If you know me, you know I can go a little Clark Griswold this time of year.  I love the holidays and spreading a little Christmas cheer.  So here are a few of my favorite downloads, dusted off and repackaged for Windows 7.    With apologies to my friends in the southern hemisphere, I'm keeping the Winter Fun Pack naming convention ;).  So this year I'm super-sizing my blog post on fun PC projects with features that are simplified by Windows 7.  Please note that this is not an official release from Microsoft, rather something I like to do for fun.  So here goes:

#1 NEW: Add a Winter Desktop Theme to Windows 7

This combination of Winter wallpapers and sound effects are sure to warm your heart and will be familiar to those who installed the Windows XP Winter Fun Pack back in 2003 as this is a re-release, simplified by Windows 7.  I tried to take care not to overdo with the sound effects but you'll find a few little additions I think you'll enjoy.  To install, just run the .themepack file on your Windows 7 desktop.  The wallpapers are set to change every 30 minutes, but feel free to choose your own.

Download Winter Desktop Theme for Windows 7 via Skydrive (5MB):

#2 Add a Yule Log Visualization for Windows Media Player to Windows 7

This was one of my favorites and the good news is that it's been tested and works great with Windows 7.  Watch as the Yule log flares along to your favorite holiday music in Windows Media Player.  A bit of trivia - we commissioned Frog Design to create this back in 2003, inspired by years of the 24 hour Yule Log on WPIX 11 in New York on Christmas Eve/Day.   Little did we know then what a classic it would become. 

Download Yule Log Viz for Windows Media Player via Skydrive (1.9MB)

#3 Quickly get to Holiday Autoplaylists with Windows 7

Another oldie but goodie - unzip these playlists to your default folder (e.g. My Music) and Windows Media Player will create playlists based on holiday music in your library.  Not only good for finding the music based on common keywords, but also for removing those tracks from your library after the holidays.  In music mixology, nothing is worse than "Jingle Bells" in the middle of a 4th of July party.  You'll find playlist selections including "All", "Fresh Tracks" for music added in last 7 days,  "One Audio CD Worth" and "One Data CD-R Worth" in the mix for holidays of multiple denominations.  To install, just unzip into your My Music\Playlists folder.

Download WMP Holiday Autoplaylists via Skydrive (15.5KB)

#4: Create a Holiday Trivia Slideshow with Windows Media Center and Windows 7

A few years back, I built a pack of trivia questions as slideshow images that could be used as a slideshow on Xbox 360 or Windows Media Center.  Organization is now simplified with the Slideshow creator built into the Windows 7 Media Center - Pictures feature - just pick your Pictures, add the trivia questions and music, and you're set for your next holiday party.  Trust me, friends will ask how you did it.  You can learn more here at my original post.

Download Christmas Trivia Pack #1 (.zip, 3MB)

Except for the Desktop Theme, most if not all of the above should work on earlier versions (XP, Vista) but some of the features are easier/more intuitive on Windows 7.  In the coming week, I'll post additional clips here as well as my own How To for a cool Holiday outdoor display I'm doing this year created with Windows Live Movie Maker and powered by Windows 7. 

If you like the Holiday add-ons, please let me know in comments here and tell your friends.  Happy Holidays everyone!

At the Windows Media Center event at CEDIA this week, Microsoft announced what many enthusiasts have been waiting for with baited breath: a relaxing of restrictions which made Windows Media Center less attractive to existing PC owners or enthusiasts building homegrown PCs.  The announcements included:

• Digital Cable Tuner (DCT) support for all.  Up until now, you could only get a digital cable tuner for your PC to work on a pre-built PC from manufacturers such as Dell or HP.  PCs needed to be pre-qualified by CableLabs in what was a process that left a lot of enthusiasts unable to support digital cable on their PCs.  Soon, anyone who builds a PC will be able to enjoy digital cable tuning.  I'm sure ATI is happy as well as one of the premier builders of  cable tuner hardware.
• TV Portability. As one who has two DCTs on my HTPC, I can relate to the frustration that has existed when trying to copy that content to a portable device such as my laptop or Zune.  Programs such as local television flagged as "Copy Freely" (CF) will now transfer.  I can confirm this works, I've seen it in action.
• SDV Support. This doesn't mean much to consumers other than ensuring future aggravations are avoided.  As cable systems move to "Switched Digital Video", as a means of managing their clogged networks by pushing a live feed on an empty channel when a consumer requests to view the network vs. blindly broadcasting all networks on all available channels.  The problem is it requires new hardware to talk to the cable operator and request the channel. 
• New ATI DCT Firmware for Vista and Windows 7. The new firmware (yet to be released) by ATI for their Digital Cable Tuners will enable the above support.  I can also attest that this new firmware will bring smiles to Media Center fans as I've seen it running.  You can expect improvements to the update experience as well - stay tuned for more.

Additional discussion is going on over at TheGreenButton.com.  Details on availability haven't been released yet, but I think we can all expect to see good things October 22nd.  Hopefully this quells concerns about the future of digital cable support in Windows 7.

This got me to thinking - a Windows 7 Media Center builder party in the Seattle area around October 22nd could be fun. 

Mike Garcen of MissingRemote has a good article about integrating the new Hulu Desktop application with Windows Media Center.  Thanks to support for appropriate WMC keymappings and a little XML ingenuity, you can directly launch and navigate the Hulu app from within Windows Media Center.  I've confirmed this works (mostly) with Windows 7 as well, though getting the tile to work appropriately is still a bit of a challenge.

The other challenge is returning to WMC when you're done with Hulu Desktop.  Pressing the "Green Button" will return you to WMC, but Hulu will continue to run in the background.  This is pretty annoying when you accidentally hit the button during playback in a Pavlovian action to pull up the main menu.  Hopefully the good folks at Hulu will see it fit to improve integration.

Tip: Read Mike's article to the end for Yaggs simplified steps.

It's been a busy past 48 hours for the Microsoft team responsible for the E3 press briefing.  If ever there were concern that E3 has lost its luster, this was the presentation to prove otherwise.  A few of the highlights before I get into the rest:

• Sir Paul, Ringo, Yoko, and  George Harrison's wife on-stage to promote Rock Band: The Beatles.  A nice touch that all proceeds from the game developer and Microsoft for download of the song, "All you need is love" is going to Doctors without Borders.
• Steven Spielberg in the house to lend his voice of support to, "Project Natal".  This is one that has to be seen to be fully understood.  Full motion capture, facial recognition, and voice control available for every Xbox 360.  To quote Spielberg, "This is a pivotal moment that will carry with it a wave of change, the ripples of which will reach far beyond video games."
• Zune is coming to Xbox. Video Marketplace is now powered by Zune and will offer the complete movie library instant on up to 1080p quality - no discs, no delay. And if you want to watch that movie with friends online, you can meet up for a Party online with up to 7 others in a virtual screening room with your friends (you can go full screen as well).  For any fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000, you'll recognize the concept is primed for Harold and Kumar or  Snakes on a Plane get-togethers online.
• Last.fm is coming to Xbox 360 as well as Twitter and Facebook. With Facebook Connect, you'll be able to match your FB friends with their Xbox  LIVE Gamertags making it easier than ever to figure out who Hang1nAr0und8763 is and whether you want to join their party.
• Sky.TV. This will be one to watch - Sky is bringing their live and on-demand service "Over the Top" and delivering to the Xbox via your broadband connection with no additional hardware required.
• Lots of Halo goodness. First there's Halo ODST - Orbital Drop Shock Trooper.  We saw the first in-game cinematics from the opening of the game.  Then we learned Bungie is working on Halo: Reach, a new addition to the Halo canon no doubt in part based on the first Halo novel, "The Fall of Reach".  I noticed an easter egg during the intro trailer for ODST - you can see in a someone has tagged a wall with graffiti, "Remember Reach" in the New Mombasa area.
• 1 vs. 100 Beta. On behalf of my team I'm proud to say Xbox LIVE Primetime is off to a good start.  Last night's opening session filled up in record time as our live events have opened up to the public. Hats off to our beta launch partner, Sprint - in this live-event game-show modeled after Endemol's own hit TV show real Xbox LIVE members can compete for prizes including a big-screen HDTV, laptop, and much more.

There's even more, but that's a good start.  I'll post more thoughts on Project Natal later. Check out all the E3 briefing details here.

Quick notes before I'm off to work this AM:

• Zune HD has been announced with capacitive touchscreen, 16:9 OLED display, built-in HD Radio tuner, HD video out (w/ dock), WiFi streaming from Zune Marketplace, and a built-in Web browser.  More at the teaser site.  What's hard to communicate in pictures is that it just feels good in the hand.  More details next week. ;)
• Acer has launched a $399 1TB Windows Home server setting a new sweet spot. Suddenly my homegrown system is a lot less cool. (eHomeUpgrade)
• Vista SP2 was released yesterday.  Lots of updates but perhaps most notable is Windows Search 4.0 which will speed up searches on your computer.  Most consumers will get it via Windows Update but if you cannot wait and wish to download direct, get it here.
• D7 Updates. Walt Mossberg's The Wall Street Journal's confab is off to a roaring start with, "The Guys from Twitter" talking from what looks like chairs taken off the Star Trek movie set. Too bad the online schedule doesn't tell you who is speaking and when. :(

Ed. Note: We had a little hiccup on the Web server.  Should be all fixed now.

Looks like Dell is serving up a little Apple compete with their new teaser for the "Adamo" which in latin means to fall in love with/lust after and in Dell's case looks to be a near-unibody laptop.  Everyone knows geeks like to see brand new tech taken apart and here Dell does it in reverse in all its whitewashed glory. Coincidentally, the style is reminiscent of the WMV HD "Robotica" trailer from the early 2000's and the PC Design Competition video I produced many years ago with the Industrial Design Society of America (IDSA). I hope the hardware is as good as the Dell concept video.

Source: Engadget and others

If you've been keeping up with the Windows 7 beta, you've probably noticed that Windows Media Center has really been focusing on fit and finish across the platform making it quite possibly the best DVR on the market.  Two features for me really, make the TV features sing: Color-coded program categories and extensibility to support station logos.  Here are the categories:

• Green   - Sports
• Purple  - Movies
• LtBlue  - Kids & Family
• Orange - Special
• Yellow  - News

Turning on Color-coded Categories

This feature is actually really easy to set. To turn it on, go  into Settings>TV>Guide Page Options, and click the first checkbox option to "Apply colored backgrounds to shows, based on their category". You'll also notice the ability to set channels by name, a useful feature if you can never remember the numbers or your cable operator keeps moving the lineups around (or both, in my case).

Adding Channel Logos into the Guide

Next up is My Channel Logos for Media Center. I consider this to be one of the first, and most useful PowerToys exclusively for Windows 7, courtesy of some enthusiasts from The Green Button.com.  This add-on plugs in the network logos for most major networks directly into your EPG.  It also enables you to create/add your own custom logo for channels.  The application effectively extends this feature in MediaCenter by placing the appropriate logo file in a cache.  MediaCenter finds the cache and updates.

Of course, your mileage may vary, especially with Beta on beta software.

Watching the rollout of Windows 7 Beta, I have been pleasantly surprised by the number of friends and colleagues (outside Microsoft) that have asked if they should try it.  Generally they're a mix of XP and Vista users and new to the "beta craze" seen during the Windows 95 days.  It this Win95 redux?  No, I don't think so (it was a different time) but as consumers are looking to get more value out of their existing purchases - from buying tracks for Rock Band and Lips, to keeping that car going a little longer - Windows 7 is seen as having the promise of doing the same for your PC. That said, Windows 7 will also present a great opportunity to upgrade for many after trying out the beta on an older machine laying around.  If it performs well, just imagine what it can do on a new PC.

So, my guidance is this:  If you have an older PC sitting around that you don't mind turning into a weeknight/weekend project - go ahead and download the beta.  Here are a few resources to get you started:

• How to Get, Install and Play with Windows 7 (Gizmodo) 
• 10 Really cool Windows 7 Media Center features (Gizmodo) 
• Using Touch with Windows Media Center 7 (The Digital Lifestyle)
• Windows Live Essentials - must have download for Win7 (Live.com)

My prediction - touch interfaces are here to stay, and will be most impactful on a PC.  Just looking at the buzz Microsoft Surface generated a few years ago, followed by the iPhone/iPod Touch ushering a new generation of gestural interfaces.  Windows 7 will be able to support touch as well as a mouse and keyboard.  Just keep those fingers clean ;).

I just discovered these gems on Channel 10 - upload plug-ins for Facebook and YouTube coming to Windows Live Photo Gallery.  I've often wondered where the rest of the upload wizards are.  Now, can we just get one plug-in that handles upload to multiple services at the same time?

• Download LiveUpload for Facebook (Beta)
• Download LiveUpload for YouTube (Beta)

Last night, Microsoft unveiled the official Microsoft Store online in the US, offering direct purchase of Microsoft products online, including the largest library of Microsoft digital downloads.  Additional countries will be coming soon including UK, Germany, Korea, Japan, France, Spain, and the Netherlands.

If you're looking for an Xbox 360 or accessories for the holidays, Microsoft published games like Gears of War 2, Lips, or Zune devices and accessories, this is a great place to start.   With Xbox 360 bundles starting at $199, there are some good deals to be found.

Tip of the hat to Brandon LeBlanc at the Windows Experience

Today, NetFlix announced that they have begun deployment of their new player to their customers, incorporating dynamic streaming for DVD-style fast-forward and rewind over the Web. This is a big shot in the arm for Silverlight 2, and hot on the heels of the overwhelmingly successful NBC Olympics coverage in Silverlight 2 beta.

It's hard to believe it was 18 months ago at the Microsoft MIX conference that Netflix first demonstrated their instant streaming application on-stage. One of the top features of this Netflix player was the ability to view movies on Mac and PC, and have a richer viewing experience. I'm very excited to see this happen as it brings one of my favorite Silverlight projects full circle.

When we first approached NetFlix, we had an idea for the player. I quickly wrote a two-page speclet describing the functionality.  For fun, I codenamed the project, "Big Red".  The concept was approved by Netflix and one of our top design partners refined and built the prototype in less than six weeks. Many didn't think the app would be done in time to see the stage in time at MIX, and others didn't think it would ever get released. I'd prefer to think this proves that good things come to those who wait, not to mention a ton of better instant watch content thanks to deals with Starz, The Disney Channel and others providers.  Combined with the new Xbox experience with NetFlix coming soon, it's going to be a NetFlix-powered holidays around the Alexander household.

Congratulations to the Netflix and the Silverlight teams.

Here's a roundup of announcements today.  I was off playing with the family on Bainbridge Island otherwise I would have posted earlier.

• Xbox 360 is getting a totally new Dashboard (Engadget) complete with Avatars. This is one of the many cool things being cooked up but haven't been announced/released yet.  The funny thing is a few months ago, having James Cameron on stage at the Advance conference talking about his upcoming movie project, "Avatar" caused a few heart palpitations in
• Xbox Live gold members to get NetFlix on-demand, complete with shared viewing experience with your friends.  Now if only you could record your own RiffTrax ala MST3K.  There's an idea Lance!
• Xbox Live Party System.  Friends stick with you- watch a movie together, share a slideshow, go from game to game etc.   Finally- make it a game night with your buddies!
• Improvements to how Xbox 360 works overall.  Improvements include running games from HDD - no more whirring during games, 16:10 output via VGA or HDMI for those of us connected to 16:10 displays (vs. 16:9) and you'll be able to make Xbox 360 purchases over the Web.
• Mark Whitten details it all in an email that went around our group like wildfire later today. 

More details and video at www.gamerscoreblog.com and www.majornelson.com.  There's even more goodness waiting in the wings which I can't talk about.  But for now, off to go play with new package that just arrived under embargo. More on that later ;)

As Media Center enthusiasts know, www.thegreenbutton.com is a fantastic resource for all things Media Center.  The good news is that the ads are gone.
I'm going to ping the team and get some details but this is fantastic news as we've always been super-supportive of the site and the contributions of the founders, moderators, developers, and community members over the years.  Perhaps it's time for me to re-up my account during vacation and pop into the site.

Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 is out earlier than originally announced.  You'll also find a new Deep Zoom Composer available shortly (link may be broken for some as it propagates across the innertubes.  Brandon has a good writeup here including download links:

The Windows Experience Blog : Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 and Deep Zoom Composer Update

Trailer for the new X-Files movie in Silverlight here.

Fox - X-FilesT - I Want To Believe

Nvidia is touting their new system on a chip (SOC) called, "Tegra".  The new unit, Tegra 650 is primarily targeted at consumer electronics devices such as phones where it will be capable of 3D graphics, 30 hours of HD video playback, includes up to 1080p video and WSXGA+ resolutions along with an 800Mhz ARM processor.  It's being optimized for Windows Mobile phones.

While I can't see myself watching 1080p HD video on my phone, I can see it storing and playing back a single file from local screen or docking it to watch on the big screen when I get home.  Oh and the entire unit is about the size of a dime.

Handheld computers are right around the corner it seems...

Release

Apparently the deal is for all US and Canadian consumer PCs.  (I hear HP ships a few of those.)  Silverlight powers the Live toolbar.  Nice work Silverlight team!

Earlier this week at Microsoft’s Advance08 conference, Robbie Bach and Mark Kroese presented some examples of how the company is putting the fun in ad-funded experiences on three screens – TV, PC, and Mobile devices, with content examples including Gaming , Video, Music, and Mobile scenarios.  I wanted to provide a few additional thoughts about what was shown to the audience of advertisers but with a consumer perspective.  It’s our job to make sure there is a clear value for the consumer, often in the form of “free stuff” in exchange for a sponsorship message that’s lightweight (read, doesn’t piss off the consumer) while meeting the goals of the brand advertiser who is footing the bill.  Here are a few examples:

Gaming – Among the 12M+ Xbox 360 owners, nearly 10M have Xbox Live accounts, connecting to the community to participate in multiplayer games and community activities such as tournaments.  One of the most popular features on Xbox Live are the free downloads – for example, a recent Nissan/Forza 2 Motorsport promotion involved a free downloadable car pack for in-game play, and an online tournament where the winner won an actual Nissan car. 

The Result: Over 350,000 downloads of the free car pack, and over 6.7 million game sessions played during the tournament.

Video -  Movies are universally appealing, and Xbox Live Video Marketplace is no different.  McDonald’s recently completed their “Burgercon” promotion on Xbox Live by offering a free movie download to all Xbox Live users, in this case “Austin Powers”.

The Result: The movie became the most popular movie ever downloaded on Xbox Live.

Music  & Mobile – Like Movies, Music is also universally appealing and a largely social type of experience.  Zune Social is an online community where Zune owners can opt-in to share their music interests and listens with friends.  In the past four months, nearly 2 million Zune owners have chosen to participate the new Zune Social.  One concept we’re piloting this summer is the ability to connect with artists and music events as “friends” on the Social.  The goal is to take what’s been so successful on Xbox with gaming and video, and extend that value exchange to music enthusiasts on Zune Social.  The experience is a microsite on Zune Social, offering free music and video downloads, sponsored by brands such as Doritos in the example shown and connected to music downloads from the CMJ Music Festival. 

Rule #1 is, “Put music in their ears and a smile on their face,” so we’re going to be very careful in how sponsorship messages are presented.  In the example shown this week, it’s just a background wallpaper with attribution to Doritos – no in-song ads as some have speculated.  As a Zune Social member, I'd have to opt-in to download this Zune Card, and even then, it would be presented separate from my music library.  Brand sponsorship might be displayed in album art or wallpaper on the downloaded playlist that includes a small brand logo such as the image of the Zune 80 from the demo at the right.  We've had no discussions about putting ads into song tracks or the like- that would go against rule #1!  But like game and movies downloads, someone has to pay to offer the free and legitimate download. We’re finding just like at music concerts, there are plenty of brands interested in sponsorship opportunities, in this case offering free downloads in exchange for creating a positive connection with music lovers. 

As mentioned, this is a pilot launching this summer, will always be opt-in and the team will be actively soliciting your feedback.  Just like on Xbox, the goal is to put the “fun” in ad-funded downloads with Zune.  Trust is earned and there are plenty who will assume the worst- that's part of the fun (and the challenge) of my new job.

A Microsoft VP once told me, "In the world of business, there are Pioneers and there are Settlers.  Microsoft needs both."  I've always gravitated toward the startup opportunities within Microsoft.  A few years ago, I was given the opportunity to help take a fledgling technology called, "WPF/E", name it, brand it, and launch it as "Silverlight", with my team.  The response has been phenomenal, with over 1M downloads/day and a developed balance of features for RIA-focused and Media-focused features. 

A number of months ago, I learned of a new opportunity that what right in my wheelhouse of consumer-focused digital media as a steward of user experiences in the Entertainment and Devices Division as Director of Product Planning for Ad-funded Experiences.  Looking back on the most personally rewarding times of my career so far, I've most enjoyed building teams that focus on the user experience, and deliver "free stuff" for consumers. One could argue my first attempt there was developing the original XP Digital Media Fun Pack and Powertoys, many of which included a small sponsorship message.  Following the acquisitions of aQuantive, ScreenTonic, and Massive Inc., it became clear to me where opportunity intersects with my personal interests.  Put another way, working on the Silverlight platform and seeing so many cool apps developed helped me to realize I missed having a hand in building consumer products myself.  It/s hard to leave the amazing leadership of Scott Guthrie, Soma and so many friends, but I'm not going far.

So what does the job involve?   It starts with working with many of the teams in Entertainment & Devices - Zune, Mobile, Xbox, and more to identify market opportunities where the consumer wins and brand advertisers get impressions.  This is a new area and we're going to step lightly and take feedback as we did with over 10M enthusiasts on Xbox Live who regularly download free add-ons for their games - Map packs, cars, tracks, and even feature-length movies sponsored by brand-name companies like McDonald's, Frito-Lay, Nissan, Ford, Nike, and many others.  The question is can we do the same thing for more media types and devices.  In a nutshell, that's my job - to put the fun in ad-funded entertainment experiences.

And I'm hiring. More on that later :)

At last I can talk about Live Mesh - Dave Zatz you got it right.  Many articles have now been written on the topic, such as Mary Jo's, On10's Video Demos, TechCrunch, the NYT's John Markoff, Scoble, and the Beeb so I won't rehash that here.  What I will say is that it's changing how I work fundamentally, even in it's nascent form.  I'm storing most of my documents and recent photos in the "Cloud" for easy and secure access from work and home.  I'm using Remote Access to "RAS" into my office computer from my Mac.  And when I've been away from home, I've been able to retrieve documents using the web-based UI.  And soon, sync with Mac and other devices. 

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Live Mesh is a computing platform, a merging of software + services that seems simple in concept. What winsock was to enabling the Internet on Windows, Mesh can and should be the same to personal sync, network app enablement and so much more.  It's hard to see what's on the Horizon (wink), but this is the platform that I really hope developers stand up and take notice of, give feedback on.  The Tech Preview goes out shortly.  If I have invites, I will offer them up here.

Congrats to the Live Mesh team and thanks for solving a major pain point.  If you're a consumer and asking, "Huh?" to all of this, check out the On10 Video.

Ryan Stewart and Long Zheng summed it up nicely.  This kind of banter and candor is why I work at Microsoft.  A CEO who will go, "Monkey Boy" just to please his customers.  Guy had some really nice things to say about the new Microsoft culture which was great to hear.  I'll post the keynote here when available.

The show officially starts in a few hours, but the events started last night. The night started off with a great dinner off the strip at a "foodie" approved Thai restaurant, "Lotus of Siam" with Dave Wolf of Cynergy Systems. Twitter was white hot with updates from different events and ad-hoc get togethers.  Later I stopped by the Blogger Party and met up with a number of familiar faces and met some new ones. I took some grief for not blogging enough so will try and do better.  Ryan Stewart stopped by and we played Rock Band, jamming to NIN's "The Hand that Feeds".  I'm sure there's some irony in there somewhere. My performance was marred by a semi-functioning yellow button on the axe but we had a good time.

Late last night, an update mail went out internally asking most MSFTies to watch the keynote from the overflow room. Apparently attendance is packed to the gills with very few no-shows or last minute cancellations.  So I'll be in the "other" room if you want to stop by and say hello. Lots of great sessions and meetups happening today and tomorrow.  Sure to be a topic on the floor today is Job's comments about Flash on the iPhone.  It's long been rumored that Apple has been working to create their own RIA platform with Safari at the center.  With Jobs making comments such as "There's this missing product in the middle", one has to wonder if there's a connection with Apple's March 6th event?

Remember how I said there would be some exciting announcements coming at MIX this year? ;)  Last night (Pacific time), Nokia officially announced that Silverlight is coming to their S60 and S40 mobile phones on the Symbian platform.  This has been in development for a long time now, and will dramatically increase the number of devices that support Silverlight- S60 alone ships on over 150 million devices worldwide - you can learn more about the phones here.  Congratulations to the team - more announcements coming shortly and for those of you on-location at MIX this week, you'll see this in person ;).  See you there.

The Expression Encoder team has just launched their blog here, with a video introduction hosted by Charles Finkelstein.  Charles is one of my favorite people at Microsoft - boundless energy, and a real passion for turning customer requests and insights into product and features.  This is just the beginning with I'm sure more to come next week.

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted.  A lot going on as of late so here's a quick rundown on activities and topics I'm going to write about during flights:

• Mix Update. The teams have been working incredibly heard in preparation for the MIX conference next week.  I've seen a sneak preview of some of the demos and think attendees won't be disappointed. 
• Silverlight 2 coming. ScottGu (now a newly minted VP!) provides a glimpse into Silverlight 2 on his blog.  If you can't be at MIX this year, don't fret- the videos will be posted on the Web shortly after the events thanks to Jeff Sandquist and team.
• HD-DVD is dead.  You can start buying Blu-Ray discs now or just go the digital route- my preferred method of delivery
• Apple TV Take 2.  Will I cancel my NetFlix and Comcast subscriptions?  Thoughts over the weekend and I'll explain how you can score one for $99.
• uStream as NannyCam.  Take an old IR-shot Sony DV camcorder, firewire and UStream my wife is addicted to her new Nannycam as a baby monitor.  I also hacked together a Vista Sidebar gadget for her which I may post. Now if only it was available in Silverlight...
• Dell XPS m1330. - my new and best laptop ever, despite the crapware
• New Silverlight site launches - Congrats to the team!
• MyNetflix Plugin for Media Center - Another reason why I need to put a full PC in the living room?
• Playing with CubeDesktop and loving it.  A must for any power user (thanks Chris)

I don't often blog here about the enterprise side of Microsoft though for digital media delivery it's hard to beat Windows Server in terms of cost or scalability. Then comes news that Windows Server 2008 just got a Five-Star Rating from eWeek Labs, noting even "Faster" and "Slimmer":

The new Windows Server boasts a set of networking enhancements that dramatically boost file serving performance, and the product can be deployed in a new, stripped-down Server Core configuration, which significantly reduces the attack surface of systems hosting certain Windows Server roles.

Toss in a more modular and securable Web server in IIS (Internet Information Services) 7.0, Microsoft's new hypervisor-based virtualization functionality and a host of management enhancements, and Windows Server 2008 merits eWEEK Labs' Analyst's Choice designation.

Congratulations to the Windows Server team- this is a huge feat.  And for those in the digital media biz, be sure to check out Windows Media Services 2008 and the IIS7 Media Pack, both blogged about and available from Chris Knowlton's blog here. 

Why does this all matter?  Fact is most video-serving sites are pigs when it comes to responsible use of Internet bandwidth.  The average clip is about 5 mins in length, and only 20 seconds are watched, though most users receive the entire file.  With the IIS7 Media Pack, all forms of digital audio and video - even QT, MOV, and FLV/SWF can benefit from the Intelligent Bit Rate Throttling built in.  You'll be hearing more about these features at MIX in a few short weeks.

eWeek: Windows Server 2008 Is Microsoft`s Leanest, Meanest Yet

If you have an XM Radio Subscription, the XM Radio Windows Vista Sidebar gadget is for you.  Recently updated to version 1.5, features include a polished and easy to navigate channel list, favorites support, and advanced Amazon search so you can purchase the CD or the MP3 of the song you're listening to as well as browse lyrics, Wikipedia and YouTube entries for the artist.  From the folks at BuildaGadget.com (a work-for-hire outfit), this is one I'm going to pin permanently to my Sidebar.

Download: XM Radio Vista Gadget

I just got back from Costco where I got Blue Harvest for $12.99 after the $10 instant discount. 

This image sums it all up:

No iTunes exclusive - these kinds of digital copies have been made available for WMP users for years (WMV-HD anyone?) The difference is in how it gets perceived reported by the press who are covering Apple.

Don't get me wrong- I'm glad to have both.  But this is a parity play by Fox.

By popular demand, Bill Gates' last day at the office video, courtesy of Channel 10.

Bonus points if you can name all the cameos and the song he's playing on Guitar Hero. ;)

Bill's Last Day: The CES Keynote video
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CBS/Paramount's Entertainment Tonight just launched their Golden Globe Awards mini-site in Silverlight.  The new mini-site is being promoted on the www.etonline.com homepage as powered by Silverlight.  Check out clips from the nominees, news and more here.

First a successful Bill Gates CES Keynote simulcast on the web, now the Golden Globes- Silverlight is ringing in the new year in style.  Kudos to IdentityMine and Rezn8 for putting this together, showing what designer/developer collaboration can do.

I'm watching the CES 2008 keynote right now, streaming live on the web with Microsoft Silverlight at www.microsoft.com/ces.  I'm so happy they allowed the funny video with a long cast of celebs in the simulcast.  I have four streams going right now for test purposes. Kudos to the istreamplanet team for keeping up with the crushing stream load, I understand it kept rising and rising during the keynote.

Speaking of which, I'm happy that Bill just unveiled that NBC Universal has selected Silverlight exclusively for online delivery of the 29th Olympics in Beijing, PRC in partnership with MSN.  Lots of exciting stuff to come there.   I'll write more on that later.

More pictures below:

Update: If you're unfamiliar with this whole Silverlight thing, check out Andy Plessner's Beet.TV interview where we discussed Silverlight last year. For some reason that day, I opted for the Quicksilver T-shirt instead of my "Evil Monkey" shirt.  Perhaps it was partner love.

The new Microsoft at CES site is up, and it's powered by Silverlight. There are so many projects underway now it's hard to keep track of them all and this was a great one to see.   
What's more, you'll be able to watch the keynote live in-page with Silverlight or via WMP/default browser.  Take a look, spin the wheel in LV fashion and check out the latest news from Microsoft at CES.

Hope y'all enjoy the show - Sunday night @ 6:30pm

Earlier this AM, HP shot me a mail with the latest details on announcements they're making for CES.  Here's the latest:

• MediaSmart Receiver - works with XP and Vista PCs, offering wireless delivery of media via 802.11 ABGN and is also DivX certified.  Includes a Pocket Media Drive slot on the front for the big files and will offer Media Center Extender support this spring via an Internet-delivered update.  No note on whether that's an additional cost.
• MediaSmart TVs - Updated 1080p TV's with three (3) HDMI ports, wired and wireless connectivity and (drumroll please) Media Center Extender support built in!
• Media Vault and Media Vault Pro - Home "NAS Plus" offerings in 500GB and 1GB offerings for the Media Vault mv2100, and up to 1.5TB for the mv5100. Both include Photo Webshare and iTunes server features previously seen in HP MediaSmart servers. These units are Linux-based, unlike the HP MediaSmart Server which is powered by Windows Home Server.

All products will be available in Spring 2008

Since yesterday, the Microsoft.com homepage has been promoting a new game for Xbox 360 called, "Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action" with a new twist- a mini-game embedded in the ad  itself.  I can recommend this game personally as it's been playtested by our family and friends at recent gatherings.   The game itself takes over the entire top panel of the MS.com homepage interactively in what I believe is a first.

Expect a lot more of these kinds of interactive experiences on the MS.com site and others to come in Silverlight. 

Microsoft Homepage

"Jackass" is the name of the hit MTV television show and two subsequent blockbuster movies starring a band of merry mischief-makers playing physical pranks on each other, themselves, and about anything with a pulse claiming to be a human.  I'll admit to renting Jackass 2 and snickering to myself one weekend when the house was quiet, my family away doing something more productive.

Then comes news that Blockbuster will premiere the third installment - Jackass 2.5 as the first full-length feature on the Web exclusively using Microsoft Silverlight  between December 19th and December 31st to audiences 17 years or older at www.blockbuster.jackassworld.com.  All you need is the one-time 1.5MB Silverlight plug-in and IE, Firefox, or Safari on Windows or Mac.

This is exciting to see as it marks another milestone in how users are shifting to consume their media online as well as through traditional outlets.   The content may not appeal to all, but definitely has a loyal following among its fans.

With this release, Blockbuster and Paramount are joining many other companies including MLB.com, BMW (Germany), Sony Ericsson (Japan), Baidu (#1 search site in PRC), NBA.com, Entertainment Tonight (CBS/Paramount) and UVNTV.com in their use of Silverlight.  Check out the latest examples being updated regularly at http://silverlight.net/Showcase/

As a rabid Flickr user, this is a long overdue and very welcome addition.  Now, how about sharing the Flickr love on my TiVo or Media Center?  My pictures want to be set free to roam the house...

Flickr Adds Stats To Photo Pro Accounts

This is a very cool example of data visualization possible with Silverlight, as developed by a Microsoft intern.  Gratuitous animation but put a smile on my face- something charts rarely do.  Nice work Richard!

Richard Z's JellyGraph

Here's a cool article on LiveSide.com talking about how to add Silverlight to Sharepoint 2007.   This is for developers or those pretending to be.

Add Silverlight to Sharepoint 2007 - LiveSide - Developer Blog

An interesting dialogue about consumer fair use rights happening right now.  I'm an advocate of protecting IP, but this bill (auspiciously named the PRO IP Act) goes way, way too far.

I may not agree with all of Jeremy's points (transmitting an MP3 intended for mass distribution is different from shoplifting a CD and should carry stiffer penalties IMO).  What concerns me about these kinds of bills is what happens to the Mom or Dad who puts copyrighted music under his home video, posts it and it goes viral?

This is an area where I encourage all of you to get familiar with the issues and make sure your congressional representatives have your views. Good places to start learning:

Jeremy Toeman’s LIVEdigitally » Blog Archive » A note to Nancy Pelosi regarding the PRO IP act

Michael Gartenberg - (un-) common sense on copyright

This is a step in the right direction.  The Yahoo! Photos application removed earlier this Fall from the TiVo application lineup was a pale reminder of just how far we have to go to enable simple sharing of personal media with family and friends.  I was  hoping to be able to share my Flickr library and am unlikely to sign up for yet another service.

What I would like to see is a standard set of APIs for sharing of photos and video across all the major services.  It won't happen as so much of the value prop is tied up in well frankly, tying your photos into a particular online service and their own monetized deals for printing, sharing etc. But my photos want to be free to enjoy wherever I want, on any screen I want.

eHomeUpgrade | TiVo Delivers the Best Way to View & Share Photos on the Television - Now in HD

I've written here about Silverlight 1.0's capabilities to support rich media delivery with video and audio delivery and with ScottGu's update on Silverlight 2.0, I figured it's time for an update on all the goodness that is happening

When we think about Silverlight and media, we really think about content enablement - how to deliver video, audio, animation, and interactivity in a cost-effective way from creation to distribution to experience.  The teams are continuing to innovate on all three of these fronts:

Silverlight Content Creation with Expression

Just a few months ago, we released Expression Encoder 1.0, a easy to use yet powerful tool for building interactive Silverlight media content including live events and on-demand video. Encoder solves a particularly frustrating problem of how to convert files such as QT or AVI into VC-1 for delivery in Silverlight.  Live streaming supports multiple camera angles, direct connect from Silverlight and Windows Media Player clients for PC, Mac, and Mobile, and easily supports broadcasting from Windows Media Services, a feature of Windows Server.  By providing a series of templates that can be easily modified with Expression Blend, you can host your videos on any web server (Windows, Linux, Mac whatever) with simplicity. In recent months, the Expression team released a Publishing plug-in to upload video up to HD quality  with Silverlight Streaming, a freely available service by Windows Live.  There's even a plug-in for Windows Live Writer that makes it easy to publish Silverlight video in your blog.  More on that later. 

If you're interested to get started with Expression Encoder, download the free trial  and check out the How-to videos here.  And pay attention to Mix for more to come ;)

Silverlight Content Distribution with Windows Server 2008

Today, content providers have a rapidly growing number of options for delivering media on the Web.  In particular, delivering on-demand video has never been easier. The majority of sites today choose to host video on web servers, where the average user watches under half a minute of video, but downloads nearly five minutes of content.  Video consumption is exploding online and of you ascribe to The Big Internet Slowdown Deloitte Consulting and Nemertes Consulting have predicted, we're in for a big slowdown by 2010.  "Users will experience a slow, subtle degradation, so it's back to the bad old days of dial-up," says Nemertes President Johna Till Johnson. "The cool stuff that you'll want to do will be such a pain in the rear that you won't do it."

Just as we're hearing about the importance of responsible energy use, content providers are increasingly being encouraged to do the same for Internet bandwidth.  By only delivering the data consumed by the user by using the streaming server features in Windows Media Services for Live and on-demand content and/or the upcoming IIS7 Media Pack, content providers can realize lower costs of delivery of a wide range of content types and be a more responsible, "Netizen".  One of the complaints we've heard about Windows Media Services in the past is the complexity of having to manage a separate service in a separate console for media, separate from the web server and application farm.  Windows Media Services 2008 addresses this with simplified admin, and unparalleled scalability.  In tests, WMS 2008 is twice as scalable as the release in Windows Server 2003 on the same hardware which means fewer servers, and higher performance.  Unlike some other solutions, Windows Media Services is a fully 64-bit enabled service, not a 32-bit solution running atop the platform.  There are a number of additional features here, which Harry Mower goes into on his blog here. 

But what if you want to  host your on-demand media content on your Web server or are supporting multiple file types from different vendors?  This is where the IIS7 Media Pack comes in.  This new add-on delivers intelligent bit-rate throttling for a wide range of file types - including Windows Media, QuickTime, Real, and even Flash video content.  What's more, it's configurable so that it can be used for application downloads as well.  By throttling content downloads, you ensure a more efficient and scalable delivery model.  Windows Server 2008 also supports clustering, enhanced cache/proxy support and much more that customers have come to expect in an industrial-strength content delivery platform.

HD video puts increasing strain on infrastructure, which is why we're working closely with big content delivery networks and startups alike who are looking for ways to address, and ensuring that Silverlight is a viable solution for them.  Download WS2008 and the IIS7 Media Pack Bit-rate Module today.

It's not just about stunning marketing sites and video on the Web - enterprise customers have recognized the proven reliability and scalability of Windows Media streaming and IIS for LOB applications, corporate communications, or e-learning solutions using a trusted solution broadly used for years- it's just getting better.  Experience matters as Forrester's recent RIA report notes- even in the enterprise.  It's our intent to seamlessly integrate Silverlight into existing installations and make it simple and scalable for others.

Windows Server 2008 will be released on February 27 2008, but you don't have to wait to start taking advantage of the platform already in use in some of the biggest sites on the web- you'll hear more about this come launch.

Free Content Distribution with Silverlight Streaming

If you aren't interested in setting up your own server, you can host on the MS network via Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live.  Currently available in test form, you can host up to 4GB of Silverlight applications on Microsoft's geo-distributed network. Primarily created as a simple way to host video-based applications for developers, Silverlight Streaming has been adopted by Solution Providers and even ISVs such as Roxio for simple video publishing.  To fully prove out the network, we've been hosting applications including the Halo3 Interactive Manual.  You can expect even more great things from the Silverlight Streaming team in the new year.

Content Playback in Silverlight

Silverlight 1.0 today offers great media delivery options, addressing cross-platform support with Mac and Windows (Linux support coming), and cross-browser support for IE, Firefox, and Safari. Thanks to the efficiencies offered by the SMPTE-standardized VC-1 video format, Silverlight can deliver HD-quality without hardware acceleration as can be see here.  (It's important to note that two formats were selected for next-generation video experiences in Blu-Ray and HD-DVD - VC-1 and H.264. Today over 90% of all HD-DVD titles are presented in VC-1). No pre-requisite version of Windows Media Player or any other player is required with Silverlight, just a small browser plug-in.  What's more, with Silverlight, your HD content can play off of any web server or take advantage of the Windows Server efficiencies covered above.

There's a lot more happening by way of media support in Silverlight- more details to come in the following months. Scott detailed the developer-focused roadmap here. One thing I can saw we're working on across the stack is performance - at MIX last year, folks saw what .NET could do, with a 1000x improvement in performance over script-based solutions.  The teams are thinking about performance across the stack as seen with Windows Server, and you'll see with Silverlight 2.0

If you're a hardcore video geek dealing with the mix-mash of video formats and wondering what will really be supported in the December 2007 Xbox Dashboard Update, then you'll want to read this FAQ.  Otherwise, we return you to your morning coffee.

Xbox Team : December 2007 Video Playback FAQ

Was too busy to note the following interesting stories the last few days:

• TiVo to get solution for Switched Digital Cable Nets, coming Q208
• TiVo interface coming to PC via Nero deal
• TiVo announces 3Qtr results, still losing millions :(
• Verizon to offer, "Any Apps, Any Device" option for customers (but at what cost)?
• Wired is spinning up its Video Division. IPTV for everybody!
• Xbox 360 Backwards compatbility update adds support for 80 add'l classic games
• Quad CableCard Tuner systems from Inteset for Media Center announced

Michael Scherotter has written a great overview of his workflow for adding Silverlight-based video to his site.  I also hadn't seen the video of actor/rapper Ice Cube talking about Silverlight and their latest venture, UVNTV.com and all demoed on a Mac.  Pretty wild.

Synergist : Encoding Formats for Silverlight Video

Learn to Fly--Foo Fighters

Things Have Changed--Dylan

This Is How a Heart Breaks--Rob Thomas

Runnin' Down a Dream--Petty

Someday Baby--Dylan

LA Woman--Doors

Locomotive Breath--Jethro Tull

Won't Get Fooled Again--The Who

You Can't Catch Me--Stones

Freebird--Skynard

China Grove--Doobie Bros.

Don't Fear the Reaper--Blue Oyster Cult

We're an American Band--Grand Funk Railroad

If you're using an Airport Extreme with WPA/WPA2 Personal security enabled, you might notice that your shiny new Zune 2.0 software can't find your network automatically. The fix is  to manually add your Airport and set the network type as "WPA using TKIP" and away you go.

Technical reason: Airport Extremes for some reason squawk as WPA2  and not WPA, even when in mixed security mode which means they don't show up in the list. The Zune team is aware of the issue and it has been reported to Apple.

I have to say I'm pretty impressed with the wireless sync feature. Four years ago we were talking about being able to wirelessly sync your device from your car in the garage. Now it's a reality, and a killer feature IMO.

One of my favorite people in eHome, Charlie Owen notes, "I'm going to head up an effort here at Microsoft between the Media Center, XBox and Zune teams to give you a set of resources which help you put our products together and begin to realize the 'Connected Home' dream." 

An admirable start. As I've noted here, I would like to see the merging of Windows Home Server and Media Center, and perhaps a wireless home automation component, though I have yet to use it beyond my Logitech Harmony remote. 

I'd also like to see a, "Buy anywhere, Watch anywhere" merging of the Marketplaces in Xbox 360, Zune, and Media Center.

Give Charlie your feedback in comments on his blog here.

via eHomeUpgrade

Sometimes there's just so much good stuff happening that I miss out.  I was browsing the Facebook community for Silverlight (nearly 1000 strong now) and a picture caught my eye.  There was  Adam Kinney's Xbox Friends Watch gadget.  Designed for Windows Vista Sidebar and built with Silverlight, pick the friends you want to track (by gamertag) and you can see online status, browse through latest games and more. 

Adam is one of my favorite inventors in our Developer & Platform Evangelism group.  Simple, yet functional.  Kudos Adam, kudos.

Michael Gartenberg, wizard of digital media at Jupiter Research recently blogged  about  the new round in the HD format battle. With Best Buy following Wal-Mart in offering Toshiba HD-A2 HD-DVD players at a swank $99, Michael notes, "At that [price] point, it's not a competition between HD-DVD and Blue-Ray, it's a competition (correctly so) between HD-DVD and DVD."

Frankly, the whole topic jumped the shark for me nearly six months ago.  But the whole price war has really piqued my curiosity.  I wonder if Toshiba and its partners can keep the prices that low and for how  long?  Either way, Michael has an interesting point - "With prices that low, backwards compatibility and some very good content starting to appear (the Heroes Season 1 Box Set, Transformers and soon the first season the original Star Trek series) we may be getting to a point this holiday season that could tip the balance."

Back in February, I did a quick analysis of the price points for the formats, based on Amazon.com price points for the top players in both formats.  While unscientific, this yielded an average cost of nearly $850 for BD and $400 for HD-DVD (not including game consoles).  While it's clear that BD players have made the most movement, it's unclear when or if prices will drop to this price on an average basis.

And Sony's response to the HD price event?  "Blu-ray will be down to $399 and slightly below that, but not much lower," according to Sony Electronics President Stan Glasgow.

Whether Toshiba was looking to move old inventory (as in a unit that first shipped Q1CY07), or this represents a tipping point in the HD format battles is unclear. Either way, the PR and marketing value of HD-DVD becoming synonymous with "Affordable HD on a disc" is palpable.

Whichever way this one goes, my advice still remains- sign up for NetFlix or Blockbuster's online service and receive whichever format you prefer without purchasing the discs until the whole format war is sorted out.

Note: I do not work for nor with the HD-DVD effort at Microsoft - all comments are my own and not representative of my employer.

If you're an owner of a first-generation Zune,  now known as the Zune 30, it's nice to note that  you'll also shortly be able to use the new Zune software on your device and the new  Zune software starting on 11/13 - that's next Tuesday folks.  I'll post some thoughts here shortly after it's in the wild.

My iPhone and iTunes also took an update yesterday, pushing out a bunch of games and whatnot for the iPod.  I still don't understand why I have to reboot my PC it seems every time iTunes wants to do an update.  Oh well, off to rebootland.

eHomeUpgrade is reporting today on the availability of HP's sleek and sexy Windows Home server.  Now available for pre-order on Amazon.com and the other usual places, a 1TB version is available for $709.99.  If you don't already have a home server and hard-drives sitting around, this is a solid alternative to the Data Robotics Drobo which I've reviewed in the past and everything in-between.

Windows Home Server is nearing critical mass with the number of add-ons for everything from TiVo to iTunes, to a PhotoSync app for Flickr.  My main feature request is Media Center DVR support as a part of the server itself. Having recently upgraded to 802.11n and Gigabit Ethernet in the house, I want one box in the network closet that does it all.  How about it Charlie? ;)

My mother always taught me if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all.  I decided to opt out of all the hype/buzz/drivel about the Zune 2 announcement here because quite frankly I've been underwhelmed.  But I seem to keep getting emails asking what I think.  Sure, I have friends working on it.  I've inquired, "Please tell me the player is much much improved" and was told, by a friend "Trust us, it will be".  After sending mail to some other friends in Zune-land stating, "I love the iPhone, will I like the Zune?"  The response, "Just wait".   Hey, I want to like it, but I'm not going to shill for it.  I just can't seem to get jazzed up about the product after v1 was such a let down for me personally.  Then the company meeting happened.  I waited for the big Zune demo and announcement all employees would get one (ala Steve Jobs + iPod).  Neither the demo or the rumored announcement happened.  How will this device get to escape velocity if we're not firmly behind it?

So I've been waiting, looking the space more as a general consumer than I've been for years.  The tepid comments regarding Zune 1 and somewhat quiet introduction of Zune 2 had me concerned earlier this week.  Now it appears things are changing.  First the team is smartly offering the free update for all customers who purchased Zune 1 - we'll get all the software features.  Second, the new devices are definitely a generation ahead of v1.  Now, I'm waiting and reading Steve O'Hear from Last 100's coverage on the 5 things Microsoft did right with the Zune 2:

1. WiFi music syncing.  Definitely a big plus in my book.  Fewer wires = goodness and my Zune can now sit in the kitchen/office
2. Support for audio and video podcasts. Finally!  Someday I'll write my memoirs on how hard we tried to get this into another player...
3. Windows Media Center TV recording transfer. Good to see, still skeptical until I see it in action. 
4. Social Networking. Zune Social and Zune Card will be interesting.  But I still want "Zune Finder" as a gadget/widget/mini-app that detects Zunes when I'm on my laptop and have my Zune WiFi turned off at the airport, at conferences etc.
5. Free update for existing customers. Yep.  This is great.
   
   To this, I want to add my own:
   
6. MP3 Store. It's about friggin' time.  I completely converted from WMA and iTunes DRM'd content to MP3-only earlier this year through a painful series of CD rips ;).  Now my iTunes, Media Center, and Sonos Libraries work in harmony.  I use MusicBridge (an awesome, must-have tool) to keep my playlists, ratings, and playcounts in sync and I'm good to go. 
7. Media Player Software that looks clean and usable again. The video clips I've seen of the Zune look outstanding.  iTunes has it's quirks, WMP hasn't kept up with my music library but does a better job at certain functions  like album art matching. 
8. FM radio. Often overlooked, I sometimes get bored with shuffle and my playlists and just want to connect with the outside world. FM radio still has it's place.
9. The new Zune 2. Touchpad is the way to go.  Single-handed use is still easy, something that is increasingly frustrating me about the iPhone.
10. Support for Apple's Podcast extensions are coming. First comes denial, then anger, then acceptance ;). Zunester seems to confirm this which is nice to see. Album art today, full features soon?

Will I be trading in my iPhone for a Zune 2?  Not likely, namely because I love the in-car integration I have with my VaisTech adapter in my Toyota.  But I will load up the new software on my Zune 1 and give it another whirl.

Sorry- this is geek humor.  Jeff has the details here.

Hot on the heels of their latest release, the MSN Video and the Soapbox teams recently announced their plans to move to Silverlight.  In their latest blog post:

What about the future?  One topic we’re talking a lot about is offering MSN Video and Soapbox with Microsoft Silverlight.  Silverlight just shipped a few weeks ago with a lot of benefits, such as offering - up to HD quality video on the Web for Mac and Windows today, and will support Linux later this year.  We’re excited to move to Silverlight in the future and are working closely with the Silverlight team, stay tuned for more details. ;) 

You may have also noticed that Microsoft's flagship homepage, www.microsoft.com has started delivering interactive content exclusively in Silverlight as well.  This is just the beginning.  Moving forward, interactive content across the site will be presented in Silverlight.  This has been a concerted effort by all teams, and our hats off to our creative agencies, McCann Worldwide, and Wunderman (among so many others) for helping to make this happen.

As promised, the little elves have have been busy working on new surprises. The official Halo 3 Game Guide is now live, powered by Silverlight.  Get a sneak peek inside the game, the characters, and the story so far is this first of sure to be many game guides for upcoming Xbox 360 and Games for Windows titles. 

In addition to the game guide, we've placed new videos including "Enemy Weapon", "Believe" in HD and standard def for Mac and Windows users to enjoy in the Halo 3 Silverlight Movie Gallery.

But we heard you couldn't get enough Halo 3.  So we also posted, "The Making of Diorama", a story of the enduring survival of our species as told over a 3D snapshot of the epic battle and "Museum".  These were only shot in SD but we think you'll enjoy the higher quality originals.

Watch them all here, powered by the same Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live network you can use for your own clips.  Get your 4GB of free video space here.

The Halo 3 freight train moves on.  This time, it's the Tafiti experimental search engine that's been reskinned for the Halo 3 launch and is powered by Silverlight.  You might even see some new videos start to show up in the MSN and Windows Live-powered Halo 3 HD video gallery as well as some other nice touches shortly.

Oh and in case you're wondering who is serving all that bandwidth?  We're using the Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live service you can also use for free.

Check out the new World Series of Poker site powered by Silverlight and iStreamPlayer. 

On Friday, I had an opportunity to attend the Halo 3 Launch Appreciation Team party at an undisclosed location in the Redmond area.  This was the core marketing and  product management team responsible for releasing the product and it was a fun time.  Jerett, the Group manager for H3 had managed to secure eight final copies of the game for us to play and I took third in one of the rounds as a veritable noob on the final product.  All I can say is that the game still has surprises in it and the feel is so refined, so much more authentic when compared to Halo 2.  This was a good reminder that sometimes the most important meetings you have are outside the office.

By now a whole lot of you have seen the Halo 3 HD videos via Silverlight.  A question I sometimes get is why all the properties aren't done in Silverlight?  Answer is simple: we just shipped and a veritable army of vendors, creative agencies, and content providers A) are responsible for efforts such as the Halo launch and B) are being trained up on Silverlight as we speak, starting with top agencies of record.  Most of these campaigns were underway long before Silverlight was ready to ship.  Rest assured though, we'll have some more Silverlight goodies for fellow Halo 3 fans shortly. ;)

Speaking of goodies, one of my favorites is the new Halo 3 "Believe" experience.  This interactive diorama museum from the future was moving and has led to some very well produced fan commercials.  I'm pretty sure one of the prizes given away at the party was a soldier from the diorama (with a broken thumb) but it's significance was lost on me until I saw the site.

I've now had the pleasure to be involved in all three Halo launches - helping to produce the WMP skin and promotional DVD's for H1, the unveil of the H2 video in HD and 5.1 audio for the WM 9 Series Launch, and now HD and interactive efforts around Silverlight.  In my estimation, the journey has been the biggest reward.  I'm looking forward to launch day - Sept 25th.

(These thoughts are my own and don't reflect my employer)

There are certain things that are hard to watch being built - meat products and software come to mind.  In the software realm, the ante goes up when you're talking about consumer software that is critical to peace and harmony in the household.  Of course I'm talking about the DVR.

As the Group Product Manager for Windows Media Center 2004-2005, I had an enlightening opportunity to see the sheer volume of work required to create a stable DVR application that runs on a multitude of OEM PC configurations.  At the time, I really loved the product and technology. Then a few things happened.

First, I was given an opportunity/challenge to join the Vista team and had to leave my beloved MCE team behind.  I became a consumer again. Then, we moved to an area where I could no longer get an over-the-air HD signal and Media Center had to take a back seat as our HD DVR.

The Comcast Cable Box Nightmare
The Motorola box from Comcast was our only option at the time for watching HD, something that my wife and I both really enjoy.  But the Comcast box was (and continues to be) infuriatingly slow.  My wife regularly complained, rather her head spun like a merry-go-round whilst flames spew out of her mouth at the lack of performance.  The upholstery was starting to get charred from this weekly occurrence.

Switching to TiVo Series3
Finally, a solution that delivered adequate performance and HD DVR plus a few other features I loved.  After a year of my wife ranting about the Moto cable box, and realizing  it was going to be a while before Cablecard was ready for Media Center (and vice versa) I switched to the TiVo Series3.  It was a hard move, like the breakup of a long relationship. The extenders were put away, the Media Center removed from the living room.  I have raved here about my Series3 but recently have found myself disappointed in a few key areas:

• Database performance. Dare I say the TiVo seems slower than the Comcast box when adding new recordings or pulling up guide data
• UI sluggishness.  The TiVo engine seems like it hasn't changed much in5 years and neither has the performance save for a modest increase in speed
• UX Idiosyncracies.  Since adding new features such as Swivel Search and Amazon Unbox (both of which are welcome additions) the UI doesn't appear to be able to handle these additions elegantly.  Add to this the fact that the guide displays in 4:3 instead of 16:9 when tuned to an SD channel, and I get strange flickering as the device switches formats between channels and guides and it still has some rough edges (not to mention the rough edges on the graphics- this is HD!)
• A year later, still no ability to stream video from one TiVo to another room, only vague statements of future support. I understand these are issues related to CableCard's requirements and the long times to get certification on any solution, but this was a reason I wanted to go to TiVo! 

So, a few weeks ago I was invited to try a new Vista Media Center w/ CableCard support.  I held my breath and dove back in. 

Vista Media Center, Cable Cards Grow Up
At first I was apprehensive. I knew how complicated Cablecard setup could be and didn't look forward to training Comcast's CSRs as I had to with TiVo.  I installed the new PC, plugged in the Drobo, the ATI HD Cablecard tuners and set up the cablecards.  I had one defective card which I returned and after a quick call to Comcast, both were up and running.  Next I paired my two Xbox 360's and curiously, everything worked. I was tuning channels, recording two stations without issue.  Now keep in mind I have a wired ethernet network in my house, which certainly helps things.  I had forgotten just how polished the experience is on the Media Center.  Setup is still not as easy as it could be (this is symptomatic of the entire cable industry who was forced by the FCC to add support for 3rd party cable boxes on their networks so the clunky CableCard was born.  At least Comcast's CSR's were knowledgeable when I called to set it up. What a difference a year makes.

I'm now entering the two-week period with my Media Center working as an HD DVR. With a little reprogramming of my remote, my wife is actually happy. Every program we've scheduled has recorded.  Amazon Unbox works with Media Center as well and the promise of new Vista Media Center extenders with multiple format support (thank you Dave Alles!) and free Internet TV programming mean I can enjoy around the house.  I've been testing the new Internet TV features and think users will be pleased.

In an upcoming post, I'll compare and contrast my experiences.

Beet.tv has a good interview here with the creators the Entertainment Tonight application powered by Silverlight.

Scott Hanselman says:

Wow, I didn't see this coming. (That's a lie, I totally saw it coming and have been saying it could, would and should happen for months) Silverlight 1.0 is officially released as of 9pm PST and surprise! It will formally support Linux (screenshots) as Moonlight via a partnership with Novell in the coming months.

Andy Plessner says:

Microsoft just released Silverlight 1.0, the cross-platform, cross-browser plug-in for streaming video, games and other multi-media content. The company has a number of content partners who will use Silverlight including Entertainment Tonight, HSN, World Wrestling Entertainment.

Entertainment Tonight launches today in Silverlight.  (As reported on Beet.TV Major League Baseball launched in an earlier version of Silverlight in late July.)

Like Flash, Silverlight is a thin plug-in download... Thanks to everyone at Microsoft for such warm hospitality for the purple channel.
(Of course Andy- our pleasure!)

Computerworld noted:

[Microsoft] said it will work with Novell Inc. on the Linux version of Silverlight, to be called Moonlight.

Microsoft will build the video codecs for the Moonlight project and supply Novell with software to test and ensure Silverlight runs well on 32-bit and 64-bit PCs running Suse Linux, Red Hat and Ubuntu.

Infoworld quoted the WWE's creative director as saying:

It's the advantages from a development side that Silverlight offers us," in terms of streaming video costs and displaying multiple video streams, he said.

"Flash certainly is a great tool, and we have some Flash product on our site, but I think overall as a company to partner with, Microsoft is going to be a great partner going forward," Angert said. WWE plans to use Silverlight for wrestling videos and broadband content. Current systems will be kept in place without much change, Angert said.

And the News.com NewsBlog noted:

Another key part of Microsoft's Silverlight strategy is to rely on its development tools. Its Visual Studio programming tools and Expression-branded designer products ease collaboration between developers and Web designers, Goldfarb said.

Version 1.1 of Silverlight, which Microsoft announced at its Mix 07 conference in May, will be available next year, probably in the summer, he said. That version will have support for the .Net programming model used in Microsoft's development languages, including scripting languages.

With the Silverlight 1.0 release, Microsoft also intends to release Expression Encoder, a tool meant to make it easy to encode video for display on the Web with Silverlight.

Not a bad start.

Chalk it up to global warming.  Earlier tonight, Microsoft and Novell announced plans to bring Silverlight to our shared customers on Linux. In a solution called, "Moonlight", Novell will be creating a Silverlight implementation as a part of the Mono project.

Why is this significant?  It's a continuation of our commitment to listen to customers and bring Silverlight to the platforms that matter to them.  Scrape away the veneer and it's simple- because they asked us to. Nicely.  A lot of credit goes to Miguel de Icaza whom I had the opportunity to meet at MIX.  From there, the teams held a series of conversations throughout the summer. 

Also in the news, Entertainment Tonight is doubling down with Silverlight, as are about 35 other partners announcing support. 

I'd also be remiss to not mention that tomorrow AM, we're launching Expression Encoder.  If you're looking for an easy tool to publish video and audio content or even live events with Silverlight, Expression Encoder is your tool.  In the coming weeks, we'll also release a plug-in for publishing directly to Silverlight Streaming and an API that makes it easy to publish via other services.

Too much for one blog post.  Net-net, at MIX we said we'd deliver Silverlight 1.0 this Summer* and we did. Silverlight 1.1 is in tandem development and significant resources are going to this effort.  It's time to Light up the Web.

Congratulations to the teams who made this possible.  Truly the most "can do" effort in my time at MSFT.

(Note: Many web properties will launch tomorrow AM Pacific by design)

This is to my recollection my first link to Fake Steve Jobs.  I enjoy him every once in a while, like a Far Side cartoon.  Tonight, I read his post, "A Boring Rant" about iTunes vs. NBC and he almost sounded lucid.  I think he's off the mark on Apple creating original video. They'll start where the risks are lower - music.

My prediction:  Apple will start a music label as the first step. They will have at least three major artists -

1. An established, older but wildly successful artist that's experienced a slight downturn, to focus on the aging adult contemporaries with the budget to buy Mac products
2. A hot country artist because we're reportedly a NASCAR nation*
3. One more youthful artist, probably focused on the urban demographic.

Or they may go all-in with a big defection en-masse.  Apple will make a statement to the industry by making these tracks available at a slightly cheaper price than other tracks on the site.  The might start by offering non-DRM'd tracks for $.99 vs. the requisite $1.29 found now.  They'll generate modest profits and promote like hell to get on the radio airwaves.  They'll use television ad time traditionally used to drum up iPod awareness (like we needed any) to promote the songs and the new iPods on their way.

Or perhaps I'm off the mark and the numbers don't add up.  Either way, ubiquitous broadband is the real disruptive force happening here, and on that we agree.

*My son is an addict and preschool slave at the altar of Pixar's Cars.  John Lasseter and the Pixar team are phenomenal in my book, but if I have to hear, "It's all gas and goes for McQueen today!" one more time...

Don't know who Akamai is?  You should.  According to some reports, a majority of internet downloads and audio/video streams run through their content delivery network (CDN).  GigaOm has a solid writeup on Akamai's new HD delivery network for the Web capable of delivering the highest level of commercialized HD - 1080p to the masses.  Realistically, I don't expect we'll see a lot of 1080p content floating around for a matter of years, but certainly within the next five it will become commonplace for commercial  content. 720p will work for a lot of short-form content, with many movie trailers already being offered up in HD on sites including the new Halo 3 HD Mini Movie done with Weta digital (Peter Jackson's outfit).

Ever wonder what a warthog or brute would look like in real life?  Neill Blomkamp's new gritty, live action short film based on the Halo franchise can be found here on MSN, powered by Silverlight.  Standard Def version here.

Now if only there was a feature-length movie to accompany...

NYTimes writer Eric Pfanner notes the increasing number of airlines advertising to their captive audiences.  I get offended by Alaska Airlines flight attendants giving me a minute-long spiel on their credit card.  Where does it end?  There are all sorts of opportunities.  Want to target the mommy and new parent crowd?  Perhaps I should start selling ad space on my newborn son's onesies:

Hey, it worked for Chris Pirillo :)  How about, "Powered by Pampers" or "Spit up provided by Gerber"?  Then we could branch out and put advertisements on the dark UV blocking film you put on the kids car window so they don't burn and look like George Hamilton.

Oh and comments should be back on if anyone dares.  Any other slogans. :)

This AM, the meme is buzzing about Skinkers and Silverlight.  Matteo Berlucci the CEO of Skinkers is one of the most impressive people I've met in a long time. Matteo gave an excellent presentation during my keynote at Streaming Media East and I'm encouraged to see the great coverage they are getting for LiveStation, which uses MSR P2P technology and Silverlight to enable stream-slinging.  No, they are not a competitor to Joost, and are more complementary than anything else in this emerging market.  Don Dodge has more over here.

Whoops gotta go- our son apparently wants to arrive a little early (c-section was scheduled for tomorrow and things are happening) so off to the Dr to check it out.

 One of my favorite designers, Celso Gomes has just launched, "Nibbles: Snack tutorials for hungry designers". Eventually it will include WPF samples but for now, is focused on Silverlight!  Not a designer you say?  You should still check out his samples.  Celso is an incredibly gifted designer and inviting others to submit.  He has a blog set up too for feedback and updates.  Nibble away.

CNet's Webware site is billed as "Cool apps for everyone".  So when we heard that Silverlight was nominated for a "Webware 100 Award" in the publishing category we were elated.  Today, the 100 best Web 2.0 products were announced, chosen by you.

So on the heels of the Popfly PC World announcement, you can imagine my surprise when I learned about two hours ago (under embargo) that Silverlight is a Webware 100 winner.  My favorite quote:

We're already starting to see some pretty good-looking Silverlight Web applications crop up, although the platform is both young and lacks some of the expert developers that Flash has under its belt. Given time though, this could be the next big thing.

And we're only in Beta. Congratulations to the Silverlight (and Popfly) teams!

It appears the guys at DivX have unveiled their rumored hardware, the new DivX GejBox -  a reference/test set-top entering an already questionable field.  No, I'm not adding that wink for giggles, it's really in the product name, which Engadget refuses to include on principle.  DivX has been trying for nearly a decade to build some street credibility as a video format, originally popularized by movie traders on the internets. You kind of have to hand it to them, they have staying power.  A few asian manufacturers support their offbeat MPEG-4 profiles (which have been beaten by XviD in every codec shootout since 2003). Let's forget the company was named the same as a failed (and despised) timebombed rental disc program Digital Video Express, but to build a box, and then name it after the hacker handle used by a co-founder doesn't smack of responsible marketing.  At least it has HDMI and wireless though I doubt many consumers will be picking this up over an Apple TV or Xbox 360 (for Extender). 

(The first of a three part series)

I'll admit it.  I tried to break my Drobo on Day 1.  No, I didn't drop it or mangle it.  I just did everything backwards.

1. I plugged it in before installing the dashboard app.  It showed up as a "Protected USB device". Oookay...

2.  I downloaded installed the software and installed it... via Remote Desktop.

3.  I put four of the five drives in- starting with a piddly 42GB drive, a 160GB, a  320GB and a 500GB'er. Did I forget to mention I put the last two drives in backwards?

4.  Did I forget to mention that I put all the drives in before powering it up, and then proceeded to format the two drives?

5.  Then I put the bottom 320GB and 500GB drives in correctly. Drobo Dashboard found and automatically formatted the drives.

6.  Next I started a big copy - 23GB.  Started off great, though a  little slow.

7.  Then I got impatient about 10GB in and pulled the 42GB main drive OUT and dropped a 400GB in.

8.  Transfer went fine.  Then I took 300GB and let it run overnight.  Logging back in in the morning- all my data was there.

So what happened? Not a hiccup. The Drobo protested with blinking yellow lights that I wouldn't be protected against a single HDD failure.  But I didn't have to re-format, everything just worked as expected.  You have to get over the confusing fact that the drives will always report 2TB to Windows (or greater) but the actual storage is much smaller.  A large portion of the available space is also taken up for buffer so even after formatting I had on the order of 100GB unavailable. I suspect this is buffer space. The Drobo Dashboard gives you a true view of space on the drive (psst- where's the Drobo Dashboard Gadget?)

As with most USB transfers however, it felt a bit slow.  Here's to hoping for an eSATA version in the future or if someone can figure out how to "channel bond" two USB ports for faster throughput (send my patent check in the mail please). :)

(Next up: Serving HD video off the Drobo- Media Center Style)

The question is simple: "What are the best Web apps?"  Silverlight hasn't shipped 1.0 yet but is already named a finalist in the publishing category.  Feel free to vote for your favorite here.

I've been doing a lot less Twittering and spending a lot more time in Facebook.  Given they're adding over 100,000 users a day and the fastest growing demographic is inthe 25 and over crowd, I guess it isn't surprising- they're nimble, offer a whole host of social networking features and a lot of my friends and coworkers are now over there.

And yesterday things got a lot more interesting.  Microsoft and Facebook announced a  new partnership.  Microsoft already powers the ad engine on Facebook, and now is working together to bring Silverlight and Popfly en-masse to the Facebook community. 

The Microsoft and Facebook partnership means Facebook are now empowered to customize their Facebook pages in richly interactive ways. Even if they have no development experience, Facebook users will have tools that let them create pages that reflect their personality with Popfly and Silverlight delivering cross-platform, cross-browser goodness.

Also announced:

• Distribution of the Facebook Developer Toolkit.  The FDT was developed by Microsoft to wrap the Facebook API into a managed component.  Through this component, developers now will be able to drag ‘n drop a Facebook component onto the component tray in Visual C# Express , Visual Basic Express and Visual Web Developer (for both Whidbey and Orcas).  Users will be provided all the source code, sample applications including a WPF app and detail documentation. 

• Co-branded Landing Page on the Facebook developer website.  At this site, visitors will be able to see Microsoft Visual Studio Express and Microsoft Popfly links.  Additionally, a series of new pages were developed called Showcase on the Visual Studio Express site.

And of course now I'm playing with applications on Facebook such as the Flickr Importer and iLike (the name the song game is addictive).  Fun times and diversions for the holiday weekend.

Ok the blog is back up with some load-balancing features so I can talk about Popfly!  This is for the YouTube & MySpace generation- interested in mashups that bend to your will, combining mapping, Flickr, and bLaugh with unintended consequences.  Given all the new API's starting to show up, this has tremendous potential for the developer challenged.  Just connect the dots (literally) and create your own. It will even roll the code into a Windows Sidebar Gadget or enable you to embed easily into your own site. This is just an Alpha and LOT more is planned.  But I have to hand it to John, Dan and team this is an awesome use of Silverlight.  Watch the video and let the mashing begin.

Earlier this week, Roxio launched a beta of Roxio Buzz with Silverlight Streaming support.  What is Buzz? It's a simple tool for editing and publishing user-generated video to the Web. This thing is so simple my mother could use it.  Built with .NET (WPF), Buzz will encode and publish your video to a # of user-generated sites, or now, your free Silverlight Streaming account for embedding on your website.  Bloggers can now go forth and enjoy the 4GB of free goodness.  Could a Windows Live Writer plug-in be around the corner? A friend tells me, "Yes".  

This is what happens when my worlds collide.  Feel free to listen in on my chat with Ian Dixon of The Media Center Show about Silverlight.

This weekend, you can experience the Xbox Elite campaign in Silverlight on the Microsoft.com homepage.  Go check out the Xbxo 360 Elite in all its glory.  (Note: If you don't have the Silverlight Beta installed, you'll see a ribbon to see the site in Silverlight, note that Silverlight is in Beta).

This is only the beginning... Kudos to the Microsoft.com team on this pilot endeavor.  I'm off to NY tomorrow- spend Mother's Day with my mom (sorry honey) and then off to Streaming Media East.  It should be a fun time.

Last night, Scott Guthrie and a few of us on the Silverlight product team went to see Aerosmith in concert at the Mandalay Bay - something I've always wanted to do and it as worth every moment!

Tonight I finally met Dave Winer in person at a Blogger meetup.   Today was mostly partner meet & greets, keynote rehearsals (which look great) and a few other things. One of them was giving Jeff Sandquist a special edition Microsoft Silverlight skateboard- the same design seen in the intro video at http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight.  He love skateboarding as do I.  The difference is tha the can actually skateboard.

These are special giveaways for partners and customers.  I've had to carry a few around the Venetian and keep getting stopped by security guards wanting to look at it, attendees etc.  I have one extra and will probably send it spontaneously to the person who does the most impressive Silverlight-enabled app about 30 days from now.   Heck, you might see a few given away at MIX07 :)

Tomorrow blogging is going to be a bit sporadic as I have a pretty tight schedule but will try to post as soon as possible - lots to talk about, so much good but will be covered elsewhere.

If' you're at MIX and want to meet up and discuss Silverlight's media capabilities, feel free to text me at +1-425-442-5712 or leave vmail (sporadic notification) and we'll try and meet up Tuesday or Wednesday. 

To quote Allen:

The demo of LiveStation, which showed a good-quality picture from the BBC in the midst of a bandwidth-hogging tech show, has another thing going for it - its ability to leverage Microsoft's new Silverlight platform to create "content experiences" based on LiveStation's streams. Has interactive TV finally found its way to the consumer?

It's a good question, and I look forward to Skinker's public beta.  I've been playing with Joost as well, both are fine examples of what can be done.  It did occur to me that the Joost UI could be done in Silverlight, making it accessible everywhere the Silverlight client resides.  But for me, content is more important than the medium.  And my Slingbox is safely tethered to my TiVo for PVR supports for now. :)

I've received so many inquiries and kudos about the Silverlight name, logo, and brand video internally and externally that I thought I'd post the real story of how it came together.

• Naming research was completed in Q3 2006.  We decided to hold it for a special event at a later date.  "WPF/E"- the codename of Silverlight was intentionally unappealing to keep mainstream consumers from installing it until we had good feedback from the developers/designers during the alpha (CTP) preview.
• Brand work was done by my team working with an outstanding design firm I'll mention here once I have clearance to do so (by them).  We kicked this off in October, and went through many iterations before landing on the animated logo and final frame lockup.  If you don't like the frame, you can blame me Long :)  The orb is a plasmic energy being held into shape by an unseen force, where it spins and flows, almost organically.
• The brand video was done by Phoenix Edit, a group of ex-Industrial Light & Magic wonks out of San Francisco.    The goal was to show many different Silverlight-enabled scenarios woven together – designer/developer collaboration, personalized e-commerce, devices, user-generated video, viral sharing, and the network effect on sales. We intentionally avoided excessive use of text or voiceover so the video will translate globally as we kick off events around the world. For the line, "Light up the Web" - you have me to blame.  It's more about illumination and blazing a trail vs. blazing anything else ;)
• The music in the brand video is by my friend and prominent UK DJ Andy Hunter. The song is “Go” off his album, “Exodus”.  Andy consulted on the project and the remix, and has considerable street cred touring with DJ Tiesto. His songs have been used in The Matrix games, and multiple movie/television show. Andy is now on Nettwerk records working on his next release.
• Customer and partner engagement was tightly synchronized.  During initial briefs, partners were shown a slide announcing the final name as "X-Plat Player Plug-in for Browsers" in Microsoft logotype, a self-deprecating way of noting that we knew the name had to be cool and were on the ball (ironically or sadly some thought that was the actual name!).  We'd show the logo without the name, and always used the name "WPF/E" in our discussions and external communications.
• For the press announce, named companies didn't even know the final name until a matter of hours before the release hit. We intentionally didn't publish any brand elements internally and had about a dozen people total that had access.  The product management team got really tired of hearing me talk about secrecy and except for a few small nits that went unnoticed, they really did us proud.

Some day I'll post the evolution timeline of the logo if others are interested.

Every year, the publishers of Videography, DV, Digital Cinematography, and Television Broadcast magazines get together at NAB and announce the "Best of Show" award winners in multiple categories.

The Best of Show Awards are given in recognition of outstanding achievement in the advancement of the art and science of video technology, include the Videography Vidy Awards, the longest running NAB awards program, the Television Broadcast Top Innovation Awards, the DV Black Diamond Awards, and the Digital Cinematography Premiere Awards.

"To receive an award, a technology is evaluated by our panel of editors and industry experts," says NewBay Media Video Group Vice President/Group Publishing Director Doug Krainman. "The winning technologies reflect innovation and engineering excellence.

I'm elated to note that Microsoft Silverlight was the recipient of a coveted DV Black Diamond Award, in such esteemed company as Apple Final Cut Studio 2.  Congrats to the entire team!

Dan is one of the top movers/shakers in the online media space.  A veteran of Web 1.0, EVP of StreamingMedia.com and and Chairman of the Streaming Media conferences,  he recently started a blog and people are taking notice.  I first met Dan back at Streaming Media West 2001, in-between Steve Ballmer heckling me on-stage for using my wedding video in an end to end demo :). 

Dan gets our strategy with Silverlight for the media space.  Customers want a solution with the quality/reliability of Windows Media, standards-support of VC-1, and the interactivity only available from another provider today:

While the higher cost of creating and delivering in Flash over Windows Media has not stopped too many in the past, it has stopped some content creators from wanting to spend two to three times more just to use the Flash streaming format... If Silverlight truly does allow content owners to create, encode and deliver content faster and cheaper while providing the same if not better user experience than Flash streaming, then Microsoft is going to have the advantage in the long run.

Almost every broadcaster I speak to is looking with whetted appetite to the moment they can deliver HD video on the Web in a reliable and effective manner.  While everyone talks about the rapidly dropping price of bandwidth on the Web, we seem to neglect the actual cost of retraining designers to be developers (or vice versa), the production costs associated with creation of more complex, experience-centric websites, and the plain fact that more bits flowing through the "tubes" of the internet = more congestion, particularly at HD rates.  This is why we're investing so heavily in Silverlight for media, and adding new features such as SSL (https://), the same technology used to protect your credit card information, will now be used for over-the wire encryption of progressive streams from Windows Server code name "Longhorn" to Silverlight.  A certain broadcaster said they needed it and were concerned about proprietary protocols of other solutions that were recently reverse engineered.

Dan Rayburn - Subscribed.

Hot on the heels of our annoucements at NAB and the overwhelming response, I'm happy to announce the Silverlight team is growing again.  If you want to be a part of the next wave of media experiences and help to build the business to create, deliver, and experience RIAs, new job opportunities exist for the following job roles:

• Sr. Product Management - Enterprise & Solutions Engagement
• Sr. Product Management - Server & Services Engagement
• Silverlight Business Development & Deployment

All jobs are located in Redmond, WA.  Qualified candidates should have minimum of 5 years in the industry, MBA preferable with experience in the enterprise streaming and/or content delivery space.  Excellent customer/partner references are a must.  Skiing and/or 'boarding experience is a plus.

If you're interested, feel free to contact me at LinkedIn or send me email at sean@seanalexander.com with "INQUIRY:" in the title and your resume/VC. Or come find me on LinkedIn if you prefer.

The positions are located in Redmond, WA and will require some travel, about 4 days a month. It's important to note these are senior positions, with large impact on the business working directly with partners, customers, and product team to  ensure we're meeting the needs of our customers in the years to come.  Mac+Windows enthusiasts appreciated. ;)

Hot on the heels of last night's Top 10 for Silverlight, the other product making major waves at NAB is Microsoft Expression Media Encoder - a template-based video publishing tool for Silverlight and more. Expression Media Encoder supports live and on-demand video encoding and is a feature of Expression Media (our upcoming Digital Asset Management tool based on the lauded iView Media Pro).  Tim Sneath has a great writeup on the encoder here. 

Top 10 Questions about Expression Media Encoder

1. What video formats can I import with MEME?
   A: QuickTime, AVI, WMV, and any other format with a well-formed DShow filter.  Yep, we did the extra work to support the QT API's and are showing it working on the show floor.  If you have QT installed, it will work.
2. What can MEME do with Silverlight?
   A: MEME can quickly add chapter points with thumbnails and publish out your video into WMV/SMPTE VC-1 - no coding required.  Then just add the Javascript and video to your site and away you go.  You can also do basic enhancements - add a transparent .PNG or .GIF as an overlay, add leader/trailers, crop and even do A|B compare.
3. Can I encode for devices?  Web sites?  Streaming servers?
   A: Yes!  We'll include device profiles for outputting just the video for now ;)  Silverlight works with any web server as well as the more efficient Windows Media streaming platform. Profiles are just .prx same as Windows Media Encoder. 
4. What about live support?
   A: Another big hit at the show is EME's ability to handle multi-angle, multi-source video.  You'll be able to do pre-roll from local disk, then output, even archive to disk.  Yes, I think some vloggers will find this handy for both live broadcasting and on-demand.
5. Tell me more about these templates?
   A: The beauty of Silverlight apps is that they can be written with Javascript + XML (XAML).  As a result, the chrome/skin/templates can be created in Expression Blend (or other tools, even notepad) and then swapped- much like blog site, website, or powerpoint templates. This feature is a huge hit at NAB.  We're showing how Blend can be used to create  template easily from scratch, then use the template in EME. 
6. Expression Media is available for Mac and Windows.  What about EME?
   A: EME is a Windows-only product and was actually built with Expression Studio- it's a WPF-based application. 
7. How fast is encoding with Expression Media Encoder?
   A: Very fast- about the same as WM Encoder but we know time is money in encoding, so we're working with Intel spin-off and Red Herring darling Tarari to add hardware acceleration!  Tarari's boards are used by major broadcasters and post houses to encode today.  With EME, Tarari is seeing up to 15x faster encoding times when compared to software only solutions. Just drop the board into a PCI slot and away you go
8. Can EME run on the server?
   A: Yes! EME is scriptable, automatable, and templatized (is that even a word?) so you can integrate it into your server workflow.  We think some user-generated content sites may find this interesting for example where long encoding times mean customers leave your site.
9. Will EME support output to other formats?
   A: We're considering it based on feedback. We know there's a demand for better, simpler transcoding tools, and EME is really optimized for Silverlight which uses VC-1 (as well as older.  Silverlight could add more formats, but when you consider the entire package is 1MB in size, just adding another video codec could increase that by 50%. Keep the code tight! 
10. What is the coolest feature of EME?
    A: For me, it's the A/B Encode Compare feature. Today most tools require you encode the entire file, then review the quality. Then tweak - a huge time sink.  EME will improve the quality of videos in general because you can encode a segment or snippet you define (such as a high action sequence) and then review.  You can even wipe back and forth in the frame, reviewing side by side the original and compressed, or even multiple encoder settings side by side to get the best quality possible. The metadata features are pretty cool too.
11. Does Expression Media Encoder replace Windows Media Encoder?
    No.  EME is a new product, optimized for fast and simple publishing of video on your website with Silverlight. WME continues to be made freely available at www.microsoft.com/windowsmedia EME will cost about $299.

Finally coming up for air now after 10 hours of press briefings for nearly three days, I can finally talk more here about Silverlight:

Top 10 Questions About Silverlight and Media

1. What media formats do you support?
   A: WMV7,8, 9/SMPTE VC-1, WMA, MP3
2. What is SMPTE VC-1?
   A: WMV9 - now an open standard recognzied by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) and shipping in all Blu-Ray and HD-DVD drives.
3. Will Silverlight work with my current Windows Media?
   A: Yes, it most definitely will work with your existing Windows Media
4. What do I have to do to add Silverlight to my site? For Mac and Windows playback?
   A: Once the beta ships in two weeks, all you'll have to do is drop a little .js and XML into your page and away you go. 
5. Can additional formats be added for playback?
   A: No, part of the appeal of Silverlight is the small package size- 1MB, includes everything it needs for video and audio, animation, graphics and AJAX-based programmability to boot!
6. What companies are supporting Silverlight?
   A: Major League Baseball, Brightcove, NetFlix, Frog Design, AvenueA/Razorfish, Akamai, and many others are among the names announced. 
7. How easy the install really going to be?
   A: How does 3 clicks sound for XP users?  Vista users have one more click by default due to the user account feature.  Web pages can be wired up to do in-line install and auto-refresh after you're done.
8. Can you really do 720p HD video?  What 3D video card do I need?
   A: Definitely.  About a 3ghz P4 class processor will work, regardless of video card. We've done some really neat processor optimizations. All the demos shown in the booth at NAB were run off a mid-range laptop.
9. Why does resizing/scaling of apps "snap" differently in Safari/FireFox/IE?
   A: It all depends upon the way the browser renders.  I won't make any qualitative comment as your mileage may vary.
10. Will Silverlight work with my existing web server?  What about live streaming?
    A: For on-demand, yes! Run it on Darwin, Apache, whatever you're running.  Of course, you'll get a few added benefits with Windows Media streaming- reduced bandwidth costs, faster seeking, etc.
11. Where can I learn more?
    A: Right now you can learn more at www.microsoft.com/silverlight.  The community site will go live at www.silverlight.net.  The Beta "Cruise" starts on April 30th.  

You can see the video here.  (Note, I won't be offering Silverlight-based videos here until beta ;))

Note: Silverlight doesn't use video acceleration (such as Aero-enabled PCs) for Silverlight.  That's one of the ways we keep everythng consistent between applications.   Also resize rendering is dependent upon the browser's capabilities and refresh rate. 

A few of you have been asking where I've been and why I've been so quiet about digital media. Has blogging become passe? Am I spending too much time reading Scoble? (no) or Pirillo (no)?   I am Twittering though - delivering bite size bloggables. Perhaps I joined Michael Gartenberg in returning to the "private sector"?  No again. I've been working heavily on exciting things we're going to unveil at MIX07.  If you're involved in digital media delivery on the web, you're going to want to see what we unveil at the show.

For the past six years, I've been involved in different aspects of digital media, dating back to Windows Media Player 7 and beyond.  With every release, a debate roiled internally - are we an experience or a platform?  More effort over time was put into creating an experience with Windows Media Player (as our customers were asking for), but the developer platform never saw much in the way of major leaps forward.  OCX updates were modest, load times were unacceptable to customers on web pages, and it was too complicated to create compelling and differentiated experiences.

Not for long.  We've been listening.  Taking notes.  Asking questions. Understanding what's needed to go beyond what's available today for delivering media-enriched experiences on the Web.  And MIX is where you're going to here more about that.  I have emails reporting that the media experience in www.vista.si from Microsoft Slovenia  beyond delivering a full Vista desktop emulator in "WPF/E" runs faster than some web-enabled experiences.

So at MIX, we're going to step it up with sessions dedicated to those focused on rich digital media delivery on the Web. You'll learn how to use new tools coming such as Expression Media Encoder, and how to use new features with Windows Server "Longhorn". Our team will be there- engaging in the conversation across a broad range of topics. 

Yesterday, I a podcast for the Mix website where I'll talk some more.  I'm going to be doing a lot of talking soon.  I'm also doing the first-day keynote at Streaming Media East. (Note to Dan Rayburn, I look about 10 years old in the picture on the site)

I'm also Twittering now.  The RSS feed is here.  Feel free to add me to your list if you dare.

I've been pretty heads down meeting with partners the past week so time to gome up for air.  Scott Guthrie, the General Manager for "WPF/E" among other things had an opportunity to do a guest spot on Red vs. Blue- the runaway hit machinima series choreographed in Halo 2.  The Channel 9 team even did a fun WPF/E-based player for it as well.

Check it out here.

It's propping to the servers.  If you're a developer and actually read my blog.  Here you go:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb188266.aspx

Last night, we posted a February update to the "WPF/E" Community Technology Preview for Windows and Mac.  Ryan Stewart at ZDNet picked up the new and talks about the update here.  The Channel9 guys already updated the C9 "WPF/E" playground to support the new release.  The SDK should be available shortly - team is putting some finishing touches on it and the webpages at the DevCenter. 

New features for developers include:

• Keyboard Input (KeyUp/KeyDown)
• MP3 Support
• Mouse cursor support
• Async downloader
• Simple text metrics
• Full screen mode
• Lots of performance work
• Improved JavaScript APIs

The team is making good progress and a sincere thank you goes out to all the customers providing feedback.  We're getting lots of requests for briefings, details, and the general buzz is palpable.  It's hard to handle all of them.  In fact, I'm hiring- more details on that later.

(For those who have asked, I still have the flu but getting better.  Thanks for the well wishes- heading back to bed.)

For those of you waiting for Nikon's official RAW image file reader (.nef) to show up and integrate with Windows Photo Gallery, it's now available.  Canon's RAW codec (.cr2)is still AWOL as is Adobe's Digital NeGative format (.dng).  Here's to hoping they show up soon.

While consumers work through the dizzying array of new features in Windows Vista, Ryan Stewart cuts through the hype and brings it back to what really matters - User Experience.  He notes, "We're all better off when experience wins and Vista is a huge step forward."  I couldn't agree more. But what about after the hype, the roar of marketing moves into sustain?  I'm expecting to see big pops of innovation as new Vista-enabled applications start to emerge.

An example of this is WPF - Windows Presentation Foundation, which is going to enable the next-generation of desktop applications that are 3D accelerated, and designer-developer collaboraration with Expression Studio and  Visual Studio.  I agree with Ryan, and look forward to seeing Tim Sneath write about these new applications.  Yes, they'll run on many XP PCs as well, but will truly sing on Vista.

Another will be "WPF/Everywhere" or "WPF/E" (Codename), which will take rich media experiences traditionally targeted at the desktop, and bring those to the Web with the flexibility of standards-based programming, and the power of XAML for presentation.  I've seen how important XAML is first-hand- when I worked in Windows as a program manager on Windows Vista Sidebar, the tension was palpable between the User Experiece designers creating the UI, and the developers who were unable to fully realize the vision pixel for pixel.  With Expression Studio + WPF, what you can envision, becomes programmable, pixel for pixel.  That is a powerful thing, and soon we're bringing that to the web as well.

Try WPF for yourself with my favorite "essential" application - the NY Times News Reader (beta). 

(I have the flu so I'm heading back to bed. :( )

Next time you start up Media Center, the Online Media strip should automatically refresh with the new content (it may take a few minutes). Additional partners will be filtering in shortly.  Looks like things are getting prepped for the Vista launch at the end of the month.

Last night, I had the honor of attending the Technical Emmy Awards ceremony at CES to help accept the Emmy Award for Streaming Media Architectures and Components.  Afterwards, we went to the Vista party at the Pure Nightclub in Caesars and brought the Emmy for safe keeping and to take pictures with other team members. It was a hit with a number of old friends who helped us to get this win.  It was a shared win- there was a sense of surprise when I congratulated the Apple team on their shared win as well.

John Carmack, co-founder of iD, creator of Doom and Quake and founder of Armadillo Aerospace was one of the presenters.  When I get a chance, I'll post some video I took during the ceremony. The DirectX team was also on-hand to accept an award for their 3D engine.

Thank you to all the engineers, designers, bizdev, marketing, management who helped to make the win possible but most importantly, to our customers.

More pictures from the party on Flickr here

Mike Taulty has posted an interesting sample showing 12 WMV media elements  all running in the same "WPF/E"-based web page.  Imagine being able to watch sporting events streamed in multiple video windows, mouse over a window and get the main screen view.

The uses for this technology are endless.  Imagine a device such as a Crestron-like touch screen control that has live previews of video across multiple channels.  Press the video feed you want and your TV switches.  It might be time to start playing with "WPF/E" inside Media Center's SDK too... ;)

Check out this game designed by DanC that has my wife salivating.  Remember, my wife loves puzzle games and thanks to her, my gamerscore on Xbox Live keeps going up (thanks hon).

From Danc's:

Pete, my old compatriot from Anark, was looking for a game design concept to turn into sample game for the Microsoft WPF/E samples they launched this Monday. He actually made it work with AI and everything. WPF/E is a lovely little web platform that Microsoft announced last year. It is in the early stages, but I have high hopes.

The game is a simple turn-based strategy game involving the capture of resources and the containment of enemies. If the response is good enough (and the programmer willing), there are quite a few more features I'd like to add.

• You can play the game here:
  http://channel9.msdn.com/playground/wpfe/Sprawl/default.html

• You'll need to install the latest WPF/E player. Yes, this runs in Firefox. Yes, it runs on Mac. Once you install the player, you can then play the game. You can find that here:
  http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/asp.net/bb187452.aspx

Internally a few of us call this the, "Al Gore Game"  (with respect of course).  Planting greenfields is a good thing.  The code to the game is available so feel free to create your own variant - theme it for whatever you want.

We're finalizing plans for sessions on "WPF/E" and rich media streaming for MIX07.  Do you want sessions on authoring, encoding, business value etc?  I'm curious what sessions you'd like to see at the event?  Drop me a comment here.

With Vista Media Center, you can do some pretty nifty 3D effects for applications built with the new Media Center Markup Language (MCML) and .Net 3.0's WPF (which "WPF/E" is also based on.

Mobilewares in Melbourne, Australia has released a series of five add-ins for Vista Media Center including a Flickr plug-in and Stock Ticker (seen above).  I'm expecting we'll see some pretty jaw-dropping applications for the technology shortly.  The Flickr add-in has a few bugs (it's beta) but you can easily see the value.

Don't have Vista Media Center yet?  Download stand-alone samples of most of the apps at the site above as well.

Note: Looks like the stock app beta has expired :(

Chandu wrote a cool utility to embed an arbitrary video into your Web blog with "WPF/E".  Yes, it's been done before, but here he has an interesting twist. ;).  We're just getting warmed up - more samples soon.

Lee created this cool sample called "Microbe"- The city where "WPF/E" and Flash live in harmony.  (Yes, that's "WPF/E" and Flash co-existing side by side). Learn more here.  It's a brave new world.

The guys at Channel 9 have been playing around with the "WPF/E" platform again in the Channel 9 Playground  Last week they created a player skinned to look like the WMP control, which I wasn't too keen on for the chance of confusion.  Instead, they went in the opposite direction with this very cool example built over the weekend that shows a dynamically reskinnable 9Player based on "WPF/E".  Yes, it's gratuitous in a good way, and really shows off how "WPF/E" can interact with ASP.net AJAX and the browser (z-ordering above the web page text which is still select-able). You can view it here.  More to come...

Straight developer talk from Joe Stegman, and some demos on Windows and Mac in the  selected by the Channel 9 team to celebrate their 1000th video.  Congrats Joe (my partner in crime in San Jose last week).

(Ed. Note: The new sites are being propped and updated as we speak, but getting this out ASAP.)

Today I’m excited to finally be able to talk about a new project I’ve been working on—“WPF/E”.   As some of you know, I spent the last year working on End to End User Experiences, specifically with Windows Vista digital media efforts and devices.  This was an amazingly fun and rewarding job, but when all the product work was done (some yet to be announced <g>), it was time to turn my attention to the next challenge.  It was about that time that I was made aware of another opportunity that was too interesting to resist.   

(My) Introduction to “WPF/E” (codename) 

About a year ago, I heard of an intriguing new project codenamed, “WPF/E” or “Windows Presentation Foundation/Everywhere”.  Announced at the PDC 2005, “WPF/E” is a key part of the next-generation Web platform from Microsoft.   I was intrigued and continued to track progress.  Designed to be delivered as a lightweight, cross-platform browser plug-in, the “WPF/E” client is optimized for presenting rich media such as vector-based graphics, animation, and video content efficiently over the Web.  Microsoft releasing a cross-platform technology?! Readers here know I own a few Macs (one PPC, two Intel-based) and I had to pinch myself.  More importantly I had to be a part of this effort, and I’m excited to say that not only am I a part of the team delivering the technology, we’re making it available to you starting today as a Community Technology Preview (CTP) for evaluation and feedback.  Together with Microsoft Expression Studio also just announced, it’s a goodie bag of toys for designers, developers, and content providers to collaborate on delivering next-generation web experiences and we’re just getting started. (By the way, the codename is a temporary thing, with a much more simplifed one TBA).

Rich web media, simplified with “WPF/E”

Of course, being “Addicted to Digital Media”, there are certain features which led me to join the team.  The “WPF/E“ December CTP also includes support for playback of Windows Media Audio and Video, enabling delivery of rich audio and video integrated with graphical overlays, dynamic resizing, and marker support for interactivity. Customers have been asking for a simple way to embed Windows Media (and VC-1) files and streams organically on web pages for cross-platform playback.  With “WPF/E” they’ll be able to do it (starting with eval’ing progressive download support in the CTP and content protection is on the roadmap).  With “WPF/E” we’re finding new ways to tap into the broad ecosystem of content, tools, and solutions for Windows Media and make it easier.  And for standards-fans, common profiles of the SMPTE standard VC-1 codec are also supported in this release (that’s the same one that ships in all HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players in case you’re keeping count).  Naturally for the Web, standard-definition quality will reign in the near term, but the platform is capable of HD delivery ;),

Introducing Expression Studio

Today, Microsoft also made a number of announcements focused on delivering tools and platforms for delivering rich user experiences (UX) in Windows and on the Web.  The first was an announcement around Expression Studio, a suite of four tools focused on bridging the designer/developer gap that exists today in most development houses.  Using the Expression suite, whatever a designer can visualize and be implemented by developers using .Net Framework 3.0 and Windows Presentation Foundation.  As a program manager, I’ve witnessed first-hand the tension that exists between the designer who creates phenomenal concepts that the developer just can’t code behind.  These tools will also be optimized to support “WPF/E”. I’ve seen upcoming applications built using these tools over the past few months (you’ll get to see some of them soon) and it really takes desktop app development (and soon, web development) to a new level.

Also simplified is the encoding and publishing of content via the new product in the Expression suite is the just announced, Expression Media.  Based on the iView Media Pro product acquired by Microsoft last summer, Expression Media is an update to the professional digital asset management tool to visually catalog and organize all your digital media (pics, fonts, sounds, videos etc.) for easy access  and presentation. (And yes, we’ll still support Mac for asset management).   For video publishers, it will also include a new tool for Windows - Microsoft Expression Media Encoder for encoding and publishing of video with “WPF/E” and beyond.   For more on Expression Media and “WPF/E”, stay tuned.  I’ve added a new category called, “Rich Media” so you can keep tabs on the topic. ;)

Also be sure to check out the blogs of my co-workers talking about “WPF/E” as well including our VP, S. “Soma” Somasegar:

• S. Somasegar - http://blogs.msdn.com/somasegar/
• Scott Guthrie - http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/
• Joe Stegman - http://blogs.msdn.com/jstegman/default.aspx
• James Clarke - http://www.clarkezone.net/
• Mike Harsh - http://blogs.msdn.com/mharsh/default.aspx

I’ll provide links to other team members shortly as they post more.  We have a ton of interest in blogging from the team among members with designer, developer, and video production backgrounds.

So take a look at the resources, send us your suggestions, and come back here with questions.  And while you’re at it, check out the just-relaunched sites at http://www.microsoft.com/expression and http://www.microsoft.com/design.  J