Windows Media Center Alternative: Turn Your PC into a TV Media Center

Windows Media Center was loved for a simple reason: you sat on the sofa, pressed a button, and your PC became a big, friendly screen for music, films and photos on the TV. Microsoft stopped shipping it years ago, and many people still miss it. This guide shows how to get that experience back with Digital Center: one full-screen interface on the TV for your music, films, music videos, photos, radio and YouTube, steered from the sofa with a controller, a keyboard or your phone. It also tells you plainly what Digital Center does not do, so you know before you start. For an overview of every center, see the features page.

What people miss from Windows Media Center

When people describe what they want instead, it is usually the same short list:

• One place for everything. Music, films, photos and more, behind one menu, instead of a different program for each.
• Made for the TV. Big covers, big text and a layout you can read from across the room.
• Steered from the sofa. A remote or a controller instead of a mouse on the coffee table.
• It just starts. Turn on the PC and you are in the media center, not on the Windows desktop.
• Your own files. The music and films you already have, in the folders you already use.

Digital Center was built for exactly that kind of screen. It runs full screen on a Windows PC connected to your TV, and every center follows the same layout, so once you know one, you know them all.

What Digital Center does not do

Before you go further, it is worth being clear about one thing Windows Media Center did that Digital Center does not: live TV and recording. Digital Center does not work with TV tuner cards, does not show broadcast channels and has no TV guide or recording schedule. If watching and recording live TV is what you need most, Digital Center is not a replacement for that part.

It also does not play the big subscription streaming services. Online, it has YouTube and internet radio built in. Everything else it plays comes from your own files.

What you get on the TV

The front page shows a tile for each center. These are the ones you will use most as a media center:

• Music - your music library with covers, albums, artists, genres and a search. Covers that are missing can be found online automatically, and lyrics can scroll on the screensaver while a song plays.
• Movies - your film collection with posters, year and a short description. Under Find movie data automatically, Digital Center looks up missing details online, in the language you choose. Films remember where you stopped (Resume playback), and a film with a trailer next to it gets a Watch trailer button. If your films already carry information files from Kodi, Digital Center reads the title, year, plot and genres from them.
• Music Videos - your music video collection, browsed like your music.
• Photos - your pictures by Folders or by Events, with a slideshow that can shuffle, fade or slide between pictures and add a gentle motion.
• Radio - thousands of internet radio stations, browsed by language, location and category, with favorites and a history.
• YouTube - videos on the TV, with up to 4K quality.

There are also centers for Karaoke, Weather, Clock and, in Home and Professional, an Arcade for retro games. You can hide the ones you do not need under Administration, Centers, so the front page only shows what you use.

Step 1: Connect the PC to the TV

Any Windows PC with an HDMI output works as a media center. A small, quiet PC next to the TV is the closest thing to the old Media Center PCs. For music and photos, almost any PC is enough; for films and big cover effects on a large TV, a bit more graphics power helps.

Connect the PC to the TV, set the sound to play through the TV or your amplifier in Windows, and install Digital Center.

Step 2: Point it at your music, films and photos

In Digital Center, go to Administration and open each center you use:

• Music: add your folders under Music folders.
• Movies: add them under Movie folders.
• Music Videos: add them under Folders with music videos.
• Photos: add them under Photo folders.

The folders can be on the PC, on an extra drive or on a network drive. Digital Center reads them in the background and keeps watching them, so new files show up on their own. A large library on a network drive can take a while the first time; the centers can be used while it reads.

Step 3: Make it readable from the sofa

Go to Administration and open Controls & touch. Under Interface size, choose a larger size, so text and buttons are easy to read from across the room. Then pick how you want to browse your covers: on the front page, open Setup, choose Effects and try them, from a flat grid to a carousel that slides your albums past.

The look as a whole is a skin. Under Administration, Appearance you can choose a different one, Get more skins at no cost, or make your own in the skin editor.

Step 4: Steer it from the sofa

You have several ways to control Digital Center without a mouse, and you can use them side by side:

• A game controller. In Controls & touch, turn on Keyboard navigation and then Control the kiosk with a game controller. The D-pad or stick moves, the fire button chooses, the second button goes back and the shoulder buttons turn a page. This is the closest thing to the old remote.
• A keyboard or a remote with media keys. With Keyboard navigation on, the arrow keys move and Enter chooses. The play, pause, next, previous and stop keys on a media keyboard, or on a PC remote that sends those keys, control what is playing.
• Your phone. Open Setup on the front page and choose Remote, then scan the code with your phone. A remote page opens in the browser, with nothing to install, where you can browse, search and queue. The phone and the PC must be on the same WiFi.

With Show what is playing in Windows' media controls under Sound & playback, the song or film that is playing also shows in Windows' own media box, with title, artist and cover.

Step 5: Make it start like a media center

To get the old feeling of turning on the PC and landing in the media center, open Administration, Startup:

• Turn on Start Digital Center automatically when Windows starts.
• Keep Start in fullscreen on.
• Under Start in center, choose the center you use most, or leave it on the front page.

Under Screensaver, choose what the TV shows when nobody is using it, such as the song that is playing with its cover, a clock or your photos. Keep the screen on under Performance stops the screen from going dark while music is playing.

More than one TV in the house

Windows Media Center could reach other TVs through extenders. Digital Center does something similar with sharing: your main PC, running Home or Professional, shares its music, films, music videos and karaoke over your home network, and a PC by another TV plays them. That second PC can run the smaller Room edition, which has no library of its own but plays everything the main PC shares, plus its own radio, YouTube, photos, weather and clock. See how to share your music library with another PC or TV.

Keeping your library tidy

A media center is only as nice as the covers and names in it. ZenPoint Media Manager, which comes with Home and Professional, is the companion app for that: it fixes titles and tags, finds covers and film details online, and copies your CDs into your music library. See how to rip CDs to MP3 and tidy your music tags.

Is it free?

Digital Center is paid software, bought once - no subscription. Every download starts as a free 7-day demo with every feature switched on, so you can try it on your own TV with your own files before you decide. For current prices, see the pricing page.

If you have looked at other media center programs, such as Kodi or Plex, you will notice that each has its own focus. Digital Center is built as one full-screen experience for a room: the same layout in every center, a phone remote anyone in the room can use, Party Mode to lock it for guests, and karaoke and a photo booth for when friends come over. Try it for a week and see whether that suits the way you use your TV.

See every center on the features page, compare the editions on the pricing page, or start with the free 7-day demo.