R.I.P., Windows Media Center
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First, only the top of the line TiVo with 3000 recording hours (3TB hard disk) and 6 channel tuner costs $600. If you buy a 6-channel Cable-card tuner for your WMC it will cost you $300 alone. Throw in the 3TB hard drive, and the cost of the machine, it's far more than the $600 price, especially when you factor in the lack of OS costs.
You can get a 4 channel TiVo with 500GB drive for $149.
But, what makes the TiVo so good is the software, and the remote. That's what makes TiVo users so loyal.
As for the service costs, it's a small price to pay for extremely reliable channel listings, remote scheduling (web, mobile devices, etc..), and the multitude of other features the software provides.
Regardless, my point is that there are alternatives.
My original point was that I have already spent the money for the Windows System and I am angry that they are dumping it. Also, TIVO only partially replaces the all-in-one features of Media Center, music, pictures, etc.. Plus, I like having my PC connected to my TV screen, I read the morning paper, web browse, all while having WMC up in the corner playing. I like being able to take my laptop out on the deck and watch LiveTV.
So now I have to go through the entire process to decide what to do.
Basically, what you are telling me is "Buyer beware" and not trust in Microsoft. I just expected more out of them, they let me down.
The new Kodi 15.0 Beta 2 Isengard is out with these fixes:
Improvements in 15.0 beta 2 since the release of beta 1
- • Bump libCEC to 3.3.0 which fixes a variety of problems
- • Reworked the storage provider on Android. This fixes several problems with mounting points for storage.
- • Fix the queuing of music videos
- • Improvement to FF/RW of videos
- • Improvement to picons in livetv
- • Prevention of clipping of rotated text, which happened in certain skins
- • Improved logic to make PVR, audio encoders and audio decoders optional.
- • Audio decoder and PVR add-ons are now disabled by default. When you want to use these you need to enable them manually.
- • Fix launching of add-ons from the add-on information dialog
- • Show progress for add-on repository update
- • Properly fall back to the new language files location
- • Fix of grouping movie sets when navigating in smartplaylists
- • Fix wrong icon showing in popup dialogs
- • Restore volume after pass-through on Android
- • Combine previously split GUI text into a single string. This improves ability to properly translate them.
- • Included newer version of several PVR add-ons
- • Fix incorrect fall-back language after we made them into add-ons
- • Fix 8channel audio conversion on Windows
- • Try to detect supported sample rates on Android
- • Do a complete video database clean-up session to remove leading/trailing spaces and invalid characters
- • Prevent inserting leading/trailing spaces and invalid characters on new video scans
- • Add season and episode labels to PVR section
- • Fix possible font corruption
- • Remove default 250ms audio delay on Android for AMLogic chipsets
- • Fix subtitles showing on top of each other in certain cases
The complete list can be found on our Github beta 2 milestone.
Yes, Kodi is improving, but they are a bit away from having an optimum PVR (cablecard LiveTV) solution. The best solution they have is the ServerWMC (which needs Windows Media Center), the other's I am not impressed with, but again I don't think any of the solutions have the Premium channel options (HBO, Showtime, etc) that Media Center does. Honestly, I think Media Center is the only one, so what do we do now?
Last edited by Trust_No1; 14 Jun 2015 at 23:14.
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Well Lee, i do not see it like that.
90% on the board here was nagging over Windows 8 AND Windows 8.1.
It looked like another world war.
That stopped with the newer Windows 10 builds.
And guess what. The latest build reminds you that it is an upgraded more polished version of Windows 8.1
Jeff
Hi there
what does one want -- Windows is still Windows --after all you could say Windows 10 is simply an improvement on Windows 3.1.
An OS evolves -- so if it's an improvement or more polished version of 8.1 -- So what --
The REAL question one should be asking is " Is Windows 10 fit for purpose" and in general the consensus seems to be YES. People in any case have probably got much more used to touch devices since Windows 8 made its appearance so the idea of things like touch tiles etc aren't that strange any more while Ms has also realized that even in this age of smaller touch and mobile devices the traditional Desktop still has a large role to play in all sorts of areas. Windows 10 does go a long way towards unifying these two seemingly contradictory ways of using computers.
As far as WMC is concerned - as I've pointed out it's easy to get something like an Amazon TV stick and a FREE media streamer such as PLEX so you can have most of your TV programs sent remotely to your TV without the need of TV tuner devices. Terrestial TV channels are available all over the Internet without subscription and if you do subscribe to things like SKY / VIRGIN / ROKU / NETFLX etc it's easy to stream those services too.
Media servers like PLEX are much more flexible than the old WMC and play many more formats too.
(If your TV has a USB socket it's easier to simply plug the Amazon TV stick in to the TV and connect to the media server on your computer rather than attach the computer to the TV).
Another easy method is to use some smart phones to mirror the screen on to a TV - can be done via Wifi for Smart TV's or via a receiver dongle with an HDMI cable for non smart TV's. Just connect to your media server via the Phone and then activate the screen mirroring application. Samsung has this app built in but other phones can do similar.
Cheers
jimbo
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Hi there
what does one want -- Windows is still Windows --after all you could say Windows 10 is simply an improvement on Windows 3.1.
An OS evolves -- so if it's an improvement or more polished version of 8.1 -- So what --
The REAL question one should be asking is " Is Windows 10 fit for purpose" and in general the consensus seems to be YES. People in any case have probably got much more used to touch devices since Windows 8 made its appearance so the idea of things like touch tiles etc aren't that strange any more while Ms has also realized that even in this age of smaller touch and mobile devices the traditional Desktop still has a large role to play in all sorts of areas. Windows 10 does go a long way towards unifying these two seemingly contradictory ways of using computers.
As far as WMC is concerned - as I've pointed out it's easy to get something like an Amazon TV stick and a FREE media streamer such as PLEX so you can have most of your TV programs sent remotely to your TV without the need of TV tuner devices. Terrestial TV channels are available all over the Internet without subscription and if you do subscribe to things like SKY / VIRGIN / ROKU / NETFLX etc it's easy to stream those services too.
Media servers like PLEX are much more flexible than the old WMC and play many more formats too.
(If your TV has a USB socket it's easier to simply plug the Amazon TV stick in to the TV and connect to the media server on your computer rather than attach the computer to the TV).
Another easy method is to use some smart phones to mirror the screen on to a TV - can be done via Wifi for Smart TV's or via a receiver dongle with an HDMI cable for non smart TV's. Just connect to your media server via the Phone and then activate the screen mirroring application. Samsung has this app built in but other phones can do similar.
Cheers
jimbo
If you read many of my comments on WMC, everyone is under the impression that there are sooooo many alternatives. But, again that just isn't the case. Most may be fine for regular viewing (OTA), but if you have cablecard with HBO, Showtime, etc., that is only available via Windows Media Center. Premium channels simply are not available in most settings. Mystere suggests TiVO, but that really defeats the purpose of an all-in-one approach. All of our home systems use TVs as the PC's main monitor, why have an additional piece of hardware just to watch, what i already have/had?
As for your assessment of Windows 10, it is purely an individual assessment by each person. I personally, don't find Windows 10 an improvement, at best I think it is a lateral shift if not an actual downgrade. After 30+ years, this is really what it has evolved to? I won't go into the pros and cons, and my appreciation for Microsoft as a company has been greatly diminished, I don't trust them as I did 10 years ago. I think the whole free thing is just a marketing gimmick, pitiful in my view. Again strictly a personal opinion.
To each their own.
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If you read many of my comments on WMC, everyone is under the impression that there are sooooo many alternatives. But, again that just isn't the case. Most may be fine for regular viewing (OTA), but if you have cablecard with HBO, Showtime, etc., that is only available via Windows Media Center. Premium channels simply are not available in most settings. Mystere suggests TiVO, but that really defeats the purpose of an all-in-one approach. All of our home systems use TVs as the PC's main monitor, why have an additional piece of hardware just to watch, what i already have/had?
As for your assessment of Windows 10, it is purely an individual assessment by each person. I personally, don't find Windows 10 an improvement, at best I think it is a lateral shift if not an actual downgrade. After 30+ years, this is really what it has evolved to? I won't go into the pros and cons, and my appreciation for Microsoft as a company has been greatly diminished, I don't trust them as I did 10 years ago. I think the whole free thing is just a marketing gimmick, pitiful in my view. Again strictly a personal opinion.
To each their own.
Just one thing. . .your only one person . . .:)
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Just one thing. . .your only one person . . .:)
I have been asked to try and disregard any of your comments, so if I ignore you please understand it has been at the requests of others. Just thought I should let you know.
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I have been asked to try and disregard any of your comments, so if I ignore you please understand it has been at the requests of others. Just thought I should let you know.
It would appear that you couldn't do that. . .
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for those who use DVB-T cards like me WMC is best option.
i tried many programs these days to find an alternative,like arcsoft total media,blaze,dvb dream,kodi,plex,progdvb,dvbviewer,etc...
but they were not like WMC. they are not smooth and keep freezing every moment.(demultiplexor problem)
but if you look for a good alternative i recommend progTV that has UI look like WMC too.
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After much testing SichboPVR is my MCE replacement of choice for my Windows 10 tuner card needs.
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After much testing
SichboPVR is my MCE replacement of choice for my Windows 10 tuner card needs.
Hi,
Do you use this with Freeview or Satellite?
I currently use MediaPortal which works great with Freeview, just the app is a bit of a resource hog
