Freestyle with "Media Center PC's" only

[richt]

Check out this link on the upcoming release of MS Freestyle. This changes quite a few things and gives Snapstream plenty of market.
WinSuperSite

Basically the article states that Freestyle will only be released as a new version of Win XP Pro and will only be sold on a "Media Center PC". But then they are claiming 60 fps.

Yes, I was fearing that Freestyle would pretty much spell the end for Snapstream as a company, but it appears they have been granted a reprieve. I can't see anyone who has a 800MHz+ computer already shelling out $1000-2000 for a new entry level PC just to get the features of XP Media Center. I think this is one of the most idiotic moves MS has made lately, but I can see their motivation - if they released the software genericly, they'd have to support lots of HW configurations which is difficult given the the mainstream consumer audience they seek. Plus I guess they wanted to toss their IHVs a bone (although if they were smart I think they'd sell the video capture cards and audio stuff just like they recently announced they were going to sell wireless networking equipment in addition to mice and keyboards).

Then again, some sites are reporting that all the features of Freestyle minus the actual remote control will be included in WinXP SP1 so who knows.

What I want to see Snapstream do is take all the streamable goodness in Corona (aka WM9) and enable it so I can PVR not only NTSC but also HDTV on my 4GHz dual Xeon rig using one of the many Janus chipset based HDTV cards. Windows Media 9 is considerably better than MPEG2 and in some ways even better than MPEG4 and I don't even think MS is looking at HDTV PVR yet. All the HW vendors doing HDTV are only doing MPEP2 passthru at present and it sucks from a storage cost/quality perspective.

What I want to see Snapstream do is take all the streamable goodness in Corona (aka WM9) and enable it so I can PVR not only NTSC but also HDTV on my 4GHz dual Xeon rig using one of the many Janus chipset based HDTV cards.

I bet its 10x harder to do that than it sounds.

[Scott McNay]

Originally posted by <BullCreek>:
[...]I can't see anyone who has a 800MHz+ computer already shelling out $1000-2000 for a new entry level PC just to get the features of XP Media Center. I think this is one of the most idiotic moves MS has made lately [...]

Of course, all the vendors have to do is pop the TV cards into all of their products, add $50 or $100 to the price, and voila, their entire product line now has the latest release of WinXP. Great incentive for people to buy another computer for the holidays.

Competition? SnapStream, ShowShifter, and all other non-MS people may find Freestyle to be THE competition. The fix would be to make Quartz, etc., to be a significant improvement, so as to encourage Joe Blow to fork out more money. On the plus side, the potential customer-base would likely jump through the roof if this happens, so all you'd have to do is make sure that Quartz works 100% with the Freestyle card, and then market the hell out of it.

An even better fix, of course, might be for SnapStream to be Assimilated by the Borg. Er, by Microsoft.

But perhaps that's what Rakesh and the others are hoping anyway.

--Scott.

[PBMax]

I think if MS was going to buy Snapstream then it would have happened by now. Snapstream has worked closely with MS to get it's product showcased at the Windows XP launch.

The killer app that would set Snapstream aside from EVERYONE else is Live STREAMING Video without recording and Channel Surfing.

Come on Snapstream be the first to the market.
(I know there are other small time people that have tried it but none of those apps are widespread.)

yeah... i use the hipix for HDTV capture.. i'm able to grab from hbo, MSG and fox sports in hi def, as well as cbs and fox... i threw up some screens on my site if you guys feel like seeing... you'll have to up your screen res to get the full benefit though...

http://www.machineroom.org/newforums...;f=10;t=000883

as far as using snapstream to record it... it would kind of be like the satellite tivo's... they don't encode the video into mpeg2 and then store it like a regular tivo, they actually just save the mpeg2 stream that's coming off the satellite receiver. that's how the hipix works with saving the hdtv shows so what you've got on your hard drive is exactly what came off the antenna or cable. although this is fine for recording regular def 640x480, the movie studios and television stations are currently working on encrypting the whole thing, so what you can record is SEVERELY limited.. this of course will blow more than the birthday boy at chucky cheese...point being, i can't see snapstream devoting any time to hdtv at this point because the standards are still changing by the minute, and most of their time would probably be wasted.

[srigby]

Let's see whether Quartz supports hardware PVRs (like the Hauppauge).

Media Centre is an eternity away for me.

- I'm in a PAL country
- If I import one from Europe, there'll be no EPG here for it.

I know that ShowShifter is working on support for hardware PVRs. The question is: will that be part of their v1.8 product due in August ???

[srigby]

Whoa!

HP has chosen to bundle ShowShifter with their Pavilion line of PCs throughout Europe!

One of the deciding factors for them was the interface (which people continually deride). The key feature being it's ability to control it (via remote) from a distance.

I think they're building that feature into Quartz as well (if I'm not wrong). If they don't, they may regret it.

[GGoodrum]

yeah... i use the hipix for HDTV capture.. i'm able to grab from hbo, MSG and fox sports in hi def,

Festivalman --

How did you get the sports channels and HBO in HD from the HiPix card? I thought it was just an OTA tuner.

[festivalman]

first off, they sell modulators that will change the satellite signal coming off your satellite receiver, into the 8vsb that the hipix needs.. although in my case, i'm not using that. my local cable company broadcasts hbo, msg, and fox sports in HD, in the standard over the air method.. so it's all good.

[GGoodrum]

first off, they sell modulators that will change the satellite signal coming off your satellite receiver, into the 8vsb that the hipix needs.. although in my case, i'm not using that. my local cable company broadcasts hbo, msg, and fox sports in HD, in the standard over the air method.. so it's all good.

Where can I find one of these modulators? I wasn't aware the DirecTV signal was in any way "convertable" to an OTA RF signal. Do you lose anything in quality? Where can I find more info on 8vsb? The AVSForums? Last time you sent me there it cost me $6 grand! I've been totally immersed in the Plasma forum for the last two weeks and ended up ordering a 43-inch Pioneer 433CMX HD unit last Thursday. So now I'm even more interested in seeing a "resolution" to the Snapstream de-interlacing problem at 640 x 480.

Did you get the HiPix from them directly or is availble from other sources?

Thanks -- Gary