A refined plea to J Allard

Some of you may have read my previous post pleading to J Allard as the new Chief Experience Officer to provide a universal media experience across all Microsoft platforms.  Well, after getting no feed-back, I am trying again with a slightly more refined plea.

So, here's what it comes down to - core tasks make all the difference. 

The (what should be at least) simple tasks that you do every day on any type of device/interface are what make you love something, or hate it.  If the things that should be simple ARE simple, easy to use, and easy on the eyes, you'll love whatever it is. 

So, let me give you a specific example that will give Windows 7 a major driver and essentially end Sony's reign of terror in the living room.  (I hate Sony by the way, I want you to vanquish them.)  It's a simple concept.  One that will probably be difficult to pull off due more to political issues than technical but if it's done will change the living room forever.  (I posted these hopes before here addressed to J Allard as
I believe he is the one person who could make this happen due to his new position.)

A single universal interface for media/entertainment across all Microsoft platforms including a single universal codec.  It's THAT simple.  Right now, Windows Media player can play pretty much ANY media type out there if you install the right codecs.  But, then I go into Media Center and suddenly I can't play half of my media, including inside media center on my Xbox 360.  But, then I can leave media center and play media on my Xbox 360 that I couldn't play in media center.  So, I want to transfer some media to my Zune.  Uh oh, same problem again!  Most of it I can't transfer.  Even Microsoft formats are a pain.  Why?  I want to copy a TV show from my media center to my Zune.  Cool!  It says it will let me.  Oh wait, why am I having to wait 4 hours for that HD show to transfer to my Zune?  Well, I'm at my house, my Zune is wireless, so why can't I just setup my Zune as an extender?  Or possibly even my Windows Mobile device that has wifi?

The list goes on and on.  An insane amount of frustration for something that to the end user should be a quick and seamless thing.  Of course, people that know better like me understand the technical issues.  Codecs are very different and you could never support them all and have a good experience, etc, etc. 

So, here's my solution.  Again, a single user interface that spans all devices.  This includes Xbox 360, Zune, Media Center and PC.  I think the media center interface is a great place to start with a few exceptions.  If you want different versions of Windows to have different capabilities that's fine, take out features, but keep the SAME interface.  For example Win7 home vs. Win7 premium, keep the same interface but Win7 home can't make use of tuners, etc.  (Honestly, I think that media center should be moved to Win7 home server, and home server should have the same UI as normal Win7.)

So, let's take that single user interface for a test drive.  Rather than having to enter a completely different application on my 360 to watch TV it should simply replace the media blade on the 360.  Giving me that same familiar interface from MC, but tweaked to provide me the easier access to the functions on that device.  The Zune, the exact same way.  Also, Win7 Premium should have FULL EXTENDER CAPABILITY.  I realize the MC team made a 'deal with the devil' with hardware vendors but it's killing MC adoption. Ditch that deal, and make it an added feature of a higher sku.  Merge Windows Media Player/Zune/Media Center with a SINGLE APP and interface.  Put tabs on it if you really want to separate out functionality with a very simple UI when playing media directly from the file system (as you currently do in Windows 7.)  Oh, and make the Zune a wireless extender.  (Just add a main menu item called 'TV' and bam, there's media center.)  Even Windows Mobile devices!  (And make a merged Windows Mobile/Zune phone.  Come on guys.)

Finally, let's tackle the codec issue.  Yes, there is a way out of this codec hell.  MS needs to get all their various codec people into 1 room, and they need to devise the coolest codec on the face of the planet that will
work for ALL MS media needs.  1 codec, the end.  Not DVR-MS (which is now something else post Fiji) and WMV and, etc, etc.  Once you have this awesome codec, you need to build into the codec a simple feature.  The ability for the codec to strip a file on the fly to a different bit rate/resolution depending on the device it is going for.  For example, my HD recording of House on my media center would be roughly, let's say, 2G.  I don't want 2G chewed up on my Zune for resolution and bitrates I'm never going to see. So, the universal sync software strips the file on the fly as it syncs it. Yes, I know this can be done if the codec is architected with this in mind. When something is encoded in this codec the codec will mark bits in the file for different resolutions/bitrates.  These can be static.  Such as Zune, PC, HD.  Something.  3 different programmed rates would be enough I would think. This way files can be moved/watched from device to device without a massive amount of resource consumption or waiting for hours.  (something similar to this has been done with Windows Media Encoder and Windows Media Services on Windows Server for years.)  Finally, we've got the codec and built in resizing feature.  Now, how do we get everyone to use the codec?  Simple answer, you won't.  But we don't care.  You add a feature to all your devices (that can accept input, such as the 360 or Win7) that say "I notice you got this new video file.  Would you like me to enable universal access to the video and add it to your library?"  Then give 4 options of 'yes always do this, yes, no, don't ask me again.'  (I'm sure you'll think of better ways to word it.)  Then the device will transcode the file into the new codec, automatically add that file to the media index and do this in the background on a lower priority thread so as to not impede the users experience.  This functionality should be on the Xbox 360 and it should be able to import media to WHS or MC (which I would hope would be the same device) as it has a massive amount of horsepower and will enable those with no computer experience to do this.  (Like the Wii has brought non-gamers to the console.)  Once the file has been transcoded the original file can either be deleted or kept per the users discretion again with a 'never ask me again, always do this function.'  So, what happens as new codecs are created?  Simple, via Windows update this feature of the OS gets updated to support new codecs to transcode into the universal format.  Eventually you will even have the new codec creators doing this work for you as they will want acceptance of their new format.

Of course you will have the geeks in the basements crying foul and many will continue to install 20 different codecs on their machines.  But the average user, at least a good 80% of them will worship the ground MS walks on for taking something that SHOULD be simple, quick, and easy (and has been pure hell until now) and providing the experience we all expect.

If you do this, good-bye Sony.  It wasn't nice knowing you.

(PS - Of course, granted, you may have companies saying "they are forcing everyone to use only THEIR codec."  First off, no one is forcing anyone, you are simply trying to provide a seamless interface.  Second, if they really want to try about it, then they should all get together and create a universal framework for codecs that will allow this same seamless experience as I suggested before.  http://windowsconnected.com/blogs/matt/archive/2008/06/30/a-suggestion-for-j-allard-as-chief-experience-officer.aspx  But let's face it, they'll never do it.  That's one of the issues with open source.  Something like this would get stuck in a perpetual debate and never happen.  Let's let the free market drive this.)

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