Microsoft announced this week that Netflix will be supported in Windows 7 Media Center.
Back in May, Netflix was added to Windows Media Center – the Vista version, that is. The new app, which uses Microsoft's Silverlight streaming video technology, should automatically show up in your Vista Media Center menu. But if you're using any version of Windows 7? No dice. There are several work-arounds developed by the enthusiast community, such as MyNetflix and vmcNetflix. But even as Microsoft announced this and a version for the Xbox, there was nothing for Windows 7. Until today.
During Steve Ballmer's Thursday keynote at a Microsoft Financial Analyst Meeting in Seattle, Mike Ybarra, general manager of Windows Product Management at Microsoft, publicly demonstrated a Netflix integration with the Windows Media Center menu.
The app will be completely touch-enabled, which I believe means it takes advantage of Windows Presentation Foundation, the new way programs are written for Windows to take advantage of the power of the GPU. No word on when it will be made available, or if it will roll out to beta, release candidate, or miscellaneous (read: Bittorrent) versions of the OS.
If you're curious, watch the demo yourself, though I'd advise skipping past the bluster to the 1 hour, 2 minute mark.
What's also interesting were Ybarra's other comments about TV and PC integration.
"Now we know that there's a trend happening right now where people are using more and more media on the PC. In fact, there's a lot of articles out there about a shift from people watching on the TV and coming to the PC," he said. "And as we approach Windows 7's general availability on October 22nd, we're going to have some more announcements around this particular area."
My guess: Hulu integrated in the online section of the Windows Media Center guide. Please? Pretty please?
This post originally appeared on AppScout.