Considering XBMC to Win7 MC. Lots of questions.

[LTParis]

Ever since the switch to XMBCbuntu I have been having serious problems with my XBMC installation. Also given I am considering purchasing a XBOX 360 and I am considering swapping back over to MC. But I have a ton of questions.

1. I use Couch Potato and Sick Beard. Anyone with problems on this on W7MC environment?
2. Centon Support. What is the overall consensus of PVR on MC now in 2012?
3. Horsepower. I built a Zotac 9300, 4GB box built circa 4/10. Enough horsepower to playback and stream?
4. Boot to MC. Is this possible? My server would be a dedicated playback box too.
5. UI for things like TV Series and Movies. Are things like groupings simple and logical like XMBC offers?

[adam1991]

> 2. Centon Support. What is the overall consensus of PVR on MC now in 2012?

Do you mean Ceton?

Recording TV on Windows Media Center works great. You can record OTA, clear QAM, or encrypted QAM via cableCARD tuner such as Ceton InfiniTV (either PCI or USB) or the Silicon Dust HDHomeRun Prime (network). Poke around here and you'll find all the info you need.

> 4. Boot to MC. Is this possible?

Sure.


> 5. UI for things like TV Series and Movies.

See RecordedTV HD.

[milli260876]

5. Mediabrowser

[bmblank]

5. MyMovies

[LTParis]

So I see the dust never settled to claim one victor for to top end UI. MediaBrowser, MyMovies, RecordedTV HD. Is anyone aware of a deep dive review and comparison matrix of them all? I remember I tried MediaBrowser some time ago and was not impressed by it (so much so it's part of the reason why I flipped to XBMC).

[milli260876]

the neo theme in mediabrowser looks like the xbox dashboard, that looks nice mediabrowser > xbmc tho imho so we may differ....

[milli260876]

oh forgot, sickbeard was fine.... couch potato was a no go for me. Didn't put that much effort in tho mind....

[LTParis]

Well I took my first step and wiped my XBMCbuntu install, installed W7 and Media Browser. I am a bit concerned that the UI for some of the themes do not seem nearly as polished as XBMC. While there are some attempts to mimic what was over on XBMC (the Alaska theme for instance), I am a little disheartened that the Media Browser forums have been closed for two years. Did they stop developing/supporting Media Browser?

Now to try to get SAB, Couch Potato, and Sick Beard to work like it did over on my XMBC install, get some more memory for my box (currently running 2GB), and look at getting a Ceton card.

[bobbob]

I am a little disheartened that the Media Browser forums have been closed for two years. Did they stop developing/supporting Media Browser?

where did you get that idea from? current version was released on August 26 this year

[LTParis]

The fact that they don't have an active forum anymore makes me concerned that there is not a community focused on that anymore. I am not sure if people just moved over to the Green Button, or other places to get specific Media Browser help. Also a bit concerned that Microsoft has all but abandoned MCE as well. Not that I really care for W8, but it seems MC is an afterthought now and their real focus will be on driving content to the XBOX store and having devices like the 360, Surface, and W8 phones be the front end to that.

[bobbob]

again, where did you get that idea from? last post was 5 hours ago http://community.mediabrowser.tv/ i thought the clue was in my previous post?

[LTParis]

Looks like they had moved their forums. What I was looking at: http://www.mediabrowser.tv/forum/

[bobbob]

ahh, i see. no mediabrowser is very much in current development. quite a good community

[mdavej]

3. My circa 2007 PC with 2GB RAM streams just fine.

5. 3rd party apps are great, but WMC works fine without them. I tried to get my family to use RecordedTV HD, and they preferred the simplicity of WMC.

[duanew]

>3 I have a Zotac GF9300 and it working great. I have 4Gb of ram, and a E6500 processor. I know the processor is a little overkill for a HTPC but I was having stability issues and started throwing money at it. It was still pretty cheap at the time and is totally stable now. I only have a 720p DLP and it plays fine. It should still play 1080p also.

[LTParis]

Funny almost a year and I am posting again, on the very same topic. Back in 2012 I decided to just stick with XMBC, and lived with the good and the bad. I even cut the cable, but that won over like a bag of bricks. So I am considering Win7 MC again, this time with a Ceton card for cable. The addition of the cable card really throws XBMC out of the loop.

So new questions:

1) Now in late 2013 are people having any issues with encryption/Ceton/WMC?

2) I would be using my 360 as an extender. If I used MediaBrowser I take it that the 360 would not be able to see those enhancements? My real goal is seeing the content like I do with my XBMC setup (Movies and TV shows categorized and with all the metadata entact).

[adam1991]

Funny almost a year and I am posting again, on the very same topic. Back in 2012 I decided to just stick with XMBC, and lived with the good and the bad. I even cut the cable, but that won over like a bag of bricks. So I am considering Win7 MC again, this time with a Ceton card for cable. The addition of the cable card really throws XBMC out of the loop.

So new questions:

1) Now in late 2013 are people having any issues with encryption/Ceton/WMC?

2) I would be using my 360 as an extender. If I used MediaBrowser I take it that the 360 would not be able to see those enhancements? My real goal is seeing the content like I do with my XBMC setup (Movies and TV shows categorized and with all the metadata entact).

XMBC???

????

[LTParis]

OK if you cant figure out that was a typo... XBMC.

[LTParis]

Anyone with some info?

[milli260876]

Mediabrowser is now server>client based and wipes the floor with xbmc.
that is all