Chris Lanier asks the rhetorical question, When Will Media Center Update Rollup 2 Ship?
According to Neowin, what we know now as Windows XP Media Center Edition Update Rollup 2 RTM’d on August 12th (Last Friday). However, when might the actually web release be if it RTM’d on August 12th? Take a trip down the Media Center release timeframe table and you should get a good idea of when it might ship (eg. be available for download). I’ll have more of the content posted from Neowin later.
MCE v1 – Oct. 29, 2002
MCE 2004 – Sep. 30, 2003
MCE 2005/Update Rollup 1- Oct. 12/17, 2004
MCE 2005 Update Rollup 2 – ?
If Chris is reading the tea leaves correctly, Microsoft is going to sit on this update for nearly two months. I think this timeline might be off a little bit, however, because this rollup is not like its predecessors. For the past three years, each fall has seen the debut of a completely new edition of Windows Media Center Edition. In 2002 and 2003, the OS was sold only through OEMs, and no upgrade path was available. In 2004, with the release of MCE 2005, Microsoft finally made the OEM version available for white-box makers and hobbyists in addition to big OEMs, but there was still no upgrade path. This year, for the first time in four years, there won’t be a new MCE version number. Instead, anyone who owns MCE 2005 can upgrade to the latest code by downloading and installing a rollup package, and OEMs who sell MCE computers can incorporate the rollup into their new machines as well.
The files in the MCE 2005 system folders have date/time stamps of August 10, 2004. That’s when last year’s code was locked down and the process of making it ready for OEMs (and for retail sale) began. As Chris correctly notes, MCE 2005 wasn’t officially released until October 12, and it was followed a few days later (Chris says October 17, but the download page is actually dated October 15, 2004) by a rollup package that added over-the-air HDTV support and a few bug fixes.
It made marketing sense to hold the release of MCE 2005 from August 2004 until its official launch in October. MCE 2005 wasn’t a downloadable product, and the rollup was useless to anyone running a previous MCE version. But it doesn’t make any sense to delay this year’s rollup for two months. OEMs can continue to sell MCE 2005 from now until then, and they don’t have to worry about customers getting stuck with an obsolete OS version. Meanwhile, Media Center customers (a million of them as of April, with perhaps another half-million since then) can benefit immediately from whatever features are in the update. So why delay it? Microsoft has already determined that it makes no sense to change version numbers this year. Anyone who buys MCE 2005 can download the update, and OEMs can slipstream the rollup package when they’re ready.
Holding the Rollup 2 package for weeks or months isn’t good for anyone. Microsoft, if this update is ready to go, release it!
Ed Bott 
So, owners of previous MCE version won’t be able to upgrade to 2005? I missed my OEM upgrade for the first 2005 release. I think I’m running 2004. Does that mean I can’t upgrade? If I can’t, I will be really angry. Thanks for the info.
Where is the update…?