Recording TV

[Gregory2732]

Ok, so I am hoping this is possible, but kind of doubt it. I am looking to setup one WMC pc to record all the tv shows that I schedule from others in the house. I know it doesn't do this natively so wondering if there is any 3rd party software, free or not, that will make this possible, or any hack.

Thank you for any help

[newfiend]

Are you using WMC extenders on your other TV's in the house? If so it should record all the shows you schedule on the main HTPC no matter what extender sets the recording.

[Gregory2732]

No, that's the thing, I have multiple htpc's and I am setting up one machine to hold all my movies, music ect in order to streamline, I want to be able to have this machine do all the tv recording, so if im in the living room and setup a scheduled recording the main machine is the one that does it. im looking to get rid of my cable boxes (they take 41 watts ea) and have just one pc that I got down to 53 watts (with the hdds sleeping) instead of the 4 boxes to be the only one always on. I am attempting to go off grid with my solar system and looking to go exclusively media center and save an additional 28$ mo on my cable box bills.

I am guessing I am going to end up having to manually set the main machine to record what I want which is ok if I have too, just don't want to have too..lol

[mdavej]

If you want to save energy, extenders are really the way to go instead of multiple PCs since they only use 5W at full power and zero when not in use. I have one PC for all recordings and 5 extenders. My main PC is only 20W. So you may want to also look at more efficient processors like the J1900. My entire 6 TV system uses the same energy as your one PC.

Otherwise, you can do remote desktop, Ceton My Media Center or Remote Potato for remote scheduling. I'm sure there are probably others.

[adam1991]

No, that's the thing, I have multiple HTPC's and I am setting up one machine to hold all my movies, music ect in order to streamline, I want to be able to have this machine do all the tv recording, so if im in the living room and setup a scheduled recording the main machine is the one that does it. im looking to get rid of my cable boxes (they take 41 watts ea) and have just one PC that I got down to 53 watts (with the hdds sleeping) instead of the 4 boxes to be the only one always on. I am attempting to go off grid with my solar system and looking to go exclusively media center and save an additional 28$ mo on my cable box bills.

I am guessing I am going to end up having to manually set the main machine to record what I want which is ok if I have too, just don't want to have too..lol

yeah, you're going about this COMPLETELY wrong.

You've started with the ASS-U-Mption that to save power, you must have actual Windows PCs as remote clients. That assumption is wrong.

Because the assumption is wrong, you may now scrap the idea of using actual Windows PC clients--which means you don't have the problem you thought you have.

Use a WMC box and Echo extenders. Done.

[DavidinCT]

Ok, so I am hoping this is possible, but kind of doubt it. I am looking to setup one WMC PC to record all the tv shows that I schedule from others in the house. I know it doesn't do this natively so wondering if there is any 3rd party software, free or not, that will make this possible, or any hack.

Thank you for any help

Your making this way over complicated. Wile you can do some trickery and use mapped folders over a network to have any MC machine show all the recordings from all the machines. It does not work very well, and even has problems over Wi-Fi... There is a tool I believe called the guide broker or something like that that might help but, it should not be this complex.

I would do as the others suggested. If you want the TRUE WIndows Media Center Experience all around your home, the BEST way to do it is

1. Primary HTPC, WMC based machine with all your tuners.
2. Network Extenders in the rooms where you want TV or content from your WMC machine.

You have 1 source for recording, all content is on that one machine, movies, music, videos, etc, and EACH extender can access it like your sitting in front of my main PC.

If your looking for a cheap Exender to try this out, use a Xbox 360 (you can find used ones cheap), it's one of the better exenders anyway....(you can set the 360 to boot directly into WMC, so you don't need to play games on it)

[newfiend]

Ok, so I am hoping this is possible, but kind of doubt it. I am looking to setup one WMC PC to record all the tv shows that I schedule from others in the house. I know it doesn't do this natively so wondering if there is any 3rd party software, free or not, that will make this possible, or any hack.

Thank you for any help

Your making this way over complicated. Wile you can do some trickery and use mapped folders over a network to have any MC machine show all the recordings from all the machines. It does not work very well, and even has problems over Wi-Fi... There is a tool I believe called the guide broker or something like that that might help but, it should not be this complex.

I would do as the others suggested. If you want the TRUE WIndows Media Center Experience all around your home, the BEST way to do it is

1. Primary HTPC, WMC based machine with all your tuners.
2. Network Extenders in the rooms where you want TV or content from your WMC machine.

You have 1 source for recording, all content is on that one machine, movies, music, videos, etc, and EACH extender can access it like your sitting in front of my main PC.

If your looking for a cheap Exender to try this out, use a Xbox 360 (you can find used ones cheap), it's one of the better exenders anyway....(you can set the 360 to boot directly into WMC, so you don't need to play games on it)

+1 ^^^^ This.

[Gregory2732]

Thank you for all the responses, I know the extender route is the easiest, and the most efficient energy wise, was just looking for a solution to the equipment I already have in place. I have toyed with the idea of giving extenders a try, but the longevity of WMC as a media center platform seems in doubt, which sux since its all ive ever known since vista and I have it the way I like it, but going the pc route allows me to in the future use a different platform should that day come. I have 2 ceton infinitv4 tuners in my main system and share the tuners, I love WMC, as far as im concerned there is no substitute. For not im just going to set them up to wake them selves up individually to handle there own schedules. Thank you all for your input.... much appreciated!!

(my setup is as follows as of now, my main machine has 2 3tb Raid 1 arrays for my movies, music, pics, videos, 1tb for tv, ceton infinitv4, and the other 3 machines are mapped to those drives and have 2 tuners ea over a gigabit lan)

If I got extender route, what is the most reliable?? ive heard not so good things about echo, and the xbox route is ugly and not as streamlined as id like. Have they fixed the echo?

[RyC]

It still seems hit or miss with the Echo. Some people (like me) have no problems at all, but others have nothing but problems. You can buy it on Amazon and return it for a full refund if it doesn't work out for you.

[dkrom]

Extenders are definitely the way to go, BUT... you could just turn on remote desktop for your main machine and remote in from the others when you want to set a recording. That would require you using the mouse and keyboard on those machines, but it should work. You would then want to set up the folder shares.

You might also be able to use a VNC which might be easier than Remote Desktop. I believe UltraVNC (or Real VNC) is free and would allow you to "take over" the main machine in a window to set your recordings.

[garnuts]

If I got extender route, what is the most reliable?? ive heard not so good things about echo, and the xbox route is ugly and not as streamlined as id like. Have they fixed the echo?

I use 3 of the latest Xbox 360 4gb as extenders. I also read enough negative experiences with echo extenders, that I went with Xbox's and I'm very happy with my system. I bought one recertified on ebay for 109, and the other 2 for 129 when they were on sale around Black Friday. They will pay for themselves w/in one year on the saving from the 2 DVR's and 1 regular cable box they replaced.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OEA4ADU/ref ... 50_TE_item

They look better and are smaller than the cable boxes they replaced. They are silent and they have worked almost appliance like for the six months I've been using them. I've never tested their energy usage myself, but I know they use much less than the cable boxes they replaced.

I use them mostly for live and recorded TV, but also for streaming internet content (Amazon Prime, Vudu, etc.), and media on my server. Of course you can use them for gaming and as a DVD player.

[mdavej]

Echo does seem to be hit or miss. I've had no significant problems with my 5 Echoes, except for one that I knew was bricked when someone gave it to me. Ceton support got it working again. If you're gun shy, just get an old Linksys instead, if you don't need wake-on-LAN. But I think Echo is worth trying for yourself. Xbox is the most reliable extender, but won't save any energy or space. I used to have all Xbox extenders and slowly replaced them with Echoes. The do still have a bug in the zoom function, are sensitive to unreliable networks and have occasional audio dropouts.

[mcewinter]

I would find a cheap extender and see if you can live with the crappy experience that they offer. While the TV experience is decent, extenders butcher the movie experience. What you're not being told is how many hours people spend making their existing movie colection compatible with extenders. If you don't have a large movie colection then my point is moot. If you plan on growing a collection then do your research accordingly.

[mdavej]

Unfortunately, one box that does it all doesn't exist. Extenders do live and recorded TV perfectly well. Other streaming boxes or PCs do movie files perfectly well. If file streaming is a big requirement, use something besides an extender for that.

[Sharks]

Hello Gregory,
Recording Broker does sound like it would serve your purposes wonderfully. One thing worth noting is it has about 15 min delay from when you tell one PC to record to actually having it show up on your main recording box. (This can be changed but the creator said it may causes issue if set faster.)
Here is the Link:
http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/wiki/index ... ing_Broker

[blueiedgod]

Thank you for all the responses, I know the extender route is the easiest, and the most efficient energy wise, was just looking for a solution to the equipment I already have in place. I have toyed with the idea of giving extenders a try, but the longevity of WMC as a media center platform seems in doubt, which sux since its all ive ever known since vista and I have it the way I like it, but going the PC route allows me to in the future use a different platform should that day come. I have 2 ceton infinitv4 tuners in my main system and share the tuners, I love WMC, as far as im concerned there is no substitute. For not im just going to set them up to wake them selves up individually to handle there own schedules. Thank you all for your input.... much appreciated!!

(my setup is as follows as of now, my main machine has 2 3tb Raid 1 arrays for my movies, music, pics, videos, 1tb for tv, ceton infinitv4, and the other 3 machines are mapped to those drives and have 2 tuners ea over a gigabit lan)

If I got extender route, what is the most reliable?? ive heard not so good things about echo, and the xbox route is ugly and not as streamlined as id like. Have they fixed the echo?

Have been using Linksys extenders since 2009 and they are just fine. I can't imagine Echo being worse than the obsolete Linksys.

[webminster]

I can't speak to them over the last year, since I sent my Echos back after trying them. At the time, they were worse... crashes, having to be "recovered", and slower skip-forwards than my DMA2200s. I'm still using the Linksys extenders. I don't see much indication that Ceton is still supporting or improving the Echo firmware, so haven't had much interest in trying them again.

That being said, I'll admit it's my humble opinion, and I've heard people being happy with echos. Best to buy one, especially on the specials that are run frequently, from someplace with a return policy if you're unhappy.

[DavidinCT]

If I got extender route, what is the most reliable?? ive heard not so good things about echo, and the xbox route is ugly and not as streamlined as id like. Have they fixed the echo?

I use 3 of the latest Xbox 360 4gb as extenders. I also read enough negative experiences with echo extenders, that I went with Xbox's and I'm very happy with my system. I bought one recertified on ebay for 109, and the other 2 for 129 when they were on sale around Black Friday. They will pay for themselves w/in one year on the saving from the 2 DVR's and 1 regular cable box they replaced.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OEA4ADU/ref ... 50_TE_item

They look better and are smaller than the cable boxes they replaced. They are silent and they have worked almost appliance like for the six months I've been using them. I've never tested their energy usage myself, but I know they use much less than the cable boxes they replaced.

I use them mostly for live and recorded TV, but also for streaming internet content (Amazon Prime, Vudu, etc.), and media on my server. Of course you can use them for gaming and as a DVD player.

If the OP just wants to test and see how well they work, the best bet is to find a used one. Crap, I saw used ones working for as low as $40 on ebay. All the OP needs is one that works, even the DVD drive could be dead, it still works as an Extender(black listed/hacked ones that are banned, do not FYI). No question spending $40-50 for a test is way better than days of troubleshooting to try to fix something that will never work great in the first place.

Get a cheap one, play with it for a week or so, then look at your layout and your thoughts on it. After a few days, you will see that it just works, makes a PERFECT extender and will be that seamless experience that he is looking for. If it works, then find better looking ones for your rooms.

You just need a Media Center remote ($5-10 on ebay), you do need that to use it.

[mike_ekim]

OP could try Ceton's 'My Media Center" app. It's a smartphone app, not a computer program, so it wouldn't do exactly what he wants; he could record a show from any location in the home (but not from any computer).