Windows Media Center

The Windows Media Center (WMC ) (also MCE for Media Center Edition ) is a program from Microsoft that can be played with the music, pictures and movies.

MCE was first sold separately in the form of Windows XP Media Center Edition. It is included in Vista and Windows 7 users in the operating systems of Microsoft; in Windows 8, it must be retrofitted. The user interface of the WMC can be controlled with the remote control, but also with mouse and keyboard. By optimizing font sizes and formatting may WMC PCs in the consumer electronics, especially television, are used or replace it. Areas of application are therefore living room PCs or IDTV systems.

  • 2.1 Windows XP Media Center Edition 2003
  • 2.2 Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004
  • 2.3 Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
  • 2.4 Windows Vista
  • 2.5 Windows Media Center TV Pack 2008 ( Vista Update )
  • 2.6 Windows 7
  • 2.7 Windows 8

Properties

The program can display images, videos and music from local drives and from the network. The program arranges the files by name, date, tags, and many other file attributes. The navigation is organized the same and manageable for all media content.

The program works closely with the Windows Media Player ( WMP), which organizes the advanced editing and management. All media content, which may reflect the WMC, can be sent to Windows Media Center Extender or Xbox 360 through the network to television.

The WMC supports portable devices that are recognized via USB as a disk. Files can be saved and synchronized from the media library out. General Windows Mobile devices, Pocket PCs, Smartphones, Portable Media Player, and even USB flash drives are recognized. If video recordings available in DVR - MS format, they are converted in the transmission in the Windows Media Video format with lower bit rate to reduce the file size. Optionally can be re - encoded during the synchronization even music.

Pictures

Images can be played in a single view or slideshow with or without music. Slideshows can be saved and used as a screen saver. Simple edits such as cropping, rotating, or remove red-eye are available and can also be controlled with the remote control. If a camera or other storage device connected, the images can be imported directly from the WMC.

TV

Is a TV card installed in the computer, the WMC can use them for the reception, play or record programs at different times. The format analog formats PAL and NTSC, and up to four TV cards are supported in the computer. With Windows 7, the digital TV formats ATSC, DVB, ISDB, and QAM are supported. Digital Cable TV with European standards will continue, due to a lack of suitable frequency lists are not supported. However, few offer TV card manufacturer here to driver -side solutions.

Also the playback and recording via composite and S -Video inputs supported.

The recording format serves the in-house DVR -MS ( Microsoft Digital Video Recording through ) which is composed of a MPEG2 stream in an ASF container. The recorded movies can thereby be saved from the Windows Media Center or Windows DVD Maker as a video DVD.

Music

Over many different sources, it is possible to take music. So the sound card can bring appropriate hardware and driver configuration on different inputs are accessed, and thus include also older analog or digital formats. The Windows Media Center organizes and stores the data, while in the basic setting in the personal Music folder. These are listed in a shared media library that have the WMC and the Windows Media Player. The user can in both programs create playlists and edit media information. All changes are immediately available in both programs.

There are all the usual controls available. in addition, prolonged press the jump button the file format be spooled extent also supported. As the modes Shuffle or Repeat are available. The visualizations of the WMP can be used.

Radio

If the TV card also support Radio reception, the WMC can use this to search for stations to play to save and name.

Video

Virtually all formats that Windows Media Player can play, can also be played in Windows Media Center. There are problems with the integration of additional formats such as Matroska, Ogg, FLAC, their file formats can be played so far limited.

From existing films DVD -Video can be created as long as they are available as a Windows Media Video, AVI or MPEG2.

Other properties

Plugins

The WMC can be fitted using plug-ins with different functions are comparatively uncommon standard for Windows applications. From communitites numerous free tools have already been developed to expand the functions of the program further. But even commercial providers offer plugins to their platform, as well as occasional television stations to equip their program with additional information.

Extensions are usually made ​​available through the online media menu.

Games

Games were already included in Windows Media Center 2003, but removed in the later versions, and only added back with Windows Vista. Are already integrated the supplied Windows games that can be played with a remote control. Other games are also developed by the communities.

Streaming

There is the possibility to access media content over the Internet addresses and save them to playlists on the computer or servers. A plug -in must be installed for it in older versions. However, there is currently no way to save the stream to disk.

Versions

The Windows Media Center was introduced with Windows XP Media Center Edition 2003. Each version was in development by Microsoft codename to operate existing and future " Living Worlds" multimedia with the Windows operating system.

Computers, which were fitted by manufacturers with the Windows XP Media Center Edition, were supplied with a remote control. This was a green button with the Windows logo. This is known as MCE button button allows you to start the Media Center interface and return from any place in the surface menu to the starting point. The distinctive green button on the MCE remote controls is seen frequently and as the logo of the media center and thus incorporated from various internet communities in the name and logo. A good example of this is the English-language MCE Forum "The Green Button" ( German: " The green button "). Since after the introduction of Windows Vista, the Windows Media Center is available to the end user and a remote control was no longer necessarily linked to the PC systems. The remote control that comes with a Vista system, has a round MCE button.

Windows XP Media Center Edition 2003

Codename: "Freestyle"

Contained, besides other small changes, support for radio reception.

Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004

Code Name: "Harmony"

With the 2004 version of the MCE was first marketed in some European countries. However, private customers were initially exclusively available as part of a complete system that version. The hardware support (eg graphics cards, TV cards ), however, was still quite limited. Nevertheless, this version has already been used in many systems as a multimedia living room application. The 2004 version is no longer sold since October 2004.

Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005

Codename: "Symphony"

This version of the MCE is based on Windows XP Professional with integrated Service Pack 2 This version of the MCE was first available individually with a System Builder license, which gives the building its own multimedia computers based on Windows finally became possible.

On 14 October 2005 is also a patch package called appeared "Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Rollup 2 " (code name: " Emerald" ). It contains some minor updates, especially the support for communication with the Xbox 360

Windows Vista

Code Name: "Diamond" (Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Ultimate)

The Windows Media Center is part of Windows Vista Ultimate and Home Premium versions. This revised version included the first time a new type of " setups " (establishment of the program), which allows for faster commissioning. The user interface has been reorganized and adapted to the design of the Aero interface of Windows Vista. The new menus in which you could now navigate horizontally, enabled better use of wide-screens in 16:10 and widescreen TVs in 16:9 format. Also new was the ability to summon the main menu place during TV or video playback transparent over the image. This allowed adjustments are made while playing in the background running.

Windows Media Center TV Pack 2008 ( Vista Update )

Codename: " Fiji "

The "Windows Media Center TV Pack 2008" is an update only for Windows Vista SP1 -based systems. The latest version of Windows Media Center was released on 16 July 2008 by Microsoft. Windows Media Center TV Pack 2008 was available only for so-called OEMs - that is, for manufacturers who produce based on Windows Media Center complete device including hardware and software. For existing PCs that took advantage of Media Center in Windows Vista, an upgrade to the TV Pack 2008 was not the license itself. Also contained new acquired or newly installed versions of Windows Vista Service Pack 1, the TV Pack 2008 is not (unless it involved the mentioned OEM device ) and there was no way to ( legally ) download Media Center TV Pack 2008. Official announcement of the Media Center TV Pack 2008, Microsoft took place on 28 August 2008 at the IFA trade show in Berlin. Microsoft confirmed the existence of the product only indirectly through an article in the Microsoft support database.

What's new in Windows Media Center TV Pack 2008 included:

  • Direct support of the DVB -S standard for satellite television ( DVB-S2, however, was not supported)
  • Improved support of digital terrestrial television DVB- T
  • Support of Japanese ( ISDB -T) and American Standards ( ClearQAM )
  • New TV recording format WTV. DVR -MS is detached but is still supported
  • Minor improvements to the user interface

Furthermore, was not supported in Media Center TV Pack 2008 high definition television ( HDTV ) to the H.264 standard.

Windows 7

( Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows 7 Enterprise)

The WMC in Windows 7 has the same functions of the TV Pack 2008, but contains custom animations, new sounds and bug fixes that are recognizable in a noticeable increase in performance. In addition, it is now possible to operate TV Cards based on the DVB -S2 standard and therefore deemed to HDTV in H.264 codec. Although the included Windows Media Player 12 can work with many non-native formats, some formats such as Matroska and Ogg files can not be played immediately. Although WMC recognize the files and their type, but need only the appropriate codecs are installed by third-party in order to play it also can. New is also the " movie library ", with which it is possible to illustrate the company 's own movie collection on hard disk in WMC. This option is also compared like with a virtual video library.

Windows 8

For owners of Windows 8 Pro Media Center was available for free until 31 January 2013. During this period, sent by e -mail product key must have been also activated, otherwise it lost its validity. After this period, the Media Center Pack could be purchased at a price of about 10 euros.

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