Release Issued by Microsoft Corp.:
- Based Portable Media Centers, the new handheld entertainment devices that make it easy to store and play recorded TV, movies, home videos, music and photos transferred from a PC running Microsoft Windows® XP.
The timing is right for catalysts such as Portable Media Centers. Digital media is rising in popularity and use, and more music, photos and videos are being acquired, stored and enjoyed on PCs. At the same time, by creating a new platform based on Windows Mobile software for Portable Media Centers, Microsoft is creating new opportunities for the entertainment industry to develop business models for the delivery of legitimate, protected digital entertainment.
The Growing Digital Media Movement
More People Are Playing Entertainment Media on Their PCs
• Thirteen percent of online consumers own a PC dedicated to media or entertainment use.
• Seventy percent of online users listen to music on PCs.
• Ninety-nine percent of PCs have at least one video file.
Video Today Is Where Audio Was Five Years Ago
• In 1999, 12.8 percent of U.S. Internet users reported having an MP3 file on their computer.
• In 2004, 13 percent of U.S. households with Internet access report having a video file on their PC that is larger than 150 MB.
• 2003 was a year of growth for premium movie download services. At the end of the year, consumers in the United States downloaded more than 300,000 feature-length movies from premium movie download services.
Capturing TV Content on the PC Is on the Rise
• Roughly 9 million TV tuner cards will have been shipped worldwide by the end of 2004.
• Fifty-one percent of online users are interested in recording PC-based TV shows for later playback, and 40 percent of online users are interested in watching PC-based live TV programming on their TVs.
Digital Photos and Music Adoption Rates Are Exploding
• In 2003, 118.5 billion digital images were captured, shared and received.
• Forty-seven percent of online users are interested in managing and viewing digital photos on their PCs.
• Worldwide, more than 1 million music tracks are available for download in Windows Media® Audio format.
Broadband Adoption and Paid Content Revenues Are Rising
• In the United States, 21.5 million households connect to the Internet via a broadband connection.
• Paid content revenues will reach $2 billion in 2004, with the fastest-growing category being audio/video content.
Creating New Opportunities for Digital Entertainment
In addition to creating more opportunities and scenarios for consumers, Portable Media Centers have emerged as a new platform for growth among movie studios, music labels, hardware companies and Internet sites. Through these new channels, and combined with what you already have on your PC, you can take advantage of several ways to find great movies, songs, TV and video to load onto your Portable Media Center.
Current Portable Media Center Entertainment Partners
| • BreakTV | • Food Network | • MSNBC
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| • CinemaNow Inc. | • Fox Sports | • MTV
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| • CNBC | • Headliner Entertainment Group Inc. | • The Weather Channel
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| • COOKIE JAR | • Home & Garden Television (HGTV) | • TiVo Inc. |
| • DIY Network | • IFILM | • TotalVid |
| • FINE LIVING | • MLB.com | • Want Media
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Transferring Digital Entertainment to Your Portable Media Center
These brief descriptions explain how to find and transfer TV, movies, music and photos to your Portable Media Center.
My TV
You can transfer recorded TV from any Windows XP-based PC to a Portable Media Center. Windows XP Media Center Edition PCs have a built-in personal video recorder (PVR) that lets you record TV directly through a cable connection to the PC. If you don’t have a Media Center PC, you can capture recorded TV onto a PC using a TV tuner card or TiVo Series2 stand-alone digital video recorder.
My Video
Online content providers MSN® Video Downloads and CinemaNow have a collection of video content for Portable Media Centers. MSN Video Downloads offers a broad selection of video content including news headlines, sports programs, family shows and music videos from top news and entertainment companies such as MSNBC, Fox Sports, CNBC, COOKIE JAR, HGTV, DIY Network and Food Network. You also can transfer home movies to your Portable Media Center to share with family and friends on the device or through the TV Out connection.
My Music
You can visit a music service such as MSN Music or Napster to buy tracks or albums, or become a monthly subscriber to have unlimited access to hundreds of thousands of songs that can be transferred to your Portable Media Center. You also can rip the CDs you own to Windows Media Player 10 to listen to and transfer to your Portable Media Center.
My Photos
Windows Media Player 10 provides a single place to manage your digital photos from within the Media Library. After enabling the photo support feature in Windows Media Player 10 (under Tools/Options) you can sync all the photos on your PC with your Portable Media Center, so you can share them with friends and family anytime and anywhere.
