Outstanding overview of Windows Media Center in Windows 7

My old buddy Charlie Owen has posted an outstanding overview of Windows Media Center in Windows 7.  This oft-overlooked feature is getting a number of refinements. While PDC is focused on developers, there is a lot of goodness happening here.  A few of my favorites:

• Turbo Scroll- an essential for those of us with large libraries
• Refined Album Art Presentation
• A great new Now Playing view with animated album art
• Shared Libraries – yep, that’s right – navigate Photos, Music, Video and even Recorded TV stored on other computers in your Home Group
• Pictures with Ambient Slideshows and Ratings – more needed refinement
• The Slideshow Creator – Now just give me the ability to order the photos to tell a story.
• For Video, H.264 playback out of the box.  Yes, you heard that right.  Even on Media Center Extenders.
• Bookmarking for videos so you can return to where you left off.
• HD Pivot in the Movies Guide

Kudos to the Media Center team.  Apparently I need to start testing again.  Time to dust off my old(er) PC for some Windows 7 goodness.  Beta can’t come fast enough.