Windows Media Center

badrobot · 06 Apr 2015

Kodi (formerly XBMC) doesn't work for you guys? I think it's the best alternative to WMC.

swarfega · 07 Apr 2015

I didn't like XBMC when I tried it. Admittedly that was some years ago.

badrobot · 07 Apr 2015

swarfega said:

I didn't like XBMC when I tried it. Admittedly that was some years ago.

Yeah, I didn't like it too a few years ago until I discovered free live TV on it recently. And I am so surprised with it's compatibility with almost anything. It sees and connects with everything in your home network.

Arfer Daley · 07 Apr 2015

z3r010 said:

I'm back on 8.1 due to lack of media center, I've tried lots of other TV apps but nothing is as usable as WMC and after months on 10 I reverted back for the WMC.

Looks Like Win 7 for the near future I really don't understand the reason behind the omission of media centre if Microsoft are wanting the big move to 10 they might be sadly disappointed surly it makes sense too get us all hooked on the stuff we love to use not leave stuff out

paulsalter · 07 Apr 2015

Never used WMC, what advantages does it have over the free ones (I think it has better integration with xbox, but what else)

I am currently testing Media Portal, so far seems great, all my tv shows and movies, live and recorded tv
I do have Kodi (xbmc) installed but not really tried this yet

Mystere · 07 Apr 2015

I think Media Center has a very tiny fraction of users to be honest. The number of people that are happy with OTA TV but want DVR capability would seem very low to me. I would think most people would want premium channels if they are such TV-philes, which means going with a Cable-card solution which is much easier to do with a TiVO or using a Satellite or Cable DVR.

Arfer Daley · 07 Apr 2015

my FreeSat & Freeview are Hooked Up Too Media Centre which works for me my dish is also motorized which helps so I don't miss out on much

Trust_No1 · 13 Apr 2015

Well,
using Media Center with my Silicondust HD Homerun Primes , with MediaBrowser now Emby, which has my Media Center plugin, I can stream (Comcast) online TV to any device/any where I want, Windows tablets, phones, iPhones, Android or any browser.

Kodi (XBMC) and MediaPortal simply don't have the portability as Media Center, and are much more difficult to install and use. They were originally designed only to be media library software, not really anything for LiveTV.

Media Center was well ahead of it's time. It is only within the last few years, with Ceton Cards and Silicondust HD Homerun Primes that the true potential of Media Center been realized. I believe that is why is was never adopted early on, no one knew how to use it. With all the hype about online TV, Apple TV, Google TV, Sprint TV ToGo, Media Center is already designed for it. Microsoft would be very foolish to drop it IMO.

adamf · 13 Apr 2015

Trust_No1 said:

I believe that is why is was never adopted early on, no one knew how to use it.

Well yes, certainly in my case. What is it actually FOR? I thought it was only interesting for people who only had free to air TV and a TV tuner - if you had a internet/TV box (so your TV comes through the same connection as your internet) it was kind of pointless. Certainly my router lets me save stuff from TV to a HDD to watch later and I can stream most things anyway. Neither require a computer at all.

Kind of like a complicated way of using a VHS recorder (except saving to your computer hard disk) with the addition of a not very nice UI.

I know some people here liked it but I honestly could not understand what it was for at all. Did you have to have a TV tuner card to get some benefit or was it really exactly the same as VLC?

I'm only asking as I'm curious and clearly missed it