Seperating Pictures & Videos has been mentioned before. This would like be a good thing.

What i also would like to be to do is created some kind of submenu's for various types of videos.

It should be possible to create various categories of video material and have each "type" only watch certain folders.

• create a menu item "movies" and let that item watch D:\Multimedia\Movies
• create a menu item "series" and let that item watch D:\Multimedia\Series
• create a menu item "music clips" and let that item watch D:\Multimedia\Music Clips
• create a menu item "home videos" and let that item watch D:\Multimedia\Home Videos

Also keep going to the right in a strip should return to the beginning item like it's possible in the album selection under music

I am not quite sure if this really falls in the category start menu, but me and my girlfriend hate it that it's not possible to use the computer while having media center open on a secondary display.

Our Vista computer is in our living room with a primary Samsung TFT monitor for daily use and a secondary Samsung LCD TV for Media Center use.

When VMC is opened full screen on the secondary display, the window "claims" the focus of the mouse. The cursor is trapped on the secondary monitor.

Only pressing the Windows key on the keyboard to show the start menu button on my primary monitor enables me to reclaim my mouse to launch internet explorer or outlook on the primary monitor. VMC is now somehow been put to the background.

Using this workaround causes the playing video or recorded tv to be paused. To resume playback I have to press the play button on my keyboard (which happens to have such a key) to resume playback of the video in VMW.

If I use the play button on my Microsoft Media Center Remote, VMC comes back to the foreground and reclaims the mouse cursor after which i can no longer continue surfing the web on the other monitor. The only way to fix it is using the same routine.

I do understand why this happens, because VMC needs to be the active application for the Remote to function properly. It basically is an input device that controls the active application.

I 2nd having different video categories, especially music videos. I think music videos could also be placed under the music category in ADDITION to the Video category. Of course if we were able to customize our Start Menu, then we'd be able to place subcategories under multiple categories: i.e. "home videos" under BOTH the "photos" category and "videos" category. (Like everyone else, I am assuming that the "photos & videos" category should be separated into 2 separate categories.)


I also 2nd being able to use a computer and PC at the same time. But I highly doubt that will ever happen. I talked to a Media Center employee and his attitude to my inquiry was why would anyone want that when they could simply use a Media Center extender. Well for someone who lives is a small apartment (or dorm room), a MC extender AND a MC computer is overkill.


Again, I must stress another thing that I hope the next version of MC fixes:
ENLARGE THE CLOCK!

ryan.tollefson:

Likes:

• Very Polished feel
• The subtle animations/effects
• Smooth transitions
• Sound effects
• The way you move up/down between categories, and left/right for the sub categories
• How the Green Button will always get you back to the menu

Dislikes

• Pictures and videos lumped together
• How inconsistant the quality of the "Online Media" is
• That we can't get rid of unnecessary/unwanted icons
• That recorded Movies can't be seperated out for extenders (they just show up on Recorded TV)
• No categories for recorded TV/Movies
• That transistions aren't as smooth on the Linksys extenders

 

I'd Second all this as well as add no great browser or link into online TV like joost or YouTube and eqivalents and not much online stuff at all for Australia.

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Si fractum non sit, noli id reficere - if it ain't broke don't fix it.

I personnally like the layout of Vista menus.  However I would love to see the limit of additional registered apps go unlimited.  Currently I can only add 1 addition app to TV + Movies because of the Internet TV button added.  So lifting that restriction would be great.  I also would like to see maybe a setup menu for the start menu where you can select show/hide app, and add new button, and add new strip. 

The layout would be pretty simple it could even be all text if needed just something that lists all registered apps to TV+Movies and has a +/- by each of those apps, then everything in Pictures+Videos with the same thing and so on.

Thanks for letting me put my 2 cents in!

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Community Plugins and Add-ons OurMediaCenter.com

I love the vista start menu.  Add a weather item.  Add caller id.  Maybe a home phone answering machine.

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My VMC HTCP - Vista Ultimate
ASUS P5Q, Core 2 Duo 2.66Ghz
3GB DDR2-800
XFX Fatal1ty 8600
1 X 750 GB,
ATI 550Pro, HDHOMERUN
2GB Flash for Ready Boost

I would like to be able to customize programs displayed, There are lot of items I don't use through personal choice and would like to rid the start menu of them, especially the online programs that friends and family often navigate into and run into the buggy html sites etc. Also seems a little funny why settings aren't disabled in standard and guest accounts

A feature request would be to allow users to easily add custom strips for their programs.

Another feature request would be to allow a program to be selected as the default startup item. e.g. My mum only uses her media center 90% of the time for the music library so it would save a bit of time each time entering the program.

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c2d 6600 | 2gb Ram | 7800gt Gfx | Vista Ultimate x86

I wish you could see more of the above and below the category that is currently selected. The old Start menu you could see more. The new Start menu you can only see one or 2 categories above or below the selected item. This is done to make the menu look fancy. But I think form (design) should
 follow function.

The real estate being used for the categories seem to be under utilized. The categories seem to take up a small portion of my 4:3 TV screen. I can just imagine what it might look like on a wide screen TV. You should be able to see more of the categories. And everything in general should be bigger, (especially the clock ;-)

Items I would LOVE to see...

1. Ability to change the look of the interface (color, fonts , etc.)
2. Built-in blu-ray/hd-dvd support.
3. Ability to change preview size or the ability to inject a program logo.
4. Break Video & Pictures out of the same group
5. Better extender integration (ability to play everything on the extender that you can on the VMC box)
6. Ability to remove features we don't need/use

Things that aren't start menu related but are needed:
1. Pooled recording from a shared list. (ie. multiple tuners on multiple machines recording to a shared common drive).
2. Ability to see tuners from another VMC capable machine. (But allow the main machine to retain focus if a recording needs to be made)

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My VMC setup:
(2) Xbox360s
System 1 -
Dell XPS410 (2.6Ghz C2D, 2GB Ram,Nvidia 8600GT, Blu-ray internal, HD-DVD external (X360 drive), (2) Vboxx DTA150s (OTA HD), Adaptec Dual Tuner (fed a steady diet of DirecTV... sadly NOT in HD)

in general i like the the vista interface. here's my feedback:

needed improvements.

1. like most people... the grouping of videos and pictures this drives me nuts.

2. if i hit the guide button, change channel, hit the guide button, change channel, then hit back button... i have to keep hitting the back button to get out of multiple guides

3. please add parental controls to videos and pictures

4. please fix the bug where album covers do not show up even though folder.jpg exists. (and it shows up in media player fine)

5. would love to be able to browse my music selection by directory instead of using the music tags

6. managing my media using media player is kinda awkward since i have to essentially plug in a mouse and keyboard and use windows

7. now watching acts like a history which can be (ahem) embarassing if you forget to clear it with something else

8. more user control of menu customization

9. extenders should use codecs from the media center pc

10. better integration with whs (lots of talk about this already)

11. ability to install the extender software on a PC/laptop

i guess my list is more than just start menu feedback... :)

 

 

Separate out pictures and music. That's my primary complaint.

I just got mine setup last night. Anyhow, my initial thoughts on the Start Menu were:

-Pretty slick. Much better than my Tivo (hopefully that's not taboo to say here :) )  That said, there were things i'd have like to have been able to change.

• The color. As mentioned before. Blue is good, but not everyone likes blue.
• The transparency level. There were areas where it shows the tv playing in the background, it'd be nice to adjust the transparency a bit to see it a bit more.
• Some have large TV's other's small. Mine is a 27" screen in my bedroom and i'm about 8 feet away. Anyhow, on the main guide portion, i'd like to be able to list more channels at once at possibly more times. Maybe a minor thing, but I seem to have a decent amount of space that can be used still on my screen.
  
• Along those same lines, there seems to be a good amount of space at the bottom of the screen, but i only get about 1/2 sentence of program description in that area. More description would be nice there. I realize the last two are guide related and that may not qualify as 'start menu' and if so I apologize.
• I haven't gotten as far as the need to customize the buttons yet, but I can see getting there.
• I'll also echo the TV in the lower left corner needing to be bigger. I couldn't see it much at all on my set from 8' away and i didn't realize it was a button for a while either.

In general, more custimzation is needed. Whether it be colors or content. I, as you can tell, would like to be able to get the description on the screen more than I presently can. I don't want to see a program listing, then select it and click buttons to get it to tell me about the show.

1) Videos do not belong with Pictures.

2) A choice of more of fewer items shown on the guide - what's tight on a 26" is too loose on a 50". Maybe we just need two settings, big and small.

3) I'd like to turn off all the useless menu items - what's on now, internet TV, movie trailers.  They'e not just in the way, they are usually lame or obsolete.

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Deane G Vista SP1 Home Premium 32 w/Pack, 2x A180, 550 Pro, HD4350 at 1080i to plasma, Intel D945GNTLR w/Pentium D 2.80GHz, 2GB, Seagate 300MB + Hitachi 1TB, Linksys DMA2100, Harmony 550, TMT

One more - clearly keeping the Internet TV button is a good long-term move, but at least put NBC/ABC/CBS/FOX/TNT/AMC/etc episode viewing and news reruns sites as the first items. And get them to all use Silverlight so that video quality is as good as Netflix and Fox's online viewing.

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Deane G Vista SP1 Home Premium 32 w/Pack, 2x A180, 550 Pro, HD4350 at 1080i to plasma, Intel D945GNTLR w/Pentium D 2.80GHz, 2GB, Seagate 300MB + Hitachi 1TB, Linksys DMA2100, Harmony 550, TMT

Charlie,

I think the biggest improvement you could make for me is:

1) Allow the User to customize the menu to his/her liking (i.e. remove either individual tiles or entire strips). Also, I'd like to be able to re-arrange the tiles on the stips (preferably "drag & drop). Right now I honestly feel that the Start Menu is too cluttered. Compare 2005 to Vista. 2005's much easier to navigate. You're not going to please everyone, but if you allow people to have more control on customizing the Start Menu to their needs, everyone wins.

2) MSN Weather (or maybe support of widgets?)

 

Justin

I would like to add what along with the following changes that have been mentioned:
Built-in blu-ray/hd-dvd support.
Seperate Photo and Videos
Make search in each section (guide, music, photo, and videos)

I would also like to be able to create grouping for music and recorded tv.  I have 3 kids and a lot of recorded tv shows and about 35 cd's worth of kids music.  I would like to categorize those so I can filter and not have to scroll through the kids stuff, and vice versa.

David