Microsoft confirms that Fiji is a joke

[EduardValencia]

Source: Here

Microsoft confirms that Fiji is a joke

Mary Jo Foley finally convinced Microsoft to come clean on Fiji, the thoroughly uninteresting Media Center update. Here?s what they told her (emphasis mine):

On July 16th, 2008, Microsoft released an update to the version of Windows Media Center included with Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate to our OEM partners - this update is referred to as the ?Windows Media Center TV Pack?. In order to ensure that users get the best experience possible, this update will only be available from OEMs, as they are best positioned to provide the testing and hardware configurations for a great customer experience. This is due to the fact that in some geographies there are specific technical and hardware requirements for the Windows Media Center TV Pack that are best handled by the OEMs. We are working closely with our OEM partners as they finalize their decisions on Windows Media Center TV Pack products.

The Windows Media Center TV Pack is primarily targeted at adding support for additional international broadcast standards including:

Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting ? Terrestrial (ISDB-T) Digital television standard for Japan

Digital Video Broadcasting ? Satellite (DVB-S) free-to-air satellite standards in Europe Digital Video Broadcasting ? Terrestrial (DVB-T) digital television with improved user experience in Europe

ClearQAM (Unencrypted Digital Cable)in the United States

Interactive television with integrated Broadcast Markup language (BML) in Japan and Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group (MHEG) (MHEG5) in Europe

This version does not include native support for subscription-based satellite tuners or the H.264 video standard. We test many features in beta releases, and optimize our feature set in the final code for the best user experience.

We do want the Windows Media Center community to know that Microsoft will continue to improve upon the Windows Media Center experience for our customers worldwide, by adding content partnerships and enhanced features. We will share these developments as they become available.

Bored yet? Join the club.

Published Aug 08 2008, 05:59 PM by pthurrott

Filed under: Digital media, Media Center, Vista

[jamesVault]

We do want the Windows Media Center community to know that Microsoft will continue to improve upon the Windows Media Center experience for our customers worldwide, by adding content partnerships and enhanced features. We will share these developments as they become available.

Well, Microsoft will release the Media Center TV Pack for free to all Vista users.

All the Internet stories/rumors we read were just pure FUD, as usual.

[_neutrino Veteran]

Ok i am officially confused being that i used to work for Microsoft and i can say that Fiji had nothing to do with this media center crap Fiji was just the code name for SP1 and you should already have it if you are running Vista therefore its wasn't a joke... I am not sure why people throw code names around like its gorilla warfare on computing. lol

[Josh the Nerd]

Well, Microsoft will release the Media Center TV Pack for free to all Vista users.

How do you know this? :huh:

[raskren]

Ok i am officially confused being that i used to work for Microsoft...

I call bull****.

[Rob Veteran]

I call bull****.

Microsoft does have nearly 90,000 employees globally you know. Whether he's telling the truth or not is largely irrelevent to this thread.

On-topic, I have to say that I do love Windows Media Center as an application - it's a great interface for my TV adaptor and has always impressed me.

[darkmanx21]

I hope they release it to all users. Why do they put it on almost every version of Vista if they would not release it to everyone. Hmmm..

..in the meantime, I hear it's a 43MB download on certain other forums. :)

[Brandon Live Veteran]

Ok i am officially confused being that i used to work for Microsoft and i can say that Fiji had nothing to do with this media center crap Fiji was just the code name for SP1 and you should already have it if you are running Vista therefore its wasn't a joke... I am not sure why people throw code names around like its gorilla warfare on computing. lol

Umm, no. Fiji never had anything to do with SP1. Fiji has always been the codename for this Media Center update, which provides much broader support for HDTV standards, like QAM.

SP1 never really had a codename, we always just called it SP1.

[zerologic]

Am I going hazy or did I hear that Microsoft were going to update and refurbish Media Center in SP1, Interface included? Because from what I have seen of 'Fiji' it's a relatively minor update and not what I heard it was going to be.

[Rob2687]

They made only minor changes to the way a few things look.

[zerologic]

So I guess we have to wait until Windows 7 to see Media Center get a facelift. :/

Also. I hope Microsoft is looking at including Blu-ray playback in Windows 7 / Media Center.

[asoldier]

I run blu-ray discs on my HP (Vista Home Premium). The quality is pretty nice, but not worth the extra cost.

[Ci7]

So I guess we have to wait until Windows 7 to see Media Center get a facelift. :/

Also. I hope Microsoft is looking at including Blu-ray playback in Windows 7 / Media Center.

they need to work on it for WMP first

[Xerxes]

So I guess we have to wait until Windows 7 to see Media Center get a facelift. :/

Also. I hope Microsoft is looking at including Blu-ray playback in Windows 7 / Media Center.

Considering Windows 7 is just around the corner, MS would be shooting themselves in the foot releasing a face lifted Media Centre for vista now ;) I imagine the new Media Centre (and native Blu-Ray support) will be exclusively Win7, they need some reason to force everyone to upgrade you know :p

[zerologic]

Considering Windows 7 is just around the corner, MS would be shooting themselves in the foot releasing a face lifted Media Centre for vista now ;) I imagine the new Media Centre (and native Blu-Ray support) will be exclusively Win7, they need some reason to force everyone to upgrade you know :p

You have a good point there. :D

Thing is Microsoft will have to do some amazing things for me to consider Windows 7.

Been having a play with an iMac and Mac Pro. It's 64bit and everything works flawlessly.

[#Michael]

So I guess we have to wait until Windows 7 to see Media Center get a facelift. :/

Also. I hope Microsoft is looking at including Blu-ray playback in Windows 7 / Media Center.

I am not trying to hijack the thread but I have a theory on the lack of blu-ray for wmc. I personally think microsoft is still licking their wounds from the format war and is holding out on playback compatibility because they were on the losing side.

[Orry Verducci]

While the Fiji update is a disappointment in some ways, the addition of DVB-S and MHEG-5 are quite significant to the UK and European markets. For starters adding DVB-S finally enables satellite TV support, such as for use with Freesat here or many of the other channels throughout Europe. On top of this, MHEG is used extensively here in the UK on Freeview and Freesat for interactive TV, in particular by the BBC.

[Incast]

While the Fiji update is a disappointment in some ways, the addition of DVB-S and MHEG-5 are quite significant to the UK and European markets. For starters adding DVB-S finally enables satellite TV support, such as for use with Freesat here or many of the other channels throughout Europe. On top of this, MHEG is used extensively here in the UK on Freeview and Freesat for interactive TV, in particular by the BBC.

Regarding DVB-S support in the UK there was a relatively easy unofficial way to get the SD channels on Media Center which was widely documented. Adding official support has not been a dramatic step.

MHEG is an important move in the right direction, but the newer MHP standard used in Spain and Italy is not supported.

Nonetheless DVB-S and MHEG support are key improvements. However, they cannot compensate for the removal of high definition H.264 support from the beta. I waited patiently for the Fiji update to get HD support and was thrilled to see screenshots of it in action with the beta. To have it removed at the last minute is severely disappointing.

I really do hope that the speculation that the best parts of Fiji are being deliberately delayed until Windows 7 is wrong. If Microsoft thinks consumers will happily wait for full HD support to be in Windows 7, I fear that they are misjudging the market.

Media Center is great software, it's such a shame that its potential is not yet being fully realised.

Edited August 10, 2008 by Incast

[tomwarren Veteran]

Fiji RTM has leaked anyways so what's the big deal?

[y_notm]

I am not trying to hijack the thread but I have a theory on the lack of blu-ray for wmc. I personally think microsoft is still licking their wounds from the format war and is holding out on playback compatibility because they were on the losing side.

Aside from any technical reasons there may be, the biggest issue is probably licensing: I'm pretty sure there's royalties that need to be payed to blu-ray for every player sold. So Microsoft could 1.) take a hit and eat x number of dollars for every copy of Vista HP/U charged and give the update; 2.) charge for the update (ala XP's DVD decoder); 3.) wait for Windows 7 when they can just charge for a new version.

[Brandon Live Veteran]

You have a good point there. :D

Thing is Microsoft will have to do some amazing things for me to consider Windows 7.

Been having a play with an iMac and Mac Pro. It's 64bit and everything works flawlessly.

Actually, there is no truly 64-bit Mac, yet.

[EduardValencia]

Fiji RTM has leaked anyways so what's the big deal?

Seems that the name "fiji" wasn't given by microsoft,and i't's an update to existing media center,not a complete buil installer.This article reflects the FUD that comes around in internet when so rumour pops up.