Free Olympic coverage on Windows Media Center
Tiny URL: http://tinyurl.com/562bt9
The Beijing Olympics opening ceremony starts at 8:08:08pm Beijing time on Friday 8/8/08 (just a few hours from the time of this post) and it will be available for viewing on your Windows Media Center PC (or on your TV, via a Media Center Extender) through the “NBC Olympics On The Go” service. The coverage on this service actually extends to “catch up coverage” of 24 sports with DVR like storage of the events you like. This service is being jointly provided by Microsoft and NBC and utilizes the TVTonic platform developed by Wavexpress Inc.
To use this service, you will be required to install the TVTonic service which is available through Windows Media Center “Online Media” section or from the TVTonic/NBC/Microsoft web sites. The installation can be performed on the Media Center PC or via an extender/XBOX 360.
The TVTonic Broadcast Platform was first announced in April 2001 and launched in November 2002. It was quite revolutionary at the time of launch because it allowed subscription based download of frequently updated video feeds long before video podcasting had caught on. Now TVTonic is at version 3.3 and supports various types of feeds (including HD) from its service or from any RSS 2.0 video enclosure feed.
Wavexpress has been working on media broadcasting solutions for the Internet since its inception in 1999. In addition to the TVTonic platform, Wavexpress also runs the TVTonic Direct service that enables websites to deliver digital files directly to users’ hard drives.
In short, if you have a Windows Media Center system and want to make sure you don’t miss your favorite events, the “NBC Olympics On The Go” might just be a reliable service you would want to use for these 17 days.
