HTF Attendees Report: Microsoft Zune Lounge 10/21

Re: HTF Attendees Report: Microsoft Zune Lounge 10/21

For my group, the second spot on the Tuesday morning itenerary was a trip to the Microsoft Zune Lounge (many thanks for the brunch spread of food, so much to choose from and enjoy), which features a big room for concerts for artists and musicians to work on their material in relative peace and quiet, and another room that demo'd the benefits of a Windows Media Center solution for pushing content all throughout one's house, with the use of Media Center Extender products, an XBox 360, and Media Center PC with Vista Ultimate Premium edition and Cable card tuners built into them to record the content.

The flexibility that this setup is like one-stop shopping for all of the recording and storage of shows and films being provided either through a cable TV feed, or over-the-air programming. In addition there are other streaming options from the internet that add to the value of such a system. As yet another bonus, home automation is just a plug-in away, allowing for controlling of the lights in the house, and also the security alarm state of the house.

The last thing we got to see in action was "The Surface", which has the dimensions of a small coffee table (or a slightly larger version of a table top video game from the 1980s that were found in pizza joints), with a remarkable touchscreen surface that allows for the use of hand gestures (in contact of the screen surface) to manipulate different bits, like images that can be re-sized or re-oriented or displayed in clever ways, as well as moving around and zooming in and out on a map, etc. Also you can play games on it, and "Whack-a-Mole" proved to be a hit amongst those in need of some fun and stress-relief.

Thanks to Dane and Kevin for taking their time to host our groups and provide a nice demonstration on Windows Media Center and its various applications for home theater and home automation.

Re: HTF Attendees Report: Microsoft Zune Lounge 10/21

Agreed totally! I will put up more thoughts later on this stop but first I want to thank Microsoft for the great demo and their hospitality!

Sam

Re: HTF Attendees Report: Microsoft Zune Lounge 10/21

I love using MCE on my HTPCs. I wish they would come out with MCE as its own program that you could just load on to Vista, XP or Mac. It blows the competition out of the water as far as functionality goes. And this demo went to show how flexible l it is.

Re: HTF Attendees Report: Microsoft Zune Lounge 10/21

Big thanks go out to Kevin and Dane for setting up a great reception/demonstration for our group!

The Lounge was a very interesting, and inspiring place, with a lot of neat toys, and eye-catching art.

I have to say, my favorite thing aside from seeing Maurice and the gang beat the hell out of the Whack-A-Mole game was being in the presence of one of the main front men for HD DVD. I was a die-hard HD DVD supporter until Toshiba threw in the towel, and it was neat -- and also somewhat sad -- to hear Kevin speak so lovingly, and longingly about his old job working on HD DVD. It brought back a lot of good memories.

Glad to see you're enjoying your new job regardless, Kevin! Thanks again!

Re: HTF Attendees Report: Microsoft Zune Lounge 10/21

It was a pleasure getting in front of primarily friendly format war fans and did bring back memories for me also. Everytime I am in LA I get those feelings, since I spent a large amount of my time down there over the previous 3yrs! I did recognize some that were on the other side of the fence, but everything seems to be mended well now. While Bill Hunt didn't come to that particular event and I felt like I was on enemy territory at Sony and Fox, it was nice to see that we all could forget our past format war differences and focus on a common passion (HD in the HT)!

Right now we are working on this home... Las Vegas Luxury Homes, Loft Homes by Blue Heron that is totally run by Media Center at the core... It's an INCREDIBLE home and if you can go to the IBS after CES, it is a home worth seeing. It's EVEN BETTER than Adam's home, and that is saying alot! (sorry Adam... someone beat you out)... It epitomizes the "connected home" concept that I was trying to describe at the "zune lounge".

- kevin

Re: HTF Attendees Report: Microsoft Zune Lounge 10/21

I would hope so!

Re: HTF Attendees Report: Microsoft Zune Lounge 10/21

I meant to say more on this but never did. Sorry! I'll try to put up more thoughts later but I will say Kevin was an awesome and informative host, I know we didnt see eye to eye on the format war but I greatly respect his opinion and insights and think he is a tremendous ly cool person and his posts are an asset to the home theater community in general. I regret not having more chance to pick his brain in Cali!

Re: HTF Attendees Report: Microsoft Zune Lounge 10/21

One other thing I will say, my half of the group didnt get to play with the surface machine, I wish we had. The only other time i got to use one was in Vegas where it kept locking up and it didnt seem ready for primetime, I'm sure Kevin could have put it thorugh its paces for us in his demo room a lot better than we did in the bar!