With the Custom Electronic Design & Installation show in Atlanta only a month away, we thought it'd be fun to try and predict the future by laying out our expectations for Windows Media Center. The way we see it, CEDIA is the perfect launching pad for Windows 7 Media Center. For starters it is just over a month before the official release of the OS, but more so because Microsoft has used the venue in the past to announce new Media Center features. We really believe that this is going to be the year that Redmond brings everything together, so if you're the type who doesn't think it'll ever happen, then click through to find out why we think you're wrong.

Extenders for Media Center held so much promise only a year ago, but now with one of our favorite Extenders being discontinued it makes us pause and wonder about the future of the model. A small, low powered STB connected to the TV doing all the heavy lifting for our HTPC makes perfect sense as a concept, but in reality when you consider the price vs the feature set, it just doesn't add up. The economic reality is that an Xbox 360 does more for about the same amount of money, so the small footprint and low power usage just wasn't enough to sway consumers to the Linksys extenders. Looking forward we don't know what to expect, with a premier Media Center partner like Niveus publicly stating that it's new Zone product was created because customers didn't accept the limitations of an extender, it really makes us wonder. We still think the extender model has its place, but it seems now that it only makes sense as a feature of another product instead of standing on its own. So in other words, we still have our hopes up for a Blu-ray player with a built in Extender for Media Center, but in the meantime we'll be picking up a couple more DMA2100s before its too late.

[Via GeekTonic]