Missing remote covers the new highs and lows of Media Center in Windows 7

The Missing Remote spent a few weeks with the new Windows Media Center in Windows 7 and was nice enough to share the experience by posting an overview and a few nice videos. Most of the this has been covered before, but there were a few good tidbits like m2ts container support, which will come in handy for playing Blu-ray rips. The most interesting part though is the list of pain points that were not addressed, like the fact that you still can't record the live TV buffer, no channel logos, and there is still no native Blu-ray support. The author obviously isn't an avid EHD reader or he would've been intimately familiar with the new Cyberlink Blu-ray playback software that was shown at CES. As for our coverage of the new Media Center features in Windows 7, stay tuned.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 23rd 2009 5:00PM]

m2ts container support is awesome, but the Media Center REALLY needs some sort of scraping/tagging feature (a la XBMC) to add cast/plot/boxart to our videos. THAT would turn some heads...

[ryaninc Posted Jan 22nd 2009 7:37PM]

I never had Vista, so my first experience with Media Center is the one in Windows 7. I installed it on my home theater PC specifically to play with Media Center. I think it rocks! Super easy interface, nice and smooth. Plus, the PC even goes into and out of standby correctly. I'm a huge fan. :-)

[Starkenator Posted Jan 22nd 2009 9:28PM]

I must say I really am excited about the ability to play back m2ts files in Windows 7 MC. You can even play them from the movies interface with the album art from the xml files which is awesome. However, it will not play video from m2ts files with VC-1 video. Does anyone know if I install software with a VC-1 codec like Nero Showtime, will it allow playback in Media Center? The other problem I have run into is the 360 extender will not play the native Blu-ray m2ts rips. I assume it is because of the bandwith contraints for H.264 video on the Xbox (10 mbps I believe). Does anybody think this constraint may be lifted due to the new H.264 codec support in W7? That would be awesome to stream my BD m2ts files around the house with extenders. The only HD file format I have not had any issues with on extenders is WMV-HD. Even lower bitrate AVCHD plays for a second then freezes up the extender. I have only tried the 360 though.

[jagowar Posted Jan 22nd 2009 11:12PM]

i am having the same problem with my 360 extender as well.... the files play perfectly fine through another computer in my homegroup so its not the file. i am leaning towards there being a limitation in media center which is hopefully fixed before released but im not too hopeful since there was a very similar bug with vista media center playing back wmvhd encoded files and its still not fixed in windows 7 media center.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 22nd 2009 11:04PM]

I was so glad to hear about better PowerDVD integration and the Internet TV section is the other major piece I was wishing for. I hope they do a good job of it and include the major networks and other major players like Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 23rd 2009 1:23AM]

Strange, but while Windows Media Centre worked just fine with Vista, Windows 7 Beta does not even discover my TV Tuner, so I am unable to use WMC at all. W7B also will enter as defined for 'sleep' but will not awaken. Both worked OK with Vista/SP1.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 23rd 2009 8:08AM]

JUST INSTALL A LIFEWARE SYSTEM IN YOUR HOME! $$$$$$$

[Dalhectar Posted Jan 23rd 2009 3:50PM]

I take donations...

[Dalhectar Posted Jan 23rd 2009 3:55PM]

Pigging back up from the Podcast, the lack of HD in the online content is depressing. Microsoft has some serious content issues when it comes to online. Hulu in comparison is so much more, I perceive a scenario where people would still buy a AppleTV just to get boxee so they have Hulu with a 10 foot interface.

That said, the GUI improvements, codecs, and expanded Movie Library make Windows 7 a must upgrade for any Vista Media Center user.

Beta bugs aside... Bravo Microsoft, Bravo