Now that WMC is officially dead, what about guide data?

[CXK]

I've known for a while Microsoft wasn't in to Media Center anymore. But now that its officially dead, is there a chance they'll stop supporting the guide data? Does that rely on Microsoft? Or can we use a third party service?

[STC]

It's not dead and won't be for many years to come. A third party guide service can be used at any time.

[adam1991]

"IT'S NOT BEING DEVELOPED ANYMORE! THAT MEANS IT'S INSTANTLY DEAD! IT DOESN'T WORK ANYMORE! YOU'RE AN IDIOT IF YOU CONTINUE TO USE IT FOR ONE MORE SECOND! IT'S GOING TO BLOW UP YOUR ENTIRE LIVING ROOM! YOU MUST STOP USING IT RIGHT NOW!"

[CXK]

"IT'S NOT BEING DEVELOPED ANYMORE! THAT MEANS IT'S INSTANTLY DEAD! IT DOESN'T WORK ANYMORE! YOU'RE AN IDIOT IF YOU CONTINUE TO USE IT FOR ONE MORE SECOND! IT'S GOING TO BLOW UP YOUR ENTIRE LIVING ROOM! YOU MUST STOP USING IT RIGHT NOW!"

That's not what I said, but thanks for your helpful reply.

It's not dead and won't be for many years to come. A third party guide service can be used at any time.

Thats great to hear. I've been using WMC and 360's as extenders without cable for almost 7 years now and I can't go back. I saw someone in the comments of a news story asking that same question and it really worried me. My wife loves WMC and as far as I know there is nothing close to the same ease of use and quality as Media Center.

[Crash2009]

How am I going to hear the explosion with all this yelling?

[adam1991]

"IT'S NOT BEING DEVELOPED ANYMORE! THAT MEANS IT'S INSTANTLY DEAD! IT DOESN'T WORK ANYMORE! YOU'RE AN IDIOT IF YOU CONTINUE TO USE IT FOR ONE MORE SECOND! IT'S GOING TO BLOW UP YOUR ENTIRE LIVING ROOM! YOU MUST STOP USING IT RIGHT NOW!"

That's not what I said, but thanks for your helpful reply.

I've commented on this sentiment before, very recently. That's what you missed.

[STC]

How about we treat new members with a little more savvy, adam?

[mdavej]

Gotta go with Adam on this one. WMC has been in a coma for years yet continues to work fine and will until at least 2023. The panic over Win 10 makes no sense to me. Why can't you simply use one of the many OS's that still has WMC? In the mean time, you have 8 years or more to find an alternative.

[lurch66]

So for those that do not know WMC currently uses Zap2it for its guide data. This is also used by TiVo among others I'm sure, so to answer you question, most likely the guide data will work for a long time to come.
However if it does stop I would suspect the fine folks on the site ether already have or will come up with a way to use another guide data provider so WMC continues to work. Thanks for the question and I hope this helps others with the same concern's.

[CXK]

How about we treat new members with a little more savvy, adam?

I'm not totally new, I had an account years ago but hadn't be on in so long I couldn't find any record of it.

I don't want WMC to be "dead". I did realize after the recent news I know very little about it. I know that I built a PC/server many years ago, set up my extenders and some tuners and sort of just let it run. Its easier to take a "if its not broke, don't fix it" approach to my set up since I store tons of other movies/tv series on there. Reformatting and keeping all of that data was always major time consuming.

Its great to hear this could last many more years, maybe by that time there will be an internet based option thats actually useful.

Gotta go with Adam on this one. WMC has been in a coma for years yet continues to work fine and will until at least 2023. The panic over Win 10 makes no sense to me. Why can't you simply use one of the many OS's that still has WMC? In the mean time, you have 8 years or more to find an alternative.

Just curious, what is the reason for the 2023 cut off? I have no intention of moving to Win 10. I'm still running Win 7 and stopped updating long ago after getting an update that broke my media center set up.

Edit: I googled, got my answer.

[Ed]

Just curious, what is the reason for the 2023 cut off?

It's an assumption based off how long they have said they will support Win 8.1; that they will also provide guide data to WMC for that long. However, if you read the EULA of WMC - it says they can stop providing guide data to WMC at any time (which is why Microsoft won't say specifically how long they will provide guide data in/to WMC - they will only state how long they have already publicly committed to supporting the base OS - which is a different matter altogether). So, they might cut off guide data tomorrow, or in 2023 (when they stop supporting 8.1), or in 2146 for all we know.

[blueiedgod]

If the media center in XBOX One uses the same feed, the guide support may go beyond 2023, as well.

[n4mwd]

If M$ cancels the guide feed, there are many other sources of the data. The most obvious is the data that is transmitted with the signal. If they somehow mess up WMC to cause it to fail, there is always WMC's step-cousin - Kodi. Its definitely pretty rough around the edges, but by the time M$ forces a migration away from WMC, it will probably be ready for daily use.

[windham9]

MS wants to give me Windows 10 for free. Since when do they do that? Oh wait,, that doesn't include Media center,,, So MS will give me Windows 10 totally free, if I just quit using that pesky guide. Never I say, all FIVE of my PC's running windows 7 will not be upgraded! MS will have to pry WMC from my dead hand.

[mercalia]

media center anyway will receive ( in the uk atleast ) ota epg data - 7 days worth. so MS u cant hurt us in the Uk

[n4mwd]

I don't think M$ has updated WMC in several years. We used to have integrated streaming, but they "updated" that into oblivion. As long as they don't pull a stunt like that again and "update" something else away, it should still continue to work. Here in the US, the EPG uses M$ servers. I am not sure what has to be done to get it to work with the OTA EPG - or possibly a different service.

[millerbrad]

When Windows 8 was released, features like Sports and Internet TV were pulled from WMC. It honestly wouldn't surprise me if they yanked guide data in the next year once 10 is released.

[Mountainbreeze]

It would seem to me that since WMC is a part of Win 7, guide data would have to be provided as long as MS officially supports Win 7.

[DavidinCT]

When Windows 8 was released, features like Sports and Internet TV were pulled from WMC. It honestly wouldn't surprise me if they yanked guide data in the next year once 10 is released.

This was pulled when the ehome team was broken up, this was the internal end of WMC from a development standpoint. This was NOT killed in 8, it was killed in 7 (not too long before 8 came out if I remember correctly). Media Center works EXACTLY the way it did on Windows 7 besides these 2 features.

The feeds stopped because they chose to no longer support it. There is nothing we can do about internet TV because of it's formatting but, I would love to see if someone could hack in a feed for the Sports strip, even for score updates and On Now (so it could search the guide for games)...I am sure that would be possible.

[millerbrad]

When Windows 8 was released, features like Sports and Internet TV were pulled from WMC. It honestly wouldn't surprise me if they yanked guide data in the next year once 10 is released.

This was pulled when the ehome team was broken up, this was the internal end of WMC from a development standpoint. This was NOT killed in 8, it was killed in 7 (not too long before 8 came out if I remember correctly). Media Center works EXACTLY the way it did on Windows 7 besides these 2 features.

The feeds stopped because they chose to no longer support it. There is nothing we can do about internet TV because of it's formatting but, I would love to see if someone could hack in a feed for the Sports strip, even for score updates and On Now (so it could search the guide for games)...I am sure that would be possible.

This is exactly what I'm saying (maybe you're not disagreeing, and just clarifying). They pulled features from Windows 7 WMC around the release of Windows 8. Features that probably involve licensing fees and maintenance/development they couldn't (or didn't want to) deal with anymore. Guide data could potentially fall into a similar bucket. Just because the operating system is supported, it doesn't mean they can't phase out some parts of existing apps. They've already proven that.

Luckily, as some people have mentioned, it is possible to import guide data from external sources into WMC, so hopefully there will be a workaround. I'm just hoping I don't open WMC someday and get greeted by a message saying the software will no longer function after "X" date (Yeah, I know, that's a longshot).