Microsoft is expanding their presence in the content delivery arena and will begin providing video downloads via Vista’s MCE interface. Unlike the iTunes fee-based service, MS is going the ad-supported route. Engadget uncovered a few details:
we do know that content will fall into Sports, Entertainment, News, Top Picks, Music and Movies categories. Additionally, the videos will reportedly be “better than SD quality, but not HD,” although HD programs could certainly emerge in the future. Best of all, this feature will simply be delivered as a normal software update, and it seems that we’ll have to wait until Digital Life before we know any more.
I gave up on Vista (rolled back to XP MCE), so I guess I’m out of luck… fortunately, it doesn’t seem like this will be a big loss. However, if the MCE update providing “Internet TV” coincides with an Xbox 360 Dashboard update supporting DivX and Xvid streaming I’ll definitely reconsider my “downgrade.”
(via Floppyhead)