Advice: WMC on Win7, Win8 or Win10

[willgill]

For years I had WMC running well on Windows 7. My setup was HTPC with Ceton InfiniTV4 PCI on Time Warner Cable feeding 4 XBox 360s as extenders. I need WMC for home videos, live tv with and without DRM decoding and occasional music.

Recently my Windows 7 install has become flakey with DRM playback issues. I went through all the noted fixes, but it has never been the same. I decided to do a fresh install. Since Windows 7 is no longer supported, I decided to make the jump to Windows 8/8.1. After looking for WMC, I realized it was a goofy add-on. I had purchased it for a now defunct computer, but the license is nowhere to be found... .and I've looked pretty hard.

Knowing I have to support DRM live TV and 4 extenders, what should I do? I'd hate to go back to Windows 7, but not opposed to it.

[willgill]

Well, thank God I'm a digital pack rat. I found my key and it registered just fine.
However, I'm still curious as to what ya'll think about the original question. I don't see a reason to upgrade to Windows 10 yet (though I really like it) and try to hack on WMC. If I couldn't find my key, would the hacked version be the way to go?

[choliscott]

Where do you get Windows 7 is no longer supported? It's supported to 2020

To answer your question, There is no difference between WMC on W7 & WMC on W8. The big item that would keep someone on W7 is the extender, since XB360 is the only one that fully works with W8.

The next item would probably be any add on's. I personally didn't notice any difference between using WMC on W7 & W8. However the difference I believe I saw was the usage of the add on RecordedTVHD. It appears that it seems to work better on W7 compared to W8.

As far as W10 is concerned, last I read, they were still working on getting extenders to connect.

For years I had WMC running well on Windows 7. My setup was HTPC with Ceton InfiniTV4 PCI on Time Warner Cable feeding 4 XBox 360s as extenders. I need WMC for home videos, live tv with and without DRM decoding and occasional music.

Recently my Windows 7 install has become flakey with DRM playback issues. I went through all the noted fixes, but it has never been the same. I decided to do a fresh install. Since Windows 7 is no longer supported, I decided to make the jump to Windows 8/8.1. After looking for WMC, I realized it was a goofy add-on. I had purchased it for a now defunct computer, but the license is nowhere to be found... .and I've looked pretty hard.

Knowing I have to support DRM live TV and 4 extenders, what should I do? I'd hate to go back to Windows 7, but not opposed to it.

[willgill]

Where do you get Windows 7 is no longer supported? It's supported to 2020

To answer your question, There is no difference between WMC on W7 & WMC on W8. The big item that would keep someone on W7 is the extender, since XB360 is the only one that fully works with W8.

Thanks for the info. I was thinking Windows XP. I also don't have any other extenders except XB360, so I'm good. Now I'm just setting everything back up again.

[DavidinCT]

Where do you get Windows 7 is no longer supported? It's supported to 2020

To answer your question, There is no difference between WMC on W7 & WMC on W8. The big item that would keep someone on W7 is the extender, since XB360 is the only one that fully works with W8.

Thanks for the info. I was thinking Windows XP. I also don't have any other extenders except XB360, so I'm good. Now I'm just setting everything back up again.

If your thinking how long a the OS is supported, According to the last schedule, 8.1 will be supported for 3-5 years longer than WIndows 7. With this being said, this 2020-2025.

I honestly hope there is a better option than WMC by then. I love WMC, i really do but, the lack of internet based support is old now. With Netflix, Hulu, Amazon video streaming options, there has to be a better option and no I am not talking about the 3-5 year old dated plugins that only show up to 720p.... I cant even open WMC on my HTPC and find a easy way to find out who won today's NFL game......Something I can do with 95% of the DVRS from the cable company or sat providers.

If you have ONLY 360's for Exenders, 8.1 or Windows 7 will do... The ONLY problem is when you get to 3rd party extenders, as they dont work with 8/8.1...

8.1 would of been the dream for WMC users if you could control apps via remote but, you cant...

For a dedicated HTPC, the Windows 10 plug in works pretty good but has it's issues, and extender support is one of them (they dont work right now)

[mdavej]

Why do people think that their OS will suddenly stop working when support ends? And what kind of "support" for WMC do you expect? WMC hasn't changed for years and won't be changing in the future. That's like being concerned that support for a rock has ended.

I have several Win NT, 95, XP and even DOS systems still going strong.

By being compelled to "upgrade" to Win 10 for no reason, you're playing right into Microsoft's hands and losing a lot of functionality. If Win 8.x doesn't work for you, Win 10 is going to be even worse.

When using legacy software, you need to run the legacy OS along with it. Keep Win 7 indefinitely. By the time it truly ceases to function, something better will have come along.

FWIW, I had a similar system (WMC on Win 7, Ceton 6 tuner device and 5 extenders) and switched to Tivo. My new system works much better and cost less than the one it replaced (4 tuner DVR with lifetime for $300 plus 5 Minis at $69 each). All I changed was to install a larger hard drive. The $300 deal is dead, but used ones can still be found for around $400, still not bad at all considering I was able to sell off my old components for about the same price. There is no point in living with all WMC's shortcomings unless you're just a glutton for punishment (the Rovi fiasco, loss of Netflix, limited functionality in Win 10, etc.).

[IT Troll]

Why do people think that their OS will suddenly stop working when support ends?

They could stop feeding guide data. That is currently the only advantage that Windows 8 has over 7 or 10.

[Crash2009]

Why do people think that their OS will suddenly stop working when support ends?

They could stop feeding guide data. That is currently the only advantage that Windows 8 has over 7 or 10.

Apparently the guide data is fed to WMC and not to the OS.

Plus, there are other guide choices such as Scheduled Direct.

[RyC]

Isn't Windows XP still getting guide data (if you have the SP and TV Pack installed etc etc etc)?

[Crash2009]

Isn't Windows XP still getting guide data (if you have the SP and TV Pack installed etc etc etc)?

I was wondering how those XP guys made out last summer.

[IT Troll]

XP and Vista (without the TV pack) use a different guide format and different feed to later releases. When we had the feed outage recently it took a lot longer to get the XP feed flowing again. The MS Team said then that they will try to keep people running but they couldn't promise anything especially as these are now out of support.

It would be very easy for Microsoft to turn off guide data for specific OS/WMC versions and it wouldn't suprise me if they did. They are pushing the upgrade to Windows 10 very hard and recently announced that they will not be supporting new silicon on anything other than Windows 10.

https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperi ... nnovation/

Of course their are other EPG sources, but none are so seamless, whilst others don't work so well in certain regions or incur additional cost.

[Crash2009]

Rovi was real seamless... Cost me 8 hours.. Cost some 8 weeks... Cost others a Tivo....

Not everyone has time for that kind of seamless.

Here is a great example of seamless.

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... =96&t=9026

[dkrom]

Isn't Windows XP still getting guide data (if you have the SP and TV Pack installed etc etc etc)?

I was wondering how those XP guys made out last summer.

Not very well - IT Troll is right about guide formats being different, but the US never received a fix, so the guide only works in the UK to my knowledge. Seeing his post does make me want to fire up my old XP machine again and test it, but I'm thinking the US will never see a guide fix for XP. I really like the XP version better than the Vista/7/8 version - it just worked, no new jazzy graphic effects to slow everything down.

[IT Troll]

Rovi was real seamless... Cost me 8 hours.. Cost some 8 weeks... Cost others a Tivo....

Not everyone has time for that kind of seamless.

Fair point. What I should of said is when it works it is seamless.

The other EPG sources I have tried have been a bit sketchy for the UK. Either 7-day only, missing channels, or require a lot of work to convert/import.

[Crash2009]

Rovi was real seamless... Cost me 8 hours.. Cost some 8 weeks... Cost others a Tivo....

Not everyone has time for that kind of seamless.

Fair point. What I should of said is when it works it is seamless.

The other EPG sources I have tried have been a bit sketchy for the UK. Either 7-day only, missing channels, or require a lot of work to convert/import.

I didn't know it could be worse.

With Win 10 it truly is seamless now that I figured out the order. Make a mistake however and its easier to start over.

[Crash2009]

Isn't Windows XP still getting guide data (if you have the SP and TV Pack installed etc etc etc)?

I was wondering how those XP guys made out last summer.

Not very well - IT Troll is right about guide formats being different, but the US never received a fix, so the guide only works in the UK to my knowledge. Seeing his post does make me want to fire up my old XP machine again and test it, but I'm thinking the US will never see a guide fix for XP. I really like the XP version better than the Vista/7/8 version - it just worked, no new jazzy graphic effects to slow everything down.

Wont Schedules Direct work for XP? I guess my question should be...What does not work?