Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft Windows® XP Media Center®

FIGURE 3.6

Downloading

detailed local

program-guide

data can take

several minutes.

This screen dis-

plays a progress

bar to let you

know your status.

40

ABSOLUTE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO WINDOWS XP MEDIA CENTER

Taking In the Sights

You can now finally begin to enjoy some of the fruits of your labor. In this section,

we’ll start you off with a brief tour of the major menu choices available from the

Media Center interface: My TV, My Music, My Pictures, My Videos, Play DVD,

and Settings.

My TV

Most people will want to go straight for the Big Payoff: watching live TV on your PC.

To do this, just click on My TV, and you’ll be taken to the Media Center Television

screen (see Figure 3.7). Media Center may take a few seconds to initialize your TV

input signal, and then you should be rewarded with a view of your favorite TV station

playing in a window at the right center of the screen. This TV home page will also dis-

play the local date and time, as well as the channel number and several TV-related

menu choices. (For more information on using My TV, see Part II of this book.)

FIGURE 3.7

Media Center’s

My TV main

screen is the

control center for

accessing guide

information, TV

recording, and

search features,

as well as access-

ing TV-related

settings.

CHAPTER 3 GETTING STARTED & TAKING THE TOUR

41

My Music

The My Music tab opens your portal to Media Center’s audio control center (see

Figure 3.8). From here you can view and manage your digital music collection.

Menu choices include viewing your collection by album, artist, playlist, song, or

genre, or you can search your collection for a specific set of terms.

FIGURE 3.8

The first time

you open My

Music, it will

typically display

a message say-

ing that no

music has been

loaded into your

media library,

and instructing

you to first use

Windows Media

Player to popu-

late your media

library.

My Pictures

The My Pictures tab displays thumbnails of your

stored images. Main menu choices from within My

Pictures (see Figure 3.9) include Play Slide Show,

Settings, Sort by Name, Sort by Date, My Pictures,

and Shared Pictures. (More information on using

My Pictures is located in Part VI of this book.)

Note that if you were watching TV before switching

to My Pictures or one of the other main Media

Center screens, your live TV view screen will con-

tinue to appear in a small window at the lower left

of the display.

42

ABSOLUTE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO WINDOWS XP MEDIA CENTER

You may need to restart

Media Center after using

Windows Media Player to import

and organize your music collection

the first time. Detailed information

on configuring and using your

Media PC’s My Music features can

be found in Part V of this book.

FIGURE 3.9

The My Pictures

screen is the

launch point for

viewing still

images, including

slide shows that

display multiple

images along

with a music

background,

if desired.

My Videos

This section of the Media Center interface is designed primarily for sharing and

enjoying your personal digital video files. The Shared Video folder is a place specifi-

cally designated for storing video files that are accessible to other computers on your

network. Choices from the My Videos screen (see Figure 3.10) include Sort by Name,

Sort by Date, My Videos, and Shared Video. (For more information on using My

Videos, turn to Part III of this book.)

CHAPTER 3 GETTING STARTED & TAKING THE TOUR

43

FIGURE 3.10

My Videos

displays thumb-

nails of video

files stored on

your hard drive,

allowing you to

choose which

videos to display

on your Media

PC computer

screen or on an

attached TV.

Play DVD

Selecting the Play DVD tab on the Media Center interface will immediately launch

the DVD loaded in the PC’s optical drive. If no DVD is currently loaded, you will see

a pop-up message asking you to insert a disk (see Figure 3.11). Note that this style

of pop-up message is specific to the Media Center interface. It’s nice and large, with

a big green button—perfect for viewing and responding to it from the comfort of

your couch. (Additional information on playing DVDs is contained in Part IV

of this book.)

FIGURE 3.11

If you inadver-

tently select Play

DVD from the

Media Center

interface without

first loading a

DVD, you’ll get

a pop-up error

message asking

you to insert

a DVD.

44

ABSOLUTE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO WINDOWS XP MEDIA CENTER

Radio

Choosing the Radio tab gives you access to a significant feature that was added

in the second version of Windows XP Media Center Edition: the ability to listen to

and control an FM radio built in to the TV tuner card of many new Media Center

machines. Not only can you tune to or seek FM radio stations and assign up to nine

presets (see Figure 3.12), but you can also use the remote control’s transport control

buttons to pause and rewind live radio.

FIGURE 3.12

This screen shot

shows how you

create a station

preset. If you

don’t see a Radio

tab when you

open the Media

Center interface,

it means your

tuner card does

not include FM

radio capabilities.