Windows Media Connect 2.0: stronger, better, faster…

I noticed that Sean Alexander said that Windows Media Connect 2.0 has been released – very nice for those with MCE PCs or those thinking about purchasing one, especially when it will work with some of the slickest devices out there including Media Center Extenders, the very slick Roku Soundbridge (created by the equally bright Anthony Wood, who founded ReplayTV) and talented and the coming-soon Xbox 360). With Windows Media Connect, you can stream music, photos and video from a Windows XP PC to lite digital media receivers. Coupled with the Windows Media Center 2005 software release, I may soon retire my old analogue Replay TV 3000s.

That is, if I successfully upgrade my current Media Center PC to WMC2005: that may prove to be a challenge.

All well and good, but what’s really fantastic is that the update avoids the isues that sometime affects next releases: loss of speed and agility. Sean notes that version 2 is faster and has a smaller memory footprint. More info on the products that support this architecture is available at windows media connect.

Hopefully, it will also work with another very cool device: the new roku Soundbridge Radio. I now know what I want for Christmas. Note that I just saw this on roku’s site:

Q: Are protected WMA files supported?
A: Protected WMA files purchased from a PlaysForSure music service (http://www.playsforsure.com) are playable when using the Windows Media Connect server.