Playing Audio CDs with Your Music Center PC

Naturally, the easiest way to launch the audio playback experience on your Media Center PC is to simply insert an audio CD. First, be sure you have opened the Media Center interface on your PC. Media Center will detect that an audio CD is present, and will immediately switch to My Music's Now Playing screen, while simultaneously starting disc playback.

Initially, the Now Playing screen will show generic track numbers and song lengths (see Figure 14.1). However, even while you're still listening to Track 1, Media Center is already busy searching the metadata stored in an online music database (see the section "Metadata Tags and You," in Chapter 13, "Preparing Your Music Collection for XP Media Center") to gather detailed information about the new disc. Within moments of recognizing the CD, My Music will substitute the generic track information with actual song titles (see Figure 14.2).

Figure 14.1. As My Music begins playing your CD, it simultaneously searches for metadata containing specific details about the disc.

Figure 14.2. Without skipping a beatliterally or figurativelythe My Music Now Playing page will update to include actual song names instead of generic track numbers.

Making Media Center Your Default CD Player

What happens if you insert a CD when the Media Center interface isn't running? Typically, Windows XP will simply present an Audio CD control panel (see Figure 13.5 in Chapter 13). If you'd like to have your PC launch Media Center's My Music interface every time an audio CD is inserted, simply do the following:

1. Insert an audio CD.

2. Using your mouse, select the option Play Audio CD Using Media Center.

3. Check the box labeled Always Do the Selected Action.

4. Click OK.

tip

If you have already configured autoplay options with another playersuch as Windows Media Playerthe dialog box won't appear now. You can access the menu and reconfigure autoplay at any time by opening My Computer from the Windows XP Start menu and right-clicking on your CD drive icon. You then select Properties from the list, and click on the AutoPlay tab.