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Windows 8 Consumer Preview Thread - Page 3

post #61 of 462
2/29/12 at 9:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scallica View Post

WMC is included in the Consumer Preview. Here's a screenshot:

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/...p=13445#p13444

Why does the date on the screenshot say 2/28/12? I thought the release date was today?
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post #62 of 462
2/29/12 at 9:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by assassin View Post

Will the price of Win7 drop once Win8 comes out?

That really may be the silver lining here. I don't remember if Vista dropped once Win7 came out.

I don't recall Vista dropping in price, but if you recall, Microsoft for like the first 60 days after release sold W7 for half price. I'm hoping for the same deal with W8.
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post #63 of 462
2/29/12 at 9:34am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sammy2 View Post

Not typing on a touch screen for most activities I do nor am I reaching across my desk to swipe my finger on the monitor.. I just won't update unless this "mobile" device can connect to KVM. Touch screen is a nice novelty but for speed it cannot beat having a KVM.

Assuming W8 resembles what was shown at CES, the Metro UI can be controlled via keyboard and mouse, as several kiosks within the MS area did so.
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post #64 of 462
2/29/12 at 10:47am
Thread Starter 
Yeah, I am not sure what the heartburn is about the Metro UI. The start screen is pretty much what was in the old start menu except laid out as tiles. Instead of being simple menu items, they can now show previews in the form of live tiles. You can get up-to-date "glances" at information that indicate whether or not a certain application needs your attention. Do you have a new email? No need to launch the mail program to find out. Want more, ok launch it. What's the current weather? It's shown on the tile. Want the full forecast -- click on it. It's very much like desktop gadgets integrated with icons but it's now a primary function of the operating system not some add-on.

Applications written for Metro, will show as if they're integrated into the start screen. Applications not written for the Metro UI, launch from the start screen but run on the Windows desktop. There is a desktop tile to access it directly.

It takes about 15 minutes to get used to the navigation. It works fine with the mouse. I don't think the scrollbar is very elegant for the side-to-side navigation paradigm but we'll see if that's the final UI gesture they have planned.

WMC is there. Right-click on the start screen, select "All Apps", right click on "Windows Media Center", select "Pin to Start" and it's there on the start screen.

I think what is awkward is the going back and forth between the UI of the start screen and the UI of the desktop. It'll be interesting to see what kind of universe this creates. I can see some applications have just a Metro version, some have both and some having just a desktop version. That means learning two kinds of interaction if your applications are in both spaces -- some in one and some in the other. This reminds me of the days when not everything could be controlled via mouse. It'll take a while for the Metro UI and the desktop UI to become one.
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post #65 of 462
2/29/12 at 10:55am
Thread Starter 
The Windows Experience Index goes from 1.0 to 9.9 now.
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post #66 of 462
2/29/12 at 12:05pm
FYI, I did some very minimal testing and was able to get a USB InfiniTV and Cisco TA working under Windows 8 Media Center. I need to do further testing, but thats' a good sign.
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post #67 of 462
2/29/12 at 1:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by erickotz View Post

FYI, I did some very minimal testing and was able to get a USB InfiniTV and Cisco TA working under Windows 8 Media Center. I need to do further testing, but thats' a good sign.

Hi Eric,
Have you noticed any changes (improvements) to Media Center? Or does the functionality appear to be identical to 7MC?
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post #68 of 462
2/29/12 at 1:28pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by tehowell View Post

Have you noticed any changes (improvements) to Media Center? Or does the functionality appear to be identical to 7MC?

AFAICT, it's identical. I am setting up my HDHR Prime with it right now.

[Edit] Got it working and I am able to watch subscription TV.
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post #69 of 462
2/29/12 at 1:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by StardogChampion View Post

AFAICT, it's identical. I am setting up my HDHR Prime with it right now.

Do you have to call your cable co. to get an authorization code for the Prime since it would get registered as a new PC?
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post #70 of 462
2/29/12 at 1:31pm
Anything concerning BD playback?
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post #71 of 462
2/29/12 at 1:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dbone1026 View Post

Do you have to call your cable co. to get an authorization code for the Prime since it would get registered as a new PC?

The cable card is registered to the tuner, not the PC/OS. The problem with switch the OS is that you may lose access to your recorded TV depending on how it was flagged.
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post #72 of 462
2/29/12 at 1:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bryansj View Post

The cable card is registered to the tuner, not the PC/OS. The problem with switch the OS is that you may lose access to your recorded TV depending on how it was flagged.

Thanks. I only set up my Prime on one PC so far, wasn't sure
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post #73 of 462
2/29/12 at 1:59pm
Thread Starter 
Another little thing I found that I had a 3rd party tool for is that you can change the icons on libraries. I create a separate Movies library and in W7 I had to get a tool to change the icon. On W8 there's a Change Icon... button in the Properties dialog for libraries.

There's also this really cool split-screen mode. I have a Metro app (Bing Weather) on the left while the regular ol' desktop is on the right.
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post #74 of 462
2/29/12 at 3:21pm
I'm really liking Windows 8. The classic desktop is still there, minus the start button. In a way, the Metro UI is the start button. The way I'd navigate windows 7 is I would hit the start button on my keyboard and start typing the name of the app I wanted to run, and hit enter. It's pretty much the same in Win8. In fact, if you're already in Metro, all you have to do is start typing (or you can left click and hit the all apps button). I've only played with it for 5 minutes, but so far so good. It's much better than the development preview I tried months ago, that one was way more difficult to navigate. They cleaned up Metro much tighter now as well. I'm looking forward to the final release.

I believe if people gave it an honest 10 minute test drive, where someone taught them for 30 seconds how to maneuver around the new way, people would really like it.
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post #75 of 462
2/29/12 at 4:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tehowell View Post

Hi Eric,
Have you noticed any changes (improvements) to Media Center? Or does the functionality appear to be identical to 7MC?

I've noticed a few small changes, but haven't played with it much beyond making TV work.
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post #76 of 462
2/29/12 at 5:06pm
It would not install on my system. Got unexpected error and reboot loop. :-(
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post #77 of 462
2/29/12 at 5:10pm
I can't get TMT5 to play nice with media center. The stand-alone version works, but the media center integrated one doesn't.

Likewise, I cannot get Media Browser to to even install.

I was hoping to ride the free OS train a little longer, but I just ordered an OEM copy of Windows 7 Home Premium.
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post #78 of 462
2/29/12 at 5:12pm
Curiosity got the best of me dl'ing it now.
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post #79 of 462
2/29/12 at 6:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sammy2 View Post

my win7 machines do everything i need them to do and they do it well.

What's in win8 that i absolutely need to have?

+1
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post #80 of 462
2/29/12 at 6:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rocketlaw View Post

I can't get TMT5 to play nice with media center. The stand-alone version works, but the media center integrated one doesn't.

Likewise, I cannot get Media Browser to to even install.

I was hoping to ride the free OS train a little longer, but I just ordered an OEM copy of Windows 7 Home Premium.

Anyone else try MediaBrowser or MPC-HC on W8? I've downloaded the preview but holding off on installing it for the moment. I don't want to break any of my HTPC functionality. I was a user of W7 from the very first beta build and even got a free copy of W7 Ultimate courtesy of MS for the release, but I've got it running nicely and not sure if I want to go to W8 CP prior to it's final build.
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post #81 of 462
2/29/12 at 7:00pm
Is simultaneous audio an option? From this posting, it is but I'd like to confirm.

I usually listen to Rhapsody via HDMI in the main zone. But if I want to listen to Rhapsody via zone 2 on my receiver, I have to go to control panel/hardware and sound/sound/manage audio devices and switch the default playback device to Speakers. Then I have to switch it back. It's a nuisance.

Jim
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post #82 of 462
2/29/12 at 7:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mbbransc View Post

If you want one, it's available; see here.

does'nt seem to work in the consumer release
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post #83 of 462
2/29/12 at 7:53pm
Feels a lot like Windows 7. The main difference is the start menu is replaced with the metro interface. Every application I've installed has worked. The one exception is the Office 2010 trial won't load. WMC looks identical from what I can tell. There have been a couple hiccups, but everything seems to be working quite well so far.

There are a few new features worth noting. First, security essentials (Microsoft's excellent anti-virus software) is included by default. There's also a program called file history which apparently works similarly to Apple's Time machine. Lastly, there's Storage Spaces, which is hugely useful since it's basically built in RAID 5. This last feature is particular useful for HTPC enthusiasts. These features make windows 8 feel very feature complete out of the box.

The metro interface also opens up some major possibilities for the HTPC crowd, as it should be manageable from 10 feet away. It will be exciting with developers like XBMC and Plex start releasing metro style applications. The biggest disappointment to me is that Microsoft hasn't released a metro-style WMC application.
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post #84 of 462
2/29/12 at 8:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by lockdown571 View Post

Feels a lot like Windows 7. The main difference is the start menu is replaced with the metro interface. Every application I've installed has worked. The one exception is the Office 2010 trial won't load. WMC looks identical from what I can tell. There have been a couple hiccups, but everything seems to be working quite well so far.

There are a few new features worth noting. First, security essentials (Microsoft's excellent anti-virus software) is included by default. There's also a program called file history which apparently works similarly to Apple's Time machine. Lastly, there's Storage Spaces, which is hugely useful since it's basically built in RAID 5. This last feature is particular useful for HTPC enthusiasts. These features make windows 8 feel very feature complete out of the box.

The metro interface also opens up some major possibilities for the HTPC crowd, as it should be manageable from 10 feet away. It will be exciting with developers like XBMC and Plex start releasing metro style applications. The biggest disappointment to me is that Microsoft hasn't released a metro-style WMC application.

Then you'll also like that there's a new Office "Consumer Review" released today.
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post #85 of 462
2/29/12 at 8:59pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by lockdown571 View Post

The metro interface also opens up some major possibilities for the HTPC crowd, as it should be manageable from 10 feet away. It will be exciting with developers like XBMC and Plex start releasing metro style applications. The biggest disappointment to me is that Microsoft hasn't released a metro-style WMC application.

It feels like you could take almost every menu item in WMC and make it into a tile -- even a now playing live tile that shows, well, what's now playing. There is already a music and a video tile. Why not a movies, guide, recorded TV, live TV, ... tile?
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post #86 of 462
2/29/12 at 9:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tomandbeth View Post


Then you'll also like that there's a new Office "Consumer Review" released today.

Can you provide a link? I can't seem to find this anywhere.
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post #87 of 462
2/29/12 at 9:04pm
Thread Starter 
So... anyone going to try this beta? http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/e.../hh670538.aspx
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post #88 of 462
2/29/12 at 9:45pm
Has anyone played with Xbox live integration? I think this could be the real plus for HTPC if they do it correctly.
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post #89 of 462
2/29/12 at 10:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by chris71478 View Post

Has anyone played with Xbox live integration? I think this could be the real plus for HTPC if they do it correctly.

I got it up and running I like the smartly done GUI. As far as W8 OS eh... got to go through to many clicks just to get to basic controls unless you expand the apps. The Metro is all geared up for ads that's for sure, basic controls seem to be buried and it's harder to navigate. I guess it will just take some time getting used to. So far though it's not bad, but I doubt I'll buy unless they sell super cheap.




Task mgr get's a new face lift I like it a lot.
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post #90 of 462
3/1/12 at 12:41am
So how's the out of the box media experience looking?

Does it play DVDs?

Any new codec support without adding them yourself?

Does it play nice with LAV filters & ffdshow etc?

New version of Media Player?
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