AltEPG

Slightly off topic, but I know some of the old faithful TiVo users made a switch to a HTPC type system based on Windows Media Center.

It appears Microsoft is deprecating this functionality from future versions of the operating system, presumably to try and concentrate its efforts in pushing the Xbox into center stage for media as well as gaming.

This may not sit well with those that used their media centers with tuner cards etc.

Although there will be no need to panic right away, a great many windows users still refuse to upgrade and use Windows XP as their platform of choice, so the only issue I can foresee that might arise over the next few years would be the possible deminishing numbers of 3rd party tuner boards still being manufactured .

For Windows 8 you will be able to buy Media Center as an add-on.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012 ... ows-8.aspx

It also appears that as far as the Hardware Compatibility Certifciation is concerned there will no longer be seperate TV Tuner and Media Center Remote certification. Instead these devices will be included in the normal Certification process.

They're also killing off DVD playback from a vanilla Windows system.

It's a cost cutting measure because they had to pay for the MPEG decoders.