Windows Media Center in Windows 7

After playing with Windows Media Center in Windows 7 for almost half a day, I pretty much decided to use my Tablet PC as my mainly media center, and use the O!Play to play whatever content that my Tablet PC couldn't handle, that includes:

• ISO files
• DVD files in Video_TS folder structure
• Files with strange codec
• mkv files

For everything else though, using windows Media Center is a much better solution for the following reasons:

• My PC remote control is totally compatible with Windows Media Center (YEAH!)
• I can use my mouse to do fine grain navigation
• Wireless keyboard provides short cut for me to navigate the environment at ease.
• I can delete files using my remote
• It supports more codec than I expected, including SOME rmvb files

Some tidbits:

• Some files seems to be "not fast forward/backward" friendly when using my remote control. No problem, for I can still use my wireless keyboard to jump forward and backward using short cut. And worst come to worst I can use my wireless mouse.
• It took me some time to strategically position my IR receiver for my remote and wireless transceiver for my wireless keyboard and mouse. But once done, everything work very well.
• Nice list of features in Windows 7 Media Center
• Hacking Windows Media Center
• Forum for people to share tips on how to use Windows Media Center effectively
• Suggestion on TV tuner cards that are friendly with Media Center
• List of some cool Windows 7 Media center features
• Cheap tuner for option for laptop, but beware that you got what you've paid for
• More tuner information. Keep researching.

Here's some keyboard short cut that I found:

In Video Library mode, select [Play All], and when you press [Page Up], it move forward to the next video, while [Page Down] move you back to the previous one.


On a totally unrelated note, I tried the latest firmware update for my TV. Turns out my TV is already up today. What a bummer.