By Matt Rosoff [bio]
Posted: Mar. 5, 2007

• Chart: Digital Media Features by Vista Edition

The following is the full text of an article published by Directions on Microsoft, an independent research firm focused exclusively on Microsoft strategy & technology. More samples of our content, as well as a list of upcoming articles and reports are also available.

Home entertainment improvements in Windows Vista include the ability to play and record high-definition digital cable television, an overhaul of the Windows audio subsystem, and better digital media interfaces and applications. In addition, the inclusion of the Media Center interface in the mainstream consumer version of Vista could encourage more consumers to use the PC for home entertainment. At the same time, longstanding problems, such as complexity and lack of trust from content owners, have grown worse in some cases.

New Capabilities, New Challenges

Microsoft has recently positioned the PC as a potential replacement for multiple consumer electronics devices, such as digital video recorders and DVD players. This strategy began in earnest with the fall 2002 release of Windows XP Media Center Edition, a special-purpose version of the OS with a remote-controllable interface for accessing digital media functions, such as watching and recording TV shows and playing CDs, DVDs, and PC-based audio and video files.

The main goal of this strategy is to increase sales of Windows. Just as demand for Web access and e-mail created a huge spike in consumer PC demand in the mid-1990s, Microsoft hopes that new entertainment scenarios will spur consumer PC sales, particularly because working with digital media requires significant processing power, memory, storage, and other hardware (graphics cards, sound cards, speakers, microphones, and so on) that will require many users to buy a new PC.

However, Microsoft faces big challenges with this strategy:

Habit. Users and retailers understand and are accustomed to dedicated consumer electronics devices. Microsoft and its partners must convince them that the PC offers some compelling advantages.

Complexity. Because the PC can perform so many functions and relies on a wide variety of hardware and software from multiple vendors, it is inherently more complicated to set up, use, and maintain than dedicated devices.

Trust. Many content owners view the open architecture of the PC, the ease with which digital content can be duplicated, and broadband Internet access as an invitation to piracy. On the other hand, overly aggressive copy protection technology for digital media can alienate end users who expect the same flexibility as they have with traditional media such as CDs and video cassettes.

These challenges have proven difficult to overcome. For example, although Vista supports new types of high-definition video, comparable consumer electronics devices already offer the same (or more) features, are easier to use, and cost less.

Microsoft appears to have realized that the PC is not the ideal entertainment device for most users and is gradually expanding its consumer entertainment strategy to emphasize other devices, including proprietary combinations of hardware, software, and online services, such as the Xbox and Zune product families. Microsoft is also developing digital media technologies for other non-PC devices, such as software for IPTV systems and digital rights management technology for mobile phones. In line with this new focus, the product teams responsible for Media Center and the Windows Media platform have moved from the Windows group to the Entertainment and Devices Division—the home of Xbox, Zune, IPTV, and software for mobile and embedded devices.

Given these factors, Windows Vista could represent Microsoft's last big push to establish the PC as a replacement for traditional consumer electronics devices. If Vista fails to find a place in the living room, Microsoft's emphasis on other entertainment products will increase. While Microsoft will continue to enhance Windows' media capabilities and support new media that emerge, the company and its hardware partners will likely turn to other feature areas, such as mobility, personal productivity, and communications, to spur consumer PC upgrades.

What's New in Vista?

Digital media improvements in Vista include support for high-definition cable TV, the ability to customize audio without specialized sound cards, and better built-in digital media interfaces (such as Media Center) and applications (such as Movie Maker). Many of these improvements are not in Vista Home Basic, but require the higher-priced Home Premium or Ultimate editions. (For a chart, see "Digital Media Features by Vista Edition".)

High-Definition Video

Vista is the first desktop OS to be certified by CableLabs, a cable TV industry body in the United States, to support CableCARD technology. CableCARD is an emerging standard that enables users to receive digital cable signals simply by obtaining a small card (approximately the size of the PC Card devices used in many notebook computers) from their cable company and plugging it directly into a TV set or other receiver. The model is attractive to users because they can use digital video from any CableCARD-enabled device, rather than just from a TV set-top box.

Vista PCs with the appropriate hardware, a digital cable tuner, and compatible service can receive digital cable signals when a user inserts a CableCARD. This allows users to watch, record, and play back TV programs using the Media Center interface (which comes as part of Vista Home Premium and Ultimate) and its associated remote control.

However, this support comes with numerous caveats:

Transfer restrictions. Users cannot stream live or recorded TV shows from a CableCARD device (including a Vista PC) to other computers, transfer them to portable devices, or burn them to DVD. However, they can stream these shows to an Xbox 360 or future Vista-compatible Media Center Extender.

One-way only. Currently, CableCARD devices (including Vista PCs) can send only simple requests, such as channel changes, to the cable network. They cannot be used to order video-on-demand or pay-per-view shows.

Compatible PC. High-definition playback of CableCARD content requires a "digital cable-compatible PC," which (among other things) means it has been certified to include a graphics card that's compliant with the High-Definition Content Protection (HDCP) standard. As of press time, no such PCs are available, and the first such PCs will be available only from OEMs who have a specific license agreement with Microsoft. Initially, system builders will not be able to create digital cable-compatible PCs, and there are no plans to allow home builders to create them.

Compatible display. Users must be sure that the digital inputs to their TVs or monitors, such as Digital Video Interface (DVI) or High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) inputs, are HDCP-compliant. CableCARD content will not work at all through a digital input if HDCP is not present on the monitor as well. On an analog VGA connection, high-definition video will be constricted to a lower (960x540) resolution and then upscaled by the graphics card. On an analog component (RGB) connection, video will play at the full resolution allowed by the display.

Cable company support. Many cable providers have been reluctant to support CableCARD, preferring that customers lease a set-top box from the cable company. For example, customers have reported being discouraged from using CableCARD technology or facing additional charges for installation.

Users will encounter similar limitations when they watch a high-definition DVD (HD DVD or Blu-ray) on a Vista PC. For example, without an HDCP-compliant graphics card, the video may not play at all, and without an HDCP-compliant monitor or display, the resolution will be lowered, although it will still be higher than a standard DVD. For both HD DVD and Blu-Ray, users or OEMs also have to install additional software to play discs. (See "HD DVD on Vista Requires Extra Software" on page 7 of the Oct. 2006 Update.)

Audio Improvements

The audio architecture of Vista has substantially changed from prior versions. Most notably, many audio functions have been moved out of the OS kernel and into the user stack, increasing overall system reliability (audio-related errors were a major source of system crashes in earlier versions of Windows) and improving performance by reducing the number of calls from audio applications, which run in user mode, to kernel-mode drivers. A new Universal Audio Architecture (UAA) driver model is meant to ensure easier installation of audio devices, reduce the CPU processing load for audio, and reduce the need for device manufacturers to create and ship their own audio drivers.

In addition, Vista includes new effects, tools, and wizards that improve audio playback for end users, such as the following:

• Consistent volume across many different sources (e.g., CD, Web site, digital audio file)
• A Room Correction Wizard helps users place their speakers correctly—particularly useful if a Vista PC is the center of a home entertainment system with surround-sound speakers
• Stereo signals can be split so they'll fill all the channels in a surround-sound (5.1 or 7.1) system
• Better bass management prevents distortion of low-frequency audio signals
• Laptop-specific settings can make headphones seem to be surround sound or can tailor the bass signal to avoid distortion in the small speakers found in many laptops.

However, these changes mean that some existing audio equipment will require new drivers; for example, some external soundcards did not work with Vista at launch.

User Interfaces and Applications

Vista includes many incremental improvements to Windows' built-in user interfaces and applications for working with digital media, and one new application for creating video DVDs. But most of the built-in applications still fall short of what is available from ISVs, such as Adobe and Sonic Solutions, as well as those included with the Mac OS.

Media Center. The most notable change to Media Center is the fact that it's no longer a separate edition of Windows—it now ships as part of Vista Home Premium, which will probably become the default OS on most consumer PCs, as well as Vista Ultimate, the highest-end version of the OS. This will dramatically expand the audience for Media Center by putting it in front of tens of millions of customers in Vista's first year on the market and could encourage many users who are buying a PC for some other purpose to consider using it for home entertainment as well. Media Center menus have been revamped, and the interface uses more graphical imagery, such as album cover art. There's also new content in the online Spotlight, including the Vongo downloadable movie service and a Sports Lounge that will let fans track individual players and watch relevant highlights on demand.

Some existing Media Center features have been removed. Most notably Windows Vista does not support most existing Media Center Extenders, devices that let users access a Windows XP Media Center PC from a TV over a home network. At the launch of Vista, the Xbox 360 is the only device that will still work as an Extender. However, at least one partner, Hewlett-Packard, is planning to release a TV with Vista-compatible Media Center Extender technology built in.

Windows Media Player 11. Available for Windows XP since Nov. 2006, the latest version of the Windows Media Player includes many incremental improvements, such as a cleaner user interface, faster scrolling through large libraries of content, the ability to rip CDs to lossless WAV and Windows Media Professional formats, audio fingerprinting (which can automatically identify and label an unknown music file based on audio data in the file), and integration with the MTV Urge store. (For more details, see "Windows Media Player 11 Released" on page 10 of the Dec. 2006 Update.)

The Vista version of the Player has one notable feature the XP version lacks. If other computers on a network (either XP or Vista) share their music libraries, then a Vista PC can play music in those libraries over the network.

Movie Maker 6.0. Movie Maker, included in every version of Windows since Windows ME, is an application for creating videos. The version of Movie Maker included with Vista Home Premium and Ultimate lets users import and edit video from high-definition video cameras. On all versions, users can edit MPEG-2 video, publish files in a high-definition Windows Media Video format (to retain quality while reducing file size), and import TV shows recorded in Media Center's DVR-MS format (a version of MPEG-2 in a Windows Media file wrapper). It also includes minor interface enhancements and new transition effects.

DVD Maker. A new application bundled with high-end consumer versions of Vista, DVD Maker allows users to publish video or picture slideshows to a DVD in a format that can be played on a regular video DVD player. DVD Maker automatically scans the content and inserts chapter divisions at logical transition points. The application is accessible from within Movie Maker and Photo Gallery (a built-in Vista feature for storing and editing digital photos), making it easy for users to save homemade videos or photo slideshows to DVD.

Resources

An overview of Vista features is at www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/default.mspx.

CableCARD support is described at www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/mediacenter/tvandmovies.mspx.

Vista's copy-protection provisions, including requirements for HDCP-compliant hardware, are the subject of a blog entry from the Vista product team at windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2007/01/20/windows-vista-content-protection-twenty-questions-and-answers.aspx.

A rundown of Vista's video output restrictions can be found in a blog entry from Microsoft MVP and Media Center enthusiast Chris Lanier at msmvps.com/blogs/chrisl/archive/2007/01/25/519180.aspx.

Device manufacturers can get more information about new audio technology in Vista, including a white paper on the UAA, at www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/audio/default.mspx.

New audio system effects in Vista are detailed in a blog entry from the Vista product team at windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/articles/450038.aspx.