Theater View

To Configure:

Tools > Options > Theater View

Appearance

• Skin. Select the skin to be used in Theater View.
• Size. Select the size of the Theater View lists and icons. The default is "Normal".
• Show Thumbnail Captions. This is on by default. Disable it if you do not want any text appearing under the thumbnails.

Behavior

• Allow navigation with left and right arrows. This is disabled by default. This refers to the ability to move between screens using the arrow keys. The arrow keys can always be used to navigate within a page; but no navigate to other pages, this option must be enabled.
• Jump on play: None, Playing Now or Full Screen. This determines what Theater View displays when you play something. If you tend to watch video or images, you may want to set it to Full Screen.
• Show when playback stops. Disabled by default. Enable this if you always want to display Theater View when playback stops while in Full Screen Mode.
• Keep focus (recommended). This keeps the Theater Mode window on top at all times. To go to Standard View, right-click and select Standard View.
• Play sound. When enabled, Media Center plays a sound when Theater View menu items are selected.

Advanced

• File Caption: Insert the rule you want to use to display captions under the thumbnail. By default, this is set to [Name]. For information about rules, see Smartlist and Search - Rules and Modifiers

Keyboard Shortcuts

In order to create a more usable theater setup on a Home Theater PC (HTPC), it is important to understand the keyboard shortcuts that are available. This allows infrared or RF remotes to be programmed to control a variety of features in Media Center's theater view.

• Arrows. The four arrows are used for navigating the elements presented by theater view.
• Enter. Selects an item which is highlighted to expand its properties.
• Ctrl + p. Plays and pauses video.
• Ctrl + n. Next track or chapter in DVD.
• Ctrl + l. Previous track or chatper in DVD.
• i. Zooms in on video at about a percent each button press.
• o. Zooms out on video at about a percent each button press.
• a. Cycles between various aspect ratios to help stretch or zoom a picture to better fit the display.
• Backspace. Travels back one page and can eventually return users to the home page.
• Page up / Page down. Travels one full page up or down to help expedite scrolling.
• Ctrl + -> / Ctrl + <-. Fast forwards or rewinds video at 5x, 20x, and 100x with incredibly good quality on DVD video content.
• Home / End. Jumps to the top or bottom of a list.
• Esc. Starts the exit process from theater view. Users must then select Yes to confirm exiting.

Items in Main Page

There are the menu items displayed in the Theater View Home Page. You can Edit, Remove and Sort them, or you can Add custom items (other programs or webpages).

To add a program or webpage:

1. Click Add, and select Custom Item.
2. Enter the name that will appear in the Theater View menu
3. Enter the type of menu item (program or webpage)
4. Enter the path to the program or the URL of the webpage. If you are entering the path to a program, you must surround the path with quotation marks if the path includes spaces. For example:

"c:\program files\Textpad\Textpad.exe"

• If you want a webpage to open in a separate browser, select program mode instead of webpage, and enter the path to your browser, then the URL. For example:

"c:\program files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" http://www.google.com

Display View Schemes

All View Schemes appear in Theater View by default. To remove a View Scheme from displaying:

1. Right-click on the View Scheme and select Edit View Scheme.
2. Uncheck Show in Theater View.

More

• Making Theater View Skins