Windows Vista Team Blog : Xbox

Try Windows Media Center - you may already have it!

Ben Reed — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 21:31:00 GMT

If your PC is running Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate, you have a great feature set you may not even know about: Windows Media Center.

Windows Media Center can turn your PC from a "plain vanilla" computer into something pretty powerful and impressive: the hub of your entertainment system. Surprised? Well (if you ask nicely), I'll tell you more.

Use Windows Media Center to browse your music collection by cover art or year, organize photos and create albums and jazz up custom slide shows with music. If you're a sports fan, you'll definitely want to check out your favorite team's scores and stats on SportsLounge (U.S. and Canada only).

And if you like movies and TV, you'll enjoy Internet TV Beta. This new feature allows you to play free streaming video content on demand, choosing from more than 100 hours of TV entertainment, music concerts, movie trailers, news, and sports content from MSN Video.

Are you a film buff? If so, you're in luck. Windows Media Center, you can watch movies on DVD and stream or download movies from a growing list of content providers through Online Media-an innovative portal that helps you find movies over the Internet. If you want a quick glimpse of all the movies you've recorded or the movies coming up on TV, check out the Movies Guide. You can see movie jackets, search for films by actor, director, genre, or title, and read descriptions and reviews of the films.

TV features are some of the most exciting in Windows Media Center. You can watch, pause, and rewind live TV shows in standard and high definition (HDTV available only in the U.S.)1. Schedule recordings with the Electronic Programming Guide and find shows in the Windows Media Center Recorded TV library using picture thumbnails from the actual programs. You can also view live TV through Picture-in-Picture or as a background while performing other activities in Windows Media Center.

Want to save what you've recorded? No problem. Go ahead and burn your favorite shows to DVD. Windows Media Center will even create a simple DVD menu, which you can navigate using your DVD remote.

Right about now, you're probably thinking "Hey, this sounds pretty good - but I'll bet set-up is complicated." Not so! A TV tuner is all you need to start enjoying live TV on your Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate PC.2 Just plug your TV antenna, cable, or the video output from your satellite set-top box into your TV tuner, open Windows Media Center, and follow the appropriate set-up instructions. To find out what else you need to perform specific functions in Windows Media Center, take a look at the handy chart here.

Some Windows Media Center users like to stream their digital media throughout the house. If that appeals to you, Extenders for Windows Media Center are just the ticket. And here's a tip: If you have an Xbox 360, you already have a first-rate extender available.

1 Enjoying live and recorded HD content may require additional equipment, including but not limited to an HD compatible receiver, tuner, set-top box, and TV or other display.

2 Windows Media Center supports as many as two NTSC Standard tuners and two ATSC HD TV tuners, for a maximum of four TV tuners in a Windows Media Center PC but not limited to an HD compatible receiver, tuner, set-top box, and TV or other display.

Vanishing Point Trip-to-Space Winner Announced, Webcast Today at 2:30PM CST

Nick White — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 20:10:00 GMT

Today Windows Vista and AMD announced that William Temple of California, USA has won the Vanishing Point grand prize, which includes a trip to see the ultimate vista -- the earth from space courtesy of Windows Vista, AMD and Rocketplane. The team at Windows, AMD and Rocketplane are hosting a conference call and webcast at 2:30PM CST today to answer your questions on everything from Vanishing Point to space flight. Click here to join and type in meeting id 9XK464. Astronaut and Rocketplane Commander John Herrington will also be joining to answer any questions about space flight.

Will has won a great prize package including the trip to space, along with a Windows Vista-based, AMD-powered Dell desktop PC; a 24-inch widescreen monitor; a Zune™ digital media player; an Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system; three Games for Windows® game titles; a Microsoft® LifeCam VX-6000 webcam; Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007; and $50,000 cash.

Vanishing Point was a global puzzle game that played out online and in the real world to celebrate the launch of Windows Vista. Clues were delivered via spectacular events, such as a custom light show in the fountains of the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, skywriting and gorgeous building projections around the world, and a fireworks finale in Seattle. You can check out the conversation tracking it here.

Vanishing Point was one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time, and the Windows Team and I enjoyed meeting some of you at the finale in Seattle. Be sure and check out the webcast, and congratulations to Will!

Windows Media Center and extender: Media all over

Nick White — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 17:31:00 GMT

Over the past year, I've really grown attached to Windows Media Center: its DVR functionality, plus extending movies, music and photos to other parts of my home, and then taking that music, movies and photos with me on my (Windows Mobile) device. It all amounts to a great experience, and one I find I miss, even when on vacation (go ahead -- call me a nerd). Now I'm looking forward to seeing Windows Vista Media Center on some of the new hardware I’ve heard rumored about.

One question I get from people who were early adopters of Media Center is what's going to happen with Windows XP Media Center Extenders once Windows Vista is released. If you have an Xbox 360 as your extender, then you are all set; you’ll just need a software update and it will work with Windows Vista. You can expect to other kinds of extenders on the market in the future. But for the older Xbox and other extenders (like the Linksys and HP), the story is a little more complicated.

Windows Vista incorporates better DRM, which will enable content like native digital cable support for HD. The Windows XP extenders aren't technically capable of being updated to support the new DRM requirement, so they will not support Windows Vista. They will continue to work just fine with Windows XP, though.

However, there is a way to get your content through your extender using Windows Vista, assuming you keep your Windows XP Media Center around. Set up your home network to share files from the PC running Windows Vista to the PC running Windows XP, and the Windows XP based PC will aggregate all of your content and present it to your extender. This way you can enjoy Windows Vista at home and still use your extender to access all the content on both PCs.