Yes, every other Windows related blog has put one of these out.  I’ve been thinking on it awhile now.  Most of the other lists out there cover good stuff I suppose, but let’s face it, other than Media Center, Windows is Windows for me.  Vista does what I need it to do and so did XP.

As such, I’m going to focus strictly on Media Center and what I’d like to see in 7.  Well, not strictly.  I’ll throw in some things that I think MS needs to do to bring the whole media ecosystem together.

• Ability to resume video files.

This one really gets to me.  I can restart TV shows no problem, and I can restart other video files from the Xbox 360 dashboard.  In Media Center however, I’m stuck.  If I start watching a movie and decide I want to finish it tomorrow, I’m going to be fast forwarding for 20 minutes to get to where I stopped.  I’m not a programmer but it seems to me that if this can be done with TV recordings and within the 360 UI, then it should be doable within Media Center both locally and on an extender.  This is a huge factor in WAF and something that would help quite a bit.

• Full codec support for 360 extender.

Yep, I’ll say it again, and keep saying it.  See previous posts for more details.

• DVD streaming to extenders.

I know I’m not the only one who would like this.  Truth be told, it wouldn’t help me that much.  I’ve archived all of my DVDs and they now sit in boxes in my attic.  But it would be nice and might make me consider getting one of those fancy DVD changers.

• Get internet content to extenders.

I know, we’re back on extenders again but it would be nice to be able to get content from sites like Hulu and possibly even network sites that put their content online.  Most TV networks are now starting to put new episodes of shows on their websites almost immediately after broadcast.  It would be nice to be able to pull these into Media Center and then play them back locally or on extenders in full screen.  This is difficult for enthusiasts to do due to licensing and whatnot, but it’s not beyond MS’s ability to reach agreements with these sites.

• Complete Zune integration.

Another great thing to help bring the ecosystem together would be complete Zune integration.  I’m thinking along the lines of, if my Zune is attached to my Media Center, allow me to tag recorded TV shows or video files within Media Center for upload to the Zune, and vice versa.  I think the best would be to have the Zune show up under either it’s own bar within Media Center while connected and it could be selected and files played directly from it.

As you can see, this all has a lot to do with being able to play any media within Media Center and on extenders.  I think a total integration with Media Center, extenders, internet content and the Zune would be a great way to bring everything together and show that MS is serious about users being able to view and use media the way they want.

Basically, don’t let Media Center be the reason I can’t watch something.  If certain companies won’t provide their content then MS can’t control that and we can’t hold them responsible for someone else not playing ball.  I think that if deals could be worked out, we could all be watching a lot more online content with Windows 7.  Boxee has just starting providing Hulu and CBS programming.  These are the types of things we need in Media Center if MS wants to be taken seriously as a home entertainment solution.  Without these features, users will start moving to other solutions.