Setting Up Media Center

To start Media Center, choose Start All Programs Windows Media Center. The first time you start Media Center, you are prompted to set it up. Media Center provides options to set up your version of Media Center: Express Setup and Custom Setup. Express Setup is more automatic than Custom Setup. With Custom Setup, you walk through each step of the configuration process to set up all features of Media Center. This includes specifying the type of display you use (TV set, computer monitor, digital projector, and so on), which folders you want Media Center to use to build your Pictures Library and Video Library, the type of Internet connection you have, and more.

After you finish setting up Media Center, you can modify the settings using the Settings window (see Figure 22-2).

Figure 22-2: Use the Setting window to configure settings after you initially set up Media Center.

Viewing the Media Center Interface

When first start using Media Center, you may be taken aback by its predominate use of blue and white colors. An important feature of Windows Media Center is its interface. The interface uses highly contrasting colors to help you read and pick options on the screen. Microsoft designed Media Center to be displayed on TVs that are viewed from several feet away, such as from across your living room or home theatre room.

In addition to its color , the interface uses large buttons and controls. This makes it easy to pick the items you want onscreen. Users sitting in front of their computer will use a mouse to pick buttons and items on the Media Center screen. Users that have an optional wireless Media Center Keyboard or Remote Control and Receiver device find that picking items onscreen easier when the buttons are large like this.

Note  

Microsoft manufactures the Media Center Keyboard and Media Center Remote Control and Receiver devices. You can learn more about these products and find retailers for them by visiting the Windows Marketplace web site at http://www.windowsmarketplace.com. You also can choose Start All Programs Windows Marketplace to open Internet Explorer to that site.

Figure 22-3 shows examples of the large buttons and items you can click on a typical Media Center window. Notice how each item in the Pictures list has large check boxes and radio buttons. When using the Media Center Remote Control, you can navigate through these options easily using the directional buttons, and then press ENTER to select an item. Also, as you move the mouse over an option, the option becomes darker so that you know which item you are selecting.

Figure 22-3: Windows Media Center uses large text and buttons to make it easy to read and select onscreen items.

Navigating Media Center

To navigate inside Media Center, you start at the main Media Center window. The main Media Center window includes the primary tools from which you can select a feature to start. You select an item by displaying it in the center selection box and then clicking it. The primary tools (TV + Movies, Online Media, Tasks , Pictures + Videos, and Music) appear in a vertical list in the center of the main Media Center window. You can click one of these items to cause the list to scroll one item at a time. Click until the feature you want is highlighted above the center selection box. For example, in Figure 22-4 the Picture Library tool is selected.

Figure 22-4: Media Center provides a handy way to select the tool and feature you want to use.

Another way to move items through the selection box is with the directional arrows. When you select an item, up and down arrows appear above and below the list of tools. Hover the mouse over one of these arrows and Media Center scrolls through the list of tools one at a time until you move the pointer away from the arrow.

Features for each of the primary tools display horizontally. Select one of these to have it display in the selection box. For example, in Figure 22-4 the Picture Library feature displays inside the center selection box. You can click it to start it, or click another feature (such as Play All) to start that feature. Some tools include several features, while others may have only one or two.

As you start moving from one window to the next, you may want to jump back a window, or jump all the way back to the starting window. To do this, use the controls that briefly appear at the top left of each window. There is a left arrow and a Media Center icon. The left arrow moves you back to the previous windows. Move the pointer for these controls to appear on the window. The Media Center icon returns you to the main Media Center window. If you are still viewing a movie, watching a show, playing music, or performing other tasks, those tasks continue to play in the background even as you jump from one window to the next .