Windows Media Center is a feature packed multimedia application for a PC that was developed to act as a home entertainment center. Media Center uses your personal computer as an entertainment hub. It is included in Windows XP Media Center Edition and premium editions of Windows Vista (Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate). Usually, people buy a Media Center PC, which has Windows XP or Windows Vista Media Center Edition pre-installed and all the necessary equipment to connect it to a TV and entertainment center.

The Media Center program was specifically designed to use special remote controls which prominently feature the Green Button, but can also be operated with a mouse or keyboard. The green button is used to either launch the Media Center from within Windows or exit the application and return to the windows operating system.

The Media Center will discover pictures, videos, and music from local hard drives, optical drives, and network locations. It then categorizes them by name, date, and other file attributes. After becoming a part of Media Center, files can be streamed through your home network to standard TV sets using a specially designed Windows Media Center Extender, which is a hardware device that connects to your home network so you can send streaming media from your PC or the Xbox 360 to your television.

Unlike Windows Media Connect, which will run on any edition of Windows XP or Vista, you need a Media Center PC to connect to your Xbox 360 console.

Windows XP Media Center

Windows XP Media Center provides the following features:

• Television - install a TV tuner card and you can record and play back scheduled TV shows. With a cable card and digital cable, you can record 1080i Premium HDTV. After recording the program, Media Center can burn the shows to DVD or transfer them to some portable media players. Media Center can stream live and pre-recorded television to Windows Media Center Extenders and to the Xbox consoles, but not to other computers.
• Music - Windows Media Center can discover, organize and display all the music found on a computer. Start playing by clicking on My Music on the Start Menu. By default, all albums, along with their artwork are arranged in alphabetical order. Play lists can be created but not edited in Media Center. Controls such as pause, fast forward, shuffle and repeat are available.
• Streaming Video - Media Center can play video directly from websites using either the server or client side play list.
• Radio - Media Center can play FM radio stations if the tuner card has that ability.
• Portable Devices - Windows Media Center can synchronize with Windows Mobile Pocket PCs, Smart phones, Portable Media Centers, and other players that can us Windows Media Player.
• Commercial skipping - allows fast-forwarding through the commercials of recorded programs. Currently, an external plug-in called DVRMSToolbox provides the ability to skip commercials automatically.

Windows Vista Media Center

Windows Vista Media Center includes all of the features that are present in Windows XP Media Center plus several new features such as:

• Redesigned menu - that takes advantage of the graphics capabilities of the 16:9 aspect ratio available on Vista

• Up to two dual tuner cards - the previous version only supported one dual-tuner card due to the two TV limit imposed in other countries.
• Up to four TV tuners - the previous version only supported one dual-tuner card due to the TV tuners maximum limit imposed in other countries.
• Native DVD/MPEG-2 decoding - new in Vista
• New Buttons - added a Movies and DVD button which lists all the movies on the hard drive and DVD and a Tasks button that provides access to configuration tasks.
• Support for high-definition (HD) content - Windows Media Center can play HD video in all countries, but does not support HDTV in any country except the United States. However, there is no support for HD DVD or Blu-ray movies in any country.

• Sports section - Microsoft partnered with Fox Sports and NASCAR to provide free broadcasts of games and races over the Internet.
• Internet TV - allows watching streaming video from within the Media Center interface or Windows Media Center Extender

Summary

Windows Media Center lets you organize your digital media library and play it on your computer or television. Windows Media Center based PCs are rapidly becoming popular all-in-one entertainment centers for music, photos, TV, movies, and the latest online media on the big screen TV for the whole family to enjoy.