Newbie questions

To All,

I am a newbie to this forum, so please excuse if my questions have already been answered (I looked, but didn't see them).

I just updated from XP Media Center to Vista Media Center (via Home Premium), so I'm a tad new to the Vista version.

ALL I want it for is to play music, I don't want pictures, TV, (I might want movies though), etc. Is there a way to remove menu items I don't want: i.e. Pictures, etc ..

Also, what types of rips will MC recognize? mpg, avi, etc. The XP version seemed only to recognize .divx files.

Any help would be appreciated,

Thanks in advance,

Jim

Hey jmes,

I listen to lots of music and watch lots of video in all sorts of codecs. I also stay far away from WMC. Really Windows Media Player does pretty much all I want, with the right codecs installed. And there is a great codec package reviewed in this forum somewhere, available at http://shark007.testbox.dk . You will need codecs regardless of whether you stay with WMC.

Honestly, the only thing I use WMC for is to set up recordings of live TV. Anything else and it is just more trouble than it's worth -- all the bells and whistles just slow it down.

Hi Jim and welcome to Vista forums.

You cannot really change the different options though i did not go deeply in this subject, i'll have a look
You can read quite a lot of formats, all depend of the codecs installed on your machine.
@ Hogtowner,
If you read only mp3 and some videos on your machine, i could eventually agree with your remarks
WMC offers a lot of possibilities and if for example you use as a second monitor a large screen TV, you may change your mind.
BTW, never had a problem with WMC and i use it every day.

Hogtowner & Sid,

Thanks for the info. I appreciate the value of WMP, however, I really like the look and feel of WMC (once I get into music) for parties. The "output device" is a Sharp 52" TV.

With regards to movies, I understand the requirements of codecs (and will look at the site Hogtowner suggests). However, my question is not what will WMC play (when the proper codecs are loaded), but what will it "recognize" as a movie file when it scans my directories. I don't remember it listing MPG's or AVI's under the "Movies" menu.

jim

@ Jim:

Start WMC, go up to Pictures and Videos then look right and click on video library. Once there, right click somewhere blank, and enter the Library Setup. Here you can choose the folders for it to watch. It finds my avi's (which are mostly divx or xvid) and my wmv's. Don't have any mpg's, but I would bet they'd be found too.

Cheers and good luck.

@Sid:

What you talkin' 'bout, Sidney? WMC and WMP use the same engine, no? They sure look and feel the same on my puny little 47" Aquos, but if I ever get above 100", I'll be sure to check it out again. Maybe you are talking about HD TV in particular? Moot point for me.

@

Yep, i'am talking about HD TV