Watching TV and Time-Shifting with Your Mouse and Keyboard

Managing your My TV experience with keyboard and mouse is nearly as fun as using your remote control. The following shortcuts will also come in handy the next time your remote control mysteriously disappears without a trace (that is, until it miraculously turns up a few days later in the sofa cushions).

Using the Keyboard

As discussed in the preceding chapter, your keyboard may come equipped with a few multimedia controls built-in, but other than adjusting the audio, they won't do much in the way of helping you operate your My TV video features. For that, you'll need to remember a few keystroke combinations that invoke the same commands we discussed in the remote-control sections earlier in this chapter.

tip

Here's a little trick you can perform with your keyboard ”one that you can't do with your remote control. Use Ctrl+Shift+C to toggle closed captioning on and off. The way to turn captions on with your remote is to press Mute, but there's no one-click way to activate closed captions while keeping the sound turned on ”and you may want to do that if, for example, a hearing-impaired person is watching alongside other viewers who can hear. (Even if you're not hearing impaired, leaving captions turned on and the sound off can be a great way to watch TV unobtrusively, such as when you want to at least look as though you're working. )

Table 6.2 offers a list of the major keyboard shortcuts for use with Media Center's My TV mode.

Table 6.2. My TV Keyboard Shortcuts

To	Press
Activate the My TV menu	Ctrl+Shift+T
Play	Ctrl+Shift+P
Stop	Ctrl+Shift+S
Skip back	Ctrl+B
Skip forward	Ctrl+F
Mute	F8
Volume down	F9
Volume up	F10

Using the Mouse

Controlling the basic TV-watching experience with your mouse is quite straightforward. Just move the mouse, and as discussed in the last chapter (see "Controlling Media Center with Your Mouse"), all the onscreen controls you need will automatically appear. You'll easily be able to change channels, adjust volume, pause, stop, record, rewind, and fast-forward. However, there are a few other idiosyncrasies related to using your mouse in My TV mode that can help you get the most out of your TV watching.

For starters, when you open My TV, it will typically be playing the currently selected TV channel in a window embedded within the My TV main menu screen. To quickly maximize the TV window to fill the screen, just place your cursor over the TV video window and click your left or right mouse button. This little trick works with any minimized TV video window, including the Media Center start page, guide, and so on.

Although you can perform most of the same feats using your mouse that you can with your remote control or keyboard, there are a few things you can't do with a simple mouse click, including these:

• Skip or Replay ” Only basic fast-forward and rewind are available when you're using the mouse only.

• Live TV ” You'll have to fast-forward to reach the end of the recorded video and see what's happening "live." You can click on fast-forward (or rewind) up to three times to increase the speed.

• More Info ” This feature isn't accessible with the mouse.

caution

No parental control mechanism is foolproof. Remember that the best way to protect children from inappropriate content on TV or the Internet is to help them become "street smart." Tell them what you think is inappropriate for them, and make sure they know that anytime they see or hear something that makes them feel uncomfortable, they should immediately turn the machine off and/or tell a trusted adult. (For more resources on how to raise "street smart" kids in the Internet Age, check out the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) Web site at www.netsmartz.org.)