How to Use Xbox One or PC as a TV DVR

[ncxcstud]

I think they did not include the ability to be a Windows Media Center Extender on the XBOX One as they have it on the 360...

Having it on the 360 has been awesome and I used it everyday on my internship in Alabama to watch broadcast TV I recorded on my PC. It was awesome.

 

[oldpueblo]

Someone brought up a good point which is why not just plug your HTPC directly into the Xbone? If you guys recall there is an IR blaster for the PC that came with the media center remote (I think, it's been a long time). I'm going to dig it out of a drawer and test it again. That means putting the PC by the TV again, but it's a low profile deal anyway and it would be replacing the space the 360 is in, so roughly equivalent.

For example:

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-00-...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUwpUvbUpU2216713

Do not buy that if you haven't verified it's good, I've done no research on current generation drivers, etc.

 

[Keith Wallace]

Wouldn't using a wireless mouse be preferable?

 

[oldpueblo]

Wouldn't using a wireless mouse be preferable?

I meant more for the IR blaster than the remote, they just happened to be bundled together. The IR blaster is how the Xbone performs all its functions now I believe. And the Media Center interface on the PC acts just like a regular guide, assuming the Xbone recognizes it during setup, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaYEXnuQVmU

 

[Dexter505]

I think they did not include the ability to be a Windows Media Center Extender on the XBOX One as they have it on the 360...

Having it on the 360 has been awesome and I used it everyday on my internship in Alabama to watch broadcast TV I recorded on my PC. It was awesome.

Not as an extender but with the hdmi in.

 

[fpostrow]

Unfortunately the details on this functionality have been very vague. They have said it will work if you have a crappy cable co box connected via HDMI but have not said that you can do the same with a Windows PC. It has been assumed that you can connect a 360 to your 1 via HDMI to accomplish this but honestly, what's the bloody point of doing that? Also, let's say you have a setup like most Media Center users do; 1 DVR rig running Media Center with multiple TB's of storage that is accessed by 360's or a few left over Linksys Extenders. How will you integrate the 1, or two 1's even if you can HDMI the 1 to your Media Center PC? That only covers one 1. As I have said before I will not go back to the days of renting a POS cable co provided DVR or ugly tuner box to put next to the 1 which should be able to connect to my eco system with ease and aplomb. I know we are early in the 1's life span but MS should be all over this out of the gate.

 

[Coreldan]

MS employee has confirmed to me that PC can be connected with the HDMI to the Xbox One. Naturally it would still cause the issue of how you control that when likely the mouse and KB are elsewhere, but if you had some HTPC kinda setup, perhaps a wireless mouse on the coffee table does the trick

 

[fpostrow]

If it's not official it's just hearsay. So it could work but ... Also, as I stated that setup would only cover one 1. The extender concept has to be extended to the 1 in a way that improves the usability to fit in with what the 1 is supposed to be and do. At this point it just doesn't. Cable co apps like Time Warner will hopefully be released soon for the 1 but we have had no official word that this will happen at all. Don't get me wrong I understand the problems dealing with the cable co's and integrating their business models into technology like xbox and Media Center. The entire fault for the poor roll out and use of cablecard lies at their feat. They refused to approve cablecard tuners for use in Media Center by dragging out the cable labs approval process for years and then when they finally approved the systems they were untrained and unqualified to support them. Plenty of install stories about truck rolls and clueless cable techs. But this is one of those technologies that continues to work even with the necessary use of Tuning Adapters for Switched Digital channel support. Unfortunately the cable co's solution for everything is; rent a frickin' box from us and put it next to your shiny new toy. Sorry, that's not happening. Now the app approach does work on 360 despite it's lack of broadcast channels but that route misses the DVR and media library access that most of us would like to maintain access to. As I stated before Media Center is MS's product that should have been supported out of the gate and unfortunately it's not. Let's hope they figure out how to do this soon. Otherwise the 1 just isn't quite what it could have been.

 

[Coreldan]

Well, when it comes to Media Center, there's a few things worth noticing.

Yes, it's an amazing product, but so few people use it. The second is that apparently they are deciding within MS to move away from it in general. Perhaps something will replace the functionality, perhaps not. It's a shame it never got the spotlight it deserved, but I can't blame them for not building the Xbox One around something that a tiny fraction of people even know exists.

 

[oldpueblo]

A media center PC with the IR blaster dongle basically functions exactly as an extender, except you get the full media center UI not the extender UI as well as of course no lag introduced by the network. That's the benefit of having your HTPC plugged in directly. You'd be in the guide the entire time navigating via remote so you don't need a mouse/keyboard. However if you did do a wireless mouse/keyboard combo you would also have a PC with an Xbone overlay, might be handy for some things. The only way I'd see that not working is if during Xbone setup you can't actually choose "Media Center" as your "cable box" and the Xbone can't learn the IR blast codes. That seems to me to be too impossible to happen.

 

[fpostrow]

Again, not a great solution and also based on a lot of conjecture since the 1 is not yet out and we have heard very little about how this will work despite the heavy dose of multifunction marketing from MS. Another question is what will happen if I plug a DMA2200 into the XB1 as the cable box? They take forever to boot up but I could just leave it on 24/7 as they consume very little power and are silent compared to the 360. That could work, if it works.

 

[DavidinCT]

Well, when it comes to Media Center, there's a few things worth noticing.

Yes, it's an amazing product, but so few people use it. The second is that apparently they are deciding within MS to move away from it in general. Perhaps something will replace the functionality, perhaps not. It's a shame it never got the spotlight it deserved, but I can't blame them for not building the Xbox One around something that a tiny fraction of people even know exists.

As someone who has been a MC user from XP MC 2005, They did do a promtion for a while about the features of Media Center (kind of just showing that it comes with Windows Vista) and for a few months there was ads showing Media Center...

Agreed, it never took off, wishing it did and we could see advancements but it's sad that they canceled an app that was one of the best program Microsoft ever made...

 

[coip]

So, now that you all have your hands on an Xbox One, has anyone figured out a way to input OTA TV broadcasts, preferably via Windows Media Center, into the Xbox One to make use of One's TV and OneGuide features? Or is it a lost cause?

 

[oldpueblo]

So, now that you all have your hands on an Xbox One, has anyone figured out a way to input OTA TV broadcasts, preferably via Windows Media Center, into the Xbox One to make use of One's TV and OneGuide features? Or is it a lost cause?

I haven't had time to fully mess with it, but quick and dirty just plugging my 360 into the Xbone has worked just fine. Under devices you can even choose Xbox as your cable box. It's worked just like before, I just have to have the 360 on of course when I want to watch TV. I made an initial attempt to get the HTPC working with the Xbone and it did technically work with two issues that aren't the Xbone's fault. I couldn't get my old IR blaster to work. I don't know if that's because it's faulty though, I haven't touched it in years. Also I couldn't get my HTPC to stretch the image fully to the TV, but I believe that's a an AMD catalyst driver issue since it doesn't do it when I plug the TV straight in either. I know I fixed it with the scaling controls before, but for some reason I can't get it to work. Media Center was also one of the cable box choices. It worked in terms of I could see the picture and stuff though which is good, I was even able to use mouse/keyboard through it of course since the Xbone just acts like a monitor. So for now I'm just passing my 360 through which extends media center, I'll figure it out later. It works exactly as it did before, but now of course I have voice control, snap, jump to gaming, IE, etc.

 

[fpostrow]

... Also I couldn't get my HTPC to stretch the image fully to the TV, but I believe that's a an AMD catalyst driver issue since it doesn't do it when I plug the TV straight in either.....

Yea, just adjust the scaling settings in Catalyst and you're good to go.

 

[fpostrow]

So, now that you all have your hands on an Xbox One, has anyone figured out a way to input OTA TV broadcasts, preferably via Windows Media Center, into the Xbox One to make use of One's TV and OneGuide features? Or is it a lost cause?

I'll be playing around with various configurations tomorrow to see what does and doesn't work.

 

[coip]

I don't have an Xbox 360. I do have an older Windows 7 PC that I was previously using to watch OTA live TV via Windows Media Center, but the PC doesn't have an HDMI port. Can I hook up the PC to the Xbox One via a VGA to HDMI converter, use external speakers connected to the PC (since the VGA to HDMI won't carry the sound over), and then watch TV via my Xbox One's OneGuide (which will read Windows Media Center as the 'cable box')? That would be great if I could do that and then use Xbox One Smartglass on my phone and Surface to navigate--or, better yet, Kinect's voice commands! Please say that I can do this.

 

[Coreldan]

I don't think anyone has managed to make OneGuide read a HTPC yet as a cable box.

 

[coip]

I don't think anyone has managed to make OneGuide read a HTPC yet as a cable box.

Oh, okay. I guess I misread oldpueblo's post above: "Media Center was also one of the cable box choices." Thought it meant that Xbox One did see it as a cable box. I cannot believe Microsoft doesn't have integration for OTA TV. They are trying to buddy up with the cable companies, but the cable companies are not interested in helping Microsoft usurp their systems: in fact, they are opposed to it. Microsoft should be setting up the Xbox One as an alternative to cable--more and more people are cutting the cord and viewing stuff on streaming sites (Netlfix,etc.) or the Internet. Microsoft could take advantage of this, but they'd have to start by integrating Windows Media Center into Xbox One and also update IE on Xbox One to handle Flash videos.

 

[oldpueblo]

Basically without a working IR blaster the Xbone has no way to send the guide commands to the HTPC, so instead you'd just say Watch TV and then do all the channel surfing the way you've done it before (keyboard, mouse, remote). I'm pretty confident I can get it working, just haven't had time to tackle it. I have two different IR blasters I just realized, one that came with a Zotac Zbox that also bundled in a windows media center remote. Might just require a driver install.

Since the 360 works "as is" in extender mode (the xbone blasts to it just fine), I'm being lazy.