![\"Crystal](\"http:\/\/static.flickr.com\/2188\/2238715683_ff8a6a16f6.jpg\" "\\"Crystal")
<\/a><\/p>\nPhoto by \u201ccirculating\u201d<\/em><\/a> <\/em>cc license<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n I think it\u2019s probably wise to start with the predictions I really missed on first and then move down the list towards those that were close or actually accurate predictions:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This is one I think could still happen in the coming year. I\u201dm surprised that some of the smaller, freeware names still do any updates as names like XBMC<\/a> and Boxee<\/a> take up the little air that rem<\/font>ains i this space.<\/font><\/p>\n I personally think Apple is still moving this way. Even recently we\u2019ve heard about Apple working with some TV networks on agreements to carry their content on some Apple product. But so far it hasn\u2019t happened and that reflects how difficult this market is with the many entanglements that come along with todays TV licensing deals.<\/font><\/p>\n I was wrong here \u2013 very wrong. I say that even though I\u2019m betting the actual budget for HTPC at Microsoft did not get increased and quite possibly decreased. But I think Microsoft still values the HTPC\/Media market and their improvements in Windows 7 demonstrates that.<\/p>\n This one seems to be slowly moving the way I expected. Hulu pushed around those trying to use their content (like Boxee for example). Comcast\u2019s XfinityTV<\/a> is another example of the experimenting the media companies are doing. While I personally am very against the online, streamed TV content as a primary source of TV and movies, I admit this is probably where media will go some day.<\/p>\n How could I be so right on one hand, but so wrong on the other? SageTV<\/a> did release a very nice SageTV HD Theater (HD200)<\/a> that is even better today than it was when it was first announced in January 2009. So on that hand I was right. But there still today is no hardware-based Server\/Player solution and I\u2019m not sure if we\u2019ll see one even in the next six months. Still I consider the SageTV HD200 one of the best media gadget devices I\u2019ve ever purchased \u2013 and that\u2019s saying a lot.<\/p>\n While some may disagree with me, Blu-ray is the standard now. Blu-ray player prices have dropped to incredible lows over this past holiday season even though the regular prices for low-end models still over just below $99 instead of $70. Many now have them and want their movies on Blu-ray \u2013 even if they are renting them. The bestseller Blu-ray discs on Amazon<\/a> There were a few possible companies I had in mind here, but the primary one was Snapstream. Not because I thought Snapstream was failing, but because I saw their enterprise DVR\/Search product offering so much and filling the perfect niche for a small company. Somewhat as I expected, Snapstream announced they were \u201cscaling back\u201d their focus away from the consumer-based BeyondTV HTPC software and publicly admitting that their number one focus is for their Enterprise product. It makes a lot of sense to me and while I\u2019m sort of disappointed to see BeyondTV get left behind in the HTPC world as it was one of the best software PVRs available.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I proved one thing this past year \u2013 I\u2019m not all that good at predicting the future. But I do at least have a feel for the general direction of things. I\u2019ve asked my twitter followers<\/a> what HTPC predictions they have for 2010 and I\u2019m listening for your Media Gadget predictions too \u2013 let me know in the comments and I\u2019ll provide a new list of 2010 predictions later this week.<\/p>\n With one of my first posts of 2009 I took a wild stab at my top 10 Media Gadget Predictions for 2009 with some long-shots and a few I though were very possible in the wild world of Media Gadgets. I thought I\u2019d use this last week of 2009 to see how I did. Photo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Eating a Lot of Crow \u2013 but a few were Closer Than Expected:<\/h4>\n
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Yes I really did predict this and I was really wrong. Matter of fact we saw very few new extenders in the tiny HTPC market and definitely none with a blu-ray drive. Although there was a media player that has Blu-ray capability with the PopcornHour<\/a><\/ol>\n
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I was a year early on much of this one really. But the not-yet-here Apple Tablet will do this in early 2010.<\/ol>\n
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This happened and continues to happen today. Media Companies are working diligently to move away from analog ports and will eventually win this battle. I just think it will take the better part of five years instead of one.<\/ol>\n
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