I’ve been using Windows 7 for a while now on several computers and have to admit, I’m pretty happy with it, despite the fact that, even with all the hype, it’s really what Vista should have been, maybe after a service pack.
You must have seen the annoying commercials like the one above, where people seem to think that Microsoft actually listened to them and took their advice on some little nitpicky thing. Well, Microsoft, here’s My Idea (TM).
Windows Vista and 7 have a pretty good Media Center built into most of the higher versions. I have been using it on a PC connected to my Flatscreen TV in my living room. I have a tuner card in it and I can use it to record TV or watch a DVD. It’s pretty nice with Netflix or Hulu too.
The other PCs that have Windows 7 on them have this capability too, but since they don’t have a tuner card, they’re missing out on the live TV part. But an X-Box 360 on the home network can connect to the computer with the tuner in it, watch TV and even control the channel selection! Pretty nice if you have the X-Box. But, can you do that from another computer? No.
I’d really like to be able to sit in front of my computer in my office/studio/radio room and tune in to TV. I watch video off the internet that way all the time. Heck, I have two monitors and a laptop there most of the time, why not put one to use that way sometimes?
But that function seems to be missing. How hard could it be to add that, if they could put it into an X-Box game console? The media center stuff is all there, all it needs is some kind of client to talk to the PC with the tuner. I just don’t get how they could miss that simple application.
My TV in the living room sits slaved to a DirecTV DVR box most of the time. The tuner card in the PC is mostly unused right now. I’m usually the only one who flips over to it to watch something off the internet, or one of the Canadian TV channels that DirecTV doesn’t provide. The local channels are usually better quality there too, but most of the time who cares if Idol is in HD or not…
So, Microsoft, I’m a PC and not long ago, I had an idea: put the same remote viewing functionality that the X-Box has into Windows 7. Thanks, no commercial is necessary.
