So when you’re using a compatible app, like Music or Video, you can find compatible devices on your home network through a consistent interface-Devices, in Charms-and easily access that previously hidden feature that’s been around for three years even though you’ve never heard of it.
In the Windows 8 Release Preview, we see the beginnings of Microsoft’s plan to fix this.įirst, the DLNA Play To feature is built right into the OS. And even Microsoft’s own Xbox 360 offered-still does-a terrible DLNA experience: This feature was (still is) only available through the Media Center Extender app on the 360, meaning you could only use it with Windows Media Center on Windows 7 … which, of course, absolutely no one used. Part of the problem was accessibility: The feature was utterly hidden, required a lot of work on the user’s part, and there were precious few DLNA-compatible devices out in the world.
But what’s built in are the new, Xbox-branded versions of the old Zune applications and online services, blended with both old (DLNA) and new (Play on Xbox) methods for accessing online and local content from a PC or device and playing it on (or “to”) compatible devices, including of course the Xbox 360, via which Microsoft of course intends to provide the best possible experience.įrom a low-level standpoint, DLNA capabilities were added to Windows 7 in the form of a Play To feature through Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center that very few users ever found or used. In Windows 8, the remaining Windows Media features are there for backwards compatibility only. In previous Windows versions, Microsoft bundled its Windows Media products with the OS and then offered separate Zune applications and online services that were technically “outside” of Windows. Windows 8 + Xbox: Better togetherīefore looking at the two (or more, see below) Xbox apps that ship with Windows 8, I wanted to step back for a moment and examine what’s really happening here. In this article, I’ll look at Windows 8’s Xbox-based apps and features, both for games and for media, and see what’s changed since the last milestone. One of the many intriguing aspects of Windows 8 is that it is the first version of Windows to offer integrated Xbox services and technologies, not just for games, but also for the coming digital media capabilities that will replace Zune.
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