Here are some Windows Media related headlines that caught my eye recently:

• Microsoft has released new “preview” versions of Expression Blend and the Expression Media Encoder that work with Silverlight 1.0 RC.
• Vishal Sood has a nice post up about Server Side Playlists with Windows Media Services.
• Engadget has heard that FairUse4WM is capable of stripping the DRM from files acquired via the BBC’s new iPlayer.
• For developers: David Mullet explains how to automate Windows Media Player using Ruby.
• Long Zheng has dug up additional information on Vista SP1. Among other things, it should include an update to DirectX 10.

Hope you had a great weekend!

Remember Windows DreamScene? It’s one of the “Windows Ultimate Extras” that Microsoft promised for Windows Vista Ultimate users. DreamScene makes it possible to use video and other animations as desktop wallpaper. The first demo was shown months ago, but we haven’t heard much since then - until now. Finally, the team has provided an update:

Our goal is to provide the highest-quality, most secure and reliable offerings, and as a result we are continuing our work on these offerings. We apologize for taking so long to provide a status update to customers.

We intend to ship Windows DreamScene and the remaining 20 Language Packs by the end of the summer.

About time. DreamScene supports both MPEG and WMV video files, so start collecting your favorite videos now!

For more on the news, check out Megite.

An update rollup for Windows Vista Media Center users has been released. It fixes a couple issues affecting the Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate platforms, both x86 and x64. These include:

• Windows Media Center does not correctly configure a combo TV tuner that supports both ATSC and NTSC signals on a Windows Vista-based computer (KB929011)
• When you resize the Windows Media Center window in Windows Vista, video playback may stop (KB932753)
• You cannot hear the audio in Live TV or on a DVD in Windows Media Center after you wake a computer that is running Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate (KB931967)
• Several fixes for the Media Center Extensibility Platform
• An update to the Digital Cable Card component to provide better support for interaction between the digital cable tuner, the CableCARD, and Media Center

The knowledge base article for the update is here, and the download is here.

If you were looking forward to the next version of Windows Media Center, I have bad news for you - it looks like the project has been delayed. The update, which is believed to go by the Fiji codename, looks to be stalled according to Chris Lanier:

The beta program, which many of you may have registered for isn’t exactly moving along. The invites that were supposed to be sent out on May 31th have gone no where fast. This leads me to think that the target ship date for Fiji is no where close. 

Chris suggests that Fiji may not see the light of day until late 2008. Ars Technica picked up the story too, and mentioned that DirecTV support, HD-DVD playback, and improved support for CableCARD are all rumored features of the update.

Of course, one should keep in mind that Microsoft has not officially described Fiji as a Media Center-specific update. There seems to be something of a lockdown at Microsoft when it comes to future versions of Windows, so it could very well turn out that Fiji is actually Vista SP1 or something like that.

Either way, it looks like Windows Media Center fans will have to wait a while for new stuff on the software side of things.