ExtremeTech does a scathing reality check/review of Microsoft’s Portable Media Center (PMC). My favorite part of the article is:

Imagine that you want to record Letterman so you can watch it the next morning on the train. Here’s how it should work:

• You plug the PMC into your TV, cable, or SAT box.
• You set it to record for an hour, starting at 11:30pm.
• Nighty-night
• The next day: commuter Nirvana

Here’s how it actually works:

• You plug your PC into your TV, cable or SAT box by running a 50-foot cord from the living room to the home office.
• You fiddle with the arcane software that came with your PC’s TV tuner card (assuming you actually own a TV tuner card) and set it to record at 11:30pm.
• You sleep fitfully, hoping the fragile combination of video, PC, TV tuner card, Windows and software work correctly.
• The next morning you get up—but before you brush your teeth, you have to start transcoding last night’s Letterman on your PC.
• 30 minutes later, you’re showered, shaved and, well, everything else, and ready to head out the door. Your video, alas, is not.
• An hour and ten minutes later the transcoding is finally done. You quickly transfer it to the PMC and rush out the door.
• The good news—the train’s empty, because you missed rush hour. The bad news—you have to tell your boss your dog died again.

And the big “if” in all of this is whether your PC can actually suck up video and record it to your hard drive. According to market research firm In-Stat, only 7% of the PCs today can even hope to record video. If your PC can’t, you’re out $500 bucks.

Makes you wonder if Apple could do this right. I see potential in this marketplace now and no surprise Microsoft failed in creating a device that is usable. I have no doubt that it will be improved over time, but again Microsoft shows that getting in the marketplace is more important initially than actually taking over the marketplace (eg. history of IE).