Today, at the Consumer Electronics Show, Ceton is inviting the press to their suite to show off what they’ve been working on, and it should excite a lot of people in the Windows Media Center community! First up, they’ve decided to produce their own Windows Media Center Extender! For the last couple of years the Microsoft Xbox 360 has been the only option available to extend the full Media Center experience around your house, but the Xbox wasn’t always the perfect fit for everyone. While Microsoft has gone a long way toward making the Xbox a much better media consumption device, mainly by adding built-in Wireless N and making it almost completely silent, some people still just don’t want a gaming console. Ceton must have also decided that one way to ensure sales of their InfiniTV CableCARD tuners continued, was to help expand the Media Center community by giving consumers more options for spreading Media Center throughout their entire house.
If you haven’t already built your own home theater PC then Ceton’s other “technology preview” might be right up your alley! Ceton has been prototyping the development of their own set-top-box built upon Windows Embedded Standard 7 and, of course, an InfiniTV CableCARD tuner.
Hardware isn’t the only thing Ceton produces though. They’ve been hard at work on software enhancements to Media Center also. Feeling quite dissatisfied with the current online video streaming services offered in Media Center, Ceton is working on their own online media streaming hub plugin. It would offer the user the ability to search for the content they want across multiple providers, all from one interface. No longer would you need to open separate apps, or surf to different websites to find the content you’re looking for. It would all be available from one central app, right within Windows Media Center! They also have companion apps for tablets and mobile devices, including Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8.
All of these products, the Windows Media Center Extender, set-top-box and software enhancements, are being considered by Ceton as technology previews. As such, they weren’t willing to give any potential release dates or pricing information.
This is a developing story, so check back later for pictures and more details.
Be sure to check all of our CES coverage at The Digital Media Zone.
Just after reading Reycom MC. For 6 bils is crazy. At least I rather give money to a company I trust. And cares more about their customers. Call me what you want.
What are you even talking about? Ceton is a fantastic company with incredible customer service.
I think what elmopio was saying is that he’d much rather buy from Ceton than Reycom.
Where is the The Ceton InfiniTV6 ????
Ceton didn’t have an InfiniTV 6 to show.
So this is where James M is now…
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I just bought my 2nd ceton tuner. Ceton’s products and customer support exceed expectations. Networked quality was such that I thought I was watching direct cable and not a bridged networked signal sent to my other HTPC. Looking forward to buying an extender.