Could Win 8 be the new HTPC interface? - Page 2

Yeah, I'm big time looking forward to Google@home. Not much info on it yet, but I hope it works through your home PC instead of a seperate device.

Well, it might not be too hard to create Metro apps to do all that 7MC can do now, but if MS don't do this, who will? There's no indication at all that the current MC interface will be ported to Metro by MS. It's hidden away in there, and will be an 'extra' app purchase in 8Pro. The current MC interface is written in MCML, which MS are pretty much burying now, and it's not compatible with Metro. By 'links' I mean create shortcuts from Metro 'app' icons that run various parts of the current MC interface via entry points. Just a thought on ways to access our current MC interface from Metro, but I accept that you might not want to link to all entry points. What this would lead to though is an inconsistent interface (ie user experience), some native Metro, others legacy MCML. Not ideal.

I definitely think there is potential for an app developer to make something that can truly replace WMC. Metro seems well designed for a 10ft experience.


I will keep my htpc on Win 7 until such apps show up. Considering that the mediabrowser team is working on such a thing, I'm excited to see what they come up with.

Same goes for xbmc. It could be an opportunity for them to expand their software and get more exposure through the app store.

Again, am I missing something?

You can hit the "green button" on a remote and launch directly into live TV if you know what you are doing now --- no need for Metro.

Likewise there are things called "shortcuts" that you can place on the desktop double click these (I know that's a radical departure from the single click that some of you are striving for in Metro) and again you can launch right into live TV --- no need for Metro.

I believe Windows 8 will be a pretty promising OS, but (like others have already stated) everything that people in this thread have been praising it for can already be done with an MCE Remote and the best media frontend ever XBMC!! I like apps but I really think they have there place. I also wonder how much of a resource/network hog it will be if you have a bunch of icons/apps that continuously connect to the Internet to update.

I think most of us who think this is a good idea are imagining launching directly into a variety of apps that are probably coming for Windows 8. Pandora, Hulu, Spotify, Amazon streaming video, etc are much more likely to be Metro apps than they are to be Media Center plugins.

If you split out what Media Center does into its parts, then you would have all of these online media sources alongside the live TV and local media you have on your device, all in a great 10 foot interface, and all controllable by the remote.

Pandora, Spotify and Hulu can work inside WMC now.

Amazon likely never will work on either because it uses its own proprietary player.

I just think that, perhaps, some haven't really maximized what WMC and Win7 can do now.

You're missing the point. Amazon can easily write their own application/player for Metro, and the chances are MUCH greater of them doing that than of them writing a Media Center plugin.

Another example: I currently have to use the no longer supported Boxee application to get MLB.tv using Media Center. Half the time, Boxee doesn't load the feeds properly and just crashes. Meanwhile, MLB has an application for every other device under the sun. I'd much rather have a direct link on my Start Screen (AKA in Metro) to a Metro MLB.tv app than have to use the crappy integration I'm using now.

I realize that you've spent a ton of time perfecting Media Center for your systems, but almost all customization in it at this point involves hacking things together, sometimes editing resource files, and sometimes using plugins to launch shortcuts to other programs. This just isn't an option to a general user, and to some of us here it gets a little frustrating to have to use third-party solutions and hacks to get things to work properly. (At least, that's my opinion.) Streaming media is pretty poor in WMC, and you can tape things up to work okay, but it's just not nearly as good as it should be in 2012.

Windows 8 on the other hand is already a well designed 10 foot interface, just like Media Center is. However, it is completely customizable. You can literally move and group and hide and add ANYTHING you want, without having to do registry editing, resource hacking, maybe rely on an unsupported program to do the resource hacking for you (Media Center Studio), and of course, run another program at every boot of the computer just so that your edits don't get overwritten (MCSfix).

Application support is definitely an unknown at this point, but I suspect that since the only way to get into the Windows Store is to write a Metro app, that we'll be getting a ton of them, including apps for the streaming support that Media Center is currently so far behind on.

Finally, MCML served its purpose okay, but it didn't catch on at all. You can probably count the number of MCML developers on your fingers. The Metro / WinRT SDK is far more powerful and uses programming languages that developers are already much more familiar with.

I've said this in the past, but really in my mind the perfect solution is to break up Media Center similar to what the OP is saying. Get rid of the Media Center front page, so that you're not jumping back and forth between two different UIs that serve the same purpose. And then put LiveTV, RecordedTV, and Guide on the Metro Start Screen, and let me use whatever Metro apps I want to add any other functionality I need.

It'd be a million times better than the kludged together solution I have now. Don't get me wrong, it's working perfectly for local media, but it's a joke for anything online.

And again all that is a really great argument except for the fact that its all speculation.

I could speculate the Windows 8 will be a colossal failure like some of the other Windows releases and Amazon, Hulu, etc won't want anything to do with it because its buggy, difficult to use, etc.

That's been my whole point all along.

Does it look promising? Sure. But to say or predict what will or won't be in it is just silly at this point. I for one would love if they would make it more HTPC-centric. But M$ has already stated that WMC isn't really their focus and the entertainment division of M$ had the weakest earnings of any of their divisions which doesn't bode well for a massive influx of R and D dollars.

So I will wait and not get all excited about what may or may not even be real.

Well to be honest, it's all moot anyway, since Microsoft clearly has no desire to put any more work into Media Center at all. Still, the pipe dream behind it (which is mainly all this thread is anyway) is a great one.

And honestly, even if Windows 8 was a colossal failure... that would almost definitely still mean more sales of it than the people who are using Media Center, so it'd still have a better chance of getting apps than WMC.

It costs money to make and manage apps for an audience that may or may not be there (and historically has not been there according to M$). M$ is going to have to get the Amazon's and Hulus of the world to buy in to this (if its even possible which --- again --- no one really knows).

We will see.

Edit: Let me be clear --- M$ needs to improve WMC and there is no question about this fact. However, despite all the imperfections of the current WMC product it still does many things better than anything else out there (live TV for one). I worry that like the Metro interface moving away from the Desktop/HTPC traditional interface M$ could move away from the single thing it does better than anyone else and move strictly to "apps" that may or may not do live TV at all. And that would be a real travesty at this point.

I wish a few of us could sit on their board.

Way too late for that unfortunately. Media Center is now an afterthought, and their living room push is now the Xbox.

Well said.

Pretty much this. MS would rather you do everything through Xbox where you have to pay them for an Xbox Live subscription as well to access the content from the likes of Hulu and Netflix that you already pay for. It seems like a lot of these content providers are pretty averse to PC users having access to their content due to the threat of piracy as seen by the PC version of Netflix not supporting 1080p. In their eyes it's more preferable for their content to be on closed environment hardware like media streamers and consoles than on PCs where they feel pirates may be able to make illicit copies of their streams.

MS seems willing to go along with this as well since it becomes a selling point for their consoles as well as their Xbox Live service. And even though these apps are available elsewhere without a pay wall besides the subscription to the service itself, people who buy Xboxes are willing to pay for peer-to-peer gaming and see the inclusion of these services as added value. Content providers and cable companies are desperately fighting the cut the cord movement and I have a feeling MS will be more willing to be on their side as this will sweeten their deals with these companies as seen by Xfinity streaming being on the Xbox 360.

What I've been wondering is do companies like Netflix have to make their Windows 8 apps compatible with both ARM and x86 systems? I envision the Windows 8 RT devices to be more like iPads, i.e., a mostly closed systems. It seems that the likelihood of Netflix developing apps for Windows RT would be high. What I'm worried is that Netflix and others would develop nice apps for RT but then leave x86 out or give stripped down versions with lower quality because of piracy concerns. I don't know it developers are permitted to do this or if the apps have to work on ARM and x86.

So, Jim, does this mean a Phoenix will rise from the ashes of WMC, but it will have the DNA of Metro and the plumage of JRiver?

Enquiring minds want to know :-)

Using Win 8 Professional RTM now and like it a lot. Takes a little getting used to but once you do navigation is so much faster than with WIndows 7. I don't want to argue if this OS will tank or not because I really don't care, I like it. As far as it being a great HTPC setup, I don't think that's the goal. Sure it's nice to have big icons to navigate to, but like most have commented you can already launch just about anything you want on a computer from a remote already. What makes an HTPC great is it's media frontend and IMO XBMC is the best at that and you can run it on any OS. I am a little concerned with the Store app and how friendly they are actually going to be towards indie developers. I sure hope they don't make it as difficult as Apple to put stuff up. If Xbox Live is an indicator than it probably will be

How do you do Pandora inside WMC now? I couldn't find a program that would do that, kept having to go to Kylo and access it there.

Moving away from a stand alone Media Center program is probably the best thing we could hope for due to those exact reasons. If MSFT can make Win8 a success on tablets (and by success I don't mean beating Apple, just grabbing decent marketshare), then the Netflix's, Amazon's, etc. will want to develop apps, and those apps would work in our HTPC's. Obviously it is all conjecture at this point as the OS hasn't even been released yet, but there is hope.

One thing I would like to see though would be using a tablet (or smart phone) as a remote. Replicate the metro interface on the device and have your taps, swipes, etc. replicate on the HTPC.

IIRC windows RT apps will run on the full Windows 8.

Unified remote works great for these devices controlling your PC. They are working on an iOS app now. The only thing they are missing is having the display from the PC output to the phone. I'm wanting that pretty badly right now so I can control my media PC/Pandora etc without having to get to the TV.

Using XBMC with XBMC Commander on my iPhone/iPad I can control music from anywhere in the house. It even shows me what's currently playing as well as what's next on the playlist. Not too sure how it (if at all) would work with plugins.

Im much more proficient with the Win7 desktop; where actively running apps are visible and in a window space of my choosing (viewing TV, email, v-chat, web browsing at the same time).  It seems to be better suited for people who can only focus on one task at the same time.  I can't view multiple apps at the same time in tiny little squares.  If I upgraded to Win8, i would end up using the classic desktop.

When you move your cursor to the far left of the screen a sidebar opens showing you your active programs, and it has large icons like Metro UI does.

I find task switching and moving around the OS to be very quick, with the hot corners and side bar with running apps.

Yeah.  Sounds pretty bad.  Win7, you already see everything running at the same time.. No need to do anything.  I can start any app I want via quicklaunch on Win7 taskbar without taking up the whole screen.

 

I don't need to see anything really to know what programs I have open, but maybe I don't multitask enough. I think some people are going to hate on Windows 8 regardless, and that's fine. I would say if you can get your hands on a beta copy then do a dual boot to at least check it out. I thought I was going to absolutely hate it, but as of right now I like it more than Windows 7.