Enjoy your entire digital entertainment library in full glory on your PC or even on your TV with Windows Media Center. View your photos in a cinematic slide show, browse your music collection by cover art, easily play DVDs, watch and record TV shows, download movies, and project your home videos—then pass the remote to let friends and family join in the fun!
Today, Windows Media Center PCs are very popular all-in-one entertainment devices. On a Windows Media Center PC, you can access music, photos, TV, movies, and the latest in online media all from the comfort of the couch with a remote control.
With Windows Vista, Windows Media Center is no longer a separate edition but simply integrated within the Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate editions.
A huge step forward—especially visually.
Windows Media Center in Windows Vista features some great advancements over previous versions, including an improved user interface with easier navigation and breakthrough media visualization. Windows Media Center also offers built-in support for archiving TV shows directly to video DVDs, faster overall performance, and an improved platform for content owners to deliver new online entertainment services and experiences. Most notably for U.S.-based customers, Windows Media Center offers support for digital cable service, by means of a digital cable tuner.
After starting Windows Media Center for the first time, you will be exploring your digital media in no time because the setup experience has been streamlined. In fact, Windows Media Center automatically checks your PC for media files during the setup process so you don't have to waste a minute searching for your content.
Rich visuals for music browsing.
After you've started, you will notice that Windows Media Center is optimized for widescreen and HD displays—making it perfect for the living room. With the new on-screen layout of photos, music, and videos, you can see up to three times more content on a widescreen display compared to previous versions of Windows Media Center. The clean, simple look ties together with the Windows Aero desktop experience and features transparency effects and smooth animations, giving you a fun and visually stunning way to browse and experience your home entertainment. Designed for a wide range of displays and input methods, Windows Media Center is optimized for use with a remote control but also works well with other input devices such as a mouse and keyboard, touch screen, or even a Tablet PC.
View your music library as a "wall of music."
Whether your music comes from URGE, a partner PlaysForSure music service such as Walmart.com, or your own PC, with Windows Vista your music takes center stage. The Music Library takes full advantage of your widescreen display, displaying the cover art for each album and song you own. The interface looks like a wall of music, with all of your album covers filling the screen. All you have to do is use the remote to pick an album, press Play, and start grooving to your favorite tunes.
Multiple ways to enjoy your music.
Besides the Album view, there is also the fun Years view. The Years view neatly arranges your music according to the year in which it was released. This makes it easy for you to see all the music for the year you graduated school or any other year you choose.
Browse albums by year to celebrate the sounds of any era.
But you can't talk about music without talking about the radio. Everyone has their favorite station, whether it's terrestrial or via the Internet, and Windows Media Center gives you the ability to tune to those stations in a seamless way. Picking the Radio tile takes you to a view where you can pick and choose between terrestrial, which requires connection to an FM antenna, and Internet radio stations, which requires an Internet connection.
Start exploring your pictures and videos with Windows Media Center.
Your photos and home videos are your digital memories, and with every passing day, your life is filled with more and more of them. Windows Vista provides the ultimate end-to-end experience when it comes to managing those memories, making it easy to view, organize, and share your many memories with friends and family. With Windows Media Center you can share those memories on the most important screen in your house: your television.
Finding your favorite photos is easy with the thumbnail views.
In the past, sharing digital photos was a cumbersome experience that involved crowding around a PC. The Picture Library, found within the Pictures + Videos strip in Windows Media Center, helps you access all of your digital photos in a better way, from the comfort of your couch. The Picture Library enables easy navigation and highlighting, so you can pick out exactly the photo you want to share.
Click a folder and you can view the individual images by file name.
By Folder. Photos are stored in folders, and the Pictures Library enables you to view your photos in that context.
Date Taken. Digital cameras automatically store lots of details about a photo, like the resolution, the shutter speed, and most importantly, the date taken.
With Tags you can define what's important about each photo.
Windows Photo Gallery introduces a new way to organize your photos: Tags. Using this new feature you can specify a keyword for individual photos or for a collection of photos. Windows Media Center helps you view your photos using those tags. For example, suppose you have a collection of wildlife pictures taken over the years. Those pictures may be stored in a variety of folders on your PC, making it difficult to view all of those wildlife pictures at once. Because you used Windows Photo Gallery to tag them as "Wildlife" pictures, you need only use your remote control to navigate to the Wildlife collection, and you can see all of those pictures, no matter where you stored them.
Share your high-resolution images in stylish slide shows.
Flipping through your photos on-screen is definitely preferable to crowding around a PC. And now Windows Media Center makes photo viewing even more fun with stylish photo slide shows. With the built-in slide show feature, Windows Media Center can automatically add cool cinematic effects, such as fades, pans, and zooms, to really bring your memories to life. Those images will really pop on your high-definition screen, because all of your pictures can now be shown in the highest resolution your TV supports. Earlier versions of Windows Media Center would down-sample your pictures. Finally, if your friends and family really love one of your slide show creations, you can burn it to a video DVD with your pictures and music.
Make the most of your photos with intuitive editing tools.
While you will want to use Windows Photo Gallery to edit the bulk of your pictures, every now and then there might be one that you forgot to fix. With Windows Media Center you can use your remote to perform basic editing functions. Tools for cropping, reorienting, printing, and even eliminating pesky red eyes are all at your fingertips.
With the Videos Library, all of your video memories are found in one convenient place. You will notice that Windows Media Center can actually look inside each video, find a representative shot, and use that shot as the video's thumbnail, making it easier for you to find what you want.
See a scene from your videos without even opening the file.
With Windows Vista Home Premium and Window Vista Ultimate editions, you can use Windows Movie Maker HD to edit high-definition home videos. Use Windows Media Center to share your high-definition creations on your living room TV with the rest of your family. Who knows? A future Best Director award may go to someone in your house!
See what's on, record a future show, or watch programming you've already captured.
No entertainment experience would be complete without television and movies, and Windows Media Center gives you a superb all-in-one entertainment experience with its deep support for your favorite TV shows and the latest movie blockbusters. Imagine curling up on your couch to watch a recorded show that you missed while on a trip, or catching the last few minutes of your favorite game, or even downloading the latest sci-fi film. With Windows Media Center you can always have something thrilling to watch.
Previous versions of Windows Media Center were available in 33 countries. But Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate editions will bring Windows Media Center to more than 100 locales. All these markets present unique challenges to the TV setup process, but Windows Media Center in Windows Vista has some new technologies available that will help you get started more easily than ever. First, if your computer is equipped with a TV tuner, Windows Media Center automatically detects whether you have a simple over-the-air signal or a cable, cable plus set-top box, or satellite (which naturally includes a set-top box) configuration. If you have a set-top box, Windows Media Center walks you through the steps to set it up, including tweaking the infrared (IR) blaster that controls your set-top box.
Enjoy TV and movies from across the room with Windows Media Center and a custom remote control.
In many countries, an accurate list of available channels is not accessible. With Windows Vista, Windows Media Center introduces an exhaustive new scanning feature for PAL/SECAM countries, which provides a far more accurate way to find channels than in previous versions of Windows.
Because different countries have different broadcast standards and Windows Media Center does not support them all, you will want to make sure Windows Media Center supports your particular standard.
Watch a short film clip or an entire movie with Windows Media Center.
You can now officially throw away your VCR, because with Windows Media Center, you can digitally watch, pause, and record live TV in many countries around the world. Whether your Windows Vista Home Premium–based or Windows Vista Ultimate–based PC has an integrated or external TV tuner, it's as simple as plugging your antenna, cable, or the video output from your satellite set-top box into your PC, and then connecting your PC to your television.
Record TV shows on your hard disk and play them back whenever you like.
Want to see that game-winning play again? No problem. With the Windows Media Center instant replay button, you can instantly jump back in seven-second increments. If you want to record a live show, just press the record button on your remote. Windows Media will begin recording the show to your hard disk, and it will stop recording automatically when the show ends. Windows Media Center features multiple tuner support, which means that you can watch a live show on one channel while simultaneously recording a show on a different channel.
Later, when you want to watch a recorded show, Windows Media Center makes it fun and easy for you to find that clip. Rather than showing you just the text names and program information for your recorded show, Windows Media Center will clip a picture from the actual show and use that as the show's selectable thumbnail icon.
In the U.S., HDTVs have recently begun to outsell traditional analog TV sets. People are hungry for HD content because every show, from sporting events to the latest movie releases, looks more vibrant and lifelike in high definition. Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate are compatible with digital cable service, which includes support for premium high-definition content. To take advantage of this new feature, you need the following:
Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate product editions.
Digital cable–compatible PC—these PCs are available only from larger PC manufacturers whose specified PCs meet the hardware requirements, such as a High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP)–compliant graphics card, to provide excellent digital cable service.
Integrated or external USB digital cable tuner, available from participating manufacturers when Windows Vista ships.
HDCP-compliant screen or monitor.
Digital cable service from your local cable provider.
CableCARD from your local cable provider. This is the thin card that slides into your digital cable tuner.
View movies as thumbnails to quickly find what you're looking for.
Because Windows Vista Home Premium digitally records your live TV shows and movies on your PC's hard disk, you may worry about eventually running out of disk space. Windows Media Center has you covered. With it, you can choose to record shows to another hard disk partition on the same computer, or you can choose to record directly to an external hard disk.
Create a playlist and see videos in sequence.
Windows Media Center also includes everything you need to burn your favorite shows to video DVD. You no longer need third-party tools to create a DVD that can be played back in a normal DVD player. Just select the show you want to burn, add any additional content—like home videos, music, or photos—and Windows Vista takes care of the rest. Windows Media Center will even create a simple DVD menu, which you can navigate using your DVD remote, so you can easily pick and choose what you want to watch.
Plan your TV watching with the Electronic Programming Guide.
With Windows Vista Home Premium you can watch TV shows and movies on your terms with the Electronic Programming Guide (EPG) in Windows Media Center. The EPG, which is available in select countries, is a free service that provides date and time listings as well as summaries for all the TV shows and movies available via your local TV service. It covers up to a two-week period, and with it, you can easily browse and record current and future programs according to their start time. The guide also features robust search capabilities that help you quickly find shows using common categories such as Kids, Movies, or Sports.
Sort by category to find the programming you want.
Suppose you want to record a show while on vacation. Just find the show in the EPG by navigating to its day and time or by searching for it under the categories view, press the one-touch Record button, and Windows Media Center takes care of the rest. Windows Media Center even gives you the option to automatically record an entire season of a show, while omitting reruns, so you won't miss a single new episode of your favorite show ever again.
Electronic Program Guide (EPG) is supported in the following countries:
Austria
Brazil
Belgium
Canada
Czech Republic
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
India
Israel
Ireland
Italy
Japan
Mexico
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Russia
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Turkey
United Kingdom
United States
