Who uses Windows Media Centre?

Hi everyone,

Just wondering who actually uses/bought Windows Media Centre? I personally think it looks pretty good (Even got a remote for it) but one thing I find inconvenient is that the music section displays music via "artist , album , playlist , Genre , etc etc" but not something like "play by folder"

I had to rename hundreds of my songs into the same album (even though they're not the same album) so WMC doesn't show up with a million songs with their separate albums. (eg... had to rename random rock music of different artists into one album called "Rock music").

I could of done the same thing and make all my rock songs into the same "rock" genre but yeah same idea. Hope they can update a "play by folder" function.

How's everyone else getting alone with their WMC? If you dun have it please comment on why you didn't want it.

 

I don't. I think media center is fail. My opinion though.

 

I use MediaPortal

 

came with my laptop, but i never use it, its retarded. winamp and media player classic is all anyone will ever need....maybe vlc too.

 

I have MCE. The only think I like about it is its default theme.

 

I and many people (see thegreenbutton.com) use windows media center. It is one of the best things to come out of Microsoft in well, ever. I use it as my DVR, like a tivo that I never have to pay monthly fees for. It also provides an awesome 15' interface for watching movies on my HDTV. The music thing works for me since my music is already sorted by album and I can randomize if I don't want to listen to a specific album.
It is not made to replace winamp/media player, but provide a beautifully interfaced alternative.
My thoughts.

 

I have never and will never use windows media center. I just have no need for it, so I just disable all media center services inside of windows.

 

Are the DVD codecs media center uses the same that media player uses?

 

I use Media Center for watching TV. I'm happy with it.

 

Media center is by far better then WMP.
I have it on my laptop. I mostly use iTunes though.

 

I use Media Center (as part of Vista) to watch videos on it, like movies and stuff, and it works great. It's meant to be used when connected to a TV, not as a background music player or anything like that while you use the computer. It's great to sit down and watch something long like a movie or TV show, like when watching tivo.

It also uses all of the codecs installed on the system, so you don't need special codecs installed for it to use.. if it works in Media Player, it should work in Media Center.

PS. Sorting music my folders is outdated because there's too much ****-information to make that type of sorting efficient. The way to get what you wanted was to update the genre (not the album name!) -- that's the whole point of the "genre" classification.

 

. wmc works well (quite) for me under vista
. (media portal under xp)

cheers ...

 

I tried it last night! It can play music by folders YAY ^_^ thankyou so much

Thanks for the advice Orev, I thought about that too....it was either change album or genre >< I tried out both and thanks to you my WMC is pretty satisfying now. Hmmmmmm....now I'm just wondering which one to use, MediaPortal or WMC (should I start a thread on this? lol)

 

I haven't really been able to figure out exactly what the purpose of WMC is - at least not unless you've got one of those Media Center boxes sitting under your TV.

The XBox 360 also works as a WMC "extender", but so far I've really seen no point in using that on my 360 (I tried it briefly though) instead of the more straight forward media sharing (which I've also set up today on my new PS3 - didn't think that was possible, what with MS and Sony hating each other and all ).

As for WMP11 (for just watching video on my computer) - I love it. The library is the best I've seen in any media player so far (and a library is rather nice to have when you've got a couple of hundred Gigs of video lying around), with the quick search option and large thumbnails that are fortunately not captured from the first frame (which is often just black) like most media players or file managers with that option does.

 

One question....Where will I get codecs for running videos through WMC. Is CCCP is good enough ?

 

I guess Google will answer that easily...nice DP btw.


Tushar.

 

I use CCCP and it works perfectly.