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186 Chapter 4  Configuring Windows Media Center and Media Player You can also play CDs and DVDs using Windows Media Player. To play a music CD, just insert the disc into the computer’s CD or DVD drive. Autoplay may prompt you to play the disc, with an option to use Windows Media Player, which will play the disc automatically. You can also find the disc represented in the navigation view in the Library view. The disc will play much like your digital files on your hard drive, with the player even downloading album information. To play a DVD, you first need a DVD decoder. DVD players use licensed decoding soft- ware, so there is a separate fee associated with playing a DVD. Windows Media Player does not come with a DVD decoder integrated, but if you have Windows Media Center from an installed copy of Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate editions, you have the decoder. Another decoder may have been included by the computer manufacturer or included with other software, like a disc burning suite or multimedia package. If you do not have a DVD decoder, you will receive an error message with a link to available software. To play the entire DVD, in the navigation pane click the DVD title and click Play, or jump to a DVD chapter by double-clicking the chapter name. You can skip between songs or chapters with the Next and Previous buttons on either side of the Play button. To enable parental controls for DVD playback, set up a limited or restricted account and click the arrow below the Now Playing button. Click More Options and then click the DVD tab. Here you can click Change Settings and then from the drop-down menu select a rating that limited accounts can view, as shown in Figure 4.4. FIGURE 4.4 Windows Media Player: limiting viewing a DVD to a rating level Ripping and Burning Music Ripping a CD is the process of encoding the digital music on a CD to a file on your computer, usually in a compressed format that allows for a space-saving file compared with the CD red book standard that would normally take 650–700MB of space per CD ripped. To start ripping a CD, put the CD into your computer’s CD or DVD drive. If you have an Internet connection, the player will attempt to download all the information for the album, including artist and song titles. Click the Rip button in the top toolbar to get to the Rip view, shown in Figure 4.5. To begin ripping the tracks to files on your computer, click Start Rip toward the bottom of the window, or click the arrow below the Rip button and select Rip. If you were on the Rip view when you inserted the CD, the default setting will rip the CD automatically. To avoid ripping certain songs, clear the check box next to the song. When the songs are ripped, the new files are automatically added to your library. 65348.book Page 186 Monday, October 22, 2007 4:27 PM Working with Windows Media Player 187 FIGURE 4.5 Windows Media Player: Rip view The arrow below the Rip button will show you several menu options for ripping your music. First, you can pick the format you want to rip to. MP3 is the most widely used format, but the Windows Media Audio (WMA) format has certain advantages, such as more advanced com- pression codecs and copy protection. In addition, you have the option to use WMA Lossless, an audiophile’s format because there is no loss of audio with its compression. In association with the file format, you can pick your bit rate. This determines the size of your file relative to the audio quality. Basically, the higher the bit rate, the better the audio quality, with files becoming bigger at each higher bit rate. Bit rate is not available for WMA Lossless, which is a predetermined compression size. You also have options to eject the CD after ripping and to rip music automatically when a music CD is inserted into the computer’s drive. You can also access these settings from the More Options menu option Rip tab, shown in Figure 4.6. Here you can access many of the same options as well as specify the folder location for ripped files, indicate how to name those files, and choose options for copy protection. The copy protection option is only available when ripping to the WMA format. MP3 or WAV does not support this feature. Copy protection limits the ability to move these files between computers. You cannot change formats once you have ripped using Windows Media Player. If you want to change the file format or bit rate, you will have to re-rip the CD. 65348.book Page 187 Monday, October 22, 2007 4:27 PM 188 Chapter 4  Configuring Windows Media Center and Media Player FIGURE 4.6 Windows Media Player: Rip Music tab Sharing Your Media Library Music and movies have been steadily moving to the computer. The challenge at times is that media is stuck on one computer or spread around multiple machines. If you have multiple com- puters on a private network, you can share the media library on your computer with other com- puters. You can even share with a networked digital music player, such as an Xbox 360. This feature allows you to access your media content from anywhere on the local, private network. The media library sharing feature is intended to allow the owner of the con- tent to enjoy the media in the home. Therefore, you cannot use it beyond the confines of your local network. You cannot, for example, use this feature across the Internet. The media library sharing feature is based on the Windows Media Player library. If the media shows up in the Library section of Windows Media Player and the other computers on your network are running the same version of Windows Vista, you will be able to share it. To enable media library sharing, open Windows Media Player and click the arrow below the Library tab. Now click Media Sharing, as shown in Figure 4.7. The Media Sharing dialog box will have an option called Share My Media. (This option will be not be available if the com- puter is not connected to a private network.) select the Share My Media check box, as shown in Figure 4.8. 65348.book Page 188 Monday, October 22, 2007 4:27 PM Working with Windows Media Player 189 FIGURE 4.7 Windows Media Player’s Media Sharing menu option FIGURE 4.8 Windows Media Player’s Media Sharing dialog box 65348.book Page 189 Monday, October 22, 2007 4:27 PM 190 Chapter 4  Configuring Windows Media Center and Media Player If the Share My Media option is not available and you are certain you are on a private network, it’s possible that Windows Vista has identified your net- work as a public network. Media sharing is disabled on a public network. You can manually change the network settings to correctly identify the network by clicking Networking in the Media Sharing dialog box to open the Network and Sharing Center. Once media sharing is enabled, you can specify what device can see your shared media. This can be useful if, for example, you want to share music with a spouse’s laptop but not allow that media to a child’s computer. When in the Media Sharing dialog box, decide which devices to include or deny. A list of devices capable of sharing will appear below the Share My Media To check box, as shown in Figure 4.9. Highlight a device and click Allow to include that device in sharing. If you want to restrict sharing to that device, highlight the device and click Deny. You can customize what is shared per device. To enable customized settings, select the device, click Customize, and deselect Use Default Settings, as shown in Figure 4.10. This will filter the viewable media by other devices based on the options you choose. This filter can include media types like music and movies, star ratings assigned to media files, and parental ratings. After media sharing has been configured, you can set up the other computers and devices to connect to the computer and play the shared media. When using another computer, start Windows Media Player on the computer that will be accessing the shared content. Click the arrow below the Library tab and click Media Sharing. In the Media Sharing window, select the check box Find Media That Others Are Sharing and click OK. Now you will be able to view media libraries that have been made available to this computer when you click Library and click the name of the shared library, as shown in Figure 4.11. Files selected from a library will play the same as a local media file would through the Windows Media Player controls. FIGURE 4.9 Media sharing device selection 65348.book Page 190 Monday, October 22, 2007 4:27 PM Working with Windows Media Player 191 FIGURE 4.10 Media sharing customization FIGURE 4.11 Windows Media Player: accessing the shared library To access media from a network-connected digital media device, just connect the device to the home network. How you do this will depend on the device. Some may require an Ethernet wired connection, while other devices may use a wireless connection. Refer to the device’s doc- umentation for specifics on the setup process. 65348.book Page 191 Monday, October 22, 2007 4:27 PM 192 Chapter 4  Configuring Windows Media Center and Media Player Once the device is on the network, add the device to the computer’s list of allowed devices. You will then be able to browse and play media streamed from the computer over the network. Working with Windows Media Center Windows Media Center is designed to serve as an entertainment hub that extends outside of the world of computers and into the realm of home theater. Windows Media Center is an applica- tion, introduced in Windows XP Media Center Edition, that is available in Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate. It brings together all of the media files on your system into a simple interface that provides quick and easy access to your files. Using Windows Media Center, you can view your pictures, play movies and DVD, watch and record TV, and listen to music and CDs. In the following section, we will look at Windows Media Center and how you can make the most of this product. Setting Up Windows Media Center Before you get too far, there are a few things that you must set up in Windows Media Center. Let’s start with opening the application and then look at the configuration options. To launch Windows Media Center, click Start  All Programs  Windows Media Center to open the window shown in Figure 4.12. FIGURE 4.12 Windows Media Center 65348.book Page 192 Monday, October 22, 2007 4:27 PM Working with Windows Media Center 193 To get around in Windows Media Center, you can use the arrow keys, or if you hover your mouse over the selection items, you will see left and right arrows on the screen. The various menus are up and down on the screen with the available task in that menu to the left and right. You can return to the previous screen by clicking pressing the backspace key. Windows Media Center can run in two modes: Normal or Media Only. In Normal mode, Windows Media Center will run in a window, and if you select Full Screen, you can exit it by clicking the Restore icon just as you would in any Windows application. In Media Only mode, Windows Media Center will run full screen and the Minimize, Restore, and Close buttons will be unavailable. You can toggle Media Only mode in the Task menu. Now let’s move on to the setup options. To access these options, scroll to the Task menu and then right to the Settings selection. Pressing the Enter key or clicking Settings opens the menu shown in Figure 4.13. The settings in Windows Media Center are broken into seven categories. Let’s take a look at each and how you will use these categories to configure Windows Media Center. General The General settings, shown in Figure 4.14, are just that—general setup options. These settings control things from Windows’ behavior to download options. Within the Gen- eral settings, you have several categories of options: Startup and Window Behavior These options control how Windows Media Center will behave when Windows Vista starts and how the Windows Media Center window will act with other windows. The settings available are:  Windows Media Center Always on Top: Makes the Windows Media Center windows always appear on top of other application windows. FIGURE 4.13 Windows Media Center settings 65348.book Page 193 Monday, October 22, 2007 4:27 PM 194 Chapter 4  Configuring Windows Media Center and Media Player FIGURE 4.14 Windows Media Center General settings  Show “Not Designed for Windows Media Center” Dialog: When you’re browsing the Internet via Windows Media Center, a dialog box will be displayed if the website was not designed for Windows Media Center.  Start Windows Media Center When Windows Starts: This setting will cause Windows Media Center to load when Windows Vista starts up. This is used mainly when you want Windows Media Center to be your main interface.  Show Taskbar Notifications: Controls whether you will see notifications about Win- dows Media Center in the Windows Vista taskbar. Visual and Sound Effects These options control the look and feel of Windows Media Cen- ter as well as sound effects that you will hear while navigating the interface. The options in this menu are:  Use Transition Animations: This option controls the text animations you see when moving between menu items and sections of Windows Media Center.  Play Sound When Navigating Windows Media Center: This turns the navigation sound effects on or off.  Color Scheme: This option allows you to choose from the Window Media Center Standard, High Contrast White, or High Contrast Black color schemes. If you have trouble reading the standard scheme, or just don’t like it, you can choose one of the other two.  Video Background Color: This option lets you select the color that Windows Media Center will display behind videos while they are playing. Your options include black, white, and various shades of gray. 65348.book Page 194 Monday, October 22, 2007 4:27 PM Working with Windows Media Center 195 Program Library Options These options control how Windows Media Center will inter- act with other programs. These configurable options will allow you to specify whether other applications can control Windows Media Center, access information about media, and hide Internet warnings from the user. In addition, you can click Edit Program Library to select which applications will be available in Windows Media Center. Windows Media Center Setup The options available in Windows Media Center Setup will help you configure various pieces of Windows Media Center. Each option will run a short wizard asking you questions about different components. You can configure each of the following.  Set Up Internet Connection  Set Up TV Signal  Set Up Your Speakers  Configure Your TV or Monitor Parental Controls Parental controls in Windows Media Center allow you to set up an access code and then configure settings that affect how media can be accessed. You can configure the maximum TV rating and Movie/DVD rating that can be viewed without the Parental Access Code. This prevents children from watching media that may be inappropriate for their age. Automatic Download Options These options allow you to control whether Windows Media Center will go online and download album art and information for CDs and DVDs. If you choose to enable downloading, you can also choose whether the download is auto- matic or manual. Optimization Windows Media Center can perform optimization tasks to help keep your computer running smoothly. This option allows you enable or disable optimization and select a time for the optimization to occur. About Windows Media Center This menu provides you with the version information for Windows Media Center, the Terms of Service for the TV Guide, and the credits for each of the data providers. Privacy The privacy menu allows you to view the Windows Media Center Privacy agree- ment and configure settings relating to how it will send information back to Microsoft. TV These options allow you to set up your TV tuner. We will cover these settings and how to configure TV tuners later in the “Setting Up Your TV Tuners” section in this chapter. Pictures The Pictures settings control how picture slide shows will look. You can set the fol- lowing options:  Show Pictures in Random Order  Show Pictures in Subfolders  Show Caption  Show Song Information During the Slide Show: Allows you to select when the infor- mation is shown: always, never, or at the beginning and end of the song 65348.book Page 195 Monday, October 22, 2007 4:27 PM [...]... signal setup FIGURE 4. 25 Windows Media Center: examining your TV signal setup 203 653 48.book Page 204 Monday, October 22, 2007 4:27 PM 204 Chapter 4 Configuring Windows Media Center and Media Player FIGURE 4.26 Windows Media Center: TV signal configuration result FIGURE 4.27 Windows Media Center: download TV program Guide 653 48.book Page 2 05 Monday, October 22, 2007 4:27 PM Working with Windows Media Center... Figure 4. 35 FIGURE 4.33 DVD playback controls in Windows Media Center 653 48.book Page 216 Monday, October 22, 2007 4:27 PM 216 Chapter 4 Configuring Windows Media Center and Media Player FIGURE 4.34 DVD options menu in Windows Media Center FIGURE 4. 35 Music Library in Windows Media Center 653 48.book Page 217 Monday, October 22, 2007 4:27 PM Working with Windows Media Center 217 Across the top of Windows. .. shown in Figure 4.32 FIGURE 4.30 Windows Media Center: TV controls 653 48.book Page 214 Monday, October 22, 2007 4:27 PM 214 Chapter 4 Configuring Windows Media Center and Media Player FIGURE 4.31 Windows Media Center: recorded TV FIGURE 4.32 Play DVD button in Windows Media Center 653 48.book Page 2 15 Monday, October 22, 2007 4:27 PM Working with Windows Media Center 2 15 Selecting Play DVD will launch... be able to view TV from Windows Media Center  653 48.book Page 202 Monday, October 22, 2007 4:27 PM 202 Chapter 4 Configuring Windows Media Center and Media Player FIGURE 4.22 Windows Media Center: setting up the TV signal FIGURE 4.23 Windows Media Center: confirming your TV region 653 48.book Page 203 Monday, October 22, 2007 4:27 PM Working with Windows Media Center FIGURE 4.24 Windows Media Center:... the same network as the Windows Vista computer that is running Windows Media Center and share content from the computer with the Windows Media Center extender You can then use the extender to view the various media files from your television in a different room If your Windows Vista computer has a TV tuner card, you can also watch TV via this tuner This allows you to use Windows Vista as a personal video... walk you through the steps required to add your Xbox 360 as a Windows Media Center extender EXERCISE 4.1 Adding an Xbox 360 as a Windows Media Center Extender In this exercise, you will configure an Xbox 360 gaming console as a Windows Media Center Extender 1 On your Windows Vista computer, launch Windows Media Center by clicking Start Windows Media Center 2 Turn on your Xbox 360 Once the Xbox connects... a Windows Media Center–capable remote to change channels as well as other TV-like functions if you have the supporting accessories While a TV show is playing, you can get the Guide information about the show by right-clicking in the TV show window while it is playing and clicking Program Info FIGURE 4.29 Windows Media Center: Guide 653 48.book Page 213 Monday, October 22, 2007 4:27 PM Working with Windows. .. the folders you want to add to your Windows Media Center library  653 48.book Page 199 Monday, October 22, 2007 4:27 PM Working with Windows Media Center FIGURE 4.18 Windows Media Center adds media from selected folders FIGURE 4.19 Choose folders to stop watching in Windows Media Center 199 653 48.book Page 200 Monday, October 22, 2007 4:27 PM 200 Chapter 4 Configuring Windows Media Center and Media Player... step is complete and Windows Media Center has found your media, you can start using Windows Media Center to play back media FIGURE 4. 15 Pick the location from which you want to add folders to your Windows Media Center library  653 48.book Page 198 Monday, October 22, 2007 4:27 PM 198 Chapter 4 Configuring Windows Media Center and Media Player FIGURE 4.16 Library Setup wizard in Windows Media Center... a later time via the extender  653 48.book Page 206 Monday, October 22, 2007 4:27 PM 206 Chapter 4 Configuring Windows Media Center and Media Player Windows Media Center extenders are added and configured right inside the Windows Windows Media Center interface To add an extender, select Tasks Settings Extender Add Extender How you proceed from here will depend on the Windows Media Center extender you . Windows Vista starts and how the Windows Media Center window will act with other windows. The settings available are:  Windows Media Center Always on Top: Makes the Windows Media Center windows. website was not designed for Windows Media Center.  Start Windows Media Center When Windows Starts: This setting will cause Windows Media Center to load when Windows Vista starts up. This is. region 653 48.book Page 202 Monday, October 22, 2007 4:27 PM Working with Windows Media Center 203 FIGURE 4.24 Windows Media Center: automatic TV signal setup FIGURE 4. 25 Windows Media Center: examining