What's new in Windows 7 for Media Center
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted October 30th 2008 1:40PM
posted October 30th 2008 1:40PM
Our good friend Charlie Owen highlighted the most interesting parts of Windows 7 on his blog -- you know, the Media Center parts. Overall we're a bit disappointed to see that most of the changes to the TV functionality were just brought over from the OEM only TV Pack, in fact almost all the other changes are cosmetic. We're not sure we like the new look yet (like the new info menu pictured) but we'd like to get accustomed to it before we pass judgment. That's not to say that there aren't any new features though, as there are plenty of changes for the pictures and music's features -- which are much appreciated. It should go without saying that we're mostly interested in features that enhance our HD viewing. The biggest addition to us is one that was expected in the TV Pack, but left out: H.264 support. Although this can be a nice feature all on its own, the real excitement is because we hope that this means DirecTV fans will finally get to watch HD on their Media Centers. We're hoping that this isn't the only feature that Redmond isn't letting on to just yet, but we'll all just have to wait and see what's to come in the final release.
High res album artwork for music? Or do I have to do all the hard work myself to display a picture on a HDTV that is not as pix elated as roman mosaic!
Am i the only person in the world that doesn't care about album artwork?
looking like alot of good stuff for the new update but i cant help but think some basic things will still be forgotten again.
So the question for me is should I hold off until Windows 7 to come out or just go ahead and pick up a Windows Media Center PC now?
From a hardware requirement perspective you should be fine. But what we don't know yet is if the DirecTV tuner setup will only be available from OEMS, or if do-it-yourselfers will be able to get the tuner from DirecTV and add it to an existing computer.
I want Video Playlists!