Chapter 5. Navigating XP Media Center's "2- Foot " InterfaceIn This Chapter
You've negotiated the "10-foot" experience and customized it to your taste. Now it's time to get up close and personal with your Media Center PC. So sit down at the screen, get comfortable with your mouse and keyboard at the ready, and we'll begin. The first thing to understand is what we mean when it comes to your "2-foot" experience with the Media PC. Every previous version of the Windows operating system ”even the Windows CE/PocketPC variety that runs on handheld computers ”was designed to be controlled from about 2 feet away from the device. (The only possible exceptions would be "embedded" versions of the operating system, which aren't designed for a personal computer at all, but which might be used to run anything from a set-top box to a dedicated command and control system in an airplane.) Thus, the whole modus operandi of Microsoft software to date has been built around the concept of "point and click." You select objects with a pointing device ”usually a mouse, sometimes a stylus, or even your finger ”and perform operations on that object. caution
Your Media Center remote control broke that mold, by allowing you to move away from your PC and retain control via a device that doesn't point at objects, but lets you select them by scrolling from one to the next , or by punching a predefined button. The fundamental difference is rooted in the way these devices work. With a mouse, you are actually selecting a particular pixel on the screen, and the PC translates that selection into the action it represents. For example, the PC displays a box that says Yes. When you click on any pixel point within that graphical box, Windows translates that action into an affirmative response to a query, and executes the corresponding command. The remote control, however, doesn't typically work with pixels. Instead, it transmits a code to the machine using the infrared spectrum. That IR code corresponds to a particular action, say, a channel change or a volume selection. However handy the remote control is, there are still many features and functions of your Media PC that are not practical to access with a remote. In fact, just about all the traditional things we use PCs for fall into this category ”everything from word processing to surfing the Web. (As for the latter example, just ask anyone who owns a WebTV device, the precursor to the Windows XP Media Center design for TV-centric computing ”most will admit that browsing the Internet with a remote control is generally a pretty clumsy experience.) In most respects, using the mouse and keyboard to get around on your Media PC is no different from your typical Windows PC experience. For that reason, we're going to bypass all that mundane stuff and get right to the meat of the matter: how to control a Media Center PC's specialized audio and video features without the remote control in your hand.
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