Windows 7 has been out for a few months now so I thought it time to comment on why I choose to use it and why we use it in our media centres.
Essentially, I use it because it is more stable that Vista – crashes far less often – and has some nice eye candy to boot. I am not going to discuss the pros and cons of using Windows 7 in an every day sense – there are plenty of sites for that on the web. Rather I wiull talk about why Windows 7 is better than Vista from a Media Cenrte perspective.
As I have described to several customers, it is the small things that make 7MC better. Things like:
- being able to fast forward / skip forward avi files
- TV guide data pulled from the antenna (not internet) – known as ETIT data
- The ability to have nice station logos in the guide
- Native DVD playback
- a really cool slide show screen saver, where you can choose what folder to display images from (excellent for family photos, holiday snaps, etc…)
- Better slide show functionality
- Improved ability to control when secheduled recordings start and finish
- ability to colour code TV shows in the guide based on content (uses ETIT data)
- nice user interface
- Better 64 bit usability
As with most things there are some draw backs:
- no native bluray playback capability (ASENT uses a very good third party application)
- inability to customise the location of third party apps in start menu and sub menus
Not a long list of drawbacks, to be fair, and this highlights that Windows 7 Media Centre is a strong improvement over its predecessor.
Overall Windows 7 Media Centre is very good and ASENT is proud to use it in our media centres. Having tested Windows 7 for about a year now we are confident that it is a worthwhile contribution to any lounge room.