Android TV is a good alternative to WMC

[mcewinter]

To stop playback in Live Channels - return to the Home Screen (still need to do this, though you don't need to open another app) and hit Play/Pause (if using Nexus remote), Stop (if using a Harmony - Play/Pause works as well) or Start (if using the SHIELD game controller - it's the button to the right of the Nvidia button/logo). I'm sure one of the buttons on the SHIELD remote do it - I just don't have it to test which one and tell you.

The shield 'remote' does not have a button to stop playback. I also avoid the live channels app because of this.

[mcewinter]

As I said earlier, a WMC backend is not an alternative to WMC. Neither is any other backend because no other backend can do DRM. So to summarize, there is still no alternative. The non-DRM alternatives are not news. They've been around forever. I'm already using the only real alternative, which is Tivo.

In another recent thread, the OP proudly bid farewell to WMC only to ultimately say he was using a WMC backend. Makes no sense whatsoever.

I never posted anywhere on this site bidding farewell to WMC. Prove it. Also, this post was for those who might find it helpful. People like you are always on the prowl to moan about something, but at the same time, you don't bring anything constructive to the conversation.

OP of the farewell thread, not you. I don't remember who that OP was.

I still contend that an alternative to a thing that still uses that thing is not an alternative.

And I content that no true alternative to WMC exists because none proposed have all the major features of WMC. Sorry if that idea is so offensive. I do like your setup though. I do something similar in one of my OTA systems.

Kodi has many backends, including a HDHomerun backend. MC isn't necessary unless Ceton tuners are your preference. I'm using the MC backend while my wife still uses MC; it works well as an extender but I can easily switch to the HDHR backend which only relies on the record engine which can reside on something as loprofile as a NAS.

[sbaeder]

And I content that no true alternative to WMC exists because none proposed have all the major features of WMC. Sorry if that idea is so offensive. I do like your setup though. I do something similar in one of my OTA systems.

Po-TAY-Toe / Po-TA-Toe...i.e. Major to some is definitely not major to everyone. So let's agree to disagree here... *IF* you need DRM support, there is no viable (yet) alternative.

[bob_p]

For customers needing DRM (cable) support, there are only two hardware vendors producing cablecard tuners. And since they generate revenue from new product sales, unless they generate enough new sales, they will eventually drop out of the business - and their products will no longer be supported.

With their DRM/DVR project, SiliconDust is trying to provide a software alternative to WMC, though with their limited resources and some of their major design decisions (such as no program guide grid or requiring everything to go through their cloud servers), their out-of-the-box DVR software may not appeal to many WMC/cablecard users. Their best strategy could be to focus on building the core DRM/DVR engine - and enlist 3rd parties to integrate that into their environments - so that users see Kodi, Plex, JRiver Media Center, ... as their DVR interface, and not what SD provides. Supporting DRM for live and recorded TV has always been the missing piece for WMC alternatives - and if SD can solve that problem, and make it available to others - we could end up with multiple alternatives to WMC.

As for Ceton, their website appears stale. The most recent announcements are from 2014 - and they are still labelling "new" products that were released years ago. Since it's unlikely there will be many sales of cablecard tuners to use with WMC, and with no new alternatives supporting the Ceton tuners on the horizon, future support for Ceton products could be at risk.

While some users will be willing to invest a lot of time in building and configuring their own combination of TV/DVR software, in order for there to be enough of a market to give SiliconDust (or Ceton) enough revenue to survive, there must be at least one alternative to WMC that provides enough functionality and is easy enough to use - to attract a sizable number of existing WMC users and new users - to support tuner product sales.

It's been a year since Microsoft officially killed WMC, and, as of today, it's still not clear there will be anything available soon that provides enough capability for us to shift from WMC to something new - so we'll likely continue to keep WMC working (possibly with EPG123 to eliminate the dependency on Microsoft for program guide service) - and continue looking for something capable enough to replace WMC as our whole home DVR.

For those pioneers trying to cobble together a WMC replacement today - please continue to push forward - and hopefully we'll find a combination of tools that provides enough functionality to justify moving away from WMC - and someone will help automate the setup and configuration to make it appealing to the larger audience needed to generate hardware sales and keep at least one hardware vendor in business...

[RyC]

I would go even further and say good luck getting any support from Ceton now. It seems when people post about contacting Ceton, they either don't respond, take forever to respond, or try to blame everything but their hardware. Which is too bad, their support used to be quite good and even helped me get in contact with Charter to fix an issue with copy once flags on the broadcast channels


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[STC]

Po-TAY-Toe / Po-TA-Toe...

I think you'll find it's

[ike301]

Android TV has DRM support. I have Fios, with many DRM channels, and I can play them all using Google Live Channels with my HDHomerun Prime. Google Live Channels is pulling the guide data and DRM support from the HDhomerun view app. Actually, I like the View app as well. Android N is going to support DVR, but it's not clear yet how this will work exactly. In short, Android TV is shaping up to be something a lot of TV watchers have been waiting for. Google has the wallet and resources to make this happen. Again, I just want to pass on info and not get into a back & forth.

http://www.drmtoday.com/platforms/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFUCWb31sR8

http://www.androidpolice.com/2016/03/11 ... tionality/

[ike301]

Here is something else that sounds promising.

http://techfactslive.com/youtube-unplug ... rvice/751/

[adam1991]

In short, Android TV is shaping up to be something a lot of TV watchers have been waiting for. Google has the wallet and resources to make this happen.

And yet, they bought Sage only to kill it stone dead.

Never mind that it was (and is, for existing users) perfectly functional.

Google doesn't care about TV. Google cares about selling you product from their Play store.

[mcewinter]

In short, Android TV is shaping up to be something a lot of TV watchers have been waiting for. Google has the wallet and resources to make this happen.

And yet, they bought Sage only to kill it stone dead.

Never mind that it was (and is, for existing users) perfectly functional.

Google doesn't care about TV. Google cares about selling you product from their Play store.

I don't think anybody is here based on who "cares" about TV. TV on streaming boxes is only getting better.

[ike301]

In short, Android TV is shaping up to be something a lot of TV watchers have been waiting for. Google has the wallet and resources to make this happen.

And yet, they bought Sage only to kill it stone dead.

Never mind that it was (and is, for existing users) perfectly functional.

Google doesn't care about TV. Google cares about selling you product from their Play store.

I don't think anybody is here based on who "cares" about TV. TV on streaming boxes is only getting better.

Agreed. The link I provided killed his argument. YouTube Live TV is going to happen and I'm exited to see what it's going to look like.

[Ed]

Plus Google open-sourced SageTV and it's available for anyone to download and use as a new user. And as I posted, there's even an extender app/front-end for it for Android TV!

[ike301]

Plus Google open-sourced SageTV and it's available for anyone to download and use as a new user. And as I posted, there's even an extender app/front-end for it for Android TV!

Funny how the other poster left out this very important fact. Seems like he has more of a personal gripe with Google more than anything else. Thanks for pointing this out.