Windows 8.1 as an Extender

[Rainey]

Well this maybe a dumb question but could you not just make a RDT connection from the Win 8.1 pc to the Win 7 PC and run WMC on the Win 7 PC. would that not be just like what the extender do?

I am in the same boat as i just installed an HDHR prime and a few echoes and found out my win 8 PC would not work with the echoes. SO i got a win 7 HTPC setup and all is well. Then i ran the win 8 WMC and i guess it took over the HDHR and i found the WIn7 HTPC complained about the DRM channels so i had to run the setup again on the win 7 PC. So i guess i can not run WMC on two different PC's with the one HDHR.

[RyC]

WMC will throw an error about not being able to playback video in a RDP session

[adam1991]

You can't do an RDP session from a Windows machine like that. An extender is a special case of an RDP session, which you can't replicate using plain Windows.

As for your HDHR Prime, you certainly can assign tuners to different PCs.

[mdavej]

I have several PCs running WMC (in 7 and 8) and sharing tuners and unprotected files. Should work fine.

If you don't mind using MMC as a remote and GUI, you can also run an Echo from Win 8.

Worst cast, you could run ServerWMC on your main HTPC and MB3 or XBMC on your other boxes.

[DavidinCT]

WMC will throw an error about not being able to playback video in a RDP session

Yep, you can use something like VNC but, you would be taking over the session (Cant watch different shows at 2 different locations) and even that is spotty at best, local lan, gigabit connection (actually getting gigabit) and even then you will deal with some studdering and audio dropping.

For someone who has researched the heck out of this, it's not possible. Even if you DONT have cablecard recordings (Everything on cablecards have DRM for the most case), and share them on the network, and get that part working (it's sluggish, on gigabit, load recorded shows and they start showing one by one, very slowly), you cant share a guide, or lots of other features.

You might be able to get a lot of media shared between the 2 pcs but, it's never fast and there are issues with it....Some content streams fine others will break up and be blocky....

Your best bet here, pick up a refurbed Xbox 360 (saw referbs going for $80 with a controller the other day), pick up a $5 MC remote (ebay), and use it as a dedicated MC exender...Under $100...and you can play games on it too

[sbaeder]

bottom line - *IF* it is unprotected content that was recored on Macine A, you can install and run WMC on machine B, and it will act just like machnie B had actually recorded it...Same guide (for live TV), etc. in other words - Same WMC Experiance.

What doesn't work is the protected content, which can only play back on the original machine that recorded it. If you can "live" with that, and keep track of which machine is recording which shows, then "GO FOR IT"...

As stated, it is *NOT* an extender, but a parallel path to the files and data so that the UI is the same.

BTW, this is how I run things! Main WMC is Win7, and my upstairs PC is Win 8.1...works fine...I just schedule recordings on the main one.

[DavidinCT]

bottom line - *IF* it is unprotected content that was recored on Macine A, you can install and run WMC on machine B, and it will act just like machnie B had actually recorded it...Same guide (for live TV), etc. in other words - Same WMC Experiance.

What doesn't work is the protected content, which can only play back on the original machine that recorded it. If you can "live" with that, and keep track of which machine is recording which shows, then "GO FOR IT"...

As stated, it is *NOT* an extender, but a parallel path to the files and data so that the UI is the same.

BTW, this is how I run things! Main WMC is Win7, and my upstairs PC is Win 8.1...works fine...I just schedule recordings on the main one.

Right, if it's not protected content this sort of works. In using your examples in above, You cant share a guide and need to have a tuner in in Machine B to be able to watch TV (you wont be able to see what is recording on A from B, so no sharing in that aspect). You can share out your Recorded shows on Machine A and map a drive on Machine B for it, then in Recorded shows, you can set another folder to watch for recorded shows. This WILL work.

I've done this on my local lan over a gigabit connection and from my tablet over Wi-Fi, as it does work but, every time you go into recorded shows(on machine B), it needs to re-download the list of shows on machine A and even on gigabit connection, it's slow before it shows the whole list of shows. Over a N Wi-Fi network, almost unusable in this aspect. If you have 30-40 recordings, this could take 5 min or so, with 2-3, maybe a few seconds.

It is a work-around but, it's not a true extender, and the only way to do that is to use an Extender or a cheap Xbox 360...

As for Protected content, if your using cablecard, you have protected content and MOST shows will not work setting this up.

[mike_ekim]

As for Protected content, if your using cablecard, you have protected content and MOST shows will not work setting this up.

Depending on your provider. I have Cox in Rhode island; I have a cablecard and almost everything is copy freely.