Believe what you want, but whether Mikey broke the frame with the map, or gave it to Chunk, the result is the same.
Microsoft had a lot of catching up to do with Media Center internationally, and for whatever reason decided July 2008 was when the TV Pack was to be delivered. So because of this self imposed deadline — it was promised to partners — Microsoft didn’t have time to prepare the TV Pack for general release. Microsoft didn’t have time to test all the update scenarios, only had time to support a limited subset of hardware and finally didn’t have time to test all the usage scenarios. So as a result, the choice I believe Microsoft faced with, was to either push back the release of the TV Pack, or to release it OEM only.
**UPDATE** Sorry for the correction, but Charlie Owen emailed me and told me this was simply not true, and that the TV Pack was intended to be OEM only from the very beginning. Not sure why MS would choose to go that route, but since I can’t think of any honorable reasons to do this, I won’t even try to speculate. **end update**
But the good news is that Microsoft listens to the Media Center community and although MS is taking tons of slack for the OEM status of the update, Microsoft did the right thing and gave the RTM to Chunk. I mean how else could you explain what is happening? Sure, Microsoft promised the beta testers a copy since they worked so hard to test, but did they have to send it out last week? Couldn’t they have waited until the official release at CEDIA in September? Sure, why not, but instead it was made available, and as expected, Chunk broke the frame and we all got to have some fun.
Now while I disagree in principal with the way Microsoft is responding to the outcry over at The Green Button, I understand. I mean some members of the community don’t give them any other choice. They demand support and have many unrealistic expectations, and thus force MS to remind them that they aren’t even supposed to have the TV Pack. Some members of the community can’t leave well enough alone, so while I wish the TV Pack wasn’t OEM only, I do understand why it is, and I for one am happy that Microsoft gave the update to Chunk when they did.
