Microsoft announced today a new IPTV channel under the sports menu in Windows Media Center. Called the "Sports Channel", the new option brings together video from Fox Sports, CBS Sports, MSNBC and The Queensberry Fight Network.
There's quite a bit of content out there already, but things will really take off when the NCAA Tournament starts in late March. Highlights, interviews and condensed game replays will be available shortly after the conclusion on games during the tournament. It's great news for sports fans and hopefully signals more content like this to come in the future.
As of now, the feature is available in Windows Vista and not the Windows 7 Beta, though that could change. Here's a tour of the new section.
To access the channel from the Media Center main window head to Sports and then Sports Channel. The first time you launch you will be asked to accept a new link to Media Center.
Once you accept, the new interface loads. It took a few seconds for me, but I was on a wireless machine that has admittdly been struggling lately. It's a completely new interface, not in the standard Media Center look. There's a main story window that rotates the big stories, along with a ribbon below that to choose from other main stories. A smaller window at the top-right scrolls latest news. A menu at the top allows you to choose from CBS Sports stories, college hoops or classic fights. At the bottom right are options to launch Fox Sports, MSNBC Sports or the Queensberry Fight network. Both Fox and MSNBC are the same as they were before the Sports Channel launch. We'll look at the Fight Network later.
You can also choose to browse all CBS Sports videos. This brings up a wall of videos with a host of categories along the top.In my tests, I had some issues getting videos to play from this view.
Once you choose a video, you can watch it in a smaller window or launch it full screen.
The quality is what you'd expect from streaming video. As of right now there's only highlights and short interviews available. It will be interesting to see what the quality of the condensed games are. If you remember back to the Olympics, NBC and TVTonic brought HD game replays to Media Center and the quality was very good.
Here's a couple shots of Fox and MSNBC.
Queensberry Fight Network
This new option allows you to download full versions of classic fights. Some of them are free to download, but the majority cost $2.99. Most of the fights seem to be from the past several years, so don't expect Sugar Ray Leonard or Thomas "Hitman" Hearns fights.
Queensberry requires a download and install of a plugin and thus requires a mouse and keyboard. From there, you need to set up an account before you can sign in and watch the fights. The main screen lets you pick from different weight classes as well as other programming, including live fights.
You then get a info page that details the fight.
From there, the video launches into full-screen playback.
Impressions
It's not blazingly fast, and it appears there's still some bugs to be ironed out in the CBS Sports menus, but overall this is a very cool idea with a great presentation. The proof will really be when the Tournament starts. If CBS can serve up game replays with good quality in reasonable timeframe after games end, this could be an amazing tool for the college basketball fanatic. If this works out, hopefully Microsoft can work deals for College football, NFL and other sports as well.
