Windows Media Center brings together all your favorite entertainment for you to enjoy on your PC, on your TV or on the go.

Find what you want with the Guide

Do you have hundreds of TV channels, and still can’t find a good show to watch? Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 includes a Program Guide that displays up to two weeks of upcoming shows. The tips in this article will show you how to use the Guide to find the shows you want to watch. You will learn how to:

Open the Guide

Browse program listings on a specific channel, with the ability to skip forward or backward up to 12 hours

Manually update the Guide

Filter the Guide to display shows matching a specific category

Open the Guide

First, display the Guide by following these steps:

Press the Green Start Button on your remote to open the Media Center Start menu, and then select My TV.

Media Center Start menu with My TV selected

On the My TV page, select Guide.

Media Center displays the Guide.

Tip: If your remote has a GUIDE button, you can press it to open the Guide.

Browse and skip forward

When the Guide is open, use your remote to browse the Guide:

Use the arrow keys on your remote to browse the listings.
To move down the listings one page at a time, press the CH/PG- button.
To move up the listings one page at a time, press the CH/PG+ button.
To skip forward 3 hours in the Guide, press the FWD button on your remote. To skip backward 3 hours, press the REW button.
To skip forward 12 hours in the Guide, press the SKIP button on your remote. To skip backward 12 hours, press the REPLAY button.
To quickly jump to a specific channel, enter the channel number with your remote.
To display upcoming shows for a single channel only, scroll left to highlight the channel, and then press the OK button on your remote.

When browsing a single channel, press the CH/PG- or CH/PG+ button to scroll through the listings one page at a time. Use the left and right arrow keys to change channels. To return to the full Guide display, press the BACK button on your remote.

Channel page with first program selected

You can also remove channel listings from the Guide.

remote control overview

Manually update the Guide

Media Center automatically updates the Guide regularly. To manually update the Guide with the latest listings, follow these steps:

Highlight a channel, and then press the MORE INFO button on your remote

Select Get Latest Guide.

More Info menu with Get Latest Guide selected

In the Guide Listings dialog box, select Yes. Media Center will notify you when it has updated the listings.

Guide Listings dialog box with Yes selected

Filter the Guide

To filter the Guide to display only shows matching a specific category, follow these steps:

With the Guide displayed, press the MORE INFO button on your remote. Then select Filter Guide.

Tip: If you have a GUIDE button on your remote, press the button twice to display the filter.

More Info menu with Filter Guide selected

Select from the following options to display only the channels offering shows that match the category you want:

All on now. Remove the filter, and display all shows.
Movies. Display only movies.
Kids. Display only children’s programming.
Sports. Display only sporting events and sports-related shows.
News. Display only news shows and other shows related to current events and law.
Special. Display only special programming.

Note: If you have over-the-air HDTV set up in Media Center, then Special is replaced with HDTV in the Filter menu.

To remove the filter, press the BACK button on your remote.

These tips will help you to search through the many channels available to you and find the shows you want to watch. The Guide makes it easy to find your favorite shows.