As a long time fan of Microsoft’s Windows Media Center platform, I have been anxious to try out Exceptional Innovation’s LifeWare plug-in for MCE. A couple weeks ago, one of the local low voltage distributors in Los Angeles held a training to show off the new automation product they recently picked up (LifeWare is now exclusively available through AVAD). As a person who tried to build a full media center with DVR using MCE 2003, I have learned many of the ins and outs of the program, especially it’s limitations.
LifeWare’s biggest challenge is to refute the notion that you can’t run a stable system on a windows platform. I, for one, can’t even get the simplest things to work on my now current vista machine with regards to media center. The DRM (Digital Rights Management) for my Napster music content is all over the place, certain albums show up on my PC and not my extenders and vice versa, video codecs not being supported, now being able to add content without restarting the machine and opening MCE fresh…and the list goes on.
This software was the best example to date I have seen as a home control plug in for the media center environment. I have used mControl and Superna’s ControlWare. The great thing about LifeWare is that it looks like the real Vista Media Center. Many third-party applications I have used don’t render in full HD in VMC (Vista Media Center). They were either built for MCE 2005 or just aren’t coded very well. A great product that suffers from this problem is My Movies. Fantastic Windows interface and functionality outside of VMC, but poor rendering in the VMC environment. I prefer using the Windows DVD Library plug-in and using My Movies simply for disc management.
And now the LifeWare gripes…
As a Crestron Electronics dealer, I am very skeptical of new automation products such as Control 4 and LifeWare. So during the training I began with my usual barrage of questions. How do you control DirecTV with LifeWare in HD? I can’t pass the HDMI into the PC so how do I overlay the VMC guide over DirecTV?
I will continue to monitor the updates and progress of this platform as I believe the future of home entertainment and control lies within the integrated media box. I think Verizon’s FiOs and At&t’s uverse are building blocks to the intergrated media platform.
