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Windows Media Center (WMC) is a discontinued digital video recorder and media player created by Microsoft. Media Center was first introduced to Windows in 2002 on a dedicated edition of Windows XP (Windows XP Media Center Edition). It was available on Home Premium and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista, as well as all versions of Windows 7 except Starter and Home Basic. It was available on Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 as a paid add-on. Media Center can play slideshows, videos and music from local hard drives, optical drives and network locations. Users can stream television programs and films through selected services such as Netflix. Content can be played back on computer monitors or on television sets through the use of devices called Windows Media Center Extenders. It is also possible to watch and pause live TV. Up to six TV tuners on a tuner card are supported simultaneously. Both standard- and high-definition unencrypted video are supported through DVB-T and ATSC standards. It is possible to view encrypted private network television stations that are not broadcast over the air with internal and external tuner options that support the insertion of a CableCard provided by the cable TV company. Shortly after Windows 7's 2009 release, Microsoft disbanded the Media Center development team to work on other projects, thus abandoning any further software developments. As such, the Media Center interface remained unchanged for Windows 8/8.1 users. In May 2015, Microsoft announced that Windows Media Center would be discontinued on Windows 10, and that it would be uninstalled when upgrading; but stated that those upgrading from a version of Windows that included the Media Center application would receive the paid Windows DVD Player app to maintain DVD playback functionality, the main purpose for Media Center's use. ==History== Windows Media Center, codenamed "Freestyle", was first included with Windows XP Media Center Edition. A new version of WMC was included in Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate editions. The user interface was redesigned and tailored for the 16:9 aspect ratio. Support for multiple tuners was added in later releases and varies depending upon the version of the operating system purchased. Support for many Windows Media Center Extender hardware devices, that had been released pre-Vista, was also dropped leaving many owners out of luck if they did not upgrade to one of the supported Windows Vista versions from the Windows XP Media Center Edition. Also introduced to U.S. users was Internet TV, which allows access to streaming content through WMC. It also allows video game content. Microsoft later updated WMC with a feature pack known as TV Pack 2008. This release, codenamed "Fiji", was only made available via OEMs for new computers that came preinstalled with the update. It is not available as an update for existing WMC users. The update tweaked the user interface, added support for digital subchannels, QAM, DVB-S and MHEG, and increased the total number of each type of tuner allowed. It used .wtv files instead of .dvr-ms. Beta versions also supported H.264 format but this feature was removed upon release to manufacturing. Much of the functionality added with TV Pack 2008 was included with the version of Media Center included in Windows 7, along with an update to the user interface. WMC was not included in Windows 8. Instead, it is part of a Media Center Pack add-on available only for retail versions Windows 8 Pro, and ''Pro Pack'' that upgrades Windows 8 to Windows 8 Pro. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Windows Media Center」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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