Inside the Portable Media Center

Make it easy and keep it simple! That was Microsoft's design goal for the user interface and software built into the new Portable Media Center (PMC) devices. In addition, they carefully designed the external controls, making them intuitive and easy to use. The placement of these controls varies slightly from one model to another, but all PMCs have the same series of buttons. Learn to use one and you've learned to use them all.

When you first power-up a PMC you are greeted with a familiar XP-style Start menu (Fig. 1) with five menu options: My TV, My Music, My Pictures, My Videos, and Settings. Navigating the menu options is easily accomplished using the directional keypad found on all PMCs. This “Twist Navigation” method uses the up/down and left/right arrows to move you through the menu options, and the “OK” button in the center of the keypad selects an option. The rest of this article describes the function of each item in the Start menu.

Fig 1: Start menu for the Portable Media Center

My TV

My TV lets you watch TV shows recorded using a Windows Media Center PC. After you record the show, you have to convert (transcode) it for viewing on your PMC. The conversion is done using Microsoft's new desktop PC application Windows Media Player 10, available for free from Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/download/download.aspx). The amount of time it takes to transcode recorded TV varies, depending on the power of your desktop PC. On a PC with a 2.4 GHz processor, figure about an hour of transcoding time per hour of recorded TV.

Transcoding a TV recording for the PMC reduces the display size and bit rate of the show, which also reduces its overall file size. You can store over 5 times as many TV shows on your PMC than you can on your PC in the same amount of space. The playback quality is quite nice on the PMC. The TV shows play smoothly without dropped frames and the video is sharp and clear enough to make out most of the detail of the original recording.

The “meta data” is also preserved in the transcoded file. This includes the show's genre, a synopsis, a rating, and the recording date. When you view a TV show on the PMC, you can use the right arrow on the directional keypad to toggle between an abbreviated and full display of the show's meta data. You can also use the “fast forward” button to skip forward past commercials (click once to skip forward 29 seconds) or use the “left” keypad button to rewind (click once to go back 7 seconds).

My Music

My Music lets you listen to music recorded in either Windows Media Audio (WMA) or MP3 format, displays the album cover art, track number, track title, artist, and other information for reference. The PMC's 20 GB hard drive is big enough for most people's entire music collection. And with that much music, you'll never have to worry about listening to the same song over and over again! Displaying the album cover art is a nice touch, adding visual appeal to the program. Imagine listening to “Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band” while viewing the album cover!

When you enter My Music, your music files are in “library view,” a list of your songs that can be sorted by album, artist, playlist, song title, genre, or “new.” Whatever you're in the mood for, it's pretty easy to find (dare I say easier than an iPOD?). Select a song from the library view and you switch to the Play view, in which you can choose from five views: