Some are probably growing tired of all my Media Center commentary lately, but others are inspired enough to keep the conversation going. Case in point, Sean Alexander from the Microsoft Windows Media Edition 2005 marketing department, who responded to my earlier post where I wondered where MCE 2005 fits, what type of customer and what specific need is it really targeting?

Short answer- two main audiences:

• Digital Media enthusiasts (Photos, Music, Video, TV) who want the best version of Windows for their home PC, with the most flexibility for enjoying around the home or on the go.
• Home Theater enthusiasts looking for the most full-featured, best quality home theater or living room PC that combines TV, photos, music, and video in a familiar way.

Let’s face it, Media Center isn’t necessarily for everyone and TDavid is fully justified in why it didn’t work for his family. Why? Because it’s his family and you should pick the products or technologies that fit your lifestyle (yes, a key tenet in our message of choice for music too). However the latest Media Center release does seem to appeal to a much wider and growing range of customers. It’s a shift in thinking and a solution that’s not right for everyone. But Living Room PCs, Media Center Extender and the kit for Xbox were designed to hit different price points so people can add-on to their Media Center experiences as they add home networks, or an HDTV, or a Portable Media Center- Media Center PCs act as the hub enabling all of these.

Sean, you are correct about it not working for our family but if you read my actual comments (did you?) then you’d see that I left the door wide open when the HDTV integration is there someday.

I like Mr. Hawke’s option of the expensive DireCTV / HDTV TiVO combo, but I’m not finding those in the store any more, I guess since the fallout between those two companies

Also, for the comment on bugging the cable company? I’m not sure how useful that will be, though I can certainly make a few calls and posts on that front. I was one of the first to get an HDTV box in our area and the guy who hooked it up told me they weren’t getting much action for them (at that time). I’d like to think the adoption is better by now, but I’m thinking it’s not. I don’t know too many people who have HDTV, and that’s of all income levels.

The real problem I think is that HDTV sets are still more expensive than other TV sets. When we see more and more of them getting under $300 then we’ll see more widespread HDTV adoption. People aren’t going to spend $1000 on an HDTV when they can get the same size screen for $350 that’s not HDTV. HDTV programming is limited too and while there are a few great dedicated HDTV stations (like Mark Cuban’s HDNET) there’s not enough programming yet. Until this disparity is resolved, widespread adoption just isn’t going to happen. Accordingly they had to push back the mandatory adoption rate.

With that said, for those who have spent the extra money on HDTV, they know it’s a vastly superior picture and it’s especially cool for playing games on the XBox and hooking in via progressive scan DVD players.

If Media Center is targeting the luxury user market, then they’ll centainly get their share of folks there, but I don’t know if it’s enough to build a long term business on. Hey, Nordstroms has done it though with clothes, though, so why not Microsoft with digital media?

Did this post make you go hmm?

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