Windows Media Centre on HTPC - some functionality questions

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I'm thinking about building my first media pc for the living room.

Now I have no knowledge of WMC. I'd simply like to rely on using my wireless network to populate the media pc with content, but the overall general control of playback will be done using only the media remote.

So for example, lets say I drag over some videos over the network, it will be automatically available on the media browser via the remote, without having to use a keyboard or mouse?

Is this functionality possible with WMC?
 
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Yes. In the set-up it asks which folders to monitor for your content. I think you can also monitor files over a network.
 
yup

set it to 'monitor' the 'videos' folder, and share the videos folder, so you can drop things into it from your other machine
 
Yes, plus WMC can be completely controlled (including setup) with a remote, so you can set up monitored folders etc. without even having to get off the sofa :D
 
What would be a recommended MCE Remote for this functionality? Would the standard microsoft one do the trick? Can you skip forward and backward when watching DVD and AVI files?
 
Yes the Microsoft remote is great. Can turn on/off your PC, input a start-up password, Vol up/pown, TV chan up/down, easy to navigate menus, dvd's work as they should, avi's a little different but still able to skip forward and back.
Only use the K/b mouse for PC stuff.
 
Yes the Microsoft remote is great. Can turn on/off your PC, input a start-up password, Vol up/pown, TV chan up/down, easy to navigate menus, dvd's work as they should, avi's a little different but still able to skip forward and back.
Only use the K/b mouse for PC stuff.

+1

Have the MCE remote, works very well and is very good quality. Maybe not as good as the high end logitech offerings, but does what it claims very well for a reasonable amount of notes.
 
Thanks for the replies :-)

You mention the logitech remotes, are these the Harmony series remotes? They look impressive and expensive - but probably a bit overkill for what I need.

Scott.
 
Does Vista MCE allow you to RDC without interupting playback?

So for example, if someone is watching a movie on the TV I can still RDC in the background to carry out whatever tasks?
 
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