Windows Vista Multimedia Tips

O'Reilly just released Windows Vista Annoyances and I was delighted to find that the chapter our books division chose to put online for free is called "Working with Media."

This chapter's topics include:

Playing Video

• Repair Broken and Incomplete Videos
• Fix Other Playback Problems
• Simplify Your Media Players

Handling Online Video

• Rewind or Fast-Forward Streaming Video
• Control Video Buffering
• Download Online Video Clips

Sound and Music

• Get Sound Where There Is None
• Get Windows to Listen
• Fix Garbled Music
• Crossfade Your Music
• Extract Sound from Video
• Convert Audio Files
• Fix Music Tags

Photos, Pictures, Images

• Choose a New Pictures Folder
• Get Thumbnails for RAW Photos
• Get Rid of the Windows Photo Gallery
• Get Accurate Color Output
• Sort Photos Chronologically

Media Center Annoyances

• Watch TV on Your TV
• Fix Broken TV Listings

CD and DVD Drives

• Troubleshoot CD and DVD Playback Problems

Just skimming through the PDF, I found links to numerous free programs I'll be downloading to help me tame Vista on my new laptop. (Overall, Vista has performed well for me, though improving its audio performance has been the biggest challenge.)