First look at Windows Media Center in Windows 7

Filed under: OS Updates, Windows, Microsoft

First look at Windows Media Center in Windows 7

by Brad Linder Oct 28th 2008

In case you hadn't heard, Microsoft is officially pulling back the curtain on Windows 7 today. And while the Windows taskbar, Window behavior, and gadget/widget engine have been overhauled, so has the Windows Media Center interface.

Windows Media Center is a built-in application for accessing music, movies, photos, and live TV (if your PC has a TV tuner card) using a 10-foot interface rather than the typical 3-foot PC interface. In other words, you can plop down on your couch and watch videos using Windows Media Center and a wireless remote or keyboard without finding yourself squinting at the screen.

The Windows 7 version of Windows Media Center includes a number of changes, including:

New fonts in the Start Menu make it easy to see a larger number of items without the display looking too cluttered.
The Now Playing thumbnail window is a bit larger than in Windows Vista.
If you don't have album artwork available, Windows Media Center will create multi-colored backgrounds for your albums rather than filling you screen with a bunch of blue boxes with white text.
There's a new details view (shown above) which lets you view information about videos, albums, or photos without launching a whole new window.
The new "Turbo Scroll" feature lets you scroll through large music libraries much faster by holding down your left or right remote control buttons. Turbo Scroll also works when browsing the TV listing menu.
H.264 video playback is supported out of the box.
The TV and video seek bar is now clickable, letting you jump to a particular point in the video.

There's also a new on screen keyboard that makes text entry much easier.

Tags: windows-7, windows-media-center

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

David Becker said 5:03PM on 10-28-2008

I can has Blu Ray Support?

Nayf said 5:53PM on 10-28-2008

Will it still mess up my songs in iTunes by trying to import album info?

sanjay shankar said 7:19PM on 10-28-2008

I sincerely hope they are considering native blu-ray playback on MCE. (even if they want extra $$$ for it as a feature pack)

Phoenix said 9:15PM on 10-28-2008

It'd be nice if they would even include native DVD playback.

Kai said 9:30PM on 10-28-2008

"H.264 video playback" - does this mean I can now decode the H.264 video stream that I'm receiving over the air? Or is it only for playing videos on the computer?

Jash Sayani said 7:06AM on 10-29-2008

Nothing great... I prefer FrontRow...

Dave Johnson said 3:54PM on 1-12-2009

What specific aspects of Front Row do you think are better implemented than with Media Center in Windows 7?

Jash Sayani said 9:02AM on 1-12-2009

Well, all media center applications do the same thing. Play music, videos, podcasts, allow IM/Internet applications and some allow online video buffering like YouTube or NetFlix. So, there is not much of a difference in any media center application. So, the only difference is the interface. And I personally feel that FrontRow has a much better and straight-forward interface.

andyg8180 said 10:46AM on 10-29-2008

If it can do nearly half of what XBMC can do, then we can talk... I like having my media center play my VOBs AVIs and divx files with no issues :-)

kevjohn said 3:46PM on 10-29-2008

All I want to know is how long is it going to take to disable and remove this piece of shitware so I can use the software I WANT to use for media playback.

AmsMan said 7:58AM on 10-30-2008

Thanks for saving me the keystrokes.

Brad Linder said 8:01AM on 10-30-2008

Nobody's making you use Windows Media Center. This isn't Windows Media Player, which is the default media player that is easily replaced with VLC, iTunes, or what have you. It's the 10-foot interface for accessing your media that Microsoft has been offering for the last few years. Many PC users don't even know they have it because it's kind of hidden away and only makes itself known when you go looking for it.

That said, if you'd rather use third party software like Media Portal or SageTV, there's nothing preventing you from doing so.

Dave Johnson said 9:28AM on 1-11-2009

It's a choice dealio. Rather common in the PC world ... not so much in applet land. We likes choices.

Steve Jobs said 1:47PM on 1-12-2009

kevjohn,

Follow these simple steps:
Delete all windows apps
Throw out your PC
Buy a mac
Choose the one choice for playing media
Jerk off to a pic of Steve Jobs
(Kool-aid is free)

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