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Windows 8 Consumer Preview Thread - Page 4

post #91 of 462
3/1/12 at 7:29am
Thread Starter 
I'll give LAV a try today and try to play some Blu-ray MKVs. If LAV installs ok, I don't expect there will be much difference from W7MC.

[Edit] Installed LAV, associated MKVs with WMP and I have Avatar playing through W8MC right now. This is not an HTPC so I cannot test things like HD audio. It plays very smoothly for a P4 2.8 and HD5450.
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post #92 of 462
3/1/12 at 7:40am
Quote:
Originally Posted by StardogChampion View Post

I'll give LAV a try today and try to play some Blu-ray MKVs. If LAV installs ok, I don't expect there will be much difference from W7MC.

[Edit] Installed LAV, associated MKVs with WMP and I have Avatar playing through W8MC right now. This is not an HTPC so I cannot test things like HD audio. It plays very smoothly for a P4 2.8 and HD5450.

x32 or x64? I have heard there are some issues with compatibility on x64 machines
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post #93 of 462
3/1/12 at 7:41am
Also, for anyone interested in testing W8, here is a great article on how to set up a dual boot:

http://www.windows7hacker.com/index....with-windows-7
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post #94 of 462
3/1/12 at 7:45am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by dbone1026 View Post

x32 or x64? I have heard there are some issues with compatibility on x64 machines

Good point. I am running x86 (32-bit).
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post #95 of 462
3/1/12 at 7:54am
I am having an issue with WMC. I have 2 HDHR network tuners. Went through the setup process fine and it found the tuners and ran the channel scan. When I tune to a channel though, I get a loop of the first second and a half or so of audio. The video plays fine, but the audio just loops. Then, about 30 seconds in, the video and audio stop and an error comes up indicating that the files necessary to play the video were not found.

Did you have to do anything special to set your tuners that I'm missing? Is there a codec missing? Or did it work right out of the "box"?

I'm running the 64bit version, which I guess could be an issue.

I'm pretty psyched about the Metro interface.. particularly for an HTPC. It really is 10 foot and remote friendly.
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post #96 of 462
3/1/12 at 7:58am
Good luck to you brave souls. I've finally got everything running trouble free and there's no way I'm changing anything any time soon.
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post #97 of 462
3/1/12 at 8:01am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ToddUGA View Post

Good luck to you brave souls. I've finally got everything running trouble free and there's no way I'm changing anything any time soon.

Despite my excitement, I am right with you. I took an old PC out of mothballs and put a $25 video card in it. That's what I am using to play around. I am not touching anything 'production' in my household until this thing is RC and then maybe not because all these Win7 licenses were not cheap! My regular desktop PCs will likely see an upgrade but not my HTPCs unless there is some showstopper that only W8MC will fix or something gets released on W8 that redefines the MC experience.

Windows 8 Family Pack?
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post #98 of 462
3/1/12 at 8:03am
Quote:
Originally Posted by StardogChampion View Post

Despite my excitement, I am right with you. I took an old PC out of mothballs and put a $25 video card in it. That's what I am using to play around. I am not touching anything 'production' in my household until this thing is RC and then maybe not because all these Win7 licenses were not cheap!

Windows 8 Family Pack?

Luckily I didn't have to pay anything for my copies of Windows 7. One of the perks of being a Microsoft Certified Trainer. Of course, since I'm no longer a MCT I'll have to actually pay for Windows 8. Think I'm going to hold out as long as I can.
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post #99 of 462
3/1/12 at 8:11am
Hey does anyone know how to add videos to the metro-style video collection? I was able to add music through windows media player, but the same didn't work for videos. I also tried putting my videos in the my videos folder. No dice.

EDIT: Nm, adding them through windows media player works. It just took a while. Doesn't detect any mkv's though. I wonder what the best way to add mkv support is.
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post #100 of 462
3/1/12 at 8:25am
Quote:
Originally Posted by lockdown571 View Post

Hey does anyone know how to add videos to the metro-style video collection? I was able to add music through windows media player, but the same didn't work for videos. I also tried putting my videos in the my videos folder. No dice.

EDIT: Nm, adding them through windows media player works. It just took a while. Doesn't detect any mkv's though. I wonder what the best way to add mkv support is.

The best way to add mkv support is probably going to be a third-party Metro-based video player app.

Videos only get added to the built in player if they're AVI or MP4. Even though I installed the codecs and splitters to play MKV perfectly fine in both WMP and WMC, they don't play in the Videos app. That's the same way it was with the Zune app on the PC, and it's just as annoying here.
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post #101 of 462
3/1/12 at 8:27am
its great to hear all of these impressions. I plan on installing this tonight on a spare pc and start putting it through its paces.

I really think the metro interface could be a great place for a media center replacement. It seems 10ft friendly out of the box, they just need to put together an app can manage all of our media.
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post #102 of 462
3/1/12 at 8:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by DravenGSX View Post

I'm pretty psyched about the Metro interface.. particularly for an HTPC. It really is 10 foot and remote friendly.

does it actually work with a remote or are you just saying if the remote worked someone would be able to easily navigate through metro?
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post #103 of 462
3/1/12 at 8:42am
One other thing worth noticing is with metro you don't really need app launchers within WMC or XBMC anymore. For instance, if you're in WMC, just press the windows key, which brings you back to metro, and navigate over to another application. Basically, anywhere you are you can always press the windows key which brings you back to the metro interface which is easily navigated with up, down, left, and right.
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post #104 of 462
3/1/12 at 9:55am
Quote:
Originally Posted by lockdown571 View Post

One other thing worth noticing is with metro you don't really need app launchers within WMC or XBMC anymore. For instance, if you're in WMC, just press the windows key, which brings you back to metro...

Thanks for the info, I installed VirtualBox (www.virtualbox.org), then the consumer version to see what it's all about. Had a hard time trying to get the metro interface when rolling the mouse over near where the Start button use to be..
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post #105 of 462
3/1/12 at 10:27am
This was mentioned elsewhere:

Quote:


To get the "classic" start menu back set the below registry key.


HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVers ion\\Explorer
RPEnabled (DWORD) = 0
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post #106 of 462
3/1/12 at 10:51am
I've seen several comments on that registry setting not working in the consumer preview.
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post #107 of 462
3/1/12 at 10:56am
Quote:
Originally Posted by SteelWill View Post

I've seen several comments on that registry setting not working in the consumer preview.

Hmmm.... I haven't tried yet, just saw someone post in a chat thread. I didn't see any mention to it working on a specific developers build
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post #108 of 462
3/1/12 at 11:00am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by lockdown571 View Post

EDIT: Nm, adding them through windows media player works. It just took a while. Doesn't detect any mkv's though. I wonder what the best way to add mkv support is.

First, you need to install the LAV Filters. Then, you need to associate MKVs with Windows Media Player. I use a registry file to do so. Or, you can play load an MKV into WMP and answer 'Yes' when it asks you if you want to attempt to play it. This is no different than Windows 7.

LAV: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=156191

Registry settings (x86): http://www.hack7mc.com/wp-content/pl...load.php?id=18

Registry settings (x64): http://www.hack7mc.com/wp-content/pl...load.php?id=17

MKVs in your movie collection will now show up in Windows Media Center. If the Videos app uses the Videos library you want to add your Movie path to it.

[Edit]Nevermind, I see what y'all are saying about the Video app. I want my movies to show up there -- DVD and MKVs. If it "so lonely in here" then at least give a hint how to add stuff to the collection! Even my WP7 phone has a way to do that.
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post #109 of 462
3/1/12 at 12:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by StardogChampion View Post

First, you need to install the LAV Filters. Then, you need to associate MKVs with Windows Media Player. I use a registry file to do so. Or, you can play load an MKV into WMP and answer 'Yes' when it asks you if you want to attempt to play it. This is no different than Windows 7.

LAV: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=156191

Registry settings (x86): http://www.hack7mc.com/wp-content/pl...load.php?id=18

Registry settings (x64): http://www.hack7mc.com/wp-content/pl...load.php?id=17

MKVs in your movie collection will now show up in Windows Media Center. If the Videos app uses the Videos library you want to add your Movie path to it.

[Edit]Nevermind, I see what y'all are saying about the Video app. I want my movies to show up there -- DVD and MKVs. If it "so lonely in here" then at least give a hint how to add stuff to the collection! Even my WP7 phone has a way to do that.

Thanks for the info. Yeah it's very stupid that the app doesn't instruct you on how to add videos. It basically just directs you to the movie store (which when I say it like that, makes a lot of sense of M$'s part). The other problem is that video app seems extremely rudimentary. For instance, I don't see anyway of selecting audio tracks or subtitles.
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post #110 of 462
3/1/12 at 12:56pm
Anyone know if you can create a storage pool with the parity setting on drives with existing data? I don't have an extra 12 tb of blank drives sitting around I Can copy my data to after setting it up lol.
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post #111 of 462
3/1/12 at 1:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by wraslor View Post

Anyone know if you can create a storage pool with the parity setting on drives with existing data? I don't have an extra 12 tb of blank drives sitting around I Can copy my data to after setting it up lol.

My understanding is the drives have to be wiped. Flexraid will do what you want though.
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post #112 of 462
3/1/12 at 1:16pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by lockdown571 View Post

Thanks for the info. Yeah it's very stupid that the app doesn't instruct you on how to add videos. It basically just directs you to the movie store (which when I say it like that, makes a lot of sense of M$'s part). The other problem is that video app seems extremely rudimentary. For instance, I don't see anyway of selecting audio tracks or subtitles.

I did some Googling on the Video app and it looks like it is very rudimentary compared to what they are planning on as the final release.

Yes, M$, people own their own movies and want them to show up in their collections!

AFAICT, the Photos app is completely broken. It shows all my directories but says there are no photos in them.

I am waiting on the Music app to load up my library.
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post #113 of 462
3/1/12 at 1:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by lockdown571 View Post

My understanding is the drives have to be wiped. Flexraid will do what you want though.

This is correct, Storage Spaces will completely repartition any drives added to the pool, and these partitions are incompatible with previous versions of Windows.
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post #114 of 462
3/1/12 at 1:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Prelector View Post

This is correct, Storage Spaces will completely repartition any drives added to the pool, and these partitions are incompatible with previous versions of Windows.

Moreover, a major difference between Flexraid and Storage Spaces is that in Storage spaces, data is stripped across multiple drives, which should significantly increase read and write times (so when you read or write something to the pool, all of the drives are working together instead of just one). This might also explain why the drives have to be wiped before adding them to the pool.
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post #115 of 462
3/1/12 at 4:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by lockdown571 View Post

Moreover, a major difference between Flexraid and Storage Spaces is that in Storage spaces, data is stripped across multiple drives, which should significantly increase read and write times (so when you read or write something to the pool, all of the drives are working together instead of just one). This might also explain why the drives have to be wiped before adding them to the pool.

I'm not sure how Windows 8 has implemented striping but usually this decreases read/write time since you combine the speed of all the drives. The downside of striping is that if more drives than you have parity fail you lose all of the data on all the disks in the array.
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post #116 of 462
3/1/12 at 5:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by joemoma View Post

I'm not sure how Windows 8 has implemented striping but usually this decreases read/write time since you combine the speed of all the drives. The downside of striping is that if more drives than you have parity fail you lose all of the data on all the disks in the array.

How would that decrease performance? l. If it did, what would be the point in striping?

EDIT: Nevermind, I misread your comment. Reading is fundamental. Btw, there is more information here. It sounds like RAID 5, although they aren't exactly explicit. They even say they don't like calling RAID.

Also worth mentioning is duplication and triplication of data are available as alternatives to parity (duplication should be familiar to those who used Drive Extender in the original WHS). I'm curious as to whether those two increase read performance. Anyways, this is an impressive amount of power and flexibility built into a consumer OS that's soon to be adopted by the masses. Hopefully a more detailed review of Storage Spaces will come out soon.
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post #117 of 462
3/1/12 at 5:56pm
Those of you get your Cablecard tuners working should test whether or not MS finally fixed the 29/59 bug in Win8.

I can't test it because I have it installed using VHD dual-boot and DCA won't work in this kind of installation.
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post #118 of 462
3/1/12 at 7:54pm
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.

Long term, I bet this integrate kinect with this...
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post #119 of 462
3/1/12 at 8:54pm
With switching a few computers over to use SDDs I should have a Sata III spinner available to try Win8. Is there anyway I can migrate my settings for Win7 over?

Like others have mentioned, too many of my 'puters are finally smooth and doing a clean install on a sepearate HD would be the easiest to test...worst case I just switch a SATA cable.
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post #120 of 462
3/1/12 at 11:03pm
I have been blown away by how fast Windows is with a sata III SSD. Everything seems just that little bit faster. Haven't even had a chance to try WMC, but the rest of the OS is fast!
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