I thought on bringing you this post by Joe Wilcox , "Whoa, The Vista Logo Does Matter "Joe talks about why you should look for the Vista logo when you buy ..he also talks about one of our best partners Pinnacle and thier investment in Vista"Last night, I went out to the local Circuit City looking for an external TV tuner/DVR. I had a model in mind, but bought something different because of the "Certified for Windows Vista" logo.
As I blogged on Wednesday, I'm moving back to
full-time Windows Vista now that there is a compatible third-party VPN for accessing my corporate network. I'm partway through the transition, mainly working on the Vista machine but using RSS, e-mail and some other stuff still on the other computer.
My test machine—Lenovo ThinkPad T60p, with 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB DDR2 SDRAM, 100GB hard drive, 15.4-inch widescreen display, 256MB ATI Mobility FireGL V5250 graphics processor and multi-DVD recorder—:doesn't have a TV tuner for use with Vista Media Center. I set out to buy the
Hauppauge WinTV PVR-USB2. I've used this WinTV model before with excellent results.
However, I instead bought the Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick. I wasn't swayed by PCTV's HD programming support, lower cost or smaller size. The WinTV is a real performer and trusted brand. I had no experience with PCTV, but chose the product because of the "Certified for Windows Vista" logo.
I've used Vista enough to have developed low tolerance for compatibility problems. PCTV had everything I needed in the box, while WinTV would have meant downloading a driver and software; fingers crossed, maybe it would work.
The Pinnacle product deserved the logo. Software and driver smoothly installed; overall experience was excellent.
Third-party products may be the main reason for gripes about Windows Vista. People rightly expect stuff to work, but so much of it doesn't. Some advice: The channel should do more to promote products that are known to work with Vista—and work well at that. Microsoft should play favorites, by promoting partners' Vista certified products.
Keyword TVI work out of a home office and have a strong personal policy against watching television during work hours. The distraction is too great. I do make exceptions for disastrous events, like the recent shooting at Virginia Tech or the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. However after hours, if still working, I will put on TV channel
IMF (International Music Feed) in a small window. The selection of videos is excellent.
TV would have more significance if there was more integration with the way I do other things. The TiVo recording concept is handy, but it stops way short of the Web lifestyle. At a time of ubiquitous search or keywording, TV is so 1950s. But what if television could go 21st century, so that end users could record programming based on keywords rather than time segments?
Programs broadcast close captioning or anti-copying protection. Why not keywords? I recently watched the Mundo Secreto music video "Poe As Mãos No Ar" on IMF. The song is in Portuguese, so I have no idea what it's about. I like the tune and would want to record the video. But I don't have time to screen videos on IMF. Keywording could make it possible to record the song automatically. I could set a keyword search, for say the band's name, and have the DVR record the video next time it airs.
The same concept could be applied to news and informational programing. My daughter is home schooled, and it's a major pain to do keyword searches on the Fios TV program guide looking for educational shows. Better: Set keywords that record shows whenever there is a match.
Better still: A Vista sidebar widget that would prompt for newly recorded programs based on the keyword searches.
Even better: Integration between Microsoft IPTV and Media Center products.
Pre-tagged content would be more searchable, too. That way end users could find the stuff they recorded. "
Commenters, what would you like to see more from Microsoft and its partners around digital content?
Labels: Pinnacle, Video, Vista
