MCE categories improved

[Russell at IceTV]

Hi!

This is an announcement for users of Microsoft's Media Center Edition, for both Windows XP and Vista.

We've improved the guide for MCE, to make the two-level categories work better.  Instead of seeing one category called General with all other categories included below it, you will now see all programs displayed in MCE's two-level system, with categories such as "Movie/Drama", "Children/Cartoon", etc..  Searching by category now works much better because you can select from first-level categories such as "Children", "Movie", "News", "Sport", etc., and then select from several second-level categories such as "Animated", "Cartoon", "Drama", etc.

Click the thumbnail image below for a screenshot of MCE in Vista, showing the movie details page.  Notice the new categories "Movie/Action", "Movie/Adventure", and "Movie/Drama", as well as the new "director", "actors", and "year" information, which are all in their proper place on the page instead of being included in the description.  (see this post in the Announcement forum for more details on the director, actors, and year)

We've also added several new second-level categories under "Sport", such as "Cricket", "Football", etc.  These will begin appearing on new sport programs soon, but it may take some time before all existing programs are converted.

Windows Vista MCE users will be happy to know that the new "Categories" button on the left side of the guide window now works as it should as well, showing buttons for several of the most popular categories.  For example, when you click the Categories button and then click "News", the guide changes to show only programs in the "News" category ("News", "News/Current Affairs", "News/Documentary", etc.).

This information should appear in your MCE after the next time it updates the guide.  To force a guide update, go to the start page in MCE (click the green button on the remote), then select Settings, TV, Guide, and then click "Get Latest Guide Listings".

Thanks!
Russell