Ok, the story goes on.
I was happy that I corrected a problem with the poor video quality. I had to set some option to "use windows media acceleration.." or something like that in order to get good video. Don't know of any other way to get things looking better unless someone else does.
Anyway, when I set the system to use the above setting I no longer have volume control. I can change the main system volume, through the volume icon in the system tray, but then everything gets lowered.
Is there any way to get good video quality in Media Center and have the volume function normally?