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Loving my Windows 7 Media Experiences

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My setup at home consists of a Windows 7 Media Centre machine sitting in my home office, since it’s quite clunky and just doesn’t look right in the living room (apart from the fact that I want to use it for other stuff, too), a wild networking setup including a Wireless-N bridge, and an XBOX360 at the end which connects to my TV.

Nothing really new, had this with Windows Vista already. So what makes me love Windows 7?

The answer is simple: It’s the Windows Media Foundation (msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb970511(VS.85).aspx).

Or, in other words: If you can view it on the Windows 7 Media Centre machine, it will render in the Extender device as well. If needed (i.e. if the Extender device cannot handle a certain file type / codec / etc.), Windows 7 will automatically transcode the content into something the Extender can deal with.

This works across all different media types like photos and videos:

  • Raw files from my digital camera
  • QuickTime encoded videos from my other camera
  • …

Finally, a consistent and stable way of enjoying all media content from one central place.