Windows Media Center: Hardware Setups

How to experience Windows Media Center

1. Use Windows Media Center on a laptop computer

Windows Media Center is included with every copy of Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate. If you're on the go, you can experience the features of Windows Media Center on your laptop computer. Add an optional USB TV tuner, and you can record TV shows and take them with you.

2. Use Windows Media Center with a PC and monitor

Your desktop PC can be the hub of the digital media in your home. If your computer has Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows Media Center is included. Make your media pop by displaying it on a large LCD monitor. When you add an optional TV tuner and remote control, you keep all of the functionality of your PC—and you can use it as a TV too. Watch live TV, and record shows using the Electronic Programming Guide (available in select countries) at no additional cost.

3. Connect your PC to a TV

Connect your PC running Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate to your TV, and you can enjoy your favorite TV entertainment and everything on your computer at the same time, and in the same room. Watch live and recorded TV and DVDs, listen to music, and look at photos from the comfort of your couch—and control it all with a single remote.

Learn more about connecting your Windows Media Center TV to a PC.

4. Connect your PC to an Extender for Windows Media Center and your TV

Extenders for Windows Media Center deliver online content, live and recorded TV, and all your digital media from your PC directly to TVs throughout your home via your wired or wireless home network. You can use them to stream your digital media to as many as five rooms in the house.¹ Both the Xbox 360 and several other new products are Extenders for Windows Media Center.

Connect your Xbox 360 to your PC.
Learn about the newest Extender for Windows Media Center products.

5. Get more from your Windows Media Center PC with a TV tuner and remote control

A TV tuner is either an internal tuner card or external hardware. When you have a TV tuner, you can watch and record TV on your Windows Media Center PC by connecting to a TV signal and receiving the signal from an antenna, cable, or satellite TV source.

A Certified for Windows Vista remote opens even more possibilities, allowing you to access your entertainment from anywhere in the room, pause music or live or recorded TV, and use simple, streamlined menus to navigate and select from the EPG.

Find information on TV tuners and remotes.

¹ Windows Media Center supports as many as two NTSC Standard tuners and two ATSC HD TV tuners, for a maximum of four TV tuners in a Windows Media Center PC.