I heard rumor that Media Center was not going to be made available for Windows 10, but there apparently is not official word. Has anyone heard anything?
If it doesn't have Media Center, then it will be no use to us at all.
Hi there
Why on Earth do you need media center any more -- it's another program / feature that's passed its sell by date in the era of Home servers, streaming from internet etc etc.
For a PLAYER of nearly every known Audio and video codec known to man download (Free) VLC player. It can stream as well to other devices.
Otherwise for video streaming use things like MEZZMO (commercial) or Plex (Free).
Cheers
jimbo
I'm one of those that are missing media center, it's by far the best program for my TV tuner, since updating to Windows 10 my tuner has pretty much become obsolete and I've had to survive watching streams which are pretty limited compared to my tuner.
It's one of those things, there are many alternatives to pretty much any software out there however when you get used to something and it works the way you want it then why move... i have never used Media Center myself but use software i would hate to live without even though i know there are lots of alternatives.
I'm sure Media Center is on the Too-Doo's list :)
I can't use it but I'm sure many can and do.
Well our household uses it to replace our set tops for Live-TV, it saves us $50.00 each month in rental fees.
In my opinion it was ahead of it's time and no one really understood how to use it or why. That is what caused it's demise. Plus, you had no real CableCard software options and the Cable companies didn't provide any alternatives, but that has all changed in the last 3 years.
Obviously since I suspect you do not use it, the answer is no, there really aren't any better choices, some try to make a close clone, but they do not have the sophistication of Media Center. Especially for Live-TV (digital not OTA stuff).
Believe me I have been seeking alternatives, since there was question whether Windows 8 was going to have it. XBMC is a logical choice, but the TV interface is just now being worked on, Media browser is little known and my next contender.
Media Center even after all these years, truly reigns as the Supreme Media Center.
Final Thought:
It truly brings the home TV Center to the fore front, we use our TVs as our main PC screens, nothing like sitting on the couch to browse those forums, play PC games, and watch Netflix with ease (not the hokey TV interface things), home music, everything.
It is the main reason we use Windows, everything else can replace Windows accept for it's Media Center.
Another possible reason for the demise of Media Center was the Cable companies change to Digital Boxes and converting to all Digital signal transmission rendering Analogue PC TV Tuner cards obsolete. I know you can buy Digital tuner cards but I already have 4 of the obsolete TV cards. Also depending on where you live affects the Media Center content available IE: US = Lots of Content VS Canada = Hardly anything.
Yep, other then the TV, it`s pretty much useless, I haven`t even used it on my Windows 7 box, it still wants to run setupLOL
But I remember using it in XP and Vista to watch Phillies games and hockey games while on the pc.
Here is another one of those weird guys actually using WMC! I live in the Netherlands and although it is sometimes hard to get live TV in WMC the interface is still the best around!
By using the software from DVBLogic. Turn your NAS or PC into personal TV server! I get my tuners in my media center pc available on every PC, phone, tablet etc. in my household. We happen to run everything on Windows, but this might not be the case for everyone. Yes, they have a client for that as well.
Why so fond of WMC?
- When recording a series it actually picks up from the EPG when to start. Whereas my settop box just starts at the same time every day. "My dear Plantje, your settop box must be from 1998 then!" No, it was provided by my cable company last year!
- I can sort recordings in a descent way, by title or date/time recorded
- The only thing I need to do to get my recordings on any other computer running WMC is just to add the central recording folder to the recording library
- After watching an episode it is super easy to delete a recording
- Playing random music is a default option from the menu (yes, one could use the music app for that too)
- Playing a slide show over all of your pictures in the library in random order is an option in the standard menu. If you look a little further you can have a slide show that provides picture information as well. (I still haven't found any Windows 8.1 / 10 app that can do exactly that!
- Watching DVD's is as easy as copying the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders to a folder and it shows up in your menu. How many apps work in the same way?
So, we use it to watch live tv, record tv (series). And we have a nice library of DVD's available on the machine.
And I use it a lot just playing all music and have a random picture slide show in the background. Be honest: how many of you go through all their pictures on a regular basis? I am not going to sit down and go through a lot of pictures, but just having them displayed while doing other stuff sure brings back memories!
There are only a few drawbacks:
- On my old EXOPC/WeTab tablets it doesn't use the Broadcom Chrystal HD card in order to play HD files. So, that's where I use alternatives like XBMC (Kodi doesn't use the BC HD card anymore as well) to watch live TV and GOM player to watch recorded TV
- The format in which is recorded is .wtv and Windows RT cannot read that. Since Windows RT is dead anyway that is not a real issue anymore. But sometimes one has to search for ways to get a recorded show to run on another system. The best way (if really needed) is by using MCEBuddy and convert it to .MP4
I have tried Kodi on my Windows 10 TP machine yesterday. And after I have been able to watch some live TV using it something, somewhere has changed and the add on doesn't work anymore. I have reinstalled it, but I cannot get live TV to work anymore.
Watching recorded TV is possible, but I cannot delete files from Kodi. Next to that the files are sorted based on file name.
I have not been able to find a simple option to play a (random) slide show over all of my pictures.
I have not been able to find a simple option to play all music (random).
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