Navigating My Videos
When you launch My Videos by selecting it from the Start page (as shown in Figure
9.1), or by pressing the My Videos shortcut button on your remote control, you’ll be
greeted by a screenful of thumbnail images representing your digital video files,
stacked on the right side of the screen (see Figure 9.2). You may also see thumbnails
representing additional folders on your hard disk,
where video may be stored.
On the left side of the screen, you’ll see a menu,
offering the following choices: Sort by Name, Sort
by Date, My Videos, Shared Video, and Other
Media. To move between the menu and the folders,
use the arrow keys on the remote.
At the lower-right corner of the My Videos screen,
you’ll see a counter indicating how many videos
are available in the current folder. Next to that,
you’ll find a pair of scroll arrows. These features are
common to many Media Center display screens (in
fact, you may have already noticed them on the
search results pages discussed in previous chapters).
If you have a large collection of digital video files,
you can use the arrow buttons on the remote to
126
ABSOLUTE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO WINDOWS XP MEDIA CENTER
FIGURE 9.1
The My Videos
section of Media
Center is the pri-
mary place to
play and organ-
ize your collec-
tion of digital
video files.
If you’re just starting
out and don’t have any
video files in your My Videos or
Shared Video folders yet, you’ll see
the message “There are no files in
this folder.”
scroll up or scroll down, or click the onscreen scroll arrows with the mouse. These
arrows will also indicate what direction you are scrolling in. If you have only a few
video files, the arrows will be “grayed out,” as shown in Figure 9.2.
CHAPTER 9 PLAYING AND ORGANIZING YOUR DIGITAL MOVIES
127
FIGURE 9.2
This initial view
of My Videos
shows the video
thumbnails
organized on the
right and menu
items on the left.
When you find a video you want to watch, simply select it by pressing the OK or
Play button on the remote (or click on the thumbnail with the mouse), and it will
begin playing in full-screen mode. When the video ends, My Videos will ask whether
you want to see it again, or return to the My Videos home page (see Figure 9.3).
FIGURE 9.3
This screen
appears when
the digital video
file stops playing.
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