What is microsoft mediaroom

Formerly called the Microsoft IPTV platform this development toolkit for carriers and third parties was renamed to the Microsoft Mediaroom Mediaroom platform in June Microsoft Mediaroom adds new multimedia capabilities over Microsoft IPTV that includes in-home personal music and photo sharing, dynamic MultiView multiple picture-in-picture capabilities, Multimedia Application Environment for development of interactive services, and digital terrestrial television DTT support.

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Mediaroom is capable of displaying up to 16 separate video streams at once in a 4x4 grid. Each stream has its own set of metadata associated with it, which can include player stats. Microsoft's vision for the set-top box in Mediaroom is that of a "digital media receiver" according to Seidel, who also said that the company has a "whole-home PVR" in development. Only one of the digital media receivers in the house would have a hard drive built-in.

Any receiver connected to the home network would be able to view content stored on the DVR, however. Seidel also demonstrated the media sharing capabilities of Mediaroom. Content from all Mediaroom-aware devices i. Users will be able to easily browse picture and music libraries and can stream content from room to room using Mediaroom.

One of the early criticisms of IPTV was that the channel-surfing experience can be a bit frustrating at times, as it could take up to a couple of seconds to go from one channel to the next. Microsoft has worked hard on that aspect of the IPTV experience, said Seidel, and the channels changes in the demo were nearly instantaneous.

According to Seidel, Mediaroom uses an algorithm to determine whether a viewer is in channel-surfing mode and will change from unicast to multicast mode to ensure a smooth viewing experience. Seidel demonstrated the functionality for me and gave me a chance to explore the 's IPTV capabilities.

Mediaroom can be accessed from the from the Media menu, appearing as an option below the current Music, Pictures, and Video selections. Once you select Mediaroom, the acts as another set-top box.

While watching TV on the , you can still receive invites from friends.