I did not see a way to Private Message someone here.

Peter feel free to give me a call or email me, I'd be happy to answer any questions you have about Niveus, Kaleidescape, or media servers in general.

Casey Benjamin
Channel Sales Engineer
NiveusMedia
c.benjamin@niveusmedia.com
(866) 258-2929 EXT 117

Hey Justin, just as Niveus was a pioneer in understanding and deploying CableCard solutions, you can count on us being instrumental in the future HDTV solutions that have been and are in the works.

My Movies is awesome for collection management and it works very well with Niveus Movie Library which will read the cover art and XML meta data generated by My Movies.

We do have some other add ins (Weather, Search, Control Server + Companion) that you can find out more about on our community forums. The stuff that really excites me though I am not at liberty to discuss but I know will be very popular and available soon.

I have an EX-470 at home (ram upgrade of course) it really is the perfect companion to Niveus ZONE. I like the backup feature which allows me to sample the latest third party plugins without fear of hosing my system, I can just do a restore from Windows Home Server.

Sorry if my posts come off as sales pitches everyone, I live for this stuff and sometimes go overboard! I worked for a long time at Kaleidescape where I was forbidden to participate in online communities, which is just as well since we offered virtually zero support for third party hardware or software so there wasn't that much to discuss anyways!

Hello guys, I work for Niveus and would like to respond to some of your comments. The great value that comes with a Niveus Media solution is the knowledge and experience behind it. Niveus is currently shipping like it's 7th generation of Media Server, we've seen it all. Compare that with a support email sent to Sony or Dell asking about HDCP compatibility with your AV Receiver or LCD or CableCard questions or assistance programming your Harmony, Universal, Pronto or Crestron remote. I strongly doubt you will receive the same level of knowledge from a big company call center like Sony or Dell. I and others will be constantly monitoring our community forums to answer any such questions.

For homebrew systems, it's always been the case that you can build something yourself for less, but people either don't know how, know how but don't have the time or prefer not to have to spend their time testing drivers and Microsoft updates for compatibility. What Niveus and other Media Center manufacturers offer is a solution you can plug in right away and spend your time watching and enjoying your media center instead of troubleshooting it and supporting it yourself. Also ZONE is CableCard certified, something no homebrew machine can boast.

Niveus spends a great deal of time and resources developing software for Niveus systems such as Niveus Movie Library which aggregates all your movie content whether it be DVD, Blu-ray, WMV downloads or even recorded TV into one easy to use native MCML interface. Other Niveus apps include Niveus Weather, Niveus Studio, Niveus Companion which allows you full two way control of Niveus Media Severs or Extenders through any PC or UMPC. There are some other cool Niveus only applications do out soon but I can't go into detail just yet :o)

Our products have never been the most affordable and may not be the perfect solution for everyone, but we've always stood behind our products and worked hard to further the development of the media center platform.

By the way, I'm an engadgetHD junkie, spending more time on here than my employer probably would like.

Shameless plug:
Check out the Niveus Media Pro Series rackmount servers combined with the Niveus Digital Cable Receiver. You pay a premium for a Niveus solution but the proprietary features like Movie Library, Niveus Companion as well as world class support more than make up for it.

My own experience with CableCard was good and bad. It was awesome from a hardware and software perspective, little to no problems with comcast or pairing. My disappointment came fro mthe picture quality from my cable provider. At the time I was a DirecTV subscriber and had Comcast HD cable simultaneously to test. I found the picture quality on Bay Area Comcast to be subpar. On picture quality, your mileage may vary.

Overall I LOVE the TV experience in Vista Media Center and pray for a DirecTV solution in the future, or severe improvement in picture quality from Comcast.