Windows 10 Media Center dead or alive?

[oldpueblo]

I am completely reliant on MCE, as stated above there is no product that does the same thing cohesively. I wouldn't even care if they stripped out music and pictures from MCE, I can use Xbox Music and Video for that stuff. Heck I could even do without the ripped video streaming since there are other ways to do that or it looks like the Xbone will have a media player that performs that function. I just need the TV recording/extender functionality to work the same way, so in that sense MS can really strip MCE down a lot and simplify it. I even had a friend love my set up so much that he JUST STARTED using MCE himself as a new user. For the record I have an MCE box with two tuners and four Xbox 360s as extenders. I would only have one Xbox 360 if it weren't for MCE, think about that MS.

 

[dgr_874]

All W7 PCs are 'Professional' - they run MCE and are in a workgroup
Each records what ever it want's to - you don't share the 'schedule'
Then in MCE (WMP) you share the Recorded TV Library of each machine with every other.
Then all machines see all recordings.
I also have a Windows Server 2008 R2 - again in the same work group.
It has 16TB of Recorded TV material that I have moved onto it.
Again any MCE machine can see/play/delete it.
Plus wtv can be edited - remove the ads - whatever, with a certain VG 3rd party app - very cheaply - inc H264 5.1.
There is nothing else like it.
The guy in MS who produced the spurious figures that allegedly showed low MCE take up has now gone.
Time to bring MCE back!
I wouldn't move from W7 Pro to W10 without MCE - even if they paid me!

I see, if all your content is copy freely, why not just use multiple xbox 360's to do the job? Cheaper and they could all share the same user guide? Win Win?

Not attacking, just curious.

 

[dmcq]

Hi - could do - though I have never bothered with X Box.
Current set up allows any 'TV' (PC) to go into IE and Remote Desktop into any PC in the Study - so can monitor Outlook and watch TV
Either by windowing or allowing Outlook to run behind WMC and wait for the audio 'ping'
Perhaps more importantly - number of tuners supported is 4 x no of PC's.
Lastly - resilience - any PC can fail and all the rest carry on - the server's 16Tb is dynamically backed up to USB 3 4x4TB discs.

Best
dmcq

 

[dgr_874]

Hi - could do - though I have never bothered with X Box.
Current set up allows any 'TV' (PC) to go into IE and Remote Desktop into any PC in the Study - so can monitor Outlook and watch TV
Either by windowing or allowing Outlook to run behind WMC and wait for the audio 'ping'
Perhaps more importantly - number of tuners supported is 4 x no of PC's.
Lastly - resilience - any PC can fail and all the rest carry on - the server's 16Tb is dynamically backed up to USB 3 4x4TB discs.

Best
dmcq

I can see the advantage in multitasking while I watch TV on the computer. It's definitely something the Xbox could not do.

How do you allocate the tuners? do you have a 4 tuner card in every computer or do you somehow dynamically allocate them so all the computers can use them? When I was subscribed to digital cable, I used two HD homerun cable boxes (3 tuners each) on my network that could dynamically allocate tuners to any of my 5 Xboxes on the fly, best thing ever!

I actually have started backing up my recorded TV to OneDrive since I don't have a server or NAS. Since I pay for office 365 and Microsoft says that I have "unlimited" storage. Soon I will find out how "unlimited" it really is once I back up ALL of my recorded TV to it.

Thanks again for the response. Its always great to see how other people set up their system and how it works for them.

 

[Carl Anderson]

Just chiming in here as well to get Media Center in Windows 10. I love my current whole home DVR with the InfiniTV4. Come on MS, don't make me go Verizon Quantum or TiVO.

 

[DavidinCT]

Hey all, we definitely hear your feedback about media center, and of course you can still suggest it on uservoice, but as of now we really can't talk about our media (music/video/etc) plans AT THIS TIME, but we're definitely aware of it and more info will be shared down the line.

It's been over a month and 1/2 from the time you stated this and we have had a Windows 10 update in that time, Is there ANY news able Media and meaning Windows Media Center on Windows 10 YET ? Even a good rumor would be great at this point...

What I want to hear is, WMC will be an option but, be a free option for W7 that came with WMC and W 8.1 w/WMC option. I also would like to see some BUG fixes in it, there still is a lot of minor issues in it.

Still crossing fingers, crap my fingers are very cramped by now

 

[Kevin Rush]

I can see the advantage in multitasking while I watch TV on the computer. It's definitely something the Xbox could not do.

How do you allocate the tuners? do you have a 4 tuner card in every computer or do you somehow dynamically allocate them so all the computers can use them? When I was subscribed to digital cable, I used two HD homerun cable boxes (3 tuners each) on my network that could dynamically allocate tuners to any of my 5 Xboxes on the fly, best thing ever!

I actually have started backing up my recorded TV to OneDrive since I don't have a server or NAS. Since I pay for office 365 and Microsoft says that I have "unlimited" storage. Soon I will find out how "unlimited" it really is once I back up ALL of my recorded TV to it.

Thanks again for the response. Its always great to see how other people set up their system and how it works for them.

Yes, l agree. It is interesting to hear about others set up. The web site thegteenbutton.tv is a great place to learn about how others have set up their Windows Media Center computers. Everything from simple to more elaborate whole house and even multi-house systems.

Take a look at www.mediacenterdontdie.com and join if you support Windows Media Center.

Best Wishes

 

[dmcq]

Hi
Each PC has 1 (or 2) BGT3602 tuners - each tuner gives Dual DVB‐T/T2/C/C2, dual DVB-S/S2 - or if you only want T/T2 try BGT3655 – Triple DVB‐T/T2, DVB‐C/C2.
This mean each PC is independent in the event of another failing or a network problem.
That said I've never had either problem,
What it does do, is mean any convenient machine can be set, or put into record.
Subsequently any machine can see - via Recorded TV Libraries any recording and play it.
Best
DMCQ

 

[dgr_874]

Just to prepare for the worst case, I was thinking of buying(preferable) or building a cheap PC just to leave on 8,1 and handle MC duties for a few more years. Anyone have any suggestions of something in the $300 dollar range? I don't do blue rays but currently have 5 Xboxes hooked up (at least two on at all times) so it would have to handle that.

 

[Steven Penner]

Just to prepare for the worst case, I was thinking of buying(preferable) or building a cheap PC just to leave on 8,1 and handle MC duties for a few more years. Anyone have any suggestions of something in the $300 dollar range? I don't do blue rays but currently have 5 Xboxes hooked up (at least two on at all times) so it would have to handle that.

Maybe something like the HP Stream 200-010. You'd have to add some additional RAM and have either USB or NAS storage available, but low cost and no moving parts seem like a good possible fit. I'm considering it myself for exactly the same reason.

 

[dmcq]

If you use USB tuners - try an Intel NUC

 

[RTGent]

I need it for my Xbox 360 and Zune, have it on Win 7 and Win 8.1 Pro, and probably will only update my Surfaces. If I have to pay the $10 for it again, I will.