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Windows Media Center vs TiVo Premiere - Page 6

post #151 of 411
12/30/12 at 8:14am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by slowbiscuit View Post


And more importantly, 8MC breaks existing extenders - only the Xbox 360 can be used if you want a whole-home HTPC. Even the new Ceton Echo doesn't work, and Ceton says it's Microsoft's responsibility to fix it.

 

I know other extenders are available I simply choose to ignore them. I love WMC (to a large degree) but I can't buy into it as a long term solution... heck the guide data might disappear entirely next month for everyone who isn't using Windows 8. As such I refuse to buy hardware (solely) based on it. 

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post #152 of 411
12/31/12 at 7:02am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles R View Post

I know other extenders are available I simply choose to ignore them. I love WMC (to a large degree) but I can't buy into it as a long term solution... heck the guide data might disappear entirely next month for everyone who isn't using Windows 8. As such I refuse to buy hardware (solely) based on it. 

Where did you read that the guide data could disappear next month for non Windows 8 machines?
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post #153 of 411
12/31/12 at 7:20am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by TimA View Post


Where did you read that the guide data could disappear next month for non Windows 8 machines?

 

I hadn't until I saw this thread today. :) Just saying there is no guarantee going forward... who knows what Microsoft will do.

 

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1447944/wmc-epg-guide-ending

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post #154 of 411
12/31/12 at 12:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tluxon View Post

...I often just watch portions of various sporting events, and when I get to a commercial that I can't skip, I like to browse other games/programs while the primary tuner is paused. I can work around that by hitting record on everything I might want to come back to, but the tuners get tied up very quickly using that practice. I'm considering buying an additional HDHR to avoid that problem (as I've run out of both Cable and OTA tuners with that technique), but then I'm not sure how many programs I can record at once and still get acceptable playback. The limit seems to be somewhere around 4, but that could be due to the fact that I've yet to replace a megabit switch with a gigabit switch (sitting right here in front of me, LOL).
I'm finding that I'm regularly using most of the 5 tuners (2 OTA and 3 CableCARD) - especially when numerous games are on simultaneously and others in the family want to record other programming (on other PCs/notebooks as they're not into sports like I am). Any idea how many tuners can coexist on the same LAN before problems start to creep in?
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post #155 of 411
12/31/12 at 1:10pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by tluxon View Post

Any idea how many tuners can coexist on the same LAN before problems start to creep in?

 

With a Gigabit network I don't think you will see an issue. I know my PC while recording 4 shows (at once) reported its network activity at 6%. I think by default you can only configure 4 tuners per PC although I believe some tuner configurations support more and there is a hack as well to increase the number.

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post #156 of 411
1/1/13 at 3:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by giomania View Post

I finally connected my WMC machine via HDMI yesterday, and I got it working, but I have a few issues to work through. In the hopes that readers of this thread can assist me, I will post the issues here instead of starting a new thread.
Issue #1: Getting my Nvidia GT520 GPU to detect my AVR, so that I can send it Dolby Digital.
It is currently only sending PCM 2.0, because I performed the initial setup and testing with an HDMI TV in the basement. The Nvidia control panel detected the "Sharp" TV, and I set it up. After I figured out how to get that working, I sent the signal through my HDMI distribution system to the Family Room system, and could only get PCM 2.0, as it was using the Sharp as the second monitor. I could not figure out how to set up another monitor, as it was not detecting anything. There was an option to manually set something up in the Nvida control panel, but I did not proceed; maybe that is the solution. Maybe the "Hotplug" setting on my Lumagen video processor would help?
Issue #2: Nvidia Resolution Settings
I can easily adjust the resolution settings in the Nvida control panel, but how do I manage multiple devices and resolutions. I know there is no "native" output setting, so I am trying to figure out what would be a setting that involves less GPU processing, as my Lumagen video processor can handle all the processing.
Issue #3: WMC Startup issues.
I managed to figure out how to get WMC onto the "second screen" (the HDTV), but it requires interaction with the keyboard in order to get the remote control to respond to commands, which is not very appliance-like.
Thanks for any assistance with my experiment.
Mark

Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles R View Post

#1 - I would delete the current sound card (via Device Manager) and reboot. Windows should find a new sound card (the AVR) after booting and make it the default sound card. Have you installed the Shark007 audio codecs? Configuration details in the first post are still valid I believe. If you have the VP between the PC and AVR hopefully it's transparent and doesn't stop the PC from seeing the AVR.

#2 - I don't think there is an easy option to change resolutions on the fly (hot keys programmed into the remote?) and it's going to be video card/driver related if possible. I let my i3's internal video driver upscale 720p to 1080p which looks as good or better than I have seen with a AVR and TV doing such. Now XBMC will automatically switch from 1080p60 to 1080p24 so I get native playback there. Image wise simply disable all of the various enhancements (such as contrast, skin tone, etc) under the video settings and be sure it's set to no scaling.

#3 - With Windows 7 you can configure WMC to start automatically after booting. Now if using a second monitor throws it out of whack I'm not sure what you could do... perhaps make the TV the default display (#1).

I have been working on issue #1 the past week, and have not had any success; I am going to give up for awhile, as the user interaction has not been appliance-like, as I had hoped. I first installed the updated Nvidia driver, as I was missing the HD Codecs; no bitstream joy. At one point, I managed to get it to recognize my Lumagen, but it would still only send PCM 2.0. I tried installing and setting up the Shark007 Codecs, but that did not work either. I have drained my "tinkering tolerance trust bank account" with my family, and quite frankly, my own patience, so I am giving up for now.

Mark
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post #157 of 411
1/1/13 at 4:39pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by giomania View Post

I tried installing and setting up the Shark007 Codecs, but that did not work either. I have drained my "tinkering tolerance trust bank account" with my family, and quite frankly, my own patience, so I am giving up for now.

 

It can be trying at times... I know from first hand experience. You do need to install the Shark 32 and 64 bit drivers. Once installed there is roughly four options to select or deselected and it should simply work. If I remember correctly once installed run the 64 bit app and...

 

- Under Audio set to bitstream (which should update the left hand column automatically).

- Under Config set it to 64 bit.

 

- Under Windows audio devices make sure HDMI is the default audio device and set it to 2.0 channels (Dolby Digital and the other formats should be listed).

- Select 'allow applications to take exclusive control of this device' and 'give exclusive mode applications priority' - under the far right audio driver's tab.

 

That's all I remember at the moment and I just upgraded the drivers the other day. If you are using XBMC you need to configure its audio but that's another topic... feel free to PM me if you have any questions. I'm sure I could send you screen shots of the settings.

 

UPDATE: I just installed Shark007 3.9.3 (Windows 7) 32 and 64 bit drivers...

 

http://shark007.net/forum/Thread-Setup-and-usage

 

Before I installed them I ran the earlier version app of each and did an uninstall from the Help tab (rebooting). After installing the 32 then 64 bit drivers I only make two changes from the 64 bit app...

 

- Audio: Bitstreaming: TrueHD/DTS HD MA

- Config: set 64 bit player

 

For XBMC (12.0 latest Beta)

 

System Settings - Audio output

 

- Audio output: HDMI

- Speaker Configuration 7.1

- Audio output device: WASAPI - (my receiver)

- Passthrough output device: WASAPI - (my receiver)

 

Both WMC and XBMC work like a champ at that point. I also verified my sound card settings were (still) as listed above.


Edited by Charles R - 1/2/13 at 3:45pm
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post #158 of 411
1/1/13 at 6:16pm
Having used WMC for a few weeks, I'm now accumulating a pretty large library of .wtv files that I'd like to organize better so I can "work" with them. For example, I've recorded a couple series of 30-minute to 60-minute episodes of some older TV shows, and I hope to physically remove the commercials and significantly compress them to h.264. The problem is that I don't know a simple way to use the metadata of the WTV container to rename the files to names that incorporate some of that metadata (like the season and episode or the episode title).

When I use pyTiVo to extract my TiVo files, an accompanying text file is created with all the metadata that makes it very simple. I'd like to be able to get that kind of functionality out of these WMC files.

Does anybody have a solution for this?
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post #159 of 411
1/2/13 at 1:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles R View Post

It can be trying at times... I know from first hand experience. You do need to install the Shark 32 and 64 bit drivers. Once installed there is roughly four options to select or deselected and it should simply work. If I remember correctly once installed run the 64 bit app and...

- Under Audio set to bitstream (which should update the left hand column automatically).
- Under Config set it to 64 bit.

- Under Windows audio devices make sure HDMI is the default audio device and set it to 2.0 channels (Dolby Digital and the other formats should be listed).
- Select 'allow applications to take exclusive control of this device' and 
'give exclusive mode applications priority' - under the far right audio driver's tab.


That's all I remember at the moment and I just upgraded the drivers the other day. If you are using XBMC you need to configure its audio but that's another topic... feel free to PM me if you have any questions. I'm sure I could send you screen shots of the settings.

UPDATE: I just installed Shark007 3.9.3 (Windows 7) 32 and 64 bit drivers...

http://shark007.net/forum/Thread-Setup-and-usage

Before I installed them I run of the earlier version app of each and did an uninstall from the Help tab (rebooting). After installing the 32 then 64 bit drivers I only make two changes from the 64 bit app...

- Audio: Bitstreaming: TrueHD/DTS HD MA
- Config: set 64 bit player

For XBMC (12.0 latest Beta)

System Settings - Audio output

- Audio output: HDMI
- Speaker Configuration 7.1
- Audio output device: WASAPI - (my receiver)
- Passthrough output device: WASAPI - (my receiver)

Both WMC and XBMC work like a champ at that point. I also verified my sound card settings were (still) as listed above.

I gave it one last shot today (before I saw your update) and got it working! Thank You! I basically made the same changes as you did. Argh...why they don't have the 64-bit player set as the default?

Now I have an issue that is related to my specific setup. When I switch sources away from the media PC, my second monitor (the Lumagen) drops as it is no longer seen as active by the PC, which makes sense. When I switch sources back to the media PC, I have to manually turn back on the second monitor at the PC to activate the second monitor. I can do this quickly via the following key combination: Windows Logo + P However, I need to be at the PC to do this, so that is a bummer. Now that I think about it, I don't think the first second monitor I set up ever dropped even when switching sources, so maybe there is a way to fix this issue.

Mark
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post #160 of 411
1/6/13 at 7:32am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelson View Post

My understanding is that WMC will not be a standard feature of Win 8. It really did not catch on in Win 7 even when they were giving it away, so they are going back to the old model of making it an add-on option for Windows. If it is an extra cost option, that will make it even less attractive and it may eventually disappear.
A free code for Win8 PRO Media center is available:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/feature-packs
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post #161 of 411
1/8/13 at 4:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tluxon View Post

Having used WMC for a few weeks, I'm now accumulating a pretty large library of .wtv files that I'd like to organize better so I can "work" with them. For example, I've recorded a couple series of 30-minute to 60-minute episodes of some older TV shows, and I hope to physically remove the commercials and significantly compress them to h.264. The problem is that I don't know a simple way to use the metadata of the WTV container to rename the files to names that incorporate some of that metadata (like the season and episode or the episode title).
When I use pyTiVo to extract my TiVo files, an accompanying text file is created with all the metadata that makes it very simple. I'd like to be able to get that kind of functionality out of these WMC files.
Does anybody have a solution for this?
I believe I've found the best answer to this in a program that works with VideoRedo called VAP, or VideoRedo-AutoProcessor. It's actually a very nice way to organize and streamline most editing processes (like commercial removal and filetype conversion) that remove the WTV handcuffs without compromising the data in its wrapper. It matches up the metadata with the online database at JRiver's TheTVDB.com.
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post #162 of 411
1/10/13 at 10:06am
Thread Starter 

Revisiting Windows 8 Upgrade

 

I keep getting reminders from Microsoft to use my $15 Windows 8 upgrade which apparently has to be done before the end of the month. I have several WMC Products Keys so I'm already good to go there. Regarding WMC one difference is I can't boot directly into WMC (or least via a WMC menu option) which is fine since I don't reboot that often anyway and I have a button on my Harmony remote that starts up WMC. I'm already running Windows 8/WMC on my Mac Mini so I'm comfortable with it... not that it's any different. From what I can tell I would lose or have to deal with...

 

  • Commercial skip (which I have disabled now since I was using a Xbox 360 as an extender and haven't bothered to re-enabled it).
  • Uninstall the Shark007 drivers and install the Windows 8 version.

 

What would I gain?

 

  • Nothing. At least off the top of my head (for the moment).
  • Some nerd time (largely offset by not wanting to mess up my DVR).
  • At some point the new Ultra HD Netflix streaming? (so far they only list Windows 8 - not sure if older versions of Windows are or will be supported).

 

I guess it comes down to will I later on find a need for Windows 8 and if so at $15 it certainly is the time to jump in. At the moment commercial skip is all I would be giving up and if I place the PC back in my dedicated room (using the Xbox 360 for 99% of my viewing) I'm not really giving that up. 

 

Has anyone done an existing upgrade? I presume I'll lose my configured Series and I'll have to configure WMC from the get go? If so, that might by enough to get me to put it off unless I have a really boring weekend. :)

 

I guess one other option is to purchase the upgrade (license) and don't install it now... as you can download and burn the media.


Edited by Charles R - 1/10/13 at 10:13am
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post #163 of 411
1/11/13 at 4:39am
You'll also lose the ability to use any non-Xbox extenders, including the Echo right now.

There's really no point at all to upgrade a working 7MC system to 8MC because they broke perfectly good extenders, removed the feature to allow boot into WMC, and added nothing. There might be other valid reasons to use 8 (storage spaces etc.) but if you run MC only it's not worth it.
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post #164 of 411
1/11/13 at 6:21am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by slowbiscuit View Post

You'll also lose the ability to use any non-Xbox extenders, including the Echo right now.

 

That's irrelevant (for me) as I would never use an Echo or one of the discontinued extenders. Booting into WMC is also as I stated. I agree there is no compelling reason to upgrade I just don't see any compelling reason not to (at this point). Simply seems like $15 is a small price to pay to cover yourself down the road... especially if it will be $60 to upgrade an existing or new PC to Pro later on along with whatever they are charging for WMC. Now if XBMC DVRing takes off or someone adds a DVR app for the new HDHomeRun hardware WMC will go away and it becomes mute. Will that happen before I regard not upgrading.... I'm betting on... must be time for that guide data will only be available on Windows 8 once WMC is no longer free rumor... just kidding.

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post #165 of 411
1/11/13 at 6:47am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles R View Post

Revisiting Windows 8 Upgrade

I keep getting reminders from Microsoft to use my $15 Windows 8 upgrade which apparently has to be done before the end of the month. I have several WMC Products Keys so I'm already good to go there. Regarding WMC one difference is I can't boot directly into WMC (or least via a WMC menu option) which is fine since I don't reboot that often anyway and I have a button on my Harmony remote that starts up WMC. I'm already running Windows 8/WMC on my Mac Mini so I'm comfortable with it... not that it's any different. From what I can tell I would lose or have to deal with...
  • Commercial skip (which I have disabled now since I was using a Xbox 360 as an extender and haven't bothered to re-enabled it).
  • Uninstall the Shark007 drivers and install the Windows 8 version.

What would I gain?
  • Nothing. At least off the top of my head (for the moment).
  • Some nerd time (largely offset by not wanting to mess up my DVR).
  • At some point the new Ultra HD Netflix streaming? (so far they only list Windows 8 - not sure if older versions of Windows are or will be supported).

I guess it comes down to will I later on find a need for Windows 8 and if so at $15 it certainly is the time to jump in. At the moment commercial skip is all I would be giving up and if I place the PC back in my dedicated room (using the Xbox 360 for 99% of my viewing) I'm not really giving that up. 

Has anyone done an existing upgrade? I presume I'll lose my configured Series and I'll have to configure WMC from the get go? If so, that might by enough to get me to put it off unless I have a really boring weekend. smile.gif

I guess one other option is to purchase the upgrade (license) and don't install it now... as you can download and burn the media.

How do you get multiple WMC product keys? Just submit multiple requests?

Thanks.

Mark
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post #166 of 411
1/11/13 at 7:23am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by giomania View Post


How do you get multiple WMC product keys? Just submit multiple requests?

 

There is/was a limit of one per email address and they must be activated by February 1, 2013. Hence the $15 upgrade to Windows Pro 8 and WMC is disappearing shortly... 

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post #167 of 411
1/11/13 at 9:23am
My philosophy with HTPCs is the old, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". So I have no plans to upgrade to Win8 right now. However, it does seem to be reasonably stable so I doubt you'd have any major problems. I stayed on XP for a long time, never gave Vista even a look and didn't jump to Win7 immediately. As a matter of fact, if I hadn't switched to FiOS and lost the ability to archive off my DVR using fire wire, not sure I would have had a reason to go Win7. smile.gif As it turned out, that worked out really well, but I'm still going to stick with Win7 for now.
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post #168 of 411
1/11/13 at 10:53am
Exactly, and in this case with nothing new added and stuff taken away, I don't see the point of upgrading a good Win7 install to Win8 on a WMC HTPC. If you want to play around, run a VM or another PC or something. Some folks just like all the new and shiny however.
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post #169 of 411
1/11/13 at 11:04am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles R View Post

Revisiting Windows 8 Upgrade

...

I guess one other option is to purchase the upgrade (license) and don't install it now... as you can download and burn the media.
That's probably what I'd do. Wait to install until there was a Win8-only app I couldn't live without.
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post #170 of 411
1/11/13 at 11:27am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by JHBrandt View Post


That's probably what I'd do. Wait to install until there was a Win8-only app I couldn't live without.

 

You'll have to pay for WMC whatever its price is down the road...assuming you're still using it. I guess you could clone the disk, upgrade to Windows 8 and go from there.

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post #171 of 411
1/11/13 at 11:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles R View Post

You'll have to pay for WMC whatever its price is down the road...assuming you're still using it.
Speaking of which, have you had a chance to play with XBMC 12 and its DVR support? It's almost released but not quite - they're up to RC3 I think.

Right now I still think WMC7 is the best choice, but the way M$ seems to be neglecting it in Win8, I'd like to keep my options open.
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post #172 of 411
1/11/13 at 12:06pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by JHBrandt View Post


Speaking of which, have you had a chance to play with XBMC 12 and its DVR support? It's almost released but not quite - they're up to RC3 I think.

 

I have been using XBMC 12.0 for MKV playback, Free Cable and a few other Add-ons. I tried DVR support with 11.0 and punted for various reasons. I'm hoping one of the back-ends gets popular enough that it becomes more mainstream... to the extent it can.

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post #173 of 411
1/13/13 at 11:40am
Thread Starter 

Well I did it.

 

Not that I would recommend it but I decided to upgrade to Windows 8. Short take would I do it again? Sure. Did I gain anything? See below. Did I run into an issue or two? Sure. However several hours later it's upgraded and back to performing its duties as good or better than ever.

 

The PC is used 100% for WMC, XBMC and a few related apps such as Hulu Desktop. Which means there is nothing on the PC that I worry about such as needing to be backed up beforehand. I would recommend cloning your drive beforehand so you could punt at any time. You could use the free Partition Wizard I linked to in the first post.

 

I downloaded and ran the Upgrade Assistant and it blessed most of the drivers and apps (all that I cared about) stating they would be fine with Windows 8. So I purchased my license (at the recent PC purchase price of $15) and downloaded Windows 8. As I did with my other PC I had the Upgrade Assistant burn the software to a DVD electing not to do an existing upgrade. Typically, I like to start fresh as it feels cleaner (although often offers further challenges). Once I had my license and DVD I booted off of it and was at the point of no return. I deleted my partition and created two (created an additional partition to store all data - recordings, etc.) and Windows 8 did its thing. I have always been impressed how fast it installs not that it matters...

 

Installation was painless and my wireless keyboard and Harmony still worked. Video was 1080p so it looked like I was good to go. I ran Windows Update which installed a few hundred Megs and then installed Media Center. My key worked like a champ and almost instantly I was left with now let's make it work...

 

Media Center being identical wasn't a challenge to configure and Dolby Digital worked. My only issue configuring WMC is I have a local channel that broadcasts on two frequencies and WMC uses the low power channel so I have to manually add the correct channel. It only took a few minutes to scan the guide and add back my 30 or so Series recordings (right clicking on the show speeds up the process). Just be sure to update your recording defaults beforehand (I only record new airings).

 

With WMC up and running (bare bones) I decided to install XBMC and I noticed my sound card (AV receiver) didn't list HD audio as being supported. I found Windows had installed a Microsoft driver for my i3 chip so I had to download/install Intel's HD Video/Audio driver. Then I installed the Shark audio codecs for Windows 8 and they require only two changes to work (set to bitstream and 64bit).

 

After a little configuration XBMC (12.0 RC3 with Add-ons) was working like a champ. By this time I noticed the PC was a little faster at everything. Not overly so but enough it was noticeable regardless of what I was doing. At this point I had a working bare bones version of WMC and XBMC and I knew I wouldn't be going back. It was down to getting my tweaks working and making Windows 8 work the best in my appliance environment. I also noticed my image was improved (more on that later).

 

First thing I did was enable auto log-in (configured identically as in Windows 7). Now I was presented with the (new) Start screen. I have read several ways of bypassing it. Most often by simply scheduling a task to run at log-in. Playing around I noticed my Harmony's directional keys work perfectly with the Start screen so I tweaked my Tiles until my heart's content and ended up with a nice looking and easy to use front-end. One concern I had going in resolved nicely.

 

Now I was down to the little things that make the day to day usage more valuable and I was hoping they would be resolved as easily. Hulu Desktop worked great even though if I remember correctly the Upgrade Assistant stated there would be an issue. XBMC and Hulu worked great being called by WMC. Then I hit my first road block. That being ESPN which I believe uses Flash for video. From what I found out Flash was installed by Internet TV and since it has been discontinued there is no way to install it for WMC. ESPN plays fine in my browser and it's not exactly a big loss as it was rather funky inside of WMC but it's a loss. It's also available via XBMC.

 

The PC still hibernates with the Xbox 360 waking it. The custom programmed keys on my Harmony still work such as starting and closing WMC. At this point I was back to where I was with Windows 7 with one obvious difference. I kept noticing my image had more contrast. Similar to if I had installed a Darlet (increased contrast). It isn't overblown rather it just gives the image a greater 3D look. I found this rather strange since I think the video drivers (Intel HD2000) is the same for Windows 7 and 8 and I'm using the same settings. However I noticed overscan (the PC's not an app's) is a little different (of which you don't have control over) so obviously there is a difference. Turns out this change was worth the upgrade... who would have guessed. 

 

Miscellaneous items

 

  • The external Blu-ray driver still works (had to install from disc)

  • HDHomeRun works as expected

  • Looking at Themes and I didn't find one I loved and ended up using High Contrast Black - it's rather retro and for some reason feels like a fit (for HTPC/appliance)

 

To recap I am more than happy since my new image makes it appear I have a brand new TV. What more could I ask for! I found it rather funny after spending most of Friday night upgrading Saturday in the mail is my rebate check from HP for my first Windows 8 upgrade... it must have been destiny.

 

Final scoreboard

 

Losses

 

  • $15

  • A few hours

  • Flash for WMC (ESPN)

 

Gains

 

  • Faster PC

  • Better image

  • Satisfied my tweak urge for a few weeks. :)

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post #174 of 411
1/14/13 at 9:08am
Thanks for the report!
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post #175 of 411
1/16/13 at 2:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles R View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by kikkoman View Post

Also need to tweak the desktop or windows settings so I can see the screen and surf the web better since it's hooked up to the TV for now. The icons and fonts were way too small to see for sure.

I found changing the size of the text (and other items) to be large helps in this case and it doesn't make everything overly large at the same time.

- Control Panel - Appearance and Personalization - Display - select Larger - 150%

This setting gets the text size about right for 10' use. My only quibble is that it makes the desktop icons a bit too big for my taste. I'd like the icons about where 125% puts them but the text where 150% puts it.

In WinXP you could set the icon size independently in the control panel display applet (Apperance tab - Advanced button - select Icon and set size), but I couldn't find a way to do that in Win7. I guess I could try a custom scaling at around 133% but I figured I'd ask here first.

Edit: Never mind - I found it!

Right click on an empty part of the desktop, and then choose the Personalize command from the shortcut menu. When the Personalization window appears, click the Window Color icon.

This will open the Windows Color and Appearance dialog box. This is the same as the Advanced Appearance dialog in WinXP. Yes, in their infinite wisdom M$ decided that "color" is a synonym for "appearance." Good grief.
Edited by JHBrandt - 1/17/13 at 1:55pm
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post #176 of 411
1/16/13 at 4:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tluxon View Post

Having used WMC for a few weeks, I'm now accumulating a pretty large library of .wtv files that I'd like to organize better so I can "work" with them. For example, I've recorded a couple series of 30-minute to 60-minute episodes of some older TV shows, and I hope to physically remove the commercials and significantly compress them to h.264. The problem is that I don't know a simple way to use the metadata of the WTV container to rename the files to names that incorporate some of that metadata (like the season and episode or the episode title).

When I use pyTiVo to extract my TiVo files, an accompanying text file is created with all the metadata that makes it very simple. I'd like to be able to get that kind of functionality out of these WMC files.

Does anybody have a solution for this?

Have you looked at MCEBuddy?
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post #177 of 411
1/17/13 at 6:36am
Thread Starter 

Since upgrading to Windows 8 I have noticed one issue. I have my Harmony programmed to turn on/off the TV, AV receiver and HTPC. Well the HTPC will turn itself off even if its recording which I'm pretty certain it wouldn't do before. I have it set to hibernate and that part is working great. If I stop viewing and leave it at the guide it hibernates after 10 minutes. Hopefully, it's a power option I can tweak... and I haven't tweaked any of the scheduled tasks yet although it doesn't seem to be waking up to perform various tasks Windows 7 did by default.

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post #178 of 411
1/20/13 at 11:03am
Thread Starter 

Upgrade Now or Forever Pay More...

 

Come February 1, 2013 the $39.99 Windows 8 upgrade (or $14.99 or free - if your PC manufacturer offers a rebate) will disappear and the upgrade will cost $199.99 and another $9.99 for MC. Also, the Pro Pack upgrading Windows 8 to Pro (letting you install MC) will jump to $99.99 from $69.99. Going forward that's $210 to upgrade from Windows 7 and $110 upgrading from Windows 8.

 

Of course one might not find any reason to upgrade although I have been happy with the upgrade and the $15 it cost me to upgrade two PCs is well worth the investment in my eyes.

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post #179 of 411
1/21/13 at 12:49am

With the sales of PC's with Windows 8 Core (basic) being how they've been up to this point, I won't be surprised to start seeing more models being released after the 31st with Pro pre-installed.

 

In fact, I'm thinking that was their strategy all along.

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post #180 of 411
1/21/13 at 8:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles R View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by JHBrandt View Post

That's probably what I'd do. Wait to install until there was a Win8-only app I couldn't live without.

You'll have to pay for WMC whatever its price is down the road...assuming you're still using it. I guess you could clone the disk, upgrade to Windows 8 and go from there.

I got my promo code and downloaded the upgrade assistant. I'll try to download the Win 8 Pro upgrade & burn it to a DVD tonight. Hopefully I'll get my license key quickly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles R View Post

Upgrade Now or Forever Pay More...

Come February 1, 2013 the $39.99 Windows 8 upgrade (or $14.99 or free - if your PC manufacturer offers a rebate) will disappear and the upgrade will cost $199.99 and another $9.99 for MC. Also, the Pro Pack upgrading Windows 8 to Pro (letting you install MC) will jump to $99.99 from $69.99. Going forward that's $210 to upgrade from Windows 7 and $110 upgrading from Windows 8.

Of course one might not find any reason to upgrade although I have been happy with the upgrade and the $15 it cost me to upgrade two PCs is well worth the investment in my eyes.

So if I have a valid license for Win 8 Pro, WMC8 is only $10? That doesn't sound too bad
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