Derek Press

Many people don’t realize that there is a really great media center application built into a lot of versions of Windows. If you’re running Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate, or any version of Windows 7 Home Premium of higher, Media Center is available to you. Why would you want it? Lots of reasons, which I’ll get to. But first, some history.

Windows Media Center first became available in Windows XP Media Center Edition in 2002. It was only sold via the big OEMs and the computer had to have a TV tuner card included. It never really took off (much to the chagrin of the cable co’s, I’m sure) because of some silly hardware limitations and the fact that TV tuners were pretty much garbage back then. There were a couple of updates to the OS and in 2005 it first became available to anyone who built a custom PC. It gained a niche audience of home theater PC enthusiasts but the overall audience was very low.

With Windows Vista came the news that Media Center would be built in to Home Premium and Ultimate and you could use any hardware you wanted. Great news. TV tuners had improved during that time and driver support got better. Obviously this widened the audience significantly as Home Premium was the version of Vista most commonly sold. The downside was that Vista Business and Professional did not include Media Center.

Now, Windows 7 is available and every version except Starter and Home Basic include Media Center. Starter will only been seen rarely on netbooks and Home Basic basically does not exist for most of the developed world. So unless you’re running a netbook or an extremely cheap desktop or laptop, you have Media Center.

Now, why would you want to use it? Media Center gives you access to your videos, pictures, music, free Internet TV, and more all from one beautiful application. Even better, if you have a TV tuner, such as the HDHomeRun, you can watch live television on your computer or TV. Full DVR functionality including great recording options, pause, fast forward and rewind, captions, full guide, and more can be controlled with your mouse, keyboard, or remote.

I have an OTA antenna plugged in to my HDHomeRun which gives me access to live, free, HD content streamed to three devices across my network. It’s a great alternative to cable television. Once you pay for the hardware there are no monthly fees, no rising prices, no junky cable boxes, no pixelated picture, and no shoddy customer service to deal with.

If you have a version of Windows that includes Media Center, open it up, run through the configuration to add your media, and play around with it. Most people like what they find. You can find TV tuners in any major electronics store nowadays and with today’s technology it’s easier than ever to connect your computer to your TV, which is where Media Center really shines. Give it a try!

Here are a couple of screenshots of my Media Center to pique your interest.