If you’re thinking about upgrading your PC to Windows 7, check out the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor Beta, which can be downloaded here.

It takes the program a few minutes to analyze your PC. I was able to working other programs without problems while the analysis was taking place.

The Upgrade Advisor splits the report back to me into three categories: System Requirements, Devices and Programs.

While I my system is in pretty good shape for an upgrade, the Advisor points out that I am running low on storage space. I can either add more or clear out some files.

The Devices section looks at the different devices I use on the PC. Again, I appear to be in good shape here, although I am asked to run Windows Update to update the drivers once Windows 7 is installed.

Finally, in Programs, the Advisor points out which programs I am using that may have performance issues. I get four programs returned that may experience issues. One of these I anticipated – my scanner program is as old as the scanner itself – and another – Skype – I can upgrade easily enough.

The other two programs were preloaded on the laptop when I bought it. I’ve never used them, so I’m not too worried about it.

It took me about 15 minutes to download, install and run the Upgrade Advisor. I have a few issues to take care of before upgrading, and conveniently, the Upgrade Advisor let me save off a copy of my report.

If you do have to upgrade some components in your PC, you’ll want to be sure the new components are Windows Logo’d.

For Windows Media Center enthusiast like myself, you’ll want to check out the TV tuners that have earned “Compatible with Windows 7” certification. For best results, look for a tuner that has earned “AQ” certification with Windows 7.

If you’re thinking about getting a new laptop with Windows 7, Microsoft also offers a Laptop Scout that will help you narrow down your best options.

Earlier this week, I looked at a plug-in that integrates Internet radio into Windows Media Center. Today, I look at another great plug-in I installed for Internet radio: radiotime.

I liked the big placement for Windows Media Center on their home page:

Like mcShoutcast, installing radiotime was very quick and easy, and like mcShoutcast, it was ready for Windows 7. It is a free plug-in, although you can pay to add a “red button” feature that lets you record the streams you are listening to.

Once installed, the RadioTime tile appears in the Extras library in Media Center.

If you want, you can right-click on the tile and select Add to Start Menu to move it out of the library and onto the main Extras strip.

Once in RadioTime, you can browse stations by genre. You can also add stations to “My Presets” area, but this requires you to have a free account set-up with RadioTime.

An important differentiator for RadioTime is that, if you have an FM Tuner in your PC (I wrote about these a few months back), you can enable the Local Radio option, and have programming information available for your local stations. For some stations – like NPR, there’s a good deal of information available about shows.

Both plug-ins I tried were excellent – easy to install and ready for you to explore tons of content. I was poking around RadioTime this week when I found Windows Weekly radio show.

If you use Windows Media Center at all, check out the Internet radio options. There’s a lot of great content out there for you to discover.

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New to Windows Media Center? Start here. or here.Or even here.

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I love to listen to Internet radio when I’m at work. I can tune into a genre I like and not worry about loading up my own tunes or remembering to bring my Zune to the office.

I don’t use Internet radio much at home. I think this is because at home, our PC is given over to Windows Media Center. This week, though, I’ll look at two Internet Radio plugins for Windows Media Center that I have installed, used and am happy to say, are bringing Internet radio into my home life as well. Both were easy to install and easy to use. First up: I try out Shoutcast.

Shoutcast gives me the ability to listen to 30,000+ radio stations over the ‘net. Its’ website is pretty crowded.

The SHOUTcast Radio Directory features over 30,000 online radio stations across 23 genres and over 300 sub-genres from around the world. A consumer can search for online radio stations by genre such as Rock, Jazz, Bollywood, Latin and Talk, or by language such as French, German, Swahili and Portuguese. Each station is programmed by either professional, community, or hobbyist broadcasters

Luckily, a member of the Media Center community has written a plug-in for Windows Media Center, and what’s more, it works with Windows 7. It was a quick download and installation.

Once installed, a Shoutcast icon appeared in the <radio> section of the Music menu.

All of the genres are organized into folders.

In addition to playing a station, I can add it to a list of my own favorites – a handy feature given the sheer number of stations available in Shoutcast.

Shoutcast is also concerned with what you look at on-screen while it’s playing. It has a few “visualizations” to play (bouncy green bars, anyone?), and will also play a slideshow of your photos.

But a feature I think is pretty cool is the web-based slideshow. Basically, it will search for images of the artist currently playing on the station you are listening to, then play them in a slideshow, or provide a gallery for you to browse at your leisure.

The Shoutcast plug-in has brought streaming radio into my home Media Center mix, and does a great job adapting a lot of station options to a remote control-based navigation paradigm. The web-based artist slideshow is a neat bonus. Check out another review from hack7mc.com, here.

Up next: RadioTime

Another streaming service with a Media Center plug-in is RadioTime. Check back in a day or two for more on Radio Time.

This week is the CEDIA Expo, the largest trade show for custom electronics installers. Microsoft used the opportunity to announce the winner of the 2009 Ultimate Media Center Install contest.

Above: 2009 Ultimate Install home. Realtors unlikely to use the word ‘cozy’ if this ever lands on the market.

This year’s winner was by Vision Audio of Lubbock, Texas for job that was four years in the planning. The 17,000 square foot home featured 30 zones of audio, 13 video displays (five with full surround sound), five Niveus media servers and full integration and control of climate, shades, lighting, and pool heater via a Crestron automation system.

Above: The trend of displays-over-fireplaces seems to show no signs of slowing. Check out the Windows 7 Music Wall screen.

I always look forward to checking out the winner of this contest, and it always reminds me how amazingly scalable Media Center can be. I can have a great experience using it to watch TV on my laptop or stream movies from Netflix, but it can easily scale to create an entire entertainment and automation ecosystem.

The server room pictures always amaze me. Try as I might, I can’t even come close to a neat wiring layout like this. I’d post a picture of what the wires behind my TV look like, but I’m afraid the Fire Marshall would come hunt me down.

A number of announcements from Microsoft this week at CEDIA, the annual expo for professional residential electronics system installers, many of which are good news for those looking to enhance their digital cable experience.

For one, Microsoft announced support for Switched Digital Video in Windows Media Center. SDV is a new technology that many cable providers have been adopting to deliver their programming while using less bandwidth. 

Problem was, if you were using a “one-way” DVR like Windows Media Center, you would lose those SDV channels when your provider switched to the new technology. Now, with the use of a tuning adaptor provided by your cable company, you can watch and record SDV channels with Windows 7 Media Center. Microsoft also worked to increase the portability of digital cable recordings, as well. Now any content marked as ‘CF” (Copy Freely) can be easily shared with other PCs and devices.

Finally, Microsoft announced they will soon be providing a tool to allow end-customers with Windows 7-based PCs to add a digital cable tuner with CableCARD to their PC. Previously, digital cable tuners were only available with new PCs. This great news for DIYers and hobbyist looking to build the ultimate home theater PC.

We’ve known for some time that Windows Media Center in Windows 7 added native support for the international broadcast TV standards that were released with the Windows Media Center TV Pack 2008, including native support for both ATSC and QAM, the ability to remap channels, as well as support for sub channels.

All good stuff.

These latest announcements help streamline the integration and enjoyment of premium and high definition cable content within Windows Media Center.