Chapter 5. Navigating XP Media Center s 2-Foot Interface

Chapter 5. Navigating XP Media Center's "2- Foot " Interface

In This Chapter

• The "2-foot" experience explained

• Control Media Center with your mouse

• Control Media Center with your keyboard

• Customize your "2-foot" look and feel

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

We may call it a "2-foot interface," but that doesn't mean we actually advocate that you sit only 2 feet from your computer screen. In fact, unless you have very short arms, you should be sitting a bit further back from your monitor. In its "Healthy Computing Guide" to PC ergonomics (available online at www.microsoft.com/hardware/ergo), the software company advocates keeping your monitor at a distance of about arm's length when you're sitting down.

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.

Although some Media Center PCs, like the HP Pavilion Media Center PC, provide an array of buttons on the front panel of the PC itself; others, like the Gateway Media Center PC, are about as bare as Lady Godiva out for a Sunday ride. In the latter case, if you should happen to misplace your Media Center remote control, well, let's just say you might be dusting off your old TV to watch the exciting conclusion of "Survivor: The Antarctic." That is, unless you pay attention to the following tips and shortcuts for controlling Media Center with your mouse and keyboard. At least they will tide you over until your replacement remote control arrives.