Why is MS not supporting Media Centre with XB1? *spawn

[-tkf-]

I loved my Media Center, when it worked, i was this || close to building a dedicated PC for it. It's another example of a very good idea that just didn't get the typical Microsoft treatment, that is, constantly updated until it was awesome and everyone knew about it.

So i was in, i am out now and i would rather have them spending money on important stuff for my XB1 instead of using resources on a little known and used thing of the past.

 

[tuna]

For a media player, can't you just get a Raspberry Pi?

 

[Malo]

For a media player, can't you just get a Raspberry Pi?

This is really nothing to do with playing media, which I use XBMC for anyway. WMC gives us the ability to use a cablecard to tap directly into a cable TV feed and do a lot more than any cable box can provide.

On another note, if WMC systems were a dying breed, you would think companies like Ceton and HDHomerun would be doing what they can to get out of the market but instead they contribute to advance and upgrade the technology.

 

[Gradthrawn]

I was hoping to swap my 360s for Ones as my Extender's, especially with the lower power states of the One compared to the 360 (lower power bill) and the the faster response (better experience) but if that's not an option I think a Ceton Echo is my next best bet (my only other bet, at the moment). Anyone have experience using the Echo as an Extender? I don't have space for a 360 and an XBO under most of my TVs, but I could fit an Echo and a One. I'm just wondering how the overall user experience is along with its stability.

(Win8 version, hehe not the slower 7MC that lags like mad on the 360).

This is good to know. I'll have to put this to the test at some point. The last time I checked (until just recently) W8 WMC support for my Ceton cards was limited. Looks like that's no longer the case (and they have a 6 tuner version now), and if you're saying the responsiveness is improved that's all the reason I need to get a W8 WMC test going.

 

[rockaman]

I honestly had no idea Windows Media Center was so loved by some people.

I like the program, I still turn it on sometimes on W7 Ultimate. I used to like to play with it a lot when I was on Vista Ultimate, because it was shiny

 

[Scott_Arm]

Wow, there is only one other Media Center Extender out there right now, the Ceton Echo and it isn't supported in Windows 8. All of the other extender products have been discontinued. Sounds like a booming industry.

 

[Jwm]

I was hoping to swap my 360s for Ones as my Extender's, especially with the lower power states of the One compared to the 360 (lower power bill) and the the faster response (better experience) but if that's not an option I think a Ceton Echo is my next best bet (my only other bet, at the moment). Anyone have experience using the Echo as an Extender? I don't have space for a 360 and an XBO under most of my TVs, but I could fit an Echo and a One. I'm just wondering how the overall user experience is along with its stability.



This is good to know. I'll have to put this to the test at some point. The last time I checked (until just recently) W8 WMC support for my Ceton cards was limited. Looks like that's no longer the case (and they have a 6 tuner version now), and if you're saying the responsiveness is improved that's all the reason I need to get a W8 WMC test going.

Win8.1 broke everything from a Play Ready point, but the RTM build works again.

Win8 is stable with the following Ceton drivers: 13.6.3.1088 Firmware: 1.2.2.6 (It is no longer requiring me to reboot every couple of days to prevent the tuning adapter from cutting out, yay!) I am staying up for a month or more between reboots, I am not sleeping the computer though.

Wow, there is only one other Media Center Extender out there right now, the Ceton Echo and it isn't supported in Windows 8. All of the other extender products have been discontinued. Sounds like a booming industry.

Win8 broke all of that, and I think Echo was just launching. Not sure when the WD model went away, but since the newer 360 models were getting better cooling they were selling better than the traditional extenders. Plus they play games.

 

[Gradthrawn]

Win8.1 broke everything from a Play Ready point, but the RTM build works again.

Win8 is stable with the following Ceton drivers: 13.6.3.1088 Firmware: 1.2.2.6 (It is no longer requiring me to reboot every couple of days to prevent the tuning adapter from cutting out, yay!) I am staying up for a month or more between reboots, I am not sleeping the computer though.

Interesting, thanks for the info. So, this will definitely be a lab experiment before I put it into production (Home Production ). I have a spare Ceton 4 Tuner Infini PCIe I can test with. How is the tuning speed with W8? Any faster or the same as with 7 (and perhaps tuner dependent)?

In regards to Play Ready, it was my biggest (potential) headache when it came to setting up WMCs. I'd have to spend hours trying to get it to work if something went wrong. Until I found MS' ResetDRM tool (works with XP and 7, not sure about 8). Now its just a couple of minutes to fix a Play Ready issue. Just thought I'd share that in case you haven't come across it already.

 

[eastmen]

windows media center on 8 is certainly faster for the connected extenders. Its not drastic but it is noticeable.

 

[Jwm]

2 to 3 seconds when all tuners are active, 5 to 7 when they are all clear (not tuned from a reboot).

I set everything to record five mins prior and ten minutes after, unless it is f1 and then I record all the shows after in case of a rain delay! Ha. It is a cool feature to have.

Thanks for the link!

Yes 8mc on extenders loads your recorded content folders much snappier than 7mc. 7mc seemed to get worse the more you had stored.

 

[eastmen]

so xmbc isn't supported on any xbox 360. So that wont be an option moving forward.

I wonder if any of the little guys can make something to work on it or the one.

I'm not going to buy all new hardware just to fit my one into the equation

 

[wco81]

MS was about the only alternative to Tivo and the cable and satellite cos with their own platforms.

It seems very little activity around DVRs and HTPCs in general. The market is much larger than consoles, potentially, since more people watch TV than play games.

But they need to come up with a new TV distribution model, which isn't easy to do, because networks and content owners like HBO are being faithful to Comcast, rather than trying to sell directly to consumers.

If MS had been able to come up with a new paradigm, then the TV features would be compelling.

Imagine, instead of a DVR with x tuners and y amount of hard disk space, you just tag the shows you want to store in your digital locker in the cloud and from that, you can stream it to a set top or any mobile device. That's where the power of the cloud makes sense, rather than build and distribute millions of boxes with tuners and hard drives. Then you dont' have to deal with shit like CableCard or paying people to install your DVR and use these inefficient systems for authentication (like Cable Card).

But of course, doing an end around the Comcast and Direct TVs of the world won't be easy.

Maybe if Netflix and even other tech giants like Google, MS and Apple started buying and paying for content, things would change. Netflix has financed some acclaimed series while Google is supposedly negotiating with the NFL for Sunday Ticket.

 

[BRiT]

Wow, there is only one other Media Center Extender out there right now, the Ceton Echo and it isn't supported in Windows 8. All of the other extender products have been discontinued. Sounds like a booming industry.

The Ceton echo is a pretty horrible MCE extender. Maybe their next model that has real support for Android and MCE Windows 8 will be usable. I kept it for the android potential, but too many bricking issues due to 3rd party components for them to release it publicly.

I struggled with the Echo through the beta firmwares and their updates, I think it's usable for my current setup but if I tried to use it in the other room with different received and TV it would be unusable. I don't remember what the current issues are, but they tend to fix one but then introduce another.

Its a shame because their tuners are ace.

 

[Jwm]

Copy protected content has maybe been the largest bummer, it broke the commercial skipping apps for example and other things seemed to stall around that time as well. Still some great 3rd party apps that do sort of work on the extenders (mostly if you are still running Vista or 7MC). It was really cool to show friends how my son never saw any commercials, I greatly miss that feature - thanks Time Warner...

It will be interesting to see how the big broadcasters handle the shift to "cloud dvr" or if it will become more of you subscribe to CBS for x amount per month, and then you can use the X1 CBS app to watch the seasons content - switch to netflix for seasons older than three years, etc. I sure like being able to store my content and not worry about when it might arrive on something else.

I keep forgetting there is Xbox Video (among others) with season passes and such, but I don't think anyone has the prices set correctly for mass adoption. Not to mention there is always the chance that what I purchase won't be available in the future when I might want it again.

 

[Qroach]

why should they support media centers? Windows media center is pretty much gone. With anyone being able to develop apps or games for the platform as an indie. I wonder what the chances are of seeing XBMC? If I could get that, I would be incredibly happy.

 

[BRiT]

Again, for all those who can't read the topic... Stop posting about your beloved XBMC or other non-live tv applications! Yes, we like the other apps too, but they do no good for TV Tuning in the US that Windows Media Center does.

 

[bkilian]

As for media center its very easy to set up. You plug in the tuner to usb , put the cable card in . Spend 2 minutes with customer support activating it (same amount of time with cable vision as activating a box they sent in the mail) and load up media center and boom it works .

Other than my own experience, which indicates that it is _never_ just two minutes getting a cable card working, let me quote some Media center users:

Then the OEM's only really hurt the package, with your only option to go with $3k to $5k pre-built packages. I remember at the time I had to hunt down a motherboard that had the right bios flag to be able to make it all work, it still cost me $3k DIY for that MC build.
...
It used to be really hard to setup, my early vista build was a mess. Now the USB tuners are great and simple, no more reading 30-pages and 2-hour setups that would fail at 75%.

Win8 is stable with the following Ceton drivers: 13.6.3.1088 Firmware: 1.2.2.6 (It is no longer requiring me to reboot every couple of days to prevent the tuning adapter from cutting out, yay!) I am staying up for a month or more between reboots, I am not sleeping the computer though.

Interesting, thanks for the info. So, this will definitely be a lab experiment before I put it into production (Home Production ). I have a spare Ceton 4 Tuner Infini PCIe I can test with. How is the tuning speed with W8? Any faster or the same as with 7 (and perhaps tuner dependent)?

I think my point has been made. We're enthusiasts. We're willing to spend extra time and extra effort to make sure things keep working. I loved my FreeBSD box, I'm not going to try claim it was easier to use than windows though.

When I last considered Media Center, I was getting rid of my DirecTivo and moving to Cable. The options were very limited and expensive, the interface was laughable. Reviews on the net indicated that getting the right show recorded was an iffy prospect. It completely failed at season passes. So I stuck with Tivo (One of the very first Series 3 boxes, in fact). Painful cablecard setup, but after that it just worked. And worked. And worked. I have not had to reboot my Tivo in years

 

[wco81]

Yeah I just got a Roamio Plus activated today.

Will see how it goes.

Did think about a MCE setup, with 360 as extenders. But I heard sometimes the reliability can be hit and miss.

 

[Jay]

Again, for all those who can't read the topic... Stop posting about your beloved XBMC or other non-live tv applications! Yes, we like the other apps too, but they do no good for TV Tuning in the US that Windows Media Center does.

So is this thread is only about US?
Shame, maybe we need another thread for non US customers that also discuss about possible alternatives for live tv streaming?

Fact is they aren't supporting it at launch, and may or provide an alternative in the future.
We need to find out what their road map is in regards to this.

 

[BRiT]

So is this thread is only about US?
Shame, maybe we need another thread for non US customers that also discuss about possible alternatives for live tv streaming?

Fact is they aren't supporting it at launch, and may or provide an alternative in the future.
We need to find out what their road map is in regards to this.

Yes, for those blindly suggesting other apps ad nauseum for the users, who have explained in detail numerous times how those other apps are absolutely worthless for this situation, don't do the discussion any good. Those users can go find themselves some other thread.

And yes, it would be nice to know what the MS Feature-Set Roadmap is for the Xbox One