Now I have this media centre remote I have been appreciating media centre much more. It is actually a really good media player (not as good as iPod Touch bust you know) I never really used to use it apart from its TV capability because it does not handle window switching when playing video and it does not have a taskbar control like media player does, but with this remote it is all better now.
It is really an all in one thing. Music, photos, video, DVD, radio, live TV and tasks (I will go into more detail on all of these later) I use it mainly for live TV and DVD, but with this remote I use it more with all its other features. Having live TV built in is a great feature because it competes with Mac’s Front Row which is similar to Media Centre but it does not have live TV capability (which I really wanted to see added at macworld!)
So first let’s look at the TV+Movies section.
In here you will find your recorded TV, live TV, TV guide, DVD player and a search of all programmes within the next few weeks. As I said earlier I use media centre mainly for live TV because I do not have a freeveiw box in my room because I was sick of wasting space. So I just use my freeveiw TV tuner with my laptop to watch and record TV, it works very well and I only see the need for a separate freeveiw box for when I want to watch one thing and record another.
So yes, it is all very simple, just go to live TV if you want to watch TV, use your keyboard or mouse to navigate through channels and shows soon to be shown, when watching TV you can do anything you would be able to with a regular freeveiw box except from viewing subtitles or teletext. The guide shows programmes for the next 2 weeks I think, just right click to record or read about the show. DVD is just as good as any DVD player, the only con with any of the TV or DVD functions is that window switching is not handled well and you miss a few seconds of what you are watching, this is not an issue with windows media player.
Now for Pictures+Video
This is quite simple, just shows your pictures and videos. Can view you pictures by folders, tags or data taken. Complete with thumbnails and slideshows.
The same apply with videos, but only viewed by folders or data taken. It seems a bit of a strange choice to group photos and video together in my head but I suppose it makes some since or they probably would not have done it, but I don’t see any cons with this part of Media Centre (except the windows switching issue mentioned earlier). The picture shown if from my own photo collection, it is actually a good culmination of my photos, a bit of a pandas ear, weird tribesman, GOOMBA! And Rasputin, I couldn’t have made a better one myself.
Time for some music.
Music is the function I am using a lot more because of the Media Centre remote Saun gave me (he says its spelt Shaun but I prefer Saun) I seem to be listening to a lot less music compared to what I used to, hopefully this remote will rekindle the fire. Well here you will find your music library, radio and search.
Music can be viewed by album, artist, genre, songs, playlists, composers, years and album artists. The main good thing about the music is that it has a playing queue, similar to iTunes, party shuffle. When you find a song you like just click “add to queue” and it will wait in line until everything else has been played. This is good for parties of just going through all your music looking for some songs to listen to. When I get a decent setup I see this being a main function of the computer.
And finally Tasks.
This is what pulls it all together really; any other media suite would probably leave this bit out. Here you can access your settings, shut down your computer, burn media, sync with a device, add extenders and lock your computer to only media centre use. The best bit of this is the shutdown, burn, sync and lock functions. The media lock makes media centre full screen and removes the close and minimise buttons so your computer is dedicated to media centre. Some might see this as a problem, having to unlock it to turn your computer off or something, but you can do all that stuff inside media centre! You can shut down your computer, burn discs (Nero adds itself in there) and sync your device, all without having to close media centre, I see this as the glue which hold the whole program together.
Well, I would say that is a good enough overview of Media Centre. All in all it is a very good media centre, all your media in one place and done very well. Great user interface and feature rich. But the main con with it is actually getting it, as far as I know you can only get it if it is already there in your operating system (only in xp media edition and vista home premium upwards) I don’t know if there is a way to get it onto regular xp, but I don’t think there is, so the main flaw is that it is hard to get hold of, but if you are lucky enough to have it then it is very good.
