Windows 7 Media Centre

February 10, 2009 · Filed Under Software for HTPCs

So the new windows 7 media centre has been put into alpha release. Although this is only the alpha version, and things are still going to change, there are some really nice features that windows 7 media centre has that are new.

Virtual Channels – if you don’t have a TV tuner there will be virtual channels you can watch media off the internet. This allows you to watch google and youtube videos, as well as online TV episodes through streaming sites.

Touch Compatibility – the new media centre will be able to be controlled by touch. In my opinion this is a useless feature, because unless I grow really long arms and my plasma TV becomes touch compatible, I don’t really see it being useful for my HTPC. I’ll be sticking to my remote. But I suppose if you are using it on a touch compatible laptop or something, it would be pretty cool.

Easier – well I haven’t actually used it, but this is what they say. Hopefully it really is easier to set up and use.

There are some other cool features which although they don’t change the experience of using windows media centre, are pretty cool nonetheless.

For example when you pull up a menu, eg to change the channel, the current show you are watching stays faded in the background so you don’t miss anything.

It also has a pretty cool picture show. When you are playing music you can pick a folder of photos. All these photos appear scattered around the screen, and then are zoomed in on one at a time, which gives a really nice effect.

In my opinion windows 7 media centre is not going to be much different to vista media centre. It probably won’t be worth upgrading to, but it does provide some cool features that make using it feel a lot more polished and more pleasant.

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