Best Practices For Implementing TV On Windows Vista

Best Practices For Implementing TV On Windows Vista Bernhard Kotzenberg Chris Matichuk Windows e. Home Division Microsoft Corporation

Session Overview Media Center Growth Windows Vista TV features Developing high quality TV tuner solutions TV tuner testing and logo programs TV tuner driver distribution Premium TV – U. S. Digital Cable Exhaustive scanning Call to action

Media Center Edition Growth Projected WW MCE PC Shipments 25 M 20 M 15 M 10 M 5 M 0 M 2004 2005 2006 ~10 million MCE PCs sold Approximately 1 million/month Analysts are bullish on the future: ~25 M units in 2009 ~50% of consumer PC sales WW in 2009* Analysts revising up Sources: IDC Consumer PC Sales Forecast Report, WW, Report, * Endpoint Technologies Associates, 9/05 2007 2008 2009* MCE accounted for 60% of U. S. Retail PC sales in Feb 06 When MCE sales increase, sub-$500 PCs drop What’s driving growth? OEM Support and increased investment Broad appeal of MCE features

MCE In Windows Vista Not a separate SKU! Huge win for us all – well done! MCE is in these Windows Vista SKUs Windows Vista Home Premium Windows Vista Ultimate Tuner attach rate is still an issue Need to work together to increase attach rates

Windows Vista TV Features TV Platform Guide Worldwide TV Support Exhaustive TV Channel Autoscanning Premium content through U. S. Open. Cable Optimized for widescreen Channel Browser Guide Filter for Favorite Channels First Run and Setup Postal Code validation Updates to TV setting defaults from WMIS Preview Channel Lineups DVR Recorded TV Gallery View with thumbnails “Overlaps” Conflict Management Recorded TV folder management Whole Home Distribution Media Center Millions of Xbox 360 s MCX v 2 TVs and DVD players High fidelity user experiences Multi-SKU Availability in 190+ countries Stunning 10’ Look and Feel Improved quality and reliability

New Guide UI

Channel Browser

Recorded TV Gallery View

Windows Vista And MCE Have Great New Features How can we work together to create a better TV experience?

Improving TV On Windows Vista IRS Reliability TV just works! (24/7) Drivers on WU/Inbox No crashes, no hangs Quality • Target CE-level quality • Compete with other media on PC • Consumers CAN tell the difference Improved TV Best user experience Satisfied customers Increased sales Lower Cost Drive attach rate Integrate components WW-ready solutions

The Quest For Quality

Consider The Whole Pipeline Tuner Demod / Decoder Encoder Driver Quality loss is permanent Maintain quality throughout pipeline Carefully select components Develop high quality & reliable drivers

Recommended Functionality For Analog Tuners Separate Inputs for Tuner Antenna (Terrestrial and FM reception) Cable Clustered S-Video, composite video, audio Support automatic input selection Support selectable stereo and secondary/tertiary audio 32 KHz audio is OK but 48 KHz is strongly recommended Audio and video capture must be on the same device Hardwired audio connection to sound cards is not supported Support automatic format detection for PAL/SECAM Provide unsliced 4. 5 x and 5 x oversampled data for VBI Lines Make sure data run-in is correct and data is not truncated Provide data for lines 6 -23 even and odd fields USB tuners should support USB 2. 0 Clearly label tuner inputs

Designing High Quality Encoders PC TV quality must be equivalent to, or better than consumer electronics Encoder Use hardware based encoders to insure scalability to multi-tuner and slower CPU PCs Provide at least 9 MBs VBR encoding Limit max VBR burst rate to 9. 5 MBs over any 500 m. Sec period Allow bit rate to be changed without stopping streaming Limit Audio/Video interleave jitter to 30 m. Sec Use a common accurate clock to timestamp audio and video Make sure there are no gaps or overlaps in the PTS timeline Multiplexers must support Mpeg 2 Program Stream (single program)

Building High Quality Analog Drivers Filters should complete transition to and from running state within 10 m. Sec Driver Deliver samples at source frame rate or every 15 m. Sec if source frame rate isn’t known Samples that are too large will result in longer channel change times and glitches due to decoder starvation Samples that are too small consume too much CPU Keep VBI and Audio/Video sample timestamps in sync Support all channel change events and discontinuity indicators Do not expose unneeded or unused pins Provide a unique pin medium for each hardware connection Graphs build faster when output pin mediums match only one filter Make pin mediums static and register them at driver install time Ensure that the capture filter dictates picture resolution to the encoder filter

Potential Issues Caused By Poor Analog Drivers Driver TV startup is too slow Channel changes are too slow or glitch Lip sync is bad Closed captions do not appear Closed captions out of sync with the audio and video Picture loses detail TV just stops after long periods of viewing Seeking and trick mode playback do not work well PC does not wake up and record shows

Recommendations For Digital Tuners Capture chips must support full transport stream bitrates for the desired medium (HD up to 19 MBs) Automatically fine-tune digital signal if signal is within +/- 100 KHz Detect and report signal presence and strength even if signal is not yet locked Allows for quicker signal scanning Do not wait for signal lock before returning a result from a request to tune Network provider will query signal strength to determine whether and when signal is locked Capture samples should be delivered at least every 15 m. Sec Timestamps should represent a continuous timeline Indicate discontinuities if data is not received or if data errors cannot be corrected

Supporting Multiple Tuners Each tuner should be a different device instance A separate graph will be built for each tuner instance Each instance should maintain its state independently from other instances Each instance must function fully and independently from other instances There should be separate Direct. Show filter entries for each instance (Tuner, Crossbar, Capture, etc. ) Each instance must have its own unique hardware pin mediums Instances that share physical connectors must be able to independently select their input via the crossbar filter

Tuner Testing And Logo Programs

TV Tuner Testing Test your tuner in with the latest build of Windows Vista Set up your tuners in First Run Test with multiple tuners installed Test sharing with a third party application Test channel change Look for loss of lip sync Look for video or audio glitches Test video compression Run with high motion content Test long duration use Test automatic recording after suspend Compare performance and quality with that of a good TV You can test all of this on Windows XP Media Center Edition too! Self-host Windows Vista with your tuners at home Look for future release of MCE Partner Test Kit with tuner tests from Microsoft

Windows Logo Programs For TV Tuners Media Center will no longer have an independent hardware requirements document Media Center in Windows Vista's hardware requirements and the “Designed for Media Center Edition” requirements will now be part of the new Windows Vista Windows Logo Program (WLP) Windows Vista Media Center requirements roughly align with the Premium level logo Hardware meet WLP + updated Media Center requirements Windows Vista Media Center Hardware Summary chart available in the FAQ on Microsoft Connect All Windows Vista WLP hardware requirements are verified using their corresponding tests found in the Microsoft Windows Development Kit (WDK)

Vista Test Tools In WDK Each hardware requirement for Media Center in Windows Vista will have a corresponding test in the Windows Driver Kit (WDK) to verify compliance with the WLP No separate “test kit” specifically for Windows Vista Media Center Diagnostic tests in the WDK will log info from the Windows Vista computer running Media Center and verifies the hardware meets the logo requirements WDK beta available with Windows Vista Beta 2 Final tests available soon!

Driver Distribution IHV/OEM Website Manual Search for Updates Improved User Experience Challenges Manual process Windows Update Automated Driver Multiple drivers in Updates multiple locations Customer confusion Advantages as to which driver IHV/OEM posts to install driver updates to WU Latest drivers dynamically available Automatic update notification for users Inbox Driver Preinstalled Reliable Driver Advantages Device works out of the box Replaces XP driver on upgrade to Windows Vista Driver quality held to the same standard as Windows Vista

New TV Features In Windows Vista

U. S. Digital Cable Ready Open. Cable™ Unidirectional Receiver (OCUR) Approved by cable operators Cable. Labs® specification Open. Cable OC-SP-OCUR-I 02 -060210 Support for Cable. CARD™ Provides premium content to the PC (HBO HD and more!) Nationwide coverage Supports non-Cable. CARD™ content Includes local HD channels Hybrid tuner Also provides legacy support for NTSC and ATSC

OCUR – User Benefits Great digital TV experience High definition video (cable and terrestrial) Dolby Digital Surround Simplified configuration experience Easier configuration with direct Cable. CARD instead of connecting settop box to PC Increased reliability (no IR blaster) Easy connectivity and Setup (First Run) Built-in support for Cable. CARD pairing and diagnostics Scanning for free to air HD broadcasts

Digital Cable Support Cable Network I/F (CA protected) Cable Network DRI I/F (WMDRM protected) Open. Cable Uni-Directional Receiver (OCUR) Cable. CARD I/F (DFAST protected) MCX MCE

OCUR Reference Design Single tuner design Limited by single stream capability of Cable. CARD Two modes of operation for SD and HD content Cable: Analog or Digital (NTSC or QAM 64/256) Terrestrial: Analog or ATSC (NTSC or 8 VSB) MCE Interface IP over USB Content Protection: Windows Media DRM Windows Support Inbox Class driver, all features accessible through Media Center Certification Pre-certified by Cable. Labs

Exhaustive Scanning Automated mechanism to do a complete scanning of broadcast frequencies Ensures discovery of all channels Brings parity with CE devices Works on current hardware, 60% coverage Worldwide solution Initial release targeted at European analog TV

Exhaustive Scanning Tested in Europe U. K. , France, Germany, Finland Netherlands Great partner support Hardware and drivers Scanning in Netherlands (results) Legacy Scanning Exhaustive Scanning time Total found Valid channels Noise Duplicates 13 min 43 43 0 0 versus Scanning time Total found Valid channels Noise Duplicates 21 min 120 43 47 30

Call To Action Follow analog tuner design guidelines Design and use high quality encoders Develop high quality drivers Use BDA for digital tuner support Make sure your drivers support multiple hardware instances Use ISF to certify video quality Use the tuner test tools in the WDK Use Windows Update for driver distribution Support exhaustive channel scanning Review the analog tuner whitepaper

Additional Resources Web Resources Analog tuner whitepaper http: //www. microsoft. com/whdc/system/platform/media center/MCPCvidcap. mspx Microsoft TV technologies on MSDN http: //msdn. microsoft. com/library/default. asp? url=/library/enus/directshow/htm/introductiontodirectshow. asp Related sessions MED 076 – Preparing to TV Beyond Windows Vista MED 114 – Windows Media DRM Device Ecosystem for Windows Vista MED 035 – Hardware Implementations of Media Center Upgrade Scenarios

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