DVR / HTPC
One of the great beauties of Media Center is being able to perform most any action with a remote. A really cool addition to Media Center is the ability to make simple edits to your digital photographs directly in Media Center. It's not going to prompt anyone to get rid of their copy of Photoshop, but it does support some basic editing tools. You have the ability to crop a photo and save the changes, add contrast, and there is even a red-eye removal tool.
If you prefer to use a more polished program to edit your photos, you may still find it useful to be able to print out your photos directly from Media Center.
If you want more details, check out my full article post on how to Crop, Edit, and Print Photos in Windows 7 Media Center at How-To Geek.
I ran into this cool little tidbit courtesy of Dave in CT's Media Center site. It's a secret debug mode that can be enabled by pressing 4-1-1 and then the "i" button on your Media Center Remote while watching Live TV. Now, I have to be honest, I haven't yet had a need to use this trick, but I'm sure it could come in handy if you have any issues with your tuner cards that you needed to troubleshoot. Either way, it's kinda cool!
Do you have an add-in in your Extras Library that you'd like to have added to the main start screen in Windows Media Center? I love the WC7 Sleep Timer plug-in and use it virtually every night. Unfortunately it's located in the Extras library so it takes a few extra clicks on the remote (or mouse / keyboard) to get to the App. There a quick and easy way to put those Extras library favorites right on the main screen of your Media Center setup.
Ever wish to remove some the the junk in the Extras Library that you never use? If you've installed a plug-in and want it gone, you should be able to remove it completely through the Control Panel's Add/Remove programs. If you just want to hide any plug-ins for the time being or hide any of the built-in Extras, it's easily done. And if you ever want it back, it just as easy to bring it back.
My personal usage of Windows Media Center is very heavily weighed towards video & recorded TV. So much so that I often forget that Media Center has some really great features for displaying your photos & pictures. One of those features is the ability to create your own custom slide show and put it to music. And, all this can be done strictly with a Media Center remote.
Got your Windows Media Center PC connected to your TV? When you have family or friends over for the holidays or special gatherings, you can whip up a nice slide show to play in the background.
Check out the full article on Creating a Slide Show in Windows Media Center.
If you have multiple Windows 7 computers in the same Homegroup, you can easily copy and share Recorded TV files between computers in Windows Media Center.
This is a simple little setting you will probably want to enable if you use your Windows 7 Media Center setup as a standalone HTPC device. Tip: You can also open Windows Media Center from a Media Center remote by pressing the Green Button.
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