Windows Media Center in Windows 7
Windows Media Center in Windows 7
Explorer Windows Media Center Guide:
(windows 7 media center)
(fantastic windows 7 tips to use the windows media center, a review of windows 7 feature )
Windows 7 Tips
Microsoft enhance media experience in new operating scheme windows 7. Here we can wide analyze of Windows media 12 concern & increase up a really profitable windows media center tips.
When you introduce your machine to a TV, you can use Windows Media Sweet to relish them on a TV protection. You unite to a TV sift came with a Windows Media Pertain unlikely try, you can prove Media Point with that.
Windows Media Center allows you to rite and easily disc active TV, but this requires unscheduled component in the structure of a TV Wireless card or PVR (Private Recording Functionary) roll.
Fantastic Windows 7 Tips
Start Windows Media Center
Use following methods to start it:
- Click the Start button and choose All Programs O Windows Media Center.
- Press * ,type med, and click Windows Media Center.
- If you happen to have a Media Center remote control, click the button that shows the Windows Media Center logo.
This is the first time you’ve used the program, it will take you through some questions and show you some examples of its use. If you’re not a technical person, the trickiest part will be answering questions about your main monitor. If you don’t know the answer to a question and guess wrong, your screen will go completely black. But don’t panic, it will come back to life in 15 or 20 seconds. Try again (but not with the same incorrect answer).
Windows Media Center Overview (Windows 7 Tips):
- Windows Media Center comes with the Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, and Windows 7 Ultimate Editions.
- You can use Windows Media Center to enjoy all forms of digital media including photos, music, radio, video, movies, games, and TV.
- To start Windows Media Center, click the Start button and choose All Programs Windows Media Center.
- Media Center gets photos from your Windows Live Photo Gallery and music from your Windows Media Player media library.
- If you have an appropriate graphics card, you can display Media Center on a TV screen and operate it with a remote control.
- If your computer has a TV Tuner or PVR (Personal Video Recorder) card, you can watch and record live TV in Media Center.
- Choosing Tasks O Settings in Media Center takes you to many options for configuring and personalizing Media Center to your liking.
- Choosing Tasks in Media Center takes you to options for burning CDs and DVDs, syncing with compatible devices, adding extender devices, and shutting down your computer.
Playing music in Windows Media Center (Windows 7 Tips)
The Music segment of Media Center get albums and songs from Windows Media Player. You can too listen to online radio stations from Media Center. Choose Music from the home page. Options that appear across the horizontal row are summarized here:
- Music Library: Lets you choose songs from Windows Media Player categories and playlists to play. You can create a queue of songs to play and more.
- Play Favorites: Plays songs in your Media Player media library based on their ratings.
- Radio: Lets you locate and play music from radio stations if your PC includes an FM radio tuner.
- Search: Helps you find songs in your media library.
Use Windows Media Center Remote Control (Windows 7 Tips)
Use Media Center remote control, use the arrow keys around the OK button to get around. Press the OK button to select the currently highlighted option. Use the Back button to back out of any area. Press the button that shows the Media Center logo to return to Media Center’s home page.
The More button on a remote works like right-clicking. Often you’ll find options to change settings, burn a CD or DVD from the current item, and more.
Plenty of other buttons on your remote control can be used for getting around in Media Center. Because there are different brands of remotes, I can’t say exactly what’s in yours. But you can usually tell what a button does just by looking at its label. Or, check the manual that came with your remote control for more information.
Windows Media Center Playback Controls:
Windows Media Center preserve play picture slide shows, videos, music, movies, and TV shows. When you get something playing, you have two ways to control playback. If you’re using a mouse, move the mouse a little to reveal the playback controls Depending on what you’re playing, some controls may be disabled (dimmed).
Watching and Recording TV in Windows Media Center
To record a programe your computer must have a TV tuner or Personal Video Recorder card, you can use Media Center to watch and record TV. If your computer doesn’t already have one, you can purchase and install one or have one professionally installed. Ideally,
When a TV show is playing, you can use the playback controls for just about anything except fast forwarding ”into the future.” For example, you can pause playback and then resume later. Or you can rewind. But you can’t fast forward live TV beyond what’s been aired so far.
Recording TV in Windows Media Center
You can record TV in two ways. One is to just hit the Record button in the playback controls while you’re watching the show. Then Media Center will record from that point to the end of the show.
Click the Record button if you want to record only the selected show when it airs. Click Record Series to record all future airings.
To stop a recording in progress, right-click the red Record button in the play control of the Windows Notification area and choose Stop Current Recording. Or press the Stop button on your remote control.
It’s important to keep in mind that recorded TV shows take up a lot of disk space. The higher the quality of settings chosen, the more disk space a recorded TV show requires. The numbers range from 5.6 GB per hour for 1080i high-definition down to about 1 GB per hour for fair resolution.
Personalizing Windows Media Center
Like most programs, Media Center has options that you can adjust to your own needs and preferences. To get to those settings, select Tasks on Media Center s home page and click Settings. You see buttons for changing General, TV, Pictures, Music, DVD, Start Menu and Extras, Extender, and Media Libraries as shown in Figure 26-9. I cover each in the sections to follow.
General Settings of Windows Media Center
Clicking General takes you to still more options for personalizing Media Center. Under Startup and Window Behavior, you’ll find the following.
The Startup and Window Behavior button takes you to general options for controlling how Media Center behaves, as follows:
- Always Keep Windows Media Center On Top: Choosing this option prevents other program windows on a computer monitor from covering Media Center’s program window. It will also prevent you from switching to another program when Media Center is maximized to full-screen size!
- Show a Warning Before Displaying Web Pages That Are Not Designed for Windows Media Center: Some of the online services and other Web content you can get to in Media Center can’t be operated through a remote control or the normal Media Center interface. Choosing this option ensures that you see a warning when you encounter such content, so you can cancel out if you want. That way, you won’t get stuck on some page that you can’t operate with a remote control.
- Start Windows Media Center when Windows Starts: Choosing this option makes Media Center open onto the desktop automatically each time you start Windows.
- Show Taskbar Notifications: Choose this option to ensure that you see Notification area messages telling you when Media Center is up to something, such as recording a scheduled TV show.
Optimization Media Center
The Optimization option takes you to a page where you can schedule optimization tasks to run on a regular schedule. Be sure to choose a time when the computer will be on but you won t be needing Media Center, because you won t be able to use Media Center for the few minutes it takes to complete those tasks.
Privacy in Windows Media Center
Choose this option to view Microsoft’s privacy policy statement, configure whether Media Center sends any usage data to Microsoft, and turn off the Most Viewed filter in the Guide.
TV settings in Windows Media Center
The TV option on the Settings page lets you configure TV recording and other aspects of using TV in Media Center. The Recorder option takes you to a page where you can view your recording history and set defaults for TV recording. The Recorder Storage button lets you choose where you want to store recorded TV. It has to be a hard drive, but not necessarily your C: drive.
- Guide: Use this button to configure the program guide, add missing channels, tell it what region you live in (in case the guide is incorrect), and manually update the guide.
- Set Up TV Signal: Clicking this button takes you through a step-by-step wizard for configuring your incoming TV signal.
- Configure Your TV or Monitor: This is the same setting as the one under the General options. Use it to get the best picture quality on your TV or monitor.
- Language: Choose the preferred audio and caption languages.
- Audio: Choose Stereo, SAP, or any other audio option provided by your hardware.
- Closed Captioning: Turn closed captioning on or off and choose settings for text size, color, and related captioning properties.
Music settings
The Music button provides options for controlling music playback in Media Center. You can specify which songs are included in your favorites, enable shortcut keys for adding ratings, and set options for the Now Playing window that determine when song information is displayed and the window’s background. You can also specify which visualizations Media Center will use when playing music.
DVD settings
The DVD option lets you choose a default language for multi-language DVDs. Use the Audio option to set an audio mode for the Dolby decoder. You can also control closed captions for DVDs from the page. Use the Subtitle option to specify when subtitles are displayed. If you use a remote control to work Media Center, you can configure DVD navigation buttons according to your own preferences.
Start Menu and Extras
Extender settings
Media Center extenders are devices and programs that extend Media Center s capabilities. For example, Microsoft Xbox 360 acts as an extender to share your Media Center library with other players in the house. You need to purchase an extender first. Then follow the instructions that came with that extender to hook it into Media Center on your PC.
Media libraries
Click Media Libraries to add folders to, or remove folders from, Media Center s watch list. Pictures, music, videos, recorded TV, and movies from all the folders you specify are added to Media Center automatically, so you can play them whenever you want.
The Tasks item on the home page provides more than just the Setting option. You’ll find options for burning optical discs (CDs and DVDs), syncing with other devices, shutting down or restarting the computer, and adding extenders.
Burning CDs and DVDs from Media Center
Windows 7 offers many ways to burn CDs and DVDs. For example, Chapter 23 explores creating audio CDs with Windows Media Player. Chapter 32 explores the many other ways you can copy files to CDs and DVDs and create DVD video disks with Windows DVD Maker. The disks you end up with are the same whether you burn them using those techniques or Media Center.
Of course, with Media Center, it’s easy to access all your media files (music, pictures,
- Audio CD: Create a music CD for playing in a stereo, CD player, or computer.
- Data CD: Create a CD that contains files for playback on a computer only (and devices that can play audio files).
- Data DVD: Create a DVD that contains files to be played on a computer.
- Video DVD: Create a DVD Video disc that contains video to be watched from a standard DVD player or on a computer.
- DVD Slide Show: Create a picture slide show on a DVD that can be played in a computer or watchedonaTV with aDVD player.
Syncing, shutting down, and extenders
The Sync option in Tasks makes it easy to sync a compatible device with your Media Center content. Exactly how it works depends on the specific device you’re using. If you can’t get it to work by guesing, check the manual that came with the device for instructions on syncing with Windows 7 Media Center.
The Shut Down option in Tasks offers a way of closing Media Center from a mouse or remote control. You’ll also have options to Log Off, Shut Down the computer, Restart the computer, or put the computer into Sleep mode.
Windows Media Center Tips (Fantastic Windows 7 Tips):
- If you missed the initial setup options or need to make a change, choose Tasks on the home page and then click Settings O General O Windows Media Center Setup.
- When the movie is playing, use the playback controls as you would on a VCR to pause, resume, fast forward, rewind, and so forth.
- TV tuner devices for PCs come in two formats: as a card that installs in the computer or as a USB device. The USB format offers portability, enabling you to use the device on more than one computer. Portability isn’t the only consideration, however, so choose a TV tuner that suits all your needs.
- A very large hard disk can hold quite a bit of recorded TV. For example, a 2 TB hard disk can hold about 360 hours of 1080i high-definition TV.
- Click View Categories at the left side of the guide to see shows organized into categories such as Most View, Movies, Sports, Kids, and so forth.
- Microsoft has replaced the DVR-MS file format used by Media Center in Windows Vista with the WTV format. The WTV format was actually introduced in the TVPack2008 OEM update for Windows Vista Media Center, so WTV files can be played on Windows Vista computers that have that update installed.
Media Player can’t play all types of media files. It can play only the file types listed on the Set Associations for a Program window under Set Program