InfiniTV and Ceton Companion for Windows 8

It seems that Ceton is planning the new drivers for InfiniTV tuners on Windows 8 system that may have the new Ceton Media Center Plugin but there's no need to update if you're a Windows 7 user. The downside is that the bridging feature is no supported when running on Windows 8 devices. Network Tuners are supported when connecting Windows 8 computers to Windows 7 computers with InfiniTV however. For Ceton Companion Services, there is a beta version of the software for Windows 8. These are PC-based components that are used by Ceton Companion mobile app. So, if you're using the mobile app and Windows 8 on your computer, you may want to upgrade the Ceton Companion Services running on your computer.
Other updates include the Beta Program that happened two days ago. Right after this, they will be issuing a firmware update with some new capabilities for Ceton Echo. This may include the 1080p video support, exposed settings that you may need Media Center plugin on your computer that will allow you to enable optical audio out, audio bitstreaming over HDMI or optical, manage Echo software updates and run diagnostics. Plus, there's even an Android Support for Echo which may have the extension in interesting new ways with more capabilites and apps. However, the downside to the bad future is that they're planning this version as the Christmas present.

Xbox Music Service on October 26th

A new music service to replace Zune? Well, it was a shame on Microsoft for having the Zune franchise exclusive to the westernized countries that we were not able to experience the media experience using the Zune service. I probably might want that as well but can the Xbox Music service be available globally for equal fairness? Previously, you can use the Zune Player on your computer to connect to your Windows Phone devices which might be kind of late compared to the use of ITunes for your IOS device and your computer for early and regular connection. Rather than having Zune for your Xbox 360 console, the Xbox series may have gone into other things besides being gaming related. Not only you can listen to the music, view photos and watch videos powered by Xbox Live service, but also play games on other devices powered by that same service. It should be everywhere on your Windows Phone devices, Windows tablets, Windows 8 and Xbox 360. Hopefully, the Xbox Live service should be able to match the ITunes service entirely and globally. You know, the ITunes service today already has enough fairness and popularity but the Zune devices were what we were not able to try because they were not available. Compared to Windows Media Center on Xbox 360, the usage of Music, Pictures and Videos apps on it are kind of easier to access the data taken from the computers via easy connectivity, leaving WMC on Xbox 360 to be crippled compared to using WMC on the computer.

Windows Media Center in Windows 8

Now, about this title. Playing videos like that in Windows 8 can be an insane thing on tablet devices because I can assume that you can hook up the USB external Blu-Ray drive or DVD drive to do the watching. But, another assumption is that the performance can be kind of worse when watching Blu-Ray videos as the resolution is way too large. There will be retina display for Windows 8 devices so that you can get the exact pixels or even sharper visuals when watching Blu-Ray videos. And Windows Media Center for Xbox 360 has input delays when I use it, WTF? At least, I can stream videos and music easily on my Xbox 360 from my computer using the Metro style apps on the console but for Windows Media Center on Xbox 360, it was not an easy setup if you anyhow configure things on your computer.

In fact, Windows Media Player on Windows 8 will not have DVD playback support and there will be the successor of Windows Anytime Upgrade called Add Features to Windows 8. Hmm, the meaning of Add Features to Windows 8 is quite different than Turn Windows features on or off as all the features you can turn on or off are available on the source installed somewhere on your partition. For Add Features to Windows 8, you can notice that the lower the edition of Windows, the lesser the number of features on the source.

By getting Media Center Pack or Pro Pack, you can get Windows Media Center but that will likely happen in the final version of Windows 8 as the Release Preview is likely to use the highest edition but be warned, these packs are priced so are the prices of Windows 8 when the product is finalized.

You know what else was lazy? The DVD playback would not be included in Windows Vista Business and Enterprise editions and that was one lazy flaw although I can assume that Windows Media Center is there in those two editions. In Home Basic and below, there won’t be DVD playback so that they can be optimized for low-end computers. It’s the same for Windows 7 but for Windows 7, you get more freedom like that as Home Premium edition and above allow DVD playback. When upgrading to Windows 8, you’re going to need the Media Center Pack or Pro Pack in order to play DVD. Well that sounds kind of bullshit to price these packs for desktop and laptop users. What about using DVD related drive to install desktop applications for desktop and laptop users? Sure you can watch YouTube videos on TV via game consoles, computers hooked to TV or perhaps the TV with internet access but computers hooked to TV doesn’t count. For Pro Pack, it includes Media Center Pack in addition to upgrading to Windows 8 Pro where you can get Windows Media Center as well as DVD playback.