New Online Spotlight Icons in Vista MC

[Niall]

Hi,

Anyone else in Australia getting the new Icons in Online Media (Explore) and the More TV/Sports/Music/etc stuff?... I also had Sports Lounge a while back - so not sure what anyone else can see down here?

I'm pretty unimpressed by what I saw - only actually 3 unique addins MSN,NPR,TVTonic- and they are all the HTML ones - not using any new Vista technology (although I hear TVTonic does have a new one on the way)..

So what are you guys seeing?

Niall

[impact]

And as usual - NONE OF THEM....

Really feeling out of it... No sports menu, none of these - really feel like changing my region from Australia to US....

[snoods]

Nothing here either in the UK. Tried changing the windows languages and regions and rebooting but nothing ever appears.

Looks like i'm not missing too much but would be nice to be able to have a wee look LOL

Oh well, something might appear eventually. Seems a really strange way they appear on some users media centres and not on others.

[Niall]

Hi,

I've heard of some users being able to enable this by forcing a guide update (so the mcupdate task is run)... However - as mentioned - there's nothing 'worth' seeing yet in Spotlight (all HTML crap). The Sports Lounge section though is def worth a look (done in MCML etc) - but doesn't really cover any non US sports (and is not really part of Online Spotlight).

Niall

[Astrotoy7]

havent checked this out in RTM build yet - not bothering to as bigpond have slowed me to 65kpbs......... Cant say Im hugely lookiing forward to it, I have foxtel and barely use any of its similar features/channels.

Im moreso looking forward to having a squiz at Windows Live TV("nemo"), if they let me in...Ive had to move to 90210 just to be eligible for it

astro

[jgrouse]

I received all the new online programs last night when I fired up MC. After removing that Sports menu item it came back again at the same time I noticed all the new online stuff. All totally pointless to the AU market and by the looks of it none of the online features seem to do anything.

Only seems to be happening on the MSDN version of the OS. Region is set to "au" in the reg.

[Niall]

Originally Posted by jgrouse

I received all the new online programs last night when I fired up MC. After removing that Sports menu item it came back again at the same time I noticed all the new online stuff. All totally pointless to the AU market and by the looks of it none of the online features seem to do anything.

Only seems to be happening on the MSDN version of the OS. Region is set to "au" in the reg.

Hi -

Would appreciate if you could list what Online Spotlight tiles you are seeing for your setup. Currently in x64 Vista - only NPR, MSNTV and TVTonic are being displayed.

thanks
Niall

[impact]

My MSDN version still does not show the icons - but are you seeing this only in 64 bit versions????

[Niall]

Originally Posted by impact

My MSDN version still does not show the icons - but are you seeing this only in 64 bit versions????

Yeah I cant get this or Sports Lounge on my 32 bit Vista - only on x64 bit..

But if you check out Aaron Stebners Blog Entry - he mentions that additional content should be available in x32 versions (due to the old addins using ActiveX/Flash etc)..

[Niall]

Online Spotlight just appeared for me on my x32 box (no sports lounge)... Looks like its the proper Australian content - Bigpond Movies and Go Music (thats it - no MSNTV or anything that I see on x64)... Unfortunately these both look like the same ones being used on MCE2005 (html/flash etc) - so its a pretty lame effort so far.. hope it gets better then this..

Niall

[benneh]

Bigpond and some random music download service just appeared for me. I have to say i'm anything but impressed.

I only tried bigpond so far, it told me I didn't meet several prerequisites, one of which was Media Centre Edition 2005, I had a god chuckle at that, seeing how it appeared in my vista media centre .

Anyhow I proceeded and downloaded their setup which would apparently automatically install the other missing prerequisites. It was nice enought to then tell me it would download the following

.net 1.1 SP1
.net 1.1 with Service Pack 1

more shaking of the head in disbelief as to how amateur hour this software is . yet still i proceeded, so install finishes and nothing happens, so i try to open bigpond movies up again in media centre, and it tries to start the whole setup process again

ok so maybe it needs a reboot, band BSOD! first one ever in Vista for me, an unlucky coincidence, i think not!

so in the end I couldn't get the damn thing to work, it's overpriced @ $6 a movie when I can get them for half that at the local video shop and it far better quality and no drm (or a third of the price on tuesdays!!). It baffles me how poorly implemented this all is, considering it just appeared in every Australian Vista Media Centre install.

Obviously testing is a dirty word for bigpond movies, i shant be touching it again for a very long time, and it and it's "prerequisites" have been fully removed.

[jgrouse]

Yup, same two AU online content appeared on my main VMC PC. Round the same time the other PC which was getting the Sports menu (and after removing it as per instructions) started showing a load of USA online spotlight content AND the sports menu item came back. Can get rid of it again but not sure how to ditch the US online content.

Have not bothered to try any of them as I managed to go over my 10G DL limit and now my ISP is shaping my speed till the end of the month.

[falcc]

It's a start though. Whilst it is cludgy now it will improve. If they can get the pricing right and work on quality I can see it really taking off. Bored on a Sunday and just presssing Ok on the remote a few times gives you a movie of your choice.

Of course there are pre-requisites (like decent broadband) but they are all things that are coming, and quickly. I can easily stream movies from bigpond movies on my cable now.

It is the future, for sure.