Vista Media Center

Presented by Don Heinsen February 12, 2008 Agenda

ƒ What is Windows Media Center? ƒ Walk through the entertainment experiences in WMC ƒ Extend the WMC experience to other rooms ƒ Which Windows Vista SKU is needed and other hardware considerations ƒ Find more info and discuss with other users Objectives

ƒ Discuss Background of Windows Media Center ƒ Introduce Windows Media® Center in Windows Vista™ ƒ Showcase features of Windows Media Center ƒ Discuss whole home distribution with Media Center Extenders (I.E. Xbox 360™ and others) ƒ Provide information about what software and hardware is required Vista Media Center Background ƒ Windows Media Center started life as Windows XP MCE 2004, and was basically a nice 10ft front end to Media Player 8. ƒ (i.e. not the standard Windows 2 ft interface, but specifically designed for much larger displays) ƒ It had some added functionality over the normal Media Player in that it could show a slide show of pictures, video and be controlled via a TV style remote. Windows XP MCE 2005 and MCE 2005 Rollup 2 added to the features, allowing radio, pictures and stored videos over a network share to the media. ƒ MCE 2005 also introduced the hosted HTML application framework to Media Center. This allowed third party developers to improve and add to the functionality of Media Center. ƒ MCE 2005 was basically Rev 2.0 of Media Center What is Windows Media Center Today? A totally unified multimedia/digital media experience

ƒ Available in Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate Editions ƒ Integrates functionality with other Windows Vista and online components ƒ Computer‐based home entertainment system ƒ Consistent, easy to use 10 foot and 2 foot interface What is new in Vista Media Center? ƒ Leverages the graphics capability in Vista ƒ Leverages the search capability in Vista with improved indexing and search ƒ Improved wizards and setup routines ƒ Optimized for 16X10 Aspect Ratio (was optimized to 4X3 ratios in earlier editions) ƒ Improved User Interface ƒ Improvements in Extensibility ƒ New services available on line What is not new?

ƒ Hardware challenges ‐ Especially with HDTV and Vista Hardware and Software compatibility issues. ƒ Problems Interfacing to a HDTV through HDMI ports to get full 1080i resolution ƒ DRM issues with all new technologies ƒ Cable Card 2.0 Spec implementation delays What is coming?

ƒ MCE in smaller form factors utilizing small form factor PC hardware such as Centrino Core 2 Duo with lower noise and power consumption ƒ Promised ability to interface with cable through cable card 2.0 spec ƒ Windows Home Server – Specifically Media Share and backup features My Current PC Build

ƒ AMD 3800 X2 Athlon 64 939 pin processor ƒ MSI K8NGM2‐NBP micro ATX motherboard ƒ MSI Nvidia GForce 7600 GT video card with 256 MB of DDR2 RAM ƒ 1 GB of PC3200 DDR system RAM ƒ 500 GB SATA Hard Drive ƒ DVD Writer –Sony DRU‐810A ƒ Hauppauge Win TV PVR USB 2 Encoder ƒ X‐Fi Creative Labs Sound card with SPDIF adapter ƒ Silverstone Micro ATX Media Center Case Build Issues

ƒ Tolerance differences between case and motherboard lead to frustration seating PCI cards (X‐Fi soundcard in particular) properly ƒ Vista driver challenges particularly with sound card. Audio is handled differently in Vista which presents challenges to companies like Creative. ƒ Proper video card for your Display The User Experience is Key Push the green button to get started Handheld remote and IR receiver equal easy control

ƒ 10‐foot experience for ultimate home theater ƒ 2‐foot experience alternative Windows Media Center user interface Multi‐direction navigation ƒ Cursor keys take you where you want to go ƒ Vertical and horizontal navigation The Vista WMC experiences

ƒ TV, movies (and DVD) ƒ Music ƒ Pictures and videos ƒ Online media ƒ Tasks TV experience (1) Electronic program guide

ƒ Navigation: use the remote’s cursor, page up/page down, FFW, RWD, skip and replay keys TV experience (2) Categories

ƒ It’s easier than ever to find the content you like TV Experience (3) Mini‐guide

ƒ Channel surf without leaving the current show TV experience (4) Record a show (1)

ƒ Supercharged personal video recorder (PVR) TV experience (5) Record a show (2) ƒ Red for record TV experience (6) Record a show (3)

ƒ View scheduled recordings TV experience (7) Record a series (1) ƒ Fine tuning for series recordings TV experience (8) Record a series (2) ƒ Smart series recordings TV experience (9) Recorded TV (1) ƒ Multiple views ƒ Meaningful thumbnails created from content ƒ Rich metadata TV experience (10) Recorded TV (2)

ƒ Display more information ƒ Easy access to tasks and settings TV experience (11) Recorded TV (3)

ƒ Details and options ƒ Contextual information from metadata TV experience (12) High‐definition TV

ƒ U.S. cable card support ƒ True high‐definition output ƒ HDCP protected video path requirement DVD experience (1) ƒ Rich and controllable experience DVD experience (2) ƒ Rich collateral information DVD experience (3) ƒ DVD changers for a library experience ƒ DVD cover art enhances library ƒ Sortability Music experience (1) ƒ The ultimate digital virtual music library ƒ Shares data with WMP ƒ Sortability Music experience (2) ƒ Information and options galore ƒ Easy access to common tasks and settings Music experience (3) ƒ Rich information in sorted views Music experience (4) ƒ Great new ways to view your library Music experience (5) ƒ Sort by genre to set ambiance and mood Music experience (6) Lists, playlists, and queuing (1) ƒ View songs by artist ƒ View songs by genre Music experience (7) Lists, playlists, and queuing (2) ƒ Be your own DJ Music experience (8) Visualizations and slideshows

ƒ A musical treat for your eyes Pictures plus videos experience ƒ Navigation you already know ƒ Sortability ƒ Mini digital photo editing studio ƒ Slide shows Pictures experience (1) ƒ Sortable views Pictures experience (2) ƒ Use tags created with Windows Photo Gallery Pictures experience (3) ƒ Mini digital photo editing studio ƒ Slide shows Pictures experience (4) ƒ Rotate image while viewing slide show Videos experience (1) ƒ Sortability Videos experience (2) ƒ Consistent navigation and playback controls A whole home experience (1) Media Center Extenders

ƒ Microsoft Xbox 360 today, more next year ƒ Streams all content except DVD ƒ Use wired or wireless networking ƒ Use multiple extenders and computer concurrently ƒ Same menus and navigation A whole home experience (2) ƒ High definition over an Xbox 360 extender WMC software and hardware needed (1) Buying a Vista Home Premium‐capable PC today (1)

ƒ Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate ƒ Hardware à 1 gigahertz (GHz) 32‐bit (x86) or 64‐bit (x64) processor à 1 gigabytes (GB) of system memory à Support for DirectX® 9 graphics with a WDDM driver, 128 megabytes (MB) of graphics memory (minimum), Pixel Shader 2.0, and 32 bits per pixel à 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space for upgrade, additional space for multimedia digital file storage, including recorded TV WMC software and hardware needed (2) Buying a Vista Home Premium‐capable PC today (2)

ƒ Hardware ‚ DVD‐ROM Drive ‚ Audio output capability ‚ Internet access capability ‚ TV tuner for TV experience (optional) WMC software and hardware needed (3) Buying a Vista Home Premium PC pre‐installed

ƒ Many models available are available today ƒ True high‐definition TV with cable card à Requires Cable Labs certified system ‚ Special certified BIOS ‚ OCUR device ‚ HDCP compliant video card ‚ HDCP compliant monitor or TV Additional resources

ƒ Microsoft Windows Vista home page http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/ ƒ Microsoft Windows Vista Express Upgrade http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready /expressupgrade.mspx ƒ Windows Media Center in Windows Vista http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/features /forhome/mediacenter.mspx Additional resources (2)

ƒ Community Column on Windows Media Center http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista /community/wmc.mspx ƒ Microsoft Windows Media Center newsgroup http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp /expertzone/newsgroups/reader.mspx? dg=microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter