Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft Windows® XP Media Center®

Playing Audio CDs with Your Music Center PC

Naturally, the easiest way to launch the audio playback experience on your Media

Center PC is to simply insert an audio CD. First, be sure you have opened the Media

Center interface on your PC. Media Center will detect that an audio CD is present,

and will immediately switch to My Music’s Now Playing screen, while simultane-

ously starting disc playback.

Initially, the Now Playing screen will show generic track numbers and song lengths

(see Figure 14.1). However, even while you’re still listening to Track 1, Media Center

is already busy searching the metadata stored in an online music database (see the

section “Metadata Tags and You,” in Chapter 13, “Preparing Your Music Collection

for XP Media Center”) to gather detailed information about the new disc. Within

moments of recognizing the CD, My Music will substitute the generic track informa-

tion with actual song titles (see Figure 14.2) .

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ABSOLUTE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO WINDOWS XP MEDIA CENTER

FIGURE 14.1

As My Music

begins playing

your CD, it

simultaneously

searches for

metadata con-

taining specific

details about

the disc.

Making Media Center Your Default

CD Player

What happens if you insert a CD when the

Media Center interface isn’t running? Typically,

Windows XP will simply present an Audio CD

control panel (see Figure 13.5 in Chapter 13). If

you’d like to have your PC launch Media

Center’s My Music interface every time an audio

CD is inserted, simply do the following:

1. Insert an audio CD.

2. Using your mouse, select the option Play

Audio CD Using Media Center.

3. Check the box labeled Always Do the

Selected Action.

4. Click OK.

CHAPTER 14 PLAYBACK TIME: SORTING, VIEWING,

AND CONTROLLING YOUR MUSIC

195

FIGURE 14.2

Without skip-

ping a beat—lit-

erally or

figuratively—the

My Music Now

Playing page

will update to

include actual

song names

instead of

generic track

numbers.

tip

If you have already config-

ured autoplay options with

another player—such as

Windows Media Player—the

dialog box won’t appear

now. You can access the

menu and reconfigure

autoplay at any time by opening

My Computer from the Windows

XP Start menu and right-clicking

on your CD drive icon. You then

select Properties from the list, and

click on the AutoPlay tab.