Playback Options

Tools > Options > Audio

Tools > Options > Images

Tools > Options > Video

Player > Playback Options

Overview

Media Center exposes a wide array of playback options. These options are divided by media type. Please see the corresponding topics:

• Audio Playback Options
• Image Playback Options
• Video Playback Options

Display Settings

• General: Windowed mode ‘Always on Top’ keeps the focus on Media Center at all times even when other programs are running.
• Control Bars. Set the behavior of the bars that appear when in windowed mode (always show, auto-hide, and auto-hide (resize display)).
• Full Screen. Select the Monitor (if there are multiples) and set the resolution for each one.

Image Playback Settings

This opens the Image Playback Configuration menu, where you can select from the following options:

• Stretch or scale images to fit the display.
• Set the time interval between images.
• Set the slideshow to start automatically and set the duration of images.
• Configure the caption that appears over an image when it is displayed
• Select from a variety of transitions.
• View effects, including black & white and sepia.
• Disable transitions on manual image changes.

Video Playback Settings

further information: DirectShow Playback Guide: Advanced DirectShow Configuration in MC12

Enable or Disable Windows Media Player as the video playback engine. If you playback licensed WMV content, you should enable this.

DVD Playback Settings

further information: DirectShow Playback Guide: DVD and MPEG-2

You must have DVD decoding software installed on your system. Most DVD drives come with it. The video and audio decoder properties buttons display a dialog box that is custom for whatever DVD decoding software is installed on the system. Two of the most popular DVD players that come with decoder software are "Power DVD" and "WinDVD".

• Video and Audio Decoder Properties: The settings displayed will depend on the decoding software installed. Settings may include: color balance, de-interlacing settings, sound output and sound card selection if multiple cards are detected.
• DVD Audio/Video Decoding Filters Selection. By default the system chooses the filters automatically. But you can manually set Video and/or Audio filters by checking “Let me choose filters manually” and then selecting from the drop-down list of available filters. This is for advanced users.

Television Settings

• TV Tuner Settings. See TV Configuration.
• Reset TV Settings. Select to restore the settings to defaults.