This is the third of 5 daily articles we will be distributing over the course of the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which runs from Jan. 5th - Jan. 8th. The information below is very brief and will likely be elaborated upon in a future article, or set of articles.
Microsoft Windows Vista Media Center is coming, and it looks very promising. However, since the launch date isn't until the end of the year, there are no feature/function lists available. There will be an upgrade path from the current Media Center version, but since there may be differences in supported drivers, it will depend on whether your particular Media Center is certified on Vista. So when that time comes, be sure to check with your hardware vendor prior to attempting to upgrade. So you may be thinking that HD-DVD will be the only "next-gen" disc format that will work with HD-DVD? Well, it should be no surprise that Vista will include support for HD-DVD when launched, since Microsoft is in that camp. But you will also see Media Centers hit the market with Blu-Ray support as well. Sony, for one, is already planning on a version of their HTPC that will support Blu-Ray: the XL3. TDK TDK is highlighting their array of Blu-Ray products, including a 100GB disc. OK, it's a prototype, but once step better than theoretical. That's 4 layers of 25GB. It also records faster: 72Mbps. This is double the current 36Mbps rate of the current specification. And they've run tests recording up to 6x (216Mbps). Day 3 Preview Tomorrow, we should have more information on the following: - DirecTV