One Win 8 Hassle Solved: Media Center Will be Free

[newfiend]

Well FREE for a limited time if you Upgrade!..
You can read more here... http://www.pcworld.com/article/258693/o ... grade.html
Does this make you more likely to upgrade?
I'm still on the fence..
newfiend~

[richard1980]

No. Further development would have made me upgrade.

[STC]

Not for Media Center alone. My trusty W7 HTPC is working very nicely thank you.
-I can just imagine all the little nuance problems that will arise from a new OS on a live HTPC rig.
Be careful of WAF and FAF

I may bother to install an evaluation copy at some point to twiddle with, but only to see what the O/S is about.

[erkotz]

I'm a bit concerned that they say upgrade. I generally clean-install my boxes, so I am wondering what, if any, implications this will have.
That said, I've been using Win8 (First the beta, then the RC, and now RTM for about 2 weeks) on my laptop and overall like it.
I did see one change in WMC I like - if you try and install a CableCARD tuner and you haven't run the DCA, it smacks you and tells you to run it rather than just erroring

[bob_p]

Unfortunately from other forum posts, it looks like we may have to wait until late October before TechNet/MSDN users can get Media Center for RTM...

[mark1234]

Well FREE for a limited time if you Upgrade!..
You can read more here... http://www.pcworld.com/article/258693/o ... grade.html
Does this make you more likely to upgrade?

Nope.

8MC itself may be free for a while, but Win8 isn't. With no functional difference there is no need to upgrade. I have previous in this area: I skipped VMC as it offered no functional improvement over XP MCE2005, just a prettier interface; 8MC doesn't even have that going for it.

[newfiend]

I don't like upgrading an os either..it always seems quirky afterward..at least to me. I,.. like erkotz prefer to clean install. So erkotz, since you have already installed it and like it so far will you be keeping it on your main HTPC? It seems that plugins and add ons for MC 7 are at a stand still and functionality as a whole is dwindling (weather apps come to mind), what would your suggestion be? My Win7 box is pretty solid.. I wish some of the apps like Netflix etc were updated etc but I'm leaning toward Richard's view.. If they had further developed MC that would have been a more compelling reason to upgrade.

Sent from my SGH-i937 using Board Express

[STC]

erkotz,

As 8 is reportedly a faster shell, does it speed up the MC interface? Is this measurable in any way?
That could ultimately be a reason to upgrade.

[woodchuck]

Forget it Microsoft. Why in the hell would I upgrade to 8? Metro? The tagline for 8 should be "Check out Windows 8! It will be the next Vista!"

[barnabas1969]

I agree with Richard. If they had fixed some of the little bugs and quirks, updated the Netflix plugin, added some other services like Hulu & Vudu, and maybe made the "Internet TV" app something more than a curiosity... then I definitely would be looking at upgrading.

With no significant changes, other than what Erkotz mentioned, I see no reason to move from Win7 to 8.

As for the whole Metro thing... who cares. If you're going to use it for a dedicated HTPC, you'll very rarely need to interact with the Metro interface anyway. They may have taken the setting out of Media Center to start with Windows, but there are other ways to accomplish that. A dedicated HTPC running Media Center is going to be set to run Media Center at startup... so the Metro interface is of no consequence whatsoever.

That said, I can't see using the Metro interface in a business application. Do you really think that large companies are going to want to spend tons of money to train their staff how to use Metro? I don't think so.

[mdavej]

My very informal testing showed absolutely zero speed increase in media center or any of my extenders.

[STC]

^^ Thanks for joining and posting this!

[wayner]

Just because it is an upgrade doesn't mean that you have to run an upgrade process rather than a new install process. With Win7 there were at least a couple of ways to do a full install with upgrade media and I don't think this is even against the EULA, even if you cared about that. What would you do if you upgraded and then your Hard Drive died? Would you have to install Win7 and then do an upgrade? I think not.

[scyto]

Well FREE for a limited time if you Upgrade!..
You can read more here... http://www.pcworld.com/article/258693/o ... grade.html
Does this make you more likely to upgrade?
I'm still on the fence..
newfiend~

Already built my new UEFI MCE PC - boots in 23 seconds to useable.
Free / $10 that's minimal difference as far as I am concerned.
(at least it was $9.99 when the dummy transactions still worked

[Danno100]

I agree with Richard. If they had fixed some of the little bugs and quirks, updated the Netflix plugin, added some other services like Hulu & Vudu, and maybe made the "Internet TV" app something more than a curiosity... then I definitely would be looking at upgrading.

With no significant changes, other than what Erkotz mentioned, I see no reason to move from Win7 to 8.

As for the whole Metro thing... who cares. If you're going to use it for a dedicated HTPC, you'll very rarely need to interact with the Metro interface anyway. They may have taken the setting out of Media Center to start with Windows, but there are other ways to accomplish that. A dedicated HTPC running Media Center is going to be set to run Media Center at startup... so the Metro interface is of no consequence whatsoever.

That said, I can't see using the Metro interface in a business application. Do you really think that large companies are going to want to spend tons of money to train their staff how to use Metro? I don't think so.

I'm thinking my next move will be a Mac mini with Eye TV for TV recording. The Apple TV has all the Netflix, Hulu, and other content. Once the ATV3 is jailbroken, Plex server on a mac Mini would allow just about any content to be played on the ATV. As a player, the ATV is cheap, small, low power, etc. And if not jailbroken, you can Airplay just about anything to any Apple TV. Apple has/will blow Media Center out of the water for simplicity, ease of use, functionality, etc.

[RyC]

If you're going to be using eyetv, in my experience, the eyetv HD is not reliable. The hybrid/250 is, though. But the eyetv software doesn't seem as polished or stable as WMC. I used all three eyetv products for 5 years before I was able to get the Ceton card. I prefer WMC over eyetv.

[JazJon]

I keep monitoring the alternative 3rd party DVR software options out there. I have to agree nothing beats the reliability and performance of Media Center. (yet) We'll see what happens as Media Center is forced to face away due to Microsoft's decision to abandon further development of it.

I'm wondering if XBMC PVR will take off
http://forum.xbmc.org/forumdisplay.php?fid=136

[richard1980]

Not without CableLabs' blessing it won't.

[mark1234]

Only one market in the world uses cablecard.

[richard1980]

The market that JazJon is in.