Site Feed of the Day: Chris Lanier

This weeks theme for the Site of the Day feature is going to be Windows Media Center blogs. I chose people that I regularly read and that I feel always offer something interesting to say about digital media.

Today’s Site of the Day is Chris Lanier’s blog. Chris writes about Windows Media Center and other digital media topics such as Windows Media Player, recent technology news and more. Chris is also a moderator for The Green Button and always has the latest news on new plug-in’s available, bug fixes and feature requests. Chris was kind enough to take some time out of his busy schedule to do an email interview with me. Well worth the read and I highly recommend checking out his site.

Tell us a little about your background and how you got involved in technology.

Well, I wish I had more of a background that would make this part more interesting. I’m currently a college student trying to figure out what the hell I want to do with my life (if anyone has suggestions feel free to e-mail them to me ;-) ). I enjoy technology in general and especially digital media related technologies. I’m also interested in the information technology field, and always thinking of how networking and digital media will continue to blend into one in people’s future homes, business, and everyday life. That’s pretty much all for my background in technology, however I hope to add to that in the future.

How did you get involved with Microsoft Media Center?

Nearly three years ago, Microsoft released the very first version of Media Center and as soon as I saw the interface I knew it was something I just had to have! I had played around with MythTV on a Linux box and loved the concept, but at the time it just was not what I considered a solution for what I wanted to do. A few months later I saw that Microsoft was getting ready to launch Windows XP Media Center Edition and I started doing a bit of research on it. At this time there were not a whole lot of resources on the product, but then I found The Green Button and that started to change. I started lurking around and found out more and more about it, then picked up a PC. A few months after I started to see more and more products starting to be developed that had the same idea as Media Center and knew it was going to be a market to watch. myHTPC, SageTV, and others joined SnapStream Media, MythTV, and Freevo that had already been around. From that point on I have continued to see Media Center mature and the user base grow.

What is your role on The Green Button Forum?

Basically my main role is to try and keep things going in a somewhat orderly faction. Just before (and soon there after) the release of Media Center Edition 2005, The Green Button saw a skyrocketing number of new members and traffic. This rise in traffic and members has pushed The Green Button to having over 16,000 registered members and over 100,000 posts as of April 2005! In addition, The Green Button launched TGB.MCE which is a 10 foot interface to the forums accessible through Media Center 2005 under Settings | Help |Community. With the increase in members comes arguing, cross posting, spam, and all that other stuff that the rest of the members at The Green Button would most likely not want to see. So, I (along with a few other Moderators) try and keep everyone happy by working behind-the-scenes to clean up posts and work on the outside to try and make The Green Button the most useful Media Center site on the web for everyone to enjoy.

What are you trying to communicate to your readers through your blog?

This will generally vary on a day-to-day, week-by-week, month-to-month basis. One day/week/month it might be something Microsoft should aim to do better on in a product, it might be posting about a bug in a product seeing if others can provide feedback or reproduce the issue, and it might be just posting little news bits or downloads. I have now been blogging for just about year and it has really been an interesting experience. I have had the opportunity to get my thoughts out there and for others to read them if they want to, which can be very powerful.

What do you like most about Windows Media Center?

I’m a big fan of the concept of Media Center. Over the past few years we all have seen a tremendous shift in the way we consume media. We have these computers that have done nothing except become more powerful, moving to the center of our universe. Microsoft was not the first to envision this shift, however they are going to make it become much more mainstream. Being able to throw any and all of my media into a single device, and control it with a remote was a dream come true for me! Since you still have Windows XP under Media Center, the possibilities become virtually endless on what features could be added or developed to accent the current feature set. This has become very clear with the plug-ins for Media Center, and has added to the overall appeal to the product for many people.

What area do you think Windows Media Center needs to improve in?

There is always something that needs to be improved in Media Center. Microsoft has a hard task on their hands with adding new features and functionally while keeping the interface clean and organized. I’m not going to go into detail on all of this, but of course everyone would like to see more HDTV support. My TV has a few features that could be changed and added to make it more user friendly. My Music could use a lot of work also mainly in the Library, and it would be nice to see support for ASIO (Audio Stream In/Out). Windows Media Player is used as the backbone for My Music, so the changes in My Music actually come from changes in Windows Media Player. There are still a few features for my Videos that have been highly requested over the past three years such as playlist support, list view instead of thumbnails, and getting ride of that nasty Delete option every time a video ends. One of the greatest improvements that need to be made are in the current batch of Media Center Extenders (MCX).

The idea of the Extenders sets Media Center apart from just about all other software offerings for both Windows and Linux. A device that looks like it should fit in your living room with your DVD player and VCR, that can have the ability to replace both of them! Unfortunately the current Extenders are too limited, which is mostly due to the processor used in them. If Microsoft would base a model off a different processor that had a better feature-set the Media Center Extenders would really take off. The average person doesn’t want a PC in their living room, Even if the PC looks and sounds like something that should be sitting by your DVD player and VCR, they just don’t want it there! Microsoft and the OEMs need to get together and base the Extenders on a processor that supports all popular formats, then they would sell a larger amount. I am a tremendous fan of Sigma Designs and their EM8620L series processors. Building an Extender around this processor enables endless options for audio and video decoding. Decoding support for MPEG-2 and WMV9 are both present. Decoding of MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 audio (MP3), WMA9 Standard, and WMA9 Professional are also present. And in MPEG-2 decode at 720p and 1080i, which means an Extender based on this processor could support HD playback and finish it off with both local and/or network playback of DVDs. Polishing off the Extender concept needs to be done to push Media Center into the average home. People like the client/server model of doing things, and Extenders have a big chance to be some of the first, low cost devices to do this!

Any predictions on what's coming next for Windows Media Center?

I don’t have too many predictions for you; however I would very much expect the Online Spotlight to be hit on more and more with every version/release of Media Center. The Online Spotlight offers something TiVo and the PC applications like Myth, Sage, and Meedio just can’t achieve with their current platforms. With Microsoft basing development for Media Center on well known web technologies, the possibilities for third parties becomes almost endless when you throw in Windows Media Video/Audio 9 Series, hosted .NET and HTML add-ins, and the MCE community of developers (end-users, commercial developers, and Microsoft employees). The Online Spotlight has a host of potential to grow and be a strong selling point of Media Center.