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Windows Media Center vs TiVo Premiere - Page 7

post #181 of 419
1/21/13 at 2:48pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JHBrandt View Post


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

 

They display the key as soon as you purchase the upgrade and email you a copy shortly afterwards. If you install (not acquire a key) MC before the end of the month it's free. You can use this URL to get a key...

 

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/feature-packs

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post #182 of 419
1/21/13 at 7:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles R View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by JHBrandt View Post

I got my promo code and downloaded the upgrade assistant. I'll try to download the Win 8 Pro upgrade

They display the key as soon as you purchase the upgrade and email you a copy shortly afterwards. If you install (not acquire a key) MC before the end of the month it's free. You can use this URL to get a key...

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/feature-packs

Yep; as soon as I paid my $16.23 (tax incl.) it displayed my Win 8 Pro license key! I wrote it down just in case the email doesn't make it for some reason. I'm downloading Win 8 now but it's HUGE and my Internet connection is only 6 Mb/s so it'll take several hours.

Could've had a DVD mailed for an extra $15. Probably not a bad deal if you're on a slow Internet connection like me.
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post #183 of 419
1/21/13 at 8:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by JHBrandt View Post

I'm downloading Win 8 now but it's HUGE and my Internet connection is only 6 Mb/s so it'll take several hours.

Could've had a DVD mailed for an extra $15. Probably not a bad deal if you're on a slow Internet connection like me.

I'll trade you for my ~0.7 Mbps connection. It's a good thing I have no interest in Windows 8, or Windows 9 would probably be out by the time I finished downloading the installation files. rolleyes.gif
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post #184 of 419
1/22/13 at 1:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles R View Post

Revisiting Windows 8 Upgrade

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.

Re: commercial skip, your link in post 1 takes me to engadget's home page, not (apparently) to the article you intended.
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post #185 of 419
1/22/13 at 1:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aleron Ives View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by JHBrandt View Post

I'm downloading Win 8 now but it's HUGE and my Internet connection is only 6 Mb/s so it'll take several hours.

Could've had a DVD mailed for an extra $15. Probably not a bad deal if you're on a slow Internet connection like me.

I'll trade you for my ~0.7 Mbps connection. It's a good thing I have no interest in Windows 8, or Windows 9 would probably be out by the time I finished downloading the installation files. rolleyes.gif

Ended up taking about 4 hours, not counting the time to verify the download, build the .iso file, and burn the DVD. (About another 30-45 minutes or so.) It is Win 8 Pro so I should be set for WMC8.

As the 31st looms closer & closer I'll have to decide whether it's worth upgrading now just to get WMC8 for free, or blow it off and pay $10 for WMC8 later.

I'm leaning toward the latter option. One thing I've always hated about Windows upgrades is the way Micro$oft moves around and renames everything. It's like learning a brand-new OS after every upgrade - actually worse, because there's just enough similarity that you think you know how to accomplish a task, then it violates your expectations and you can't. Going from XP to 7 was enough trouble - at least I skipped Vista tongue.gif
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post #186 of 419
1/22/13 at 1:50pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by JHBrandt View Post


Re: commercial skip, your link in post 1 takes me to engadget's home page, not (apparently) to the article you intended.

 

The link works now... unless one app (or more) has been updated it won't install in Windows 8. Looks like DTB Addin is the guy that won't install. I'm trying to run down a newer (Beta) version and if I have any luck I'll post here.

 

http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/22/how-to-automatically-skip-commercials-in-windows-7-media-center

 

UPDATE: I got hold of the early release of DTB Add-in and then ShowAnalyzer wouldn't install (in Windows 8). Back to square one I guess... if I end up using my HTPC in the den I'll keep digging for a commercial skip app. Since I commercial delay viewing most of the time I need something that works on the fly... and doesn't convert the file into another format.


Edited by Charles R - 1/22/13 at 7:49pm
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post #187 of 419
1/22/13 at 1:56pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by JHBrandt View Post

I'm leaning toward the latter option. One thing I've always hated about Windows upgrades is the way Micro$oft moves around and renames everything.

 

Personally, I'd clone the disc (to a larger one) and wipe it during installation. Nothing like starting from scratch... and you can always punt by returning to the original disc at anytime. Within a couple of hours I was back up and running with MC and XBMC (as before). 

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post #188 of 419
1/22/13 at 9:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aleron Ives View Post


I'll trade you for my ~0.7 Mbps connection. It's a good thing I have no interest in Windows 8, or Windows 9 would probably be out by the time I finished downloading the installation files. rolleyes.gif

 

Win8 well named, it took me  8 hours to download on slow DSL today.  But you can use computer while it downloads.  WMC was painless, same look and feel.  After reading so many reviews about how 'hard' it was to get accustomed to WIN8, I was surprised that it loaded my old desktop without having to find the retro add-on reviewers talked about.  I can pretend it's still WIN7 whenever  I want, but I think I'll like WIN8 features.  HP had all kinds of dire warnings and none of it came true, MS did a good job of anticipating updates, and I only had a couple things that needed downloading from HP, which wasn't as friendly.  The free WMC code indicated it might be 72 hours, but the code was in my email when I looked an hour later.  I had to upgrade my BD reader for WIN8, but that was not hard, just annoying -- loaded with ads.

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post #189 of 419
1/26/13 at 7:20am
Win 8 MC needs to be activated by the 31st, not just getting the key from the way I read it. In other words, install win 8 then add media center and you should be good as long as it is before the 31.

What I do is to make an image in win 7 using either disks or usb drive, then installed 8 and media center then made an image of win 8 after it was all setup.
That way I can return to either 7 or 8 easily.

If using a usb drive make sure you make more than one partition and put one image in each partition other wise it will overwrite the first image.
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post #190 of 419
1/26/13 at 8:15am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pacofortacos View Post

What I do is to make an image in win 7 using either disks or usb drive, then installed 8 and media center then made an image of win 8 after it was all setup.
That way I can return to either 7 or 8 easily.

 

I recommend cloning the disk. That way you can be 100% sure you aren't going to mess anything up... I got smart the other day (using Partition Wizard - I have had great luck using it in the past to do the identical thing) and tried to migrate all of the recordings to a separate partition I used it to create. I would copy recordings over to the new partition and then increase its size with the space freed up from the original. Keep repeating until all of the recordings are transferred...

 

I have done such in the past without issue however this time for some unknown reason during the last transfer or partition resizing the new partition went south. Even a recovery utility couldn't find any data on the partition and I had a heck of a time even deleting it to start over... long story short clone and drive and do what you may with the new one.

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post #191 of 419
1/26/13 at 9:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles R View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by JHBrandt View Post

Re: commercial skip, your link in post 1 takes me to engadget's home page, not (apparently) to the article you intended.

The link works now... unless one app (or more) has been updated it won't install in Windows 8. Looks like DTB Addin is the guy that won't install. I'm trying to run down a newer (Beta) version and if I have any luck I'll post here.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/22/how-to-automatically-skip-commercials-in-windows-7-media-center


UPDATE: I got hold of the early release of DTB Add-in and then ShowAnalyzer wouldn't install (in Windows 8). Back to square one I guess... if I end up using my HTPC in the den I'll keep digging for a commercial skip app. Since I commercial delay viewing most of the time I need something that works on the fly... and doesn't convert the file into another format.

I did it! I ran the NFC/AFC championships through it and it didn't get every commercial but it got most of them, and I can still skip the remainder the "old-fashioned" way wink.gif

Thanks for that article; I doubt I could've ever gotten commercial skip working without it.
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post #192 of 419
1/26/13 at 11:33pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JHBrandt View Post


I did it! I ran the NFC/AFC championships through it and it didn't get every commercial but it got most of them, and I can still skip the remainder the "old-fashioned" way wink.gif
 

 

My issues were it would skip over parts of a program. Especially, the beginning and the ending of shows. I have MC set to record two minutes early and it would get confused when the previous show ended and the scheduled one began. It would also at times lose the last segment such as on The Big Bang Theory. Which was worse as the recording would end (if I didn't catch it right away) and I'd have to replay it and skip to the last couple of minutes. All and all I miss it and when it works (most of the time) it's rather cool.

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post #193 of 419
1/27/13 at 12:12pm
Thread Starter 

One plus I'll give Windows 8 is it handles swapping AV receivers rather nicely. With Windows 7 it seemed like I had to go in and reconfigure the sound card especially for HD audio. With Windows 8 it just works... whichever one I boot up with appears and it's ready to rock and roll. I guess it could be the newer Intel HD drivers although whatever the reason it's a lot nicer.

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post #194 of 419
1/27/13 at 7:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tluxon View Post

After using WMC for a week or so, I've run into some issues I thought were pretty cool, some that are frustrating, and some I can't find the answers to.

I'm accepting that I can't record the live buffer, but I wonder if any of the non-free DVR packages feature that - at least for the active tuner because the files are in the TempSBE folder and I've been able to manually save some "unrecorded" video from them.


I guess there is no way to save the live buffer if you want to record something your watching. I use this feature a lot on my tivo and it would suck losing it. rolleyes.gif
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post #195 of 419
1/27/13 at 7:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles R View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by JHBrandt View Post

I did it! I ran the NFC/AFC championships through it and it didn't get every commercial but it got most of them, and I can still skip the remainder the "old-fashioned" way wink.gif

 

My issues were it would skip over parts of a program. Especially, the beginning and the ending of shows. I have MC set to record two minutes early and it would get confused when the previous show ended and the scheduled one began. It would also at times lose the last segment such as on The Big Bang Theory. Which was worse as the recording would end (if I didn't catch it right away) and I'd have to replay it and skip to the last couple of minutes. All and all I miss it and when it works (most of the time) it's rather cool.

That did happen a time or two - once rather confusingly skipped two possessions of the AFC championship game. The article you linked mentioned this issue, and I configured it exactly as the article said so all I had to do when it happened was turn it off with the left arrow then back up and watch without commercial skip until I got past the problem. It was somewhat of a pain though, and I can imagine how much more of a pain it would've been if it had happened at the end rather than in the middle.You might reduce the chance of that happening by padding the ends of recordings - if it skipped the ending it'd probably just flow into the next program and you could turn it off and backtrack rather than having to replay and fast-forward.

What seemed to throw it off was having the same commercial at the end of three consecutive commercial breaks. Hopefully there'll be an update someday that will address these issues - I'd rather that it leave a few more commercials in than skip parts of the program. (A Win8-compatible version would be nice too.)

I guess in some ways it's the ultimate couch potato software - for those for whom even pressing the skip forward button on the remote is too much trouble! Still, it's rather amazing and probably worth $30 even with the bugs..
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post #196 of 419
1/30/13 at 7:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles R View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by JHBrandt View Post

I got my promo code and downloaded the upgrade assistant. I'll try to download the Win 8 Pro upgrade

They display the key as soon as you purchase the upgrade and email you a copy shortly afterwards. If you install (not acquire a key) MC before the end of the month it's free. You can use this URL to get a key...

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/feature-packs

With all the hoops M$ makes you jump through, I just now managed to request my free WMC8 key. With my luck it'll arrive Fri., 2/1; too late to do me any good.

The big problem is you have to request your key from Win 8 itself. I tried requesting from my Win XP system at work - no dice. So, you have to get Win 8 installed & running before you even have a chance. That means if you don't want to lose Win 7, you need another drive to copy it to. That increases the cost.

I was able to use an old 60 GB SATA drive I'd bought from Amazon.com for $30 for my old PC, but decided to replace with an even older 80 GB PATA drive for various reasons. I could've gone with a similar-size SSD but those cost much more. I may do that someday but right now, I just wanted to get Win 8 going for the lowest cost.

The 80 GB PATA drive arrived Monday and I installed it in my old PC, freeing up the 60 GB SATA drive. Then yesterday, I cloned my Win 7 partitions to the 60 GB drive and today, I got Win 8 installed. Then I had to get on my old PC to download Win 8 drivers for my wireless LAN adapter just to get on the Internet so I could request the *#!#$ key rolleyes.gif All that while I was trying to learn how to use Windows all over again because it looks like they replaced the Start menu with the Program Manager from Win 3 rolleyes.gif WTF is the matter with M$ anyway?

But as you can see from this post, I did make it onto the Internet. Just hope M$ expedites my WMC 8 key or all this hurrying & rushing will have been for naught.
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post #197 of 419
1/30/13 at 9:11pm
I actually like win 8 for the most part, it is easy to customize. The only complaint I have so far is when I bring the computer out of sleep and click on the welcome screen, it goes to desktop instead of the start screen.
Other than that, I have made all types of icons for the desktop and start screens - shutoff, sleep, restart, main programs, disk utilities, etc.
I even made a shortcut icon to get to the start screen from desktop instead of the swipe to the bottom left smile.gif

There are a few ways to save your win 7 installation.
One is if it is the factory HD with the hidden partition on - it will still be there.
Another is use the win 7 image tool to make a image on the HD or an external drive - as well as a rescue disk. I did this with both win 7 and win 8 for quick reinstalls, just used an external usb drive with a few partitions on it, the only catch is the win 7 and win 8 images must be kept on separate partitions or else one will overwrite the other.

The win7 image tool is in win 8 but slightly hidden - it is in the control panel under win 7 recovery.

Not sure if this info helps anyone or not. Doing this helped me just the other day as my Hauppauge software doesn't work correctly in win 8, so with a quick win 7 image recovery I was back in business with that computer.
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post #198 of 419
1/30/13 at 10:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by JHBrandt View Post

All that while I was trying to learn how to use Windows all over again because it looks like they replaced the Start menu with the Program Manager from Win 3 rolleyes.gif WTF is the matter with M$ anyway?

 

If, after awhile, you find it intolerable, this is what myself and many, many others are using, so we have a start button and menu back, and we don't have to deal with the Metro interface ever again, because it boots up right to desktop:

 

www.iobit.com/iobitstartmenu8.php, or

 

www.classicshell.net


Edited by Rammitinski - 1/31/13 at 8:48pm
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post #199 of 419
1/31/13 at 5:01pm
Almost there ...

M$ sent my key this AM. That's quick service! I did read in the fine print that while the offer expires 1/31, you actually have one extra day, until 2/1, to activate WMC 8. But I didn't take a chance; I just activated it.

Now all I need is a Win 8 driver for my AverMedia Duet tuner card rolleyes.gif (Win 7 came with the correct driver.)

Update: Win 7 drivers work. Hard to find on the Internets though. Google "Avermedia" by itself to find their website; if you Google "Avermedia duet" or "Avermedia drivers" or the like, Google will fail you.

Anyway, the website is www.avermedia-usa.com. Click Download then click the "category" drop-down. For the Duet select "Discontinued Models." Then click the "TV signal" drop-down and select ATSC. Then click the "Product" drop-down and find the Duet. Then just download the Windows 7 drivers (32 or 64 bit depending which Windows version you have). You can run the download and it will install the drivers automatically.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rammitinski View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by JHBrandt View Post

All that while I was trying to learn how to use Windows all over again because it looks like they replaced the Start menu with the Program Manager from Win 3 rolleyes.gif WTF is the matter with M$ anyway?

If, after awhile, you find it intolerable, this is what myself and many, many others are using, so we have a start button and menu back, and we don't have to deal with the Metro interface ever again, because it boots up right to desktop:

www.iobit.com/iobitstartmenu8.php

www.classicshell.net

Thanks for that; it worked and makes life much easier.

The new UI looks like it was designed for tablet PCs with touch-screens. Unfortunately, it's a poor design for traditional PCs with mice and particularly bad if you're using a joypad for a mouse. M$ should have given users the option rather than foisting the new UI on everyone. But I'm sure they'll jack around with it yet again for Win 9 rolleyes.gif It's what they do.
Edited by JHBrandt - 1/31/13 at 6:01pm
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post #200 of 419
2/1/13 at 4:32am
Hopefully your Duet(s) won't disappear in Windows on sleep/wake or you keep your PC on all the time, that was a common problem for those tuners. I used one for clear QAM a few years ago and it worked great with that caveat (mine would disappear but I kept the PC on).
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post #201 of 419
2/1/13 at 7:12am
Quote:
Originally Posted by slowbiscuit View Post

Hopefully your Duet(s) won't disappear in Windows on sleep/wake or you keep your PC on all the time, that was a common problem for those tuners. I used one for clear QAM a few years ago and it worked great with that caveat (mine would disappear but I kept the PC on).

I've heard about that happening, particularly with AMD processors, which I also have frown.gif It hasn't happened to me yet, but I have other problems with sleep/wake: BSoD in Win 7 (haven't tried it in Win 8 yet) so I've been keeping the PC on (unless I know there are no recordings scheduled and shut it down completely).
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post #202 of 419
2/1/13 at 9:28am
Thread Starter 

For anyone looking to re-purpose an older (non HDMI) PC Fry's has the Diamond AMD 6450 for $20 (after rebate) this week. It does HDMI HD audio as well as 3D so its got you covered if you go down that road later on.

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post #203 of 419
2/1/13 at 12:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles R View Post

... an older (non HDMI) PC ... does HDMI HD audio....

confused.gif How does a non-HDMI PC do HDMI audio? Does it have an HDMI connector that carries audio only?
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post #204 of 419
2/1/13 at 1:25pm
Charles R linked to a discreet graphics card that has HDMI for video and also supports audio, even though it isn't a sound card. It would let you add HDMI capabilities to any computer with a free PCI-E slot.
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post #205 of 419
2/1/13 at 2:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aleron Ives View Post

Charles R linked to a discreet graphics card that has HDMI for video and also supports audio, even though it isn't a sound card. It would let you add HDMI capabilities to any computer with a free PCI-E slot.

Thanks; it makes sense now. The first time I read it, I thought Fry's was closing out some old non-HDMI PC with an AMD APU for real cheap.
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post #206 of 419
2/1/13 at 2:56pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by JHBrandt View Post


Thanks; it makes sense now.

 

I still find it confusing... the video card being your sound card (pass through per se). I found out the card doesn't support Contrast Enhancement (Dynamic Contrast) of which the i3 has a bug doing. It's fanless and I wanted to use it to get around the bug... oh well.

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post #207 of 419
2/1/13 at 5:15pm
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.
I have no interest in upgrading to Windows 8 anytime soon, but I bought the Windows 8 Pro upgrade a few months ago and I believe WMC can be added to w8pro any time for $10.
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post #208 of 419
2/1/13 at 7:33pm

Yes, Also, if they're going to continue selling the Pro Pack upgrade (from Windows 8 Basic) that they've been selling, it already includes the Media Center, so it should only cost you $100, without having to pay $10 for WMC separately.

 

(Yeah, I know - but 10 bucks is 10 bucks. smile.gif)

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post #209 of 419
2/2/13 at 4:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tluxon View Post

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.
I have no interest in upgrading to Windows 8 anytime soon, but I bought the Windows 8 Pro upgrade a few months ago and I believe WMC can be added to w8pro any time for $10.

Well, I got Win 8 with WMC activated and everything set up as I wanted it Thursday night. (That included putting WMC in the Startup folder, since you can't do that by just clicking a box any more rolleyes.gif ) So Friday I made a system image of my little Win 8 drive on my big Win 7 drive, created a Win 8 rescue disk, and removed the Win 8 drive from my system. Now I'm back on Win 7, but I have Win 8 ready to go once all the software (commercial skip, WMC add-ons, etc.) has caught up with it and that killer Win-8-only app comes out. It was a lot of work, but not a bad deal for under $50 ($15+tax for the Win 8 upgrade, plus $30 or so for the drive that holds it.

If/when Win 8 day comes, I can delete the Win 7 partition from my big drive, and have an extra 50 GB for TV recordings & the like.

Things I liked about Win 8:
1. It boots up fast
2. My mouse works in WMC 8 but not in WMC 7. (Not a big deal since you don't really use a mouse in WMC, but still....)

Things I hated:
1. Metro (but that can be fixed)
2. Having to get on the Internet to download drivers for my WiFi adapter, so I could connect to the Internet rolleyes.gif
3. General lack of compatible 3rd-party software at this point (presumably that will change as time goes by)
4. The astonishing amount of data Micro$oft wants you to send them "for your own good." It seems M$ is turning into Google rolleyes.gif
Edited by JHBrandt - 2/2/13 at 4:47pm
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post #210 of 419
2/3/13 at 11:32am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by JHBrandt View Post

Now I'm back on Win 7, but I have Win 8 ready to go once all the software (commercial skip, WMC add-ons, etc.) has caught up with it and that killer Win-8-only app comes out.

 

I'm hoping XBMC becomes mainstream enough to be an easy replacement for WMC. Version 12.0 was just released and I tried again... as before running into backend server issues. I got a little further than the last time and I think I'll give it another try once I read about other Windows 8 users experience. I use my Desktop instead of the DVR PC for playing around so I can play all I want...

 

One item of note although it could be my imagination is since I upgraded to Windows 8 my Xbox extender feels a little snappier. Especially Skip Forward and Back... there wasn't much lag before however now it's extremely close to the PC's speed.

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