The cost and simplicity of renting a plug-and-play DVR from the TV service providers outweighed the benefits of WMC, and streaming services starting around 2008 spread quickly to Blu-ray players and other devices that were easier to set up and maintain than a full fledged Windows PC in the living room. Over time, WMC also added a number of improvements that extended its functionality: plug-in support, extenders (Xbox and third party set-top boxes for viewing), access to online content, and extensibility (via Windows Media Player) to support formats not supplied by Microsoft.ĭespite these improvements, the focus in home entertainment shifted to consumer electronics (CE) devices. The DVR capability let you own your own recorder with the expandable space of a PC hard drive, as well as not having to pay a fee for the electronic TV guide as either the TV providers or TiVo charge. The user interface was clean, relatively simple, and one of Microsoft’s better UI implementations. While WMC never really became hugely popular, it has a dedicated and vocal community.
Perhaps the biggest feature, at a time when not everyone had a DVR, was the live TV recording functionality it offered when paired with PC TV tuner devices. The premise was to leverage the power of PC hardware to enable an all-in-one media center, capable of playing DVDs, videos, photos and music with a 10 foot remote control interface. WMC was novel when introduced as a special edition of Windows XP in 2002. Microsoft recently announced that after a dozen years, it would no longer include support for Windows Media Center (WMC) in the upcoming Windows 10.
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