emigrating:
Now, speaking about the PIKA units - because I'm doing video transcoding to extenders, is there a way to find out what capabilities the currently connected device has? It would be extremely useful to only re-code videofiles that the device cannot play natively rather than do everything that the lowest common denominator (Xbox360) cannot. I initially figured I'd simply ask the user during setup which type of extender they were using - then of course, someone pointed out what about those ppl that uses one of each.
I've had numerous discussions about this with Charlie (and in MVP forum) - and I think in summary we've had to 'agree to disagree' on the need/requirement to query the device for it's capabilities (and no there is no real 'supported' technique - particularly for codec discovery - and it's been advised against as well).
Everything tells me still it's an absolute must - and you'll see from my apps I've looked well outside the MediaCenter SDK to determine the actual device being used (and have special configuration options to handle the differences).
I've had tons of experience in the past on multiple device support (ie. have released products for mobile market 5-10 years ago - ie J2me/WML etc which had ALL the same issues) - and it's really painful for me to see Microsoft making exact same cycle of mistakes that Nokia, SonyEricsson, Motorolla etc did in the past (and all of them had the same 'we're in control of it - so you don't need to worry about it attitude' - wrong in every single case)..
While I totally appreciate Charlie's POV to just work with the LCD (and if everything was actually 100% bug free and it was a 'perfect world') - it's unfortunately not the case - so not a workable strategy at all for me. (and I had no choice to get 'existing' applications working but to do specific device detection).
Unfortunately I'm once again one of the first few 3rd party developers to test/raise these issues (and had no support/backup from any other MVP's on this matter - who are mostly non developers anyhow) - so please be vocal on this matter as well (and anyone else reading who's going to see and battle with all these 'not all extenders are equal' issues over the coming months). It's normally a matter of 'if enough people complain we will do something approach' (and if I'm the only one complaining - noone will listen).
I should also note that Charlie has also been very helpful directing me to the correct people to raise this with (in past few weeks - and unfortunately about 6 months too late when some mistakes could have been prevented) - and I have been bogged down with existing product launch etc (so haven't been able to follow this up - but still hope to do so).
Anyhow sorry to have a rant here (ok this should be in my blog - and may do so later).
cheers
Niall