Windows 8 Consumer Preview Thread - Page 11

You can drag apps off the bottom of the screen to close them. But there really is no point in doing so. If they're not on the screen, they're suspended and the memory they're using is up for grabs by other apps.

You can bring up the settings with Win+I, Charms with Win+C, search with Win+F. Here's some other keyboard shortcuts: http://www.everything-microsoft.com/...ard-shortcuts/


I've tried hard to use Windows 8 the way MS wants me to, and I'm much happier. Before I was trying to force it to operate the way Windows 7 does and I kept hitting walls.

I still don't think I'll spend too much time in "metro land" on my desktop, but Metro seems perfect for TV and tablet. If the rumors are true, we'll also see it on the phone with Windows Phone 8 "Apollo".

Is anyone interested in making a live TV metro app for Windows 8? I think the start screen would be a perfect "ten foot" UI.

Here's an article from Engadget speculating that WMC may not be bundled with every version of Windows 8. They think it might be part of a unique SKU or it might be offered as a stand-alone product.

I have mixed feelings about this. I wouldn't mind it if WMC becomes a stand-alone product, which would be a lot better than abandoning it.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/29/m...-of-windows-8/

What I don't understand, is why can't Microsoft just charge individually for applications that they have to pay royalties for? The fast majority of people who use Windows don't use WMC, and I would be perfectly happy paying a small price for WMC if I needed it.

I doubt they could remove the DD royalty. Even if people don't use WMC, they still watch DVDs.

Ah good point. Although from what I remember, Vista Professional did not have WMC. Could it not playback DVDs either?

I think its odd Microsoft would include a stand alone media center. They should make live tv or media library a program in the metro interface.

It's not bundled with every version of Windows 7 so I don't see what the change is here.

I'm trying out Windows 8 storage spaces and oh my god is the parity mode slow. It's writing at around 10 MB/s to my 3 drives. It's basically raid 5, so I would expect write speed to be slower, but this is insane. It's going to take a couple days just to copy over 2 tb worth of data. CPU usage is less that 1 %. Read speed should be substantially faster of course, but we'll find out.

MS is saying they dont want more WMC users by making it a bundle with the OS instead of selling it separately. Only current users of WMC will want to pay extra for the WMC version, people who havent used it yet obviously arent going to want to pay extra for a feature they dont use and if they ever discover it later and want to use it then too bad.

Its amazing that these people get paid to come up with this stuff.

Huh? The only version of 7, that I'm aware of, that does not include MC is Windows 7 Starter. Are you aware of other versions that don't have MCE? I'm in the US, so maybe that's a regional thing, but I'd like to know which versions you're referring to.

As I suggested, back with Vista, the professional version did not have WMC. Only the Home and Ultimate versions did. It was added back to Windows 7 Professional though. Who knows what's going to happen with Windows 8.

Right, I'm aware of the Vista Pro shortcoming, but the other poster explicitly said Win 7. I"m just curious about it being possible a regional thing, or just a mistake.

I know this was asked already,but I cant remember where....

Can anyone verify if multi-audio output is possible with win 8?

It was in xp, but is not in 7.

example: I want to output audio via HDMI to my tv and also output the same audio on the optical going to my receiver. (my rceiver does not have HDMI)

If win 8 can do this, I might switch to it just for that.

Thanks!

Why would you even want to do this? Send the audio via optical to your receiver and then via RCA cable from your receiver to your HDTV.

No good. Then the receiver would always have to be on to watch tv. Besides, if Im watching tv via the hdmi input, I cant select audio from a different input on the tv.

90% of the time the family watches regular live tv with the tv speakers.(hdmi to tv). They have no interest in listening to it through the receiver. (heresy, I know!)

When I sit down to watch tv, a movie or listen to music through WMC, I want to just turn on the receiver and hit mute on the tv. (without having to exit out of WMC to change the audio output.

Other people have different needs for the same thing... Seperate audio on different outputs simultaneously, or sending audio to a different zone from the pc.. Etc. you may not have or understand the need, but it does exist. That was one of the few things I loved about the ps3. I used it all the time like that. When your use to something, it sucks when you cant do it anymore.

Might be more heresy but why not just turn on the receiver and the TV even if you aren't going to be using the speakers connected to the receiver?

I guess I don't understand why that's a big deal. My wife and kids have no issue with this.

Your method really defeats the purpose of even owning a receiver.

I own a receiver so I can listen to it how and when I want. Its for me to enjoy, my wife couldnt care less about it. Im not home that much, but when I do have the time I do use it. If its only used 10% of the time, it doesnt make sense to leave it on sucking power.

I do enjoy having a receiver and my klipsch speakers... They sound so good, even once a year would be worth it to me.

I respect the hell out of you Assasin (for all you have done for us on this forum.)..
But with all due respect, my setup fills a personal need. I dont need you to critique it. If you cant offer a viable solution to my question, go help someone else.

Touchy.

You asked for an opinion on how to make this work and I gave it to you. No need for the lecture.

I will remember when you ask in the future for help to not give you any of my opinions.

Without knowing more, I will offer this:

Use the optical audio out of your TV to go to the AVR. It will always send out, but unless you turn on the AVR, it does not matter. Then you can operate as you always have.

My TV has optical out, not sure if they all do, though.

I am going to report you to the Al Gores for helping to destroy the planet. You should be afraid.

I beleive on my tv the optical out is only 2.0 stereo. ( it can not convert the digital audio from hdmi to the digital optical?) Also, it states in the manual that i have to enable optical output, which disables all other audio... I havent verified this yet though.

Thanks for the advice on that. I would like anyone to chime in if they can answer my original question; does win 8 support multi audio output?

Thats fine, Ive got access to a great set of guides to help me out!

....I still have access to those guides, right?
?

FYI, I gave up on Storage Spaces. There seem to be two different issues. First of all, copying files seems much slower in Win 8 than Win 7. Secondly, writing to a storage space is really slow. I think when you combine these two things, you get absurdly slow write speeds. Just speculating. Regardless, I would hold off on using Storage Spaces for now, as it doesn't seem reading for prime time. It will surely be improved by the final release. Plus, I think striping is overkill for a media server anyway, and you'll lose everything if 2 drives go. It's also much more resource intensive. Flexraid is a much better solution for these reasons imo.

I have HDMI going to a receiver but I have a dual screen setup (HDMI to 92 projector and DSUB to normal monitor) and would like to watch YouTube over computer speakers, as an example. (Instead of starting 7.1 channels.) Another reason is to output stereo via optical/RCA to use a nice DAC. There are probably a few more reasons.

My system is way too complex for this simple idea. For Win7, I have HDMI going to a receiver but I have two monitors (projector and regular monitor). If I turn on the receiver to listen to music, all hell breaks loose and I completely lose the view on my regular monitor. I have to use a mechanical HDMI switch between the computer and the receiver to prevent this (when I'm done watching the projector, I switch the switch to an unused input). I don't want to use the projector for just normal web surfing, balancing my checkbook, doing work. Microsoft hasn't figured out that people actually use two screens. Maybe Win8 will correct this, but I'm not holding my breath.

Just another example: On my receiver, a Pioneer VSX-1020K, in order to use the dual zone feature which allows for two different devices to be used simultaneously (to separate zones), you need two separate inputs for each device into the receiver.

I understand. But not everyone has a complex setup. Thats likely why M$ doesn't care about this feature because it doesn't apply to but a small fraction of 1% of their users. Doesn't make it right but it does explain why they might not have fixed it.

I read in a description of Windows 8 a claims that it will work well with a system that has a monitor and a second display attached. Windows 7 did ok until the playready program became intrusive and obstructive about six months ago. I have not yet read a review by a Windows 8 tester that commented on the success or failue with a two display system.

Currently I am having sproradic 7MC issues where the audio does not work or the audio repeats in a loop after changing from media browser to recorded TV or to live TV.

Now that taxes are filed and a major project is complete, I will try to find a block of time to load and test Windows 8.

Has anyone else tried TMT 5 with Windows 8? Unfortunately, when I press play the program just immediately closes. I tried compatibility mode, but no dice. This is happening on both of my HTPCs.

We're very happy with our 7MC HTPC setup, but for our family there are two flaws in Windows Media Center that we're hoping will be (have been) fixed in the Windows 8 version:

• The bug where MC doesn't switch tuners if you're recording successive programs on the same channel, unless you select the "record after 10 minutes" setting. This means that, if you leave, say, a 1-minute safety margin at both ends of a recording, then the first minute of the second show will appear only at the end of the first show's recording.
• The inability to record the live TV buffer. If this is fixed, then (like a DVR) if you decide that you like a show that you just discovered, you can start recording it and it will add what you've already seen to the final recording. As it is now, WMC starts recording only from the exact moment that you tell it to start recording, so you miss whatever you saw before.

Has anybody found out yet if one or both of these "features" have been fixed in 8MC?