I was just telling my Time-Warner Cable installer (delivering an SDV tuning adapter) that the ability to use Windows Media Center has KEPT me at TWC. Otherwise I'd jump over to U-Verse in a heartbeat. TWC should view CableCARD DVR alternatives as retention mechanisms instead of competition to their equipment.

I can't imagine spending that much on a device that a) cannot record all the streaming cable I'm already paying for, b) cannot offer live sports, and c) can't do anything really until I buy or steal more content.

Ben,
Have you been able to get any specific details about when and where that Panasonic truck is going to be? Their website doesn't reveal anything. I'd love for them to swing though N.C. so that my friends can go see the demo we saw at CEDIA - _very_ cool stuff. Like you, I was blown away at he sports.
Now, if only they could come out with some cool 3D active shutter glasses that make me look like Bono..or Lenny Kravitz.

I don't see how they can do this effectively because some headphones are far more efficient (louder) than others, but the main unit has no idea what the perceived volume actually is.

Ben,

I think we are interpreting Ben Reed's response to the Webguide question differently. _I_ think that something is still in the works. He said the same thing to both of us (basically iterating that Doug Berrett is a member of the Entertainment team now). I interpret that as saying - "we have his talents and we aren't ready to roll everything out yet". Perhaps there is another partner in the mix. Ben was also careful to point out to us that the Zune team and Media Center are under one roof, so that tells me that there is a lot more on the road ahead from this group, so I am not quite ready to say 7MC is totally out of the oven.

Like you said to Ian this week, it seems like leveraging the Live service (Mesh or another subplatform) seems like a completely logical scenario for integrating a guide that can be remotely managed. I suppose that maybe for now we could use Live Mesh to Remote Desktop into our Media Center PCs, but that still doesn't help with programming from the iPhone. I do that fairly often now, and it is the main reason I've stuck with my flaky Vista installation and haven't installed 7RC.

Can you answer this question to help me understand the guide? Is guide data stored in 1 folder or file? In other words, is the guide data in a bucket that could be synced between two computers using Mesh??? It just seems that if I could sync a Picasa database between two computers, it seems logical that I could sync guide data.

Given that Windows7 hasn't been officially released, it is entirely possible that more announcements will be coming in the next month, so honestly, I don't think your post is late at all. In fact, this chapter really isn't over until about 10/29, a week after Win7's release.

I think ~$350 is the right price here. It doesn't take 2X the price to add a second tuner, etc, so it should not be 4X the price of a single tuner. The other part of the equation is that Ceton needs to sell many of these and get their name out there.

Man, EVERY TIME we went by this booth there was a group of people looking at this (meanwhile there was little interest in the rest of the Dish booth)

Who is "James Cameron"?
- Ben

I'll be there tomorrow night and CAN'T WAIT!!

Can't wait to bury my spent battery in Mother Earth