Don’t get me wrong–I love the latest version of Windows Media Center in Windows 7 Beta 1.  I find myself using it excessivelly just to enjoy the fresh look and feel.  In fact, I have to say I love just about every change they’ve made, with one exception.

Windows Media Center 7 features a new information pane that occupies the center of the screen. This pane features a horizontal menu widget similar to the rest of Media Center’s UI and allows users to get fairly indepth information about whatever the item they are viewing, whether Live TV, Recorded Shows, Music, or Movies.  It succeeds in this…just about any information you are seeking is available and show metadata now includes icons for many programs.  An example of this:

The new Windows Media Center 7 information pane.

Perhaps it is just me, but I find this pane to be visually distracting. My eyes don’t know where to land.  Do I look at the word synopsis because it is so big? Do I stare at the bold color division?  Do I look at the list of options (record series, record, play…)?  The layout is anything but obvious and the background colors exacerabate the dilemma more than correct it. 

In order to fix this, they need to:

• Smooth out the color transition (if it is even neccessary) between the upper and lower segments. People shouldn’t see two rectangles, they should see one.
• Organize program information in a logical block using font sizes to lead the eye to the most relevant information.  As it is, the flow is disrupted between the title and the description by possible actions.
• Accent the program icon with a soft shadow or border. 
• Decrease the menu widget font size. It isn’t the title and emphasizing it like it is makes it seem static instead of interactive.
• Optional: Decrease the height and add shadows to the top and bottom to complete the floating pane look…this would be more consistent with the rest of the UI.
• Also optional: Give the border the glassy look that dialog boxes have.

Just a few suggestions. One the whole, things look nice.  I will be posting other quirks as I find them.

The time is here! As promised, I have uploaded a number of videos demonstrating some of the new looks and features in the latest version of Windows Media Center in Windows 7 Beta 1. Did I mention it’s all in HD?

Main Menu

The first and most obvious change in the Windows 7 is the new main menu. Everything has been magnified…especially the fonts. The effect is nice and allows for better, more visible representations of the underlying features. Perhaps the most practical of these is the Now Playing icon preview (not shown) which is considerable larger.

The Music and Picture Walls

One of the better eye candy improvements is the addition of the “music wall” and the “picture wall”. Both of these are effects available when listening to music and are, on the whole, much more interesting then the VMC alternatives.

Live TV w/ Mini Guide

While functioning the same way, the mini guide now contains many more features allowing you to view virtually all show information without leaving the TV viewing screen. Viewing other programing is also more efficient with addition of a multiline view that is nearly identical to the way you view the information in the guide. Not too shabby!

Clickable progress slider.

One issue that has received its fair share of complaints is the lack of a clickable progress bar that most media players have. Not having this feature made a certain amount of sense: media center is geared for the 10 foot user who is probably trying to escape the mouse rather than find new things for it to do. But, at the end of the day, media center is PC software and adding the feature makes more sense. The result is a nice touch. This is available wherever the slider is visible including while watching Live TV.

Lastly, the new guide.

The guide has received quite a few updates. Microsoft has integrated many of their online features into the main guide. Unfortunately these features remain paltry. ABC On Demand, for example, goes to preview clips of shows…great…just what I always wanted. The guide also comes with a color coding option for show categories, which I enabled for this example, as well as the new speed scrolll…a very nice touch indeed.

Well, that’s it for now. I will post a more thorough review shortly and identify the things I like most, along with a few things that could be improved. If you are on a slow connection and can’t handle the HD streams above, feel free to browse my videos on YouTube directly.