Shortly after blogging this Charlie and Steve started an email thread on the subject and a few emails in Charlie actually comes by my office and semi-aghast asks, you want an MCE cult!?

No I do not want a MCE cult. What I want is buzz.

I've since written up some steps we can take to create this buzz but before posting it I want to run it by some folks. Hopefully I'll post the writeup at the end of next week.
11:53:05 PM   []

I have a Gateway 901x which was designed for Media Center 2004 and when we launched our latest version, Media Center 2005, I installed the new OS along with new hardware in order to enable OTA HDTV. Now recently I have been having some problems with my Media Center, for example, white dots during playback. The erratic behavior culmunated in my MCE not starting two days ago. Though it wasn't completely dead, it was giving me a one long, two short beep code.

So I brought it into work and cracked it open. I couldn't figure out what model the bios was in order to decipher the beep codes so I started pulling cards and swapping out the RAM and hard drives. This didn't solve the problem and all that remained was the video card so I pulled that out and found the fan dangling by a wire. Turns out the card must have overheated leading to a fan failure because of a lack of circulation in the box. I later found out from someone that one long, two shorts, is D in morse code and in computer land D could stand for Display.

See the 901x was not designed for Media Center 2005 and when I loaded it up not just full of cards, but cards that produce a lot of heat, it was only a matter of time before components started to fail.

My conclusions are, consumers can't expect their hardware to perform when they subject it to conditions it was not designed for, but that also hardware manufacturers need to consider not just what consumers are going to be doing with their hardware today, but down the road. It wasn't completely unforseen that someone such as myself would not just load up the box full of extra PCI cards, but that they would be cards that produced a lot of heat.

Hardware manufacturers (and Microsoft) can't assume that consumers will be willing to completely replace their living room PCs every year, or every other year. At their current price points these devices are multiyear investments and need to be designed from the beginning as such.
11:41:09 PM   []

One analyst said the company is spending $400 to get each new customer and getting back an average of $9 per month in subscriptions.

Thomas has recently been linking to and commenting on a lot of articles on Tivo if you want to get a feel for their current situation.
11:18:08 PM   []

• Thomas: 'MCE should own the home'
• Ed: 'I want my Media Center to be solid and dependable, like an appliance. But that still leaves lots of room for add-ons.'
• Ben, Media Center seems almost perfect apart from the few previously mentioned issues.
• Vern, direct IMDB support for my existing media files
• Martin: DVDs and HDTV on Extender, radio recording.

Comment or email me a link to yours.

Mine? Simple -- Buzz, native HDTV and DVD copying.
2:48:34 PM   []