What I want to see in "Fiji"

What I would like to have the option to see the trailers of shows or movies in the guide.  This would help the user figure out if that is the show they want to see.  The trailers could be hosted on Soap Box.

I thought Vista MCE wasn't the huge step forward that I was hoping for. It definitely didn't "Wow" me. And in some cases, some features were left out compared to MCE 2005.

Here's my wish list:

1) PHOTOS:

- Tag search: I would like to be able to view photos by more than just one tag at a time. For example, I'd like to be able to view all photos tagged with "My Sister" and "Christmas". Currently, within the MCE 10' interface, you can only drill down and view photos that are tagged with EITHER "My Sister" OR "Christmas". Furthermore, I would like to do boolean tag searches. For example, I'd like to be able to view all photos tagged with "My Sister" and "Christmas", BUT that are NOT tagged with "Uncle Earl".

2) TV:

- I'd like to create multiple sets of my favorite channels. I've seen this on a DirectTV unit. On that unit, you can create a few favorite sets. For example, you can group a set of channels that usually have good movies and name this set "movie channels". You can create another set of news channels and label the set "news channel", etc. It would be nice if MCE had this same feature.

3) Some items cannot be viewed very easily from 10 feet away. For example, I cannot see the clock very easily. There's no reason that the clock has to be that small; there's plenty of room around it so making it bigger wouldn't interfere with any other visual  element. Also, some of the TV programming descriptions are also very hard to read. It would be nice if you could modify the style sheet for the MCE interface, or perhaps temporarily make certain elements bigger if you can't see them. I really think the MCE developing team needs to actually view the interface from their couch and get their parents or people who don't have perfect vision involved in the testing.

4) This feature has been requested from the very start of Media Center. Picture in Picture -  This is a 10 year old technology, which could and should be used and made better within Media Center. I'd like to see a Picture in Picture feature which would allow you to view all the channels that you can see all at one time. Sort of like a Apple OSX expose mode where you can view all open windows in a grid. So if you have 4 TV tuners, you should be able to view and navigate all 4  TV at the same time. Heck, although I prefer the Apple Expose way of viewing open windows, they could ALSO make the picture in picture feature look like the new way Vista navigates to open windows in their Windows Flip 3D.

I think they displayed that this feature would be available within a new version of xBox where it would view multiple IPTV windows all at the same time. Why not make it available for TV tuners too within MCE?

(If this will take on too much resource then only make this feature available to those PCs that can handle it.)

This leads me to the next thing that is missing from Vista MCE...

5) Official support for multiple TV tuners. No registry hacks, just make it a supported feature.

6) Softsled

7) With computers now coming out with multiple processors, make use of this feature and allow someone to work on the computer (using a monitor) while another person watches videos (using a TV) at the SAME time.

8) Save the Buffer when starting to record:

When I start recording a channel I am watching, the recording should include the TV buffer. In other words, if I'm watching a channel and I pause the TV for 20 minutes, and then decide to record the channel, that 20 minutes of pausing should be included in the final recording. At the very least the buffer should be saved as a separate dvr-ms file. That's not the most perfect solution, but it's probably something that can be easily implemented now.

Also, if I have multiple TV tuners and I pause one channel, then navigate to another one, but then return to the original channel, the channel should still be paused and be retaining the buffer. The buffer should not be lost when I switch channels.

Obviously the logic in this feature request needs to be worked out. For example, if I have 2 tv tuners and pause one channel (CH1), then navigate to another channel (CH2) which I then start to record, and then finally navigate to yet another different channel(CH3), then the original channel (CH1) that was paused can no longer be paused and be saving the buffer because you're using both TV tuners: watching one channel (CH3) and recording another (CH2). Perhaps before you navigate to the new channel (CH3), Media Center warns you that you have a TV buffer of the orignal channel (CH1), and says something to the affect "do you wish to continue to the new channel (CH3) and lose the buffer or would you like to instead navigate back to the original channel (CH1)". This dialog window should only happen if the original channel is paused or if the TV buffer is pretty significant: i.e. more than 5 minutes.

9) Finally, with harddrives increasing in size, there should be a way (w/o a registry hack) to increase the default buffer size: perhaps up to a certain percentage of free space.

10) Bring back the feature which allows you to find movies not currently in the 2 week guide. This feature is hidden now. Plus, you should also be able to search for future movies by movie title, not just by actor or director name.

11) Allow me to fast forward in video files other than dvr-ms files.

12) Official support for many other video formats.

I could go on and on. Basically I think Media Center is great. But it needs to be light years away from where it is now in order to continue to be better than the competition: i.e.  Apple TV, MythTV, TIVO, etc.

p.s. How does one become a beta tester? I would sure love to give useful feedback to the Media Center team.

1. I have collected over 6000 Albums/CDs/tapes over 45 tears that I've ripped down to MP3@320 bps. That's nearly 66,000 songs. They are stored on a server connected over a Gbe network. My FAVORITE way to listen to music is randomly. I used to be able to take a media player, point it at the directory with music on it and it would select cuts at random. Now you have to set up a "library" which means it has to scan before it will play.

I want the ability to point to a directory (or a song in a directory) and tell it to play songs at random from that directory (and subdirectories) WITHOUT having to create a library first (or EVER!).

2. I would like to have support for more then 2 tuners per box without hacks.

3. I would like to have more then one source type per box without hacks. In other words, if I have a box with 4 analog tuners I want to be able to say connect 2 to basic cable, one to a cable STB and the last to a Sat STB and have the proper guide for each.

I'd also like to  have more control of what's displayed in my library. Currently with Vista MCE, you can only control one library of media. So if you have a folder that includes music, it'll show up under the "Music" section. However, if that folder contains pictures (i.e. cover art), then that folder will also be displayed under the "pictures" section. You should be able to tell Media Center which folders are for pictures, which folders are for music, which folders are for either pictures and/or music (or other media). Currently it's set to find all possible media within the folders you provide. That's not good.

Sorry for the lack of posts this week, and with so much to cover I thought I would just do a single post

Also regarding Media libraries, I would like to be able to save the library database on a central server so that my multiple MCE machines can SHARE the library database, playlists (I HATE PLAYLISTS!!!!!!!!).

I would like to also be able to place the RecordedTV folder on a central server. Currently I can access MCE2's RecordedTV folder from MCE1's MY Video but you only get to see the file name, not the clean appearance of the RecordedTV folder. I have wired Gbe ethernet to ALL computers in the house so there isn't a bandwidth problem. I've located the VIDEO folder on the Central server and play DVD's off that to either MCE so recorded TV shouldn't be a problem.

I would like Recorded TV to be in a format that is easily edited rather then in that .dvr-ms format currently used. I do have one program that is fairly easy to use the dvr-ms format with, but using a more standard format would open the doors to using more and possibly better software without multiple steps.

BTW, Central storage will become a BIG issue as more and more people decide to keep their audio, video and pics in a home theater format. If storage is required to be local then we end up with large amounts of whirring drives and fans to cool them in the living room. Not an ideal situation. I currently have about 3.5Tb of central storage in my spare bedroom to house my audio and video collection. Not only does it make it easier to share these, but it keeps both viewing areas quite. Hopefully when I move there will be a nice basement to put the servers in.

Actually a follow up to my last post.

If ALL content were able to be placed on a central store then the internal temperature of the MCE could go down drastically allowing builders to use nearly passive cooling for the box. How great would that be?

Build an MCE box using a Core 2 Duo (underclocked) on a board that uses heat pipes, 2GB ram (4Gb if using Vista X64, more is better) with a 2 or 4Gb Extreme III Compact flash for ReadyBoost, and a 40Gb 7200 rpm 2.5" system (only) HD. With all content and liraries on a central server you would end up with a thermally cool processor and a hard drive that allmost never spins up. Even when it does it's pretty cool and quite. If SSDs were cheaper I suggest that for the system drive for an even quieter enviornment.

Anybody else like the idea of whisper quiet viewing areas?