If you dont like the start-up animation in Windows Media Center, and you would like to skip it, here is how you can do so.

Open Start Menu > All Programs. Right click on Windows Media Center icon and open its Properties box.

Here in the Target box, you will see the target as: %windir%\ehome\ehshell.exe .

Add the switch, /no startupanimation after it. That is, make it:

%windir%\ehome\ehshell.exe /no startupanimation

Click Apply > OK.

This will turn off the animation in Windows Media Center.