I was reading this story today in USA Today about Replay-TV. The article talks about the software allowing people to use PCs as a DVR. What I don't understand is how in this article Windows Media Center was never mentioned. It's been on the market now for at least a year and it will let your TV act as a DVR and it cost nothing per month, unlike Replay-TV or any of the other services out there. The trick is no one seems to know that Media Center even exists. I know someone who has it uses it and it works great. In fact they bought the computer with Media Center for less than one would pay for a Tivo. What I don't understand is why Microsoft and the companies that have bought into selling Media Center computers, like HP, haven't promoted this product more.
It's similar to things like Yahoo Music Engine. With a compatible player and $9.99 a month you can have unlimited downloads to your player and unlimited streaming on multiple computers of millions of songs. It is the greatest thing in music to come along for years. But who knows about it. Who knows about the players and what it can do. The trick is that the players are cheaper than IPods and they have more features, yet know one knows about them. Maybe it's just me, but it just seems that way.
Anyway if you are interested you should check out Windows Media Center and definitely should check out Yahoo Music Engine and compatible players. Oh by the way some of these players will also let you download and watch the videos that you record with Media Center.
