I can now continue watching my program in the background while navigating the main menu, too.Īnother big quality of life improvement in Vista's Media Center is that a DVD codec is included right out of the box. It's more of a pop-up style menu, which can be accessed at any time through the big green MCE button. The main menu no longer stops whatever I'm doing and zaps me back to a flat menu screen. There's also a new popup Mini-Guide (not pictured) which lets you browse nearby channels without obscuring playback. The program guide- which is completely free, no monthly charges whatsoever- now overlays the live video as a transparency. I love the new "play all" shuffle mode, too. Displaying, searching, scrolling- it's all nearly instantaneous now. ![]() And the music library is dramatically faster. Like videos, much better use of horizontal screen real estate I can see dozens of albums at once. Under Vista's Media Center, my 60+ GB music library is now a pleasure to navigate. Recorded shows are now displayed as a linear timeline with a graphic still, rather than plain text in a list. The default UI makes better use of the horizontal, widescreen arrangements most home theater setups will have. It's faster, it's prettier, and it's thoroughly improved in every way. Vista's Media Center is a vast improvement over XP's Media Center. ![]() This weekend I took the plunge and upgraded my HTPC from Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 to Windows Vista Home Premium. But that's probably another 8-12 months out.
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