Windows 7 Media Center RTM review

The menus and guide are also more responsive. This also goes for the 3rd party Extenders which although they all seemed to be discontinued, they get a much needed speed improvement with Windows 7. The other big improvement is with the Electronic Program Guide. This is an important aspect of any DVR and the fact that Microsoft doesn’t charge for data is one of the best things about Media Center. While the guide in Vista was archaic and basically like XP 2005 MCE, Windows 7 is all new — well it is kind of new, as most of it was available in the supper buggy TV Pack. Not only is the new guide visually better, but it includes images throughout that add to the experience as well as new ways to navigate — like holding down the right button to fly to another time in the future. Under the hood things have changed too, and many of the painful limitations in Vista are gone. No longer are ATSC channels crippled with bad channel numbers (1081 vs 8.1) and no sub-channels.