Thursday, January 17, 2008
How to Build a Vista Media Center PC
Posted by Jeremy Charette in "Digital Home Hardware & Accessories" @ 12:00 PM
The Bind That Ties: Software
Figure 12: One of Microsoft's least promoted but most useful software platforms: Windows Media Center.
Of course this all has to be tied together with software, and for that, I chose Windows Vista Ultimate. It includes Windows Media Center, which allows you to access your music, TV, and videos from an easy to use interface. Vista MCE also includes some neat new features such as the ability to display live sports scores while you are watching a game, access to Microsoft's IPTV beta, and now the ability to play back Divx and xVid files. I've got my Media Center box connected to my Xbox 360 through my home network, so I can watch shows and movies from the other room while my girlfriend watches what she wants on the big TV.
Figure 13: The My Movies home screen in the Windows Media Center interface.
My new favorite add-on however, has to be My Movies, an application which allows you to catalog and organize your DVD collection. I use it to rip DVDs to my hard drive, and then play them back right in Media Center. You can search by actor or actress, director, sort by genre (including your own custom genre types); the features are nearly endless. My DVDs don't sit in a binder next to the TV anymore, they actually get watched for a change! It's as easy as sitting down, pulling up My Movies, and scrolling through the DVD cover art until I find a movie I want to watch. It also works with MCE-compatible DVD changers, which is something I may explore in the future.
Figure 14: My Movies displays thumbnails of the cover art for your entire DVD collection, whether on your hard drive or on an external disc.
