What Happens When This All Goes Away ?

[donniew]

It sure looks as if WMC is not a long-term play for Microsoft. Seems like it barely made it into Windows 8, and that the Xbox One is the future for TV integration for them. That said, I do not care for that story right now for a variety of reasons, most of which is around needing a cable box and the use of antiquated infrared re-transmitters. I see that the SPORTS section has been removed, and occasionally things happen with them changing things (or letting things break) on the backend that causes problems (movie art not populating, guide info not updating, etc). I've been on my WMC setup for a couple years now, and really depend on it.

-What could *reasonably* happen to make WMC "no longer work" if I just decide to ride out my super stable Windows 7 setup for as long as possible ? I can't really imagine going back to the Comcast prehistoric DVR GUI. Just awful.
-If things begin breaking down, are there known hacks/workarounds ?

... I guess I'm thinking now towards a mitigation strategy to keep WMC going - Ha Ha.

[barnabas1969]

The biggest possibility is that Microsoft will eventually stop providing guide data. There are already other solutions for that, and almost all of them cost between $10-20 per YEAR. Many people in Europe and the UK already rely on those alternative solutions today.

If you are in the USA, then CableCARD is going to be here for the next 5-10 years, at a minimum, so that's not something to worry about right now.

I'm staying on Win7. I see no reason to leave it for the next 5-10 years unless something much better comes along.

[LuckyDay]

The biggest possibility is that Microsoft will eventually stop providing guide data. There are already other solutions for that, and almost all of them cost between $10-20 per YEAR. Many people in Europe and the UK already rely on those alternative solutions today.

If you are in the USA, then CableCARD is going to be here for the next 5-10 years, at a minimum, so that's not something to worry about right now.

I'm staying on Win7. I see no reason to leave it for the next 5-10 years unless something much better comes along.

Yeah, I figure we have 5+ years left under our current set ups, with minimum modifications and hacks required as some features are phased out.

Beyond that, if CableCARD continues to stick around I think it's likely we'll see something like Media Browser finally get certification to use it or maybe someone will get creative and build their own front end that supports it.

[adam1991]

Hey, a couple of years ago ReplayTV announced the end to their guide service. They gave 3 months warning. People scrambled to set themselves up with a convoluted mechanism to get the third party service working, then someone offered to host a site that used the third party service but which also mimicked the Replay server...

...then ReplayTV themselves said, "Awww, shucks, I guess we'll keep the guide service going after all. And tell you what: no more monthly fees. From now on, every unit is a lifetime unit."

And so it has been ever since.

If you're worrying right now about 7MC disappearing, you're only making trouble for yourself. Out of thin air, no less. Quit worrying about it.

[webminster]

The biggest possibility is that Microsoft will eventually stop providing guide data. There are already other solutions for that, and almost all of them cost between $10-20 per YEAR. Many people in Europe and the UK already rely on those alternative solutions today.

True, but is this more true for the UK etc. market than the US market? One can buy Big Screen EPG, and feed into that, but the most likely guide source for US I've seen (Schedules Direct) excludes WMC as a closed solution they won't license to (albeit I suppose you could lie about your intended use). I asked them about it once and was told it was still off limits officially. Whether that changes when WMC becomes a total orphan is a question...if there are better sources than SD (which IIRC is associated with Tribune, who also feeds Zap2it), would be interesting to know.

[Scallica]

While WMC is on the road to retirement, HTPCs are not going anywhere. There are other front ends available such as XBMC and soon to be released Media Browser Theater. Although support for copy protected TV is still an issue at the present time.

[shoffert]

The biggest question is what will the content delivery medium be? And that would tell you more about where technology will go. For the last 3-5 years, everyone was screaming NETFLIX!!! HULU!!! Then net neutrality was struck down and now I'm nervous that video streaming services may be too costly when you add the cost of the data transmission they consume.

I think it's similar to how everyone had an unlimited data plan on their phones for years. So all these companies started to take advantage by streaming music (slacker, pandora, sirius) and videos. They were even making car radios with apps built into consume your phone data. Then the phone companies saw all this data and decided they wanted a piece of the action. So now, if you want to stream music, you have to pay pandora $10/month, and you have to upgrade your data plan by another 2gb (at least) and pay your phone company another $10/month.

I think the home ISPs will do the same thing in the next few years. We'll all get half way to converting to IP based video delivery, then they'll pull the rug (or plug) out from under us and start charging for higher data consumption. Then the economical solution will be back to using a cable card/cable box on the coax that runs into your house.

Whoever controls the roads, controls the traffic. The cable companies will always do what it takes to force you into a bundle that squashes competition and allows them to profit on both their infrastructure and their agreements with the content providers. They DON'T want to lose that leverage.

So, to bring it back to your original question. WMC will probably not get much attention for a few years (and slowly decay). But I think it'll all come full circle. Whether it's MS providing the solution, or some other company that steps up and integrates the cable company's content into an home entertainment network.

Just one idiot's opinion. Take it for what it's worth.

[blueiedgod]

The biggest question is what will the content delivery medium be? And that would tell you more about where technology will go. For the last 3-5 years, everyone was screaming NETFLIX!!! HULU!!! Then net neutrality was struck down and now I'm nervous that video streaming services may be too costly when you add the cost of the data transmission they consume.

I think it's similar to how everyone had an unlimited data plan on their phones for years. So all these companies started to take advantage by streaming music (slacker, pandora, sirius) and videos. They were even making car radios with apps built into consume your phone data. Then the phone companies saw all this data and decided they wanted a piece of the action. So now, if you want to stream music, you have to pay pandora $10/month, and you have to upgrade your data plan by another 2gb (at least) and pay your phone company another $10/month.

I think the home ISPs will do the same thing in the next few years. We'll all get half way to converting to IP based video delivery, then they'll pull the rug (or plug) out from under us and start charging for higher data consumption. Then the economical solution will be back to using a cable card/cable box on the coax that runs into your house.

Whoever controls the roads, controls the traffic. The cable companies will always do what it takes to force you into a bundle that squashes competition and allows them to profit on both their infrastructure and their agreements with the content providers. They DON'T want to lose that leverage.

So, to bring it back to your original question. WMC will probably not get much attention for a few years (and slowly decay). But I think it'll all come full circle. Whether it's MS providing the solution, or some other company that steps up and integrates the cable company's content into an home entertainment network.

Just one idiot's opinion. Take it for what it's worth.

You are not far off. There are few markets in the US where metered internet is being tested, and one mature market is Canada. My in-laws learned the hard way, they got Roku and Netflix. Decided they did not need cable TV anymore. Everything seemed OK on paper, until they got their internet bill, it was over $300 for one month from all the streaming that they were doing. Their Cable bill was half of that with internet, phone and TV.

[3rob3]

My local provider in Ohio (Armstrong) is doing it now too. 150Gb per month with no TV service, 200Gb per month with TV service. Total BS and they just slipped it in there with no warning this year.

[barnabas1969]

150 or 200 gig is easy to blow through. I've had months where my router showed that I had downloaded terabytes of data.

[Embiggens]

Wow, those caps are crazy-low. A super HD movie on Netflix can be around 3-4 GB, so 150GB cap is basically one movie a day? Fortunately Charter (at least in my area) doesn't do this.

edit: err, bad math, I guess if it's all super hd and toward the high end, could be as bad as 1 movie per day, but in general a little more than that.

[3rob3]

Yep, I used to think cell data caps sucked. Now I have to watch my home usage even more (it's $10 for an extra 50Gb if you go over). I come right up to the 200Gb every month. Even if I am low I will purposely use every last bit I can.

And then, as a real FU, they sent out a letter saying they are increasing rates. But as a consolation they are increasing internet speeds. Gee, great, now I can hit that cap even faster.....

[famewolf]

Hey, a couple of years ago ReplayTV announced the end to their guide service. They gave 3 months warning. People scrambled to set themselves up with a convoluted mechanism to get the third party service working, then someone offered to host a site that used the third party service but which also mimicked the Replay server...

...then ReplayTV themselves said, "Awww, shucks, I guess we'll keep the guide service going after all. And tell you what: no more monthly fees. From now on, every unit is a lifetime unit."

And so it has been ever since.

If you're worrying right now about 7MC disappearing, you're only making trouble for yourself. Out of thin air, no less. Quit worrying about it.

The problem is their guide data didn't handle subchannels for OTA. I have a replay gathering dust in my garage. It might work fine for cable but doesn't do squat for me for OTA if I can't get to 1/2 the available channels. I currently use MCE for recording with hdhomerun tuners, mcebuddy to convert to mkv and mediaportal to display/play the shows. The new tv server for mediaportal is on it's way so if MCE stops providing listings that's where I would go next.

[asm495]

I have been using Windows Media Center for 10 years now. However, I'm about to retire my Xbox 360 Extenders and replace them with these: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ ... 0fykh.html

For the front-end I will be using XBMC (OpenElec) with a shared library and Server WMC to talk to my Media Center machine. I know MB3 is looking good for some people but I'd rather not pay out for Windows licences when I can use OpenElec for nothing.

If Media Center becomes too long in the tooth then I can always replace the backend with another one on the server and keep the XBMC front-ends. I know WMC will be supported for a while yet but after 10 years of good service I need something which works a bit better.

[famewolf]

I have been using Windows Media Center for 10 years now. However, I'm about to retire my Xbox 360 Extenders and replace them with these: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ ... 0fykh.html

For the front-end I will be using XBMC (OpenElec) with a shared library and Server WMC to talk to my Media Center machine. I know MB3 is looking good for some people but I'd rather not pay out for Windows licences when I can use OpenElec for nothing.

If Media Center becomes too long in the tooth then I can always replace the backend with another one on the server and keep the XBMC front-ends. I know WMC will be supported for a while yet but after 10 years of good service I need something which works a bit better.

With the exception of the usb 3.0 ports those NUC's reminded me an awful lot of the Dell Zino410 I'm currently using. http://www.engadget.com/gallery/dell-in ... ide=629060

[slowbiscuit]

I think the home ISPs will do the same thing in the next few years. We'll all get half way to converting to IP based video delivery, then they'll pull the rug (or plug) out from under us and start charging for higher data consumption. Then the economical solution will be back to using a cable card/cable box on the coax that runs into your house.

Whoever controls the roads, controls the traffic. The cable companies will always do what it takes to force you into a bundle that squashes competition and allows them to profit on both their infrastructure and their agreements with the content providers. They DON'T want to lose that leverage.

This is already happening on Comcast as they do a slow rollout of data caps to avoid widespread opposition. And if you think our revolving door FCC and our paid-for Congress cares about the abysmal state of the HSI market I've got a bridge to sell. Just watch what happens as they ask for minor concessions in exchange for allowing Comcast to buy out TWC.

It's a real shame how we've been screwed over on broadband.

Back on topic - there's no real fear that WMC is going to be disabled in Win7 or 8, the worst that could happen is that guide data goes away and that is easily replaced. It's dead for future Win releases IMO, but it's not dead yet.

[epayson85]

I want one of those new baytrail nucs as well but they only support windows 8 right now. The chip set drivers do not support windows 7. Intel has cone out and confirmed. You can get through the windows 7 install using a retro setting in the bios but after that windows 7 will not boot. They are working on a fix. Hopefully its released out before they become readily available.

[LuckyDay]

I want one of those new baytrail nucs as well but they only support windows 8 right now. The chip set drivers do not support windows 7. Intel has cone out and confirmed. You can get through the windows 7 install using a retro setting in the bios but after that windows 7 will not boot. They are working on a fix. Hopefully its released out before they become readily available.

Yeah, that will be fixed in no time.

If I didn't use my htpc for gaming I would replace it with my NUC in a heartbeat, it's great.

[JazJon]

Well it was a good 10+ year run on Media Center as my main interface on the TV. I just made the switch to XBMC Gotham + PVR MCE Backend. (so far so good)

Anyone know how to get Skip Forward/Back working?
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=187193

The most used remote control buttons for me are the skip forward (30 seconds) and skip back (15 seconds) This is much faster zipping back commercials.

My MCE Remote Control skip forward and skip back buttons have no effect in XBMC. I can only use regular fast forward and reverse.

What's the trick to enable skip forward and skip back once again in XBMC?

I found the following but none of it helped so far. Is it something simple I over looked?
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Ad ... MC#Windows

P.S.
I've loved XBMC awhile now but I couldn't bring myself to leave MCE as my primary front end. What really pushed me over the edge or the damn no signal error message popups I have to clear every day.
(that don't effect recordings at all) I shouldn't ever have to deal with them again with MCE running in the background and notifications disabled
http://experts.windows.com/frms/windows ... 00245.aspx

Here we go!

[Polen]

I believe we have at the least another 5 years, probably much more of WMC. I think WMC will die due to something better coming out due to technology. The tech I see a future for is Video On Demand (VOD). The cable companies are already supplying some of there content this way. The thing I hate about Hulu is the forced commercials with no way to skip them. I bet the content providers hate the skip button and I think they would like a system which allows you to watch TV shows when you want, like a DVR, but still force you to see commercials.

The other thing is as our parents leave us and we become the senior citizens and expect high end technology and cut our cable TV or commercial skip, then we will see a shift in how content is provided so that they can get marketing material in front of us or do like social media and perform some type of data mining about our likes and dislikes.