Features New To Windows 7 - Multimedia - Windows Media Center

Windows Media Center

Windows Media Center in Windows 7 has retained much of the design and feel of its predecessor, but with a variety of user interface shortcuts and browsing capabilities. Playback of H.264 video both locally and through a Media Center Extender (including the Xbox 360) is supported.

Some notable enhancements in Windows 7 Media Center include a new mini guide, a new scrub bar, the option to color code the guide by show type, and internet content that is more tightly integrated with regular TV via the guide. All Windows 7 versions now support up to four tuners of each type (QAM, ATSC, CableCARD, NTSC, etc.).

When browsing the media library, items that don't have album art are shown in a range of foreground and background color combinations instead of using white text on a blue background. When the left or right remote control buttons are held down to browse the library quickly, a two-letter prefix of the current album name is prominently shown as a visual aid. The Picture Library includes new slideshow capabilities, and individual pictures can be rated.

Also, while browsing a media library, a new column appears at the top named "Shared." This allows users to access shared media libraries on other Media Center PCs from directly within Media Center.

For television support, the Windows Media Center "TV Pack" released by Microsoft in 2008 is incorporated into Windows Media Center. This includes support for CableCARD and North American (ATSC) clear QAM tuners, as well as creating lists of favorite stations.

A Windows Media Center gadget is included as well.

Read more about this topic:  Features New To Windows 7, Multimedia

Famous quotes containing the words windows, media and/or center:

    I came on a great house in the middle of the night
    Its open lighted doorway and its windows all alight,
    And all my friends were there and made me welcome too;
    But I woke in an old ruin that the winds howled through;
    And when I pay attention I must out and walk
    Among the dogs and horses that understand my talk.
    William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

    The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western World. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity—much less dissent.
    Gore Vidal (b. 1925)

    I think that New York is not the cultural center of America, but the business and administrative center of American culture.
    Saul Bellow (b. 1915)