With a few tweaks, you can turn Windows into the ultimate entertainment center.
Last month we looked at building a multimedia PC. Now we will deal with configuring the Media Center Interface (MCE) and playing your favorite video files.
MCE is built into Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate. You can use it to play CDs and DVDs, as well as music and video files. MCE also allows you to watch and record free TV if you add a TV tuner card or USB dongle.
After running the initial MCE setup wizard, from the main menu go to Tasks and choose Setup. Under General, you can configure MCE to start automatically with Windows and always stay on top. Go to Sound and Visual Effects to kill annoying pinging while navigating menus. Enable optimization to force the MCE interface to restart once a day to improve stability.
Fortunately, an MPEG-2 codec is pre-installed with MCE versions of Windows 7, so you don’t need to install separate software to watch DVDs and broadcast TV. It does not offer native Blu-ray support, but most Blu-ray drives come with Blu-ray playback software, some of which offer MCE integration.
If you experience stuttering when watching live TV, you may have digital reception issues or your tuner card may be overheating. If you only experience stutter when watching something you previously recorded, perhaps while recording something else, then you should consider putting in a second hard drive just to store your recordings. If you’re recording to an external drive, you may need the performance boost of USB3 or eSATA.
When it comes to scheduling recordings, MCE can extract the Electronic Program Guide from the digital television signal. You might still consider a third-party EPG service like IceTV, which offers additional features like scheduling your recordings via a web browser or your mobile phone.
MCE also makes a great DVD jukebox. If you rip your DVD collection to your hard drive as .vob files, MCE still lets you navigate menus and access additional features. You can add the folder containing your DVD collection to MCE by diving into Settings, Media Libraries, and Movies. MCE Movie Library doesn’t always display your DVD collection by default, but you can fix this by editing the registry. You can also install plug-ins such as My Movies for Windows Media Center, which download album art and other metadata.
If you are downloading video files from the Internet, you will want to install a codec pack to extend MCE format support. Shark007 Codec Packs are comprehensive codec packs for MCE, with versions available for Windows 7 and Vista/XP. Format support includes DivX, Xvid, MKV, QuickTime, RealMedia, and MPEG-2, as well as DirectVobSub to handle subtitles and AC3Filter to play AC3 and DTS soundtracks.
With MCE set up, next time we’ll end with a look at controlling your media center from the couch.
