Windows Media Center as PVR Back End for XBMC

[JazJon]

I learned all this the hard way so it's a good place for anyone just getting started.

The Complete Guide: XBMC/Windows Media Center/ServerWMC/And More

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?ti ... id=1638747

[epayson85]

So as someone who took a very long time to move from XBMC to WMC because I wanted a lot of xbmc features in WMC... now I find myself on the other side... now I need WMC features in XBMC before I could ever make that switch. The most important being of course the WAF. I have 0 issues with WMC and my gf loves it. Xbmc was always an issue for her. It has a gorgeous interface, but it wasn't always the most user friendly. I can say I messed around with ServerWMC a few months ago and I have been tinkering with it on my main office PC again ever since seeing your recent posts. It has improved a lot but to me it still isn't quite there. What I want to know is what is it that you (JazJon) absolutely love about it, that makes it better than wmc? What Skin are you using? Also what features from wmc do you miss on xbmc?

[Scallica]

This is an interesting topic, but I assume using XBMC as a front-end and ServerWMC as a back-end only works for channels that are not copy-protected?

[JazJon]

This is an interesting topic, but I assume using XBMC as a front-end and ServerWMC as a back-end only works for channels that are not copy-protected?

Correct, but paying for HBO is a joke. (so no DRM, no problem for me) I just pay for the HD package only.
I only want to DVR Comedy Central, MSNBC, History, PBS and regular networks mainly.

You can still use XBMC and Media Center at the same time at least if you need to.

And no it's not wife proof yet. (or husband proof in my case lol) I don't mind being on the cutting edge as they shape up the Gotham Alpha to Beta. I'm starting to be pretty active in the forum.
http://forum.xbmc.org/forumdisplay.php?fid=205

I've only been using it less than a week. I don't have strong opinions about what I love about it yet. I just know I love being unrestricted and having more options. It really is the SOFTSLED we all wanted years ago too on secondary PC's

[asm495]

I've been using XBMC deviecs for a week now instead of Xbox 360 Extenders. My wife can certainly use it but she and even I do find the controls work in rather odd ways sometimes. (Plus she much prefers not having a big Xbox on display on the sideboard under the TV).

I suspect a lot of this could be fixed if I started playing around with the remote control mappings. Plus I am yet to find an alternative skin to Confluence that I find works really well. The closest I have come is Arctic which is very nice but for in Gotham I have never managed to get it to display recent/featured content on the home screen.

At the moment though I don't yet have a compelling reason to move back to the Xboxes. I've still got them in case of any major issues.

[JazJon]

I'm willing to live with the minor bugs and slightly strange methods of accessing things for now. The key is we all need to give lots of feedback so devs shape it up more and more. I've yet to try changing skins since I'm on Gotham and don't want to play outside the defaults too much just yet. It's always best to use the out of the box settings for a short time at least so you have something to compare against. I'm looking forward to hearing Confluence works well. (I'll hold off for now)

[JazJon]

Biggest down side so far is when you play shows that are still recording, you can't skip ahead and shows a strange buffer bar that keeps filling up.
(hopefully a work around is found on the final Gotham release)

[asm495]

Biggest down side so far is when you play shows that are still recording, you can't skip ahead and shows a strange buffer bar that keeps filling up.
(hopefully a work around is found on the final Gotham release)

I have this too, but fast forward does seem to work.

[epayson85]

Here is what I have seen so far -
Cons -
Too many steps to get to tv guide - I understand you can create custom shortcuts but still the other views are pointless in my opinion so why have them?
When in the guide I can't press the channel numbers to get right to that channel on the guide. Having to scroll through all my channels is annoying.
No mini guide
When you stop watching tv it doesn't bring you to where you were on the guide it brings you back to the first channel.
When you select a tvshow on the guide at the current time, it brings up an annoying box and you have to select "switch" to go to that channel.
You have to turn deinterlace video on for every channel. I have yet to find a way to make this the default setting. If you don't do this the video quality isn't very good during motion.
Occasional "buffering" on screen while watching live tv (testing on machine with i5 16gigs of ram and using the serverwmc on the same machine)
Lack of great netflix app sucks (I do have a shortcut that goes to the netflix in wmc)
Many issues with fastforward, rewind, skip and so forth

Pros -
The user interface for movies and tv show libraries is amazing (media browser and mymovies come no where close)
The tv guide looks excellent and its very fast scrolling through channels
The video quality is just as good as WMC once deinterlacing is turned on
Shared guide among all TV's so don't need crappy extenders any more

I think it could be great at some point, at least I hope so.

[mrphil]

I've been tinkering with the Openelec test builds on the xbmc forum running on a Raspberry PI, which connects to ServerWMC running on the main htpc. Using an old ehome ir reciever I had laying around, the a Raspberry Pi is now upgraded to production usage on the kitchen tv displacing the dma2100 extender as it's faster and crashes a lot less than the dma2100. Unsure on WAF yet as the wife has yet to watch tv in the kitchen since the swap. So basically I now have the main htpc running wmc interface and 2 DMA extenders plus xbmc as the kitchen extender.

Pros
Get the same epg with logos as on the main wmc machine. Can set new recordings in wmc from the xbmc epg.
All recordings from wmc are available. Uk HD which is h.264 plays on the Pi, but not on the dma2100.
It's highly customisable, visually and in features. Have changed the remote key mappings to mirror normal wmc functions.
It's a £35 extender that does 1080p!
Very quick generally apart from epg

Cons
Live tv skip forward/back is not working well, although it does kind of work. The author of wmcserver has indicated a breakthrough in this area but no more info yet.
Epg can take 5 - 10 seconds to appear, this seems to partially relate to recent addition in xbmc of the ability to scroll back in time in the epg which is a polarising feature. There is no way to disable this feature.

[epayson85]

Some how it never even crossed my mind to use a pi. That is genius! Can the pi handle HD content in mpeg2? In other words live TV from the US? Though I can't get myself to switch to xbmc on anything but my test machine... A $35 extender might push me a little to put it on one of my TVs haha.

[mrphil]

Yes the Raspberry PI does mpeg2 and mpeg4 natively in hardware so will play up to 1080p content. It won't however play anything encrypted in wmc, so I think that rules out most US cable card users, fta content will be fine.

[3rob3]

It will play mpeg2, but you do have to buy the license from the raspberry pi store first:
http://www.raspberrypi.com/mpeg-2-license-key/

[epayson85]

Nice thanks for the info guys. Luckily Comcast only flags premium channels in my area so I am all set. Everything works in xbmc except those few channels. I may be replacing the echo in my kitchen with a pi very soon.

[3rob3]

I think it would work great for a kitchen tv, or somewhere else it is only casually used. I tried to use one in my bedroom (in place of a 360 slim extender) but found it to be frustratingly laggy. Never used an echo so not sure how it compares to that.

Cons for me with XBMC are:
Channel load at startup takes 20 seconds or so (every time).
Guide is really slow
Guide starts at lowest channel every time. My HD channels are at >100 so I have to scroll a lot, which as I said above is pretty slow
Difficult to map the MCE RC6 remote so all the buttons do what you are accustomed to.

It's been a few months since I messed with it so it's quite possible things have improved.

[Crash2009]

I just installed Frodo 12.3, ServerWMC 1129, and PVR.wmc-windows 0.1.93. Seems to work all right. I am still fumbling around getting used to it. I like the Plug-in/module type of architecture. Does use a bit of bandwidth though doesn't it. Is there any maximum to the amount of clients you can have connected to the server?

Question for those of you with more experience......Have you heard through the grapevine if or when protected content might be incorporated?

[milli260876]

Pretty soon this will be surpassed by mediabrowser once all the clients are functioning with the serverWMC plugin...
stream to roku's,ipads,wp,android,windows rt etc etc..
oh and I forgot play to DNLA!

[Crash2009]

Pretty soon this will be surpassed by mediabrowser once all the clients are functioning with the serverWMC plugin...
stream to roku's,ipads,wp,android,windows rt etc etc..
oh and I forgot play to DNLA!

I suppose I could give MB3 a try too. Are you saying that MB3 runs with the same server software that XBMC runs with? (ServerWMC 1129)

[asm495]

Pretty soon this will be surpassed by mediabrowser once all the clients are functioning with the serverWMC plugin...
stream to roku's,ipads,wp,android,windows rt etc etc..
oh and I forgot play to DNLA!

I would be tempted by this IF there were a version I can install on x86 hardware without the need for Windows. I don't think there is, is there?

[Crash2009]

Are you saying that MB3 runs with the same server software that XBMC runs with? (ServerWMC 1129)

Looks like MB3 is waiting on a plug-in to enable ServerWMC. MB3 has some nice features. I might give it a try after you get the bugs ironed out. I'll check back in 6 months.