RE: All Viacom Add-ins (e.g. TurboNick) Now Missing from VMC! by BTDT
BTDT
Thu May 29 09:26:01 PDT 2008
No feedback from anyone in a position of real knowledge.
When did you see the TurboNick plugin in action? Other users have reported
that it disappeared from both SP1 and pre-SP1 machines. In my case I first
noticed it missing shortly after updating to SP1 and installed an extender.
At first I thought it was an extender limitation, but then noticed it was
missing as well from the main Media Center.
The odd thing is that TurboNick did a very nice update to their plug-in in
mid-March. Most of the other plug-ins are very kludgy and error-prone, but
this one seemed very nice.
"dcozzi" wrote:
> Have you heard any feedback yet? I saw the plug-in at a neighbor's house but
> he was not running SP1. If not, did you find a workaround? Thanks
>
> "BTDT" wrote:
>
> > No. This is indeed an across-the-board change but it appears to me that very
> > few VMC users care very much about the spotlight plug-ins (which may be one
> > reason for these disappearing). In my case I was looking at this as being a
> > conduit for continued Nick content given our recent move to all-OTA HD. We
> > can still break out the wireless keyboard and web browser and do this the
> > hard way, but it would be nice for this content to be equally available on
> > the extender.
> >
> > I'm sure someone out there knows exactly why this change happened. My
> > expectation is that a one-year joint marketing agreement between Microsoft
> > and Viacom ran out and that Viacom is seeking other interesting ways to push
> > out its content. Unfortunately, a consolidated solution for the consumer
> > seems to be difficult to achieve given that each content provider wants to
> > come up with their own solution and portal.
> >
> > Sigh.
> >
> >
> > "Jeff" wrote:
> >
> > > Has anyone got back to you on this? Everyone I know that uses VMC has the
> > > same situation.
> > >
> > > "BTDT" wrote:
> > >
> > > > This is a topic I have been chasing for a month now, ever since I updated to
> > > > Vista SP1 and installed a v2 Media Center Extender for the kids; however, I
> > > > think it is completely unrelated to either of these events.
> > > >
> > > > All of the Viacom-based add-ins no longer appear in the Online Media /
> > > > Explore menu under VMC. This includes TurboNick, Comedy Central Motherload,
> > > > MTV, VH1, etc. Unfortunately, I never saved one of these to the Programs
> > > > menu, so have no idea if this might have avoided this issue.
> > > >
> > > > The biggest hit here is TurboNick, since that was intended to be a nice
> > > > source of programming for the kids. We recently "cut the cable" and went to
> > > > all OTA HD. Note that TurboNick still shows up through a regular browser, but
> > > > Motherload has been removed altogether.
> > > >
> > > > So, I will assume that someone at Microsoft may have some clue as to what is
> > > > going on here, especially considering that these add-ins were featured parts
> > > > of the Vista release, and since all mention of them has been removed from the
> > > > Vista description pages where they used to appear.
> > > >
> > > > My questions are simple:
> > > >
> > > > 1. Why did Viacom pull their add-ins out of Vista? Especially for TurboNick
> > > > VMC seemed to be a part of their strategy.
> > > >
> > > > 2. Are they ever coming back?
> > > >
> > > > 3. Is there a way to put them back manually?
> > > >
> > > > Note that in terms of #3 at least one poster has found a way to manually
> > > > replace the MTV and VH1 add-ins. The address turbonick.com/mce also continued
> > > > to bring up an MCML file a couple of weeks ago, but has now been updated to
> > > > redirect to the normal TurboNick page.
> > > >
> > > > All of this makes it clear that SOMEONE knows what is going on here. I would
> > > > just appreciate as a loyal media center user to be "in the loop" and know
> > > > whether something better is coming, or whether I just need to give up on ever
> > > > watching a Viacom product again.