Well for a lot of Windows users out there who like media center functionality the fact there are better alternatives out there would be an afterthought.

I don't know about Windows 7's Media Center application having not tried it but saw Windows XP MCE and originally was not really that good -- while some might disagree after all it had recording capabilities assuming you had a good TV Tuner capture card and a program guide features not available in Front Row on Apple Macs with OS X but Windows MCE was just a an attempt by Microsoft to copy their failed MSN TV strategy for Web TV on the PC.

Roughly Drafted which has been criticized recently for having a too pro Apple bias presents a number of credible facts in some of their articles -- there is a good one called Microsoft Windows XP MCE vs Apple TV -- detailing how Microsoft bought WebTV and ruined its business after rebranding it MSN TV. What they did was changed the OS on the Web TV box from running Sun Solaris based software to Windows CE making it vulnerable to security threats and easy for hackers to install Linux while rebranding the name as MSN TV. They tried giving the hardware away for free and making money selling subscriptions to the service but most people only signed up for the short term so any long term profits vanished.

What Microsoft did learn from its failure at MSN TV is it is better in providing the software (although there software is not necessarily the best it succeeds better in software than hardware) otherwise no lessons of why MSN TV failed came to them. They just scrapped MSN TV and tried again with Windows XP MCE -- this time Microsoft decided rather than risk providing the hardware itself and risk doing so at a loss they could sell an OEM version of Windows XP with Media Center to computer vendors for special new PCs sold and the hardware vendors can compete over hardware and lose money and Microsoft can go back to being a software slumlord. Microsoft had years earlier established its business with a horizontal model for Windows and later Office by making its software available on a number of computers -- contrary to Apple's vertical model of tying Mac OS to its computers.

Microsoft's horizontal model worked with Windows, with their MSN TV effort their first effort at a vertical business model they failed, they then decided to get back to their horizontal model --- they made their Media Center application a part of Windows with the hope this could succeed. In its early years MCE was a failure though -- since 2005 it may have started to catch on though as Microsoft got some content partners to work with them -- and since Vista by bundling Media Center with new retail copies of Windows Vista Home Premium and earlier and every new computer shipping with Vista Home Premium + Microsoft could make MCE accessible to existing computer users updating to Vista and higher or new computer users getting Windows regardless of what edition of Windows they get as long as it is Home Premium or higher.

I have a Windows PC with a TV Tuner capture card and XP Professional at home -- someone I know had an HP Pavillion laptop with Windows XP MCE and they used the TV Tuner on it -- a year or two after getting it though hard drive issues started occuring and viruses came somehow -- computer dies and she switched to a MacBook Pro (interesting) considering I also use MacBook Pro and a Mac Mini.

I have an Apple TV, a Mac Mini, and a MacBook Pro along with an iPod Touch. My PC which still works and has an ATI TV Wonder VE TV Tuner capture card works with VirtualDub a good video editing and recording application that supports the Video for Windows format.

I wonder if Microsoft has aside from changing the business model of Media Center since XP and adding content partners has finally learned from the MSN TV failure or not. By the way readers have written in about the Roughly Drafted article I mentioned agreeing and disagreeing with some of the points in the article -- they agree that Microsoft killed WebTV and recycled it as Windows XP MCE without realizing what went wrong with their efforts to turn WebTV into MSN TV but each individual in the article with reader responses to that article showed a variety of different opinions were there.

I've found plenty of great software by the way on the Mac here are some I am using

1) Cover Stream (requires Mac OS 10.5 Leopard or higher) iTunes Coverflow controller on desktop
2) Lounge (requires Mac OS 10.5 Leopard or higher) a Front Row style screensaver showing what's playing in iTunes

Both 1 and 2 are available from Snarb.tk

3) Macintosh Explorer (unfortunately fate of future development is uncertain at this time) by Rage Software -- provides a Windows Explorer like app for new Windows to Mac switchers (www.ragesw.com)
4) JewelCase music visualizer for iTunes (Mac only) turns iTunes into a visual juxebox and shows album artowkr in a spinning virtual CD www.opticalalchemy.com
5) Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac (see www.mactopia.com or www.microsoft.com/mac)
6) Wii Transfer for Mac -- lets me stream content in Mac iTunes Library to Nintendo Wii via Wii's Internet Channel. Wii Transfer is available by Riverfold Software.
7) Rowmote Helper for Mac -- required for Rowmote Pro on my iPod Touch (got from Apple App Store) to work as a remote control app -- replacement for standard Apple Remote while maintaining Apple Remote style interface but less restrictive controls more applications than Front Row. Rowmote Helper for Mac and/or Apple TV can be gotten via www.rowmote.com
8) Mozilla Songbird with Media Flow plugin (Media Flow is like CoverFlow but for Songbird)
9) Mozilla Firefox for Mac
10) VLC

If I hadn't gone to Mac OS X might have switched to Linux MCE. I've heard some negative things about Windows MCE that if you choose Microsoft's media center software for your home theater setup you'll literally have to hand them the remote -- don't like Microsoft DRM -- not that Apple DRM is any better actually prefer to rip my DVDs and add to iTunes then sync to Apple TV, iPod Touch etc. Linux MCE sounds interesting as does Myth TV -- what I like about open source is not just that the product is completely free -- have nothing against shareware or commercial products but open source community respects user freedoms and software is not proprietary.

Front Row may lack the more advanced features of Windows MCE like DVR recording and program guide but the Apple Remote is simpler as it has less buttons.

Also, for users who want the more advanced features in Windows MCE if your willing to switch to Linux the product Linux MCE has those capabilities for recording and can offer program guide information.

Personally I am avoiding Blu Ray because of its high price tag (during the format war Blu Ray prices had to come down to compete with HD DVD thus spiking a price war -- HD DVD was cheaper to manufacture and could be sold cheaper and still generate a profit -- Blu Ray prices came down so Blu Ray manufacturers could generate market share for the format and their players but had to start selling Blu Ray players at a loss. Case in point the PS3 had a huge price tag of $500-$600 minimum when it first came out and that's just for the system itself -- a hidden tax existed on the PS3 when you counted game sales and accessory sales.

The single greatest factor contributing to the PS3's high price tag was the costly Blu Ray player. It is quite ironic despite Blu Ray besting HD DVD (if I had to choose between the two evils would have chosen HD DVD which had Managed Copying -- which is supposedly now on its way to BD but in 2010 and may only work with new discs, and new players) that the PS3 is dead last in the current console race. Sony hoped to use the PS3 to push Blu Ray adoption, for me personally the inclusion of BD on PS3 is a non starter for me. I opted not to go with PS3 because of Blu Ray. I don't need or want it.

Blu Ray has DRM to prevent personal copying for fair use (Managed Copying only lets you make a digital copy of a disc once to the computer but if the original disc gets ruined you cannot copy the copy with Managed Copy to another disc.) and has incompatibilities with Apple Macs as well as Linux (even if you have one of the newer Intel based Macs that can run Windows which is the only operating system that supports BD authoring and playback -- due to it being the only OS to incorporate AACS encryption since Macs lack Blu Ray drives it is impossible even in the Windows environment unless on a standard PC with Windows -- you cannot use Blu Ray due to Apple's decision to not include it in their hardware -- sure some companies offer the option to upgrade a Mac with a Blu Ray drive in the process you would be voiding your warranty with Apple though) nor will it work with Linux. While Mac and Linux users are a minority compared to Windows PC users they are still users and still deserve to be able to have the same technology as Windows users.

It is possible for Blu Ray technically and legally to come to Macs should Apple decide to bring it to the Mac computer and OS, but Linux which is open source cannot be supported with Blu Ray as no Blu Ray vendor will allow Blu Ray playback on an OS without copy protection -- Linux will never have AACS so legitimately there will never be Blu Ray for the Linux user who will have to hack Blu Ray DRM to make Blu Ray Discs work with Linux.

Granted I do like downloading/streaming media I agree having video in a physical format is better --- I don't see much value in digital storefronts like Apple iTunes for movie sales etc as they don't offer the extra features you can get on a DVD or Blu Ray version of a movie. Also the HD quality on iTunes is not up to speed with Blu Ray but I won't use either because of DRM. I oppose Fair Play copy protection in content distributed via iTunes Store, and AACS encryption on Blu Ray.

Also it is ridiculous how movies released to iTunes for sale/rent often are removed entirely after they leave pay per view -- as iTunes is treated as part of the pay per view window even when it comes to sales, they do this because TV networks airing premium movies don't want competition. Buying a movie from iTunes should be the same as on DVD or Blu Ray in regard to window availability -- if a DVD can be made available of a film or program permanently why not the same with venues like iTunes.