Head on over to http://www.mix06.com/ and check out the sessions available, including these from the Media Center team...

The Digital Home: Designing for the Ten-Foot User Interface
Speaker: Brian Kralyevich
Focus: Designer

Delivering compelling content to television sets around the Digital Home presents new design challenges for consumer content. Join us to learn more about best practices for creating new "ten foot" user interfaces for experiences on Windows Media Center and on Xbox 360.

The Digital Home: Developing Services and Applications
Speaker: Charlie Owen
Focus: Architect, Developer

Media Center for Windows Vista gives you new ways of delivering compelling entertainment to the Digital Home. In this technical session, learn how to create rich, engaging content and services for the home, using DHTML, Windows Presentation Foundation, and the new Windows Media Center Presentation Layer. Also, see how you can take advantage of Xbox 360 to deliver those services to multiple rooms around the home.

The Digital Home: The Business Opportunity
Speaker(s): Andrew Adamyk <-- My boss. Anyone want to join me as a front row heckler...?
Focus(s): Business Development Manager

Learn about new opportunities to expand your business and extend your audience in the Digital Home. See how Media Center for Windows Vista, and Xbox 360, enable you to deliver content and services to television sets around the home, helping you connect with consumers in new ways.

Learn more about all sessions available at https://content.mix06.com/content/sessions.aspx (or subscribe to the RSS feed at https://content.mix06.com/rss/SessionsRss.aspx).

Oh, and Joe Belfiore is keynoting 'User Experience Beyond the Browser'...

As web-based content and services become increasingly indispensable, users are expecting to interact with your offerings in new ways and in new locations. Microsoft's Joe Belfiore (Vice President, eHome division) hosts this overview of your options for boosting revenues by building "sticky" experiences that follow the user outside the browser, into the living room and on the go. Some of the specific technologies that will be discussed include: RSS, the Windows Sidebar, Office 12, Windows Mobile and Windows Media Center/Xbox 360.

Learn more about the speakers and what they are presenting at http://www.mix06.com/Speakers.aspx.

Finally the day has come for me to outline the full story on the the designer / developer platform in Media Center for Windows Vista. Do you remember when I asked What Platform Features Do You Want for Media Center in Windows Vista? One of the comments on that post from Michael Schoneman resonated clearly with our thinking and seemed to sum up much of the feedback we have heard over the last few years...

“We want SDK support for the cool graphic effects you guys have.  I really love the way stuff slides and zooms on and off the screen.  I want to be able to build something that looks like it's a part of the system, not something bolted onto the side.”

We have listened. Media Center for Windows Vista will expose three ways from which you can choose to deliver full featured software and experiences to your customers.

• Windows Media Center Presentation Layer Applications
• Hosted Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 XAML Browser Applications (XBAP)
• Hosted HTML Applications

Paradigm #1: Windows Media Center Presentation Layer Application
Media Center Add Ins were first available in the 2004 version of Media Center as managed code assemblies which could fully leverage the Microsoft .NET Framework, access the full Media Center application programming interface (API) and run on-demand or as a background process. The Media Center Application Programming Interfaces (API) allow granular control of Media Center audio / video playback, interoperability with the digital video recording (DVR) features of Media Center and parental controls as well as full access to the Microsoft .NET Framework platform for developing applications which are easier to build, manage, deploy, and integrate with other networked systems.

However, Media Center Add Ins were limited to a single user interface mechanism: a Media Center styled dialog box. While useful for some tasks (such as system wide notifications) Media Center Adds Ins in prior versions were limiting to full-featured application development due to their inability to project a more meaningful user interface.

Media Center in Windows Vista greatly expands and enhances the user interface capabilities of Media Center Add Ins allowing for the creation of full fidelity experiences on par with or exceeding Media Center itself using the new Windows Media Center Presentation Layer via Media Center Markup Language and the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0. To fully differentiate from prior versions we are calling these new experiences Windows Media Center Presentation Layer Applications.

Windows Media Center Presentation Layer Applications now have access to the same rendering technologies the eHome team uses to produce Media Center itself with the Windows Media Center Presentation Layer.  The Windows Media Center Presentation Layer provides dynamic layout capabilities, integrated animation support, rich text and graphic support, automatic keyboard / remote navigation and more via Media Center Markup Language.

To top it all off, experiences created as Windows Media Center Presentation Layer Applications will remote with full fidelity to the XBox 360 Media Center Extender. That means your experiences will look just as good on the XBox 360 as they do on the Media Center PC itself.

Media Center Markup Language (MCML) is an XML based declarative language that instructs the Windows Media Center renderer in how to display a user interface within the Windows Media Center Presentation Layer. MCML supports advanced concepts such as parameterization, private local storage, rich conditional based data binding and composition-based animated visual content and access to managed code assemblies from markup. Authoring in MCML is an exercise in producing a view description and supplying it with data via managed code interfaces in the managed code Model.

Which brings me to yet another comment conversation Chris Anderson and I had over on his post First Take: XBox 360 Media Center Extender. Chris wrapped things up nicely with the following...

"One last thought. If you think about it, the conventional way of navigating a CD music collection is via the text on the "spine" or edge of the CD, not its cover, just as in a book collection. So perhaps that would be the way to do it. Show the album covers if you want, but underneath it also show the spine view. But of course the broad point is that more display options are better; as you point out, one size doesn't fit all."

It's worth pointing out a third party can create this EXACT view using the new Windows Media Center Presentation Layer -- and it can look and perform just as nicely as the built-in Media Center features. I think Chris will be pleased if the market agrees with him and creates his uber-perfect view of his digital library.

Paradigm #2: Hosted Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 XAML Browser Applications (XBAP)
We introduced the ability to use XBAP applications in Media Center at PDC 2005. The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 is the next generation platform for Windows allowing you to develop for both traditional mouse / keyboard Windows desktop experiences and remote controlled experiences using common tools and shared / reusable resources. The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 team has provided great tools for designers in Microsoft Expression Graphic Designer (aka 'Acrylic') and Microsoft Expression Interactive Designer (aka 'Sparkle'). To learn more about using the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 in Windows Media Center view the Professional Developers Conference 2005 presentation.

Paradigm #3: Hosted HTML Applications
Existing applications written in HTML will continue to work and be supported in Media Center for Windows Vista with zero or few modifications needed by the third party. Long term we hope folks will move to either Windows Media Center Presentation Layer Applications or Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 XBAPs because the experiences can be so much more immersive and rich, but we will maintain compatability for Hosted HTML since it is so ubiquitous.

Questions, Comments...?
We have posted the Windows Media Center Software Development Kit (SDK) to the Windows Vista beta program and made it available to MSDN Subscribers along with the December CTP. We are inviting any and all folks who have access to these resources to take a look at the new SDK and tell us what you think by...

• Filing a bug report as part of the Windows Vista beta.
• Leaving a comment on this post.
• Sending email directly to one of us.

Aaron and I will be sharing more details in the coming weeks and months.

So, what do you think? Have we given you what you wanted?

Media Center played a big part in our news at CES this year. Some of the highlights include:

• Sales of Media Center have reached the 6.5 million mark in just three years.
• Digital Cable. Media Center in Windows Vista will also deliver new HD scenarios, including CableCARD support, that will allow people to watch and record premium and HD cable programming on Media Center PCs without a set-top cable box.
• Digital Satellite. Microsoft and DIRECTV announced a multiyear agreement that will mean, among other things, that consumers will be able to use a Media Center PC to enjoy high-definition DIRECTV content.
• Sky Networks. Microsoft and British Sky Broadcasting (Sky), the leading pay-TV provider in the U.K. and Ireland, announced an agreement to create a Media Center PC version of Sky’s forthcoming broadband content service, Sky by broadband. The core service will allow millions of Sky TV customers to access video content via the PC, with hundreds of movies to download and hundreds of sports clips to stream.
• Starz Entertainment Group recently premiered Vongo, a new video download service for broadband that will give subscribers unlimited access to more than 1,000 movies and video selections as well as a live, streaming Starz TV channel, for a monthly cost of $9.99. Movies can be viewed on a Windows-based PC or easily transferred to a next-generation Windows Mobile®-based Portable Media Center.

Over 110 media companies around the world are now providing digital content through Online Spotlight in Media Center including these new services which are available today here in the United States...

• Comedy Central’s MotherLoad. Comedy Central’s MotherLoad features exclusive and dedicated content including video clips from current and classic Comedy Central shows such as “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” Additional exclusives and dedicated content include sneak previews, behind-the-scenes exclusives, highlights from thousands of stand-up performances, and newly created short-form series such as “I Love the Thirties,” “Odd Todd” and “Meet the Creeps.”
• mtvU. mtvU is the only 24-hour network dedicated to emerging music and everything that’s great about college. mtvU is the first MTV Networks broadband channel to be distributed in its entirety both live and on demand on via Windows XP Media Center Edition, enabling viewers to program their own channel or just sit back and watch. At the heart of the channel are music videos from emerging artists that can’t be seen anywhere else.
• VH1 VSPOT. VSPOT, VH1’s pop culture and entertainment broadband network, delivers VH1’s best video programming on demand to Media Center PCs. VSPOT’s Music, Moves and Hot Stuff channels offer thousands of music videos, artist interviews, live events coverage, behind-the-scenes access and exclusive in-studio performances, from artists such as The White Stripes and INXS.
• New offerings from America Online in addition to their previously launched Music on Demand service. AOL Pictures (photo sharing) and AOL Radio (streaming radio, including XM content) are now available.

The following companies also announced services which will launch at some point in the future...

• Showtime Interactive. Showtime Interactive allows viewers to explore hundreds of Showtime programs and a wealth of DVD-like video extras such as behind-the-scenes clips, trailers and trivia as well as actor interviews, bios and filmographies.
• Turner Broadcasting System Inc.’s GameTap. GameTap is a first-of-its-kind broadband subscription entertainment network that offers more than 300 games on demand plus original programming via a broadband-connected Media Center PC.

You can get the official transcript of the Bill Gates keynote from http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/speeches/2006/01-04CES.asp.

More news on the way...

Media Center for Windows Vista will deliver three ways of developing third party experiences which run in Media Center and leverage the remote control.

With Aaron Stebner moving over to our platform team (more on that from him later) there are at least three Media Center platform team members blogging now. We expect that number to grow over the coming year.

With three development paradigms and (at least) three bloggers things could get complicated fast.

We want you to have a single place to subscribe or visit to get solid technical information about our platform moving forward. Hence the quiet launch of http://blog.mediacentersandbox.com.

Aaron and I will be posting Media Center designer / developer technical information here instead of on our personal blogs. Our personal blogs aren't going away -- you'll simply find editorial or non-Media Center related technical posts on them.

I also want to say your feedback here and here in no small way guided our decision to create this resource. So keep the comments coming. The Sandbox will evolve over time in response to it's readers and subscribers.

Finally: We have some *new* platform information coming next week -- stay tuned here. Santa is coming a day or two early this year to Media Center designers and developers.

Charlie