[sdowney717]

My idea is over the lan, control recordings and watch TV.


How to do that?

 

[mdavej]

Another PC cannot be an extender. Only an extender can be an extender. Does it matter? Depends on whether you have copy protection and network tuners. Also realize an extender is generally much cheaper than a PC. I run WMC on several PCs in my house and watch unprotected recordings all the time. My tuners aren't networked, but if they were, I'd have live TV too. In rooms with TVs, I use actual extenders.

 

[sdowney717]

I toyed around with extending the desktop to the tv, but I know people wont be happy doing that.


So I scrounged up some older hardware and made another pc from an older prescott cpu.


It plays 1080p WMC recording fine by browsing the lan.

But I cant watch live OTA TV on it.

Right now it has ubunut 32 bit.


If windows7 cant do that, I wont pursue installing it.

 

[ajhieb]

The technology you originally referenced (allowing a PC to act as an extender) is called Softsled. It never came to fruition but you can google it for more info.


That said if you have a network capable OTA tuner, you should be able to share it with multiple Win 7 machines.

 

[mdavej]



Quote:
Originally Posted by sdowney717  /t/1520329/can-another-windows7-pc-be-an-extender-for-a-windows7-pc-running-wmc/0_100#post_24422969


I toyed around with extending the desktop to the tv, but I know people wont be happy doing that.

An extender has nothing to do with displaying your desktop on a TV. This is what an extender is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Media_Center_Extender

 

[captain_video]

If your channels are not flagged as copy once then you can use a secondary PC as a standalone HTPC and you can also share recordings. If you're using networked tuners, like the SiliconDust HDHomeRun models or the Ceton InfinTV 6 ETH, you can watch or record live TV on any PC. You can record on each PC, but you can't access a central scheduled recordings list to see what the other PCs will be recording nor can you schedule a recording remotely from any satellite PC. However, you could use something like the Ceton Companion app (it's called something different now, but I forget what) you can schedule recordings from your smart phone as well as see what's currently scheduled on any PC you have configured to control with the app. The best part is that a standalone PC will have far more codec support than an extender, allowing you to play any video format you like. Extenders are severely limited in this area. OTOH, if all you want to do is record and watch TV then an extender is much more cost effective.

 

[sdowney717]

I might end up getting another HDTV tuner.


If I got the one that runs on the LAN, would my current HTPC win7 pc then be considered to have 2 tuners?


Plus I could use it upstairs, maybe on the ubuntu pc..

 

[captain_video]

Windows 7 Media Center will scan for all tuners and configure WMC with all that it detects, whether they're on the LAN or installed physically in a PC slot or connected to a USB port.

 

[freetvEE]



Quote:
Originally Posted by sdowney717  /t/1520329/can-another-windows7-pc-be-an-extender-for-a-windows7-pc-running-wmc#post_24423292


I might end up getting another HDTV tuner.


If I got the one that runs on the LAN, would my current HTPC win7 pc then be considered to have 2 tuners?


Plus I could use it upstairs, maybe on the ubuntu pc..

WMC will show as having 2 TV tuners that are shared with other PCs over the network-so you will have 2 tv tuners in WMC to use whenever another PC isn't using the same network TV tuner.

 

[C17chief]

Unfortunately no as stated before. It would of been nice if that capability did exist, and IMO would of been easy enough for them to do if they wanted. They could of had the code as part of overall MCE, an in equipped copies of windows have a setting where you could run it in full mode or extender mode. For those saying what's the point....2 that immediately come to mind are 1) Maybe for a kids room/den/office where there is already a computer with a decent sized monitor...and being able to use that computer as a TV as well vs having an actual tv also in the room.....or 2) Since powerfull enough small form PC's are pretty cheap these days (like atom, the lower end AMD APU's, etc), you could probably do a small pc for a couple hundred that would look better, more capable on the local media side of things, etc then the few existing extenders will provide you with.