. That doesn't jive with those of us that want nice, home theater compatible formats to create usable media in (i.e. DVD-Video)
2) There is NO WAY in hell they will support HD recording without putting DRM ALL OVER IT - which means it will be so locked to your machine, that simply reformatting the system hard drive (or goofy activation stuff like changing out a Hard Drive) will render your video unusable.

Unfortunately, the red flags on digital recording have been raised and EVERYONE is seeing red. Everyone is talking about "how to share but not share" (like that recent article posted on Tivo where you can send x number of friends copies of your show - but it will have your fingerprints and digital ID all over it) - fact is; they don't WANT you to share. Heck, its getting to the point where they don't want you to cap at all! I was reading an article the other day about Tivo and similar devices being pushed to EXPIRE content! Yeah, imagine that. CBS wants you to buy CSI on DVD when the season is over, and they figure if you have the season on your HD, that you won't buy ... same with HBO, et al. So, you can cap all you want, but you have x days to watch it or the Tivo blows it away! Man, its getting out of hand!

DRM is going to "mature" into something VERY VERY ugly. The ONLY solution (at least for now) will be products like BTV where it isn't locked down beyond words. MS wants to own the digital format, so you can be sure there won't be any support from them to end the madness. Snapstream's ties to Windows Media Player really scare me, because this gives MS some element of control over us 'indie cappers'.

Its getting to be a jungle out there!