#Windows media center extras Pc#

Displaying, searching, scrolling- it's all nearly instantaneous now. And the music library is dramatically faster. Like videos, much better use of horizontal screen real estate I can see dozens of albums at once.

Under Vista's Media Center, my 60+ GB music library is now a pleasure to navigate. Recorded shows are now displayed as a linear timeline with a graphic still, rather than plain text in a list. The default UI makes better use of the horizontal, widescreen arrangements most home theater setups will have. It's faster, it's prettier, and it's thoroughly improved in every way. Vista's Media Center is a vast improvement over XP's Media Center. This weekend I took the plunge and upgraded my HTPC from Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 to Windows Vista Home Premium. But that's probably another 8-12 months out.

1 TB storage (dual 500 GB low-noise SATA drives)Д®ventually I want to plop an internal HD-DVD drive in this machine once prices and configurations stabilize.

Hauppauge PVR-500 MCE dual tuner (highly recommended).

#Windows media center extras Pc#

I've slowly been upgrading my Home Theater PC over the last two years in anticipation of the shift to Vista:

I've been a huge MCE enthusiast since the original version was released in 2003, so I was greatly looking forward to the Vista edition of Media Center. As far as I'm concerned, Windows Media Center is one of the best- if not the best- applications Microsoft has ever created.