I am a heavy user of HTPC.
My media consumption is spent around 80% in WMCE, 10% in browser (youtube or some other alternative) and 10% of actual cable's box recorded PVR content.
I use HTPC/WMCE for watching movies, TV shows, listening of local radio, watching TV (and recording it through wmce PVR).
I also use 2 extenders to get tv in bedrooms (thats the only way TV is broadcasted in bedrooms)
Btw. this is the only Windows box in my household. I have been running Vista and then Windows 7 last 7-8 years (whenever Vista came out).
Hardware I am running is Q6600 with 4GB of RAM and hauppage 150MCE card. I also have hackintosh (my main production machine), iMac and Linux Mint laptop.
If my cable provider didn't cut most of it's analog channels or I wasn't ever exposed to HD TV, I would keep this setup forever.
Or if MS decided to support HD TV decoding / input I would keep WMC as my TV front end.
Since this is not true, I need to figure out what to do next.
Right now I have composite TV coming into HTPC and IR extender which changes channels on my motorola tv box.
I also have HD PVR which bypasses PC completely.
I also have all available OTA channels (6 HD local TV stations) coming down from my attic in my basement. My TV tuner doesn't support digital TV so I might have to add a new ones.
I have Asus My Cinema-P7131 which was given to me and manual says it supports digital TV (not sure if HD will be supported by Windows ?). I have never tried it.
I also believe MS does not provide EPG for OTA channels in Canada.
(Anyone to confirm this as well ?)
So anyone still current in HTPC game to help me choose way forward ?
As I said I would keep on going forward with same setup if there was way of adding HD TV input to HTPC (either through RGB video in or local OTA decoding + EPG). I am actually debating on cancelling cable sub since it's not worth money I spend. I would sign up for NBA league pass or some alternative content provider + Netflix and I would be set.
So, what would you suggest ?
I am interested in live HD TV (w guide) + video/photo/music library front end similar to WMC or plex.
WMCE does show it's age with bad Netflix client, no ability to incorporate YouTube, no movie tagging in it's video library etc...
I like how Plex works, but it doesn't have much of TV capabilities.
I have never tried XBMC, I heard it can download file's subtitles automatically which is great since I watch a lot foreign movies.
I forgot to add - I use Harmony remote to control everything and I also use dinovo mini keyboard for rare occurrences I look for subtitle or need to go to YouTube.
My HTPC is located in my furnace room and with it's 9500GT dual DVI outputting 2x DVI to HDMI video to 2 different TVs (both Samsungs, and both times connected to HDMI 1 (DVI/HDMI))
Audio is coaxial split to 2 different amplifiers.
What would you suggest me ?
My media consumption is spent around 80% in WMCE, 10% in browser (youtube or some other alternative) and 10% of actual cable's box recorded PVR content.
I use HTPC/WMCE for watching movies, TV shows, listening of local radio, watching TV (and recording it through wmce PVR).
I also use 2 extenders to get tv in bedrooms (thats the only way TV is broadcasted in bedrooms)
Btw. this is the only Windows box in my household. I have been running Vista and then Windows 7 last 7-8 years (whenever Vista came out).
Hardware I am running is Q6600 with 4GB of RAM and hauppage 150MCE card. I also have hackintosh (my main production machine), iMac and Linux Mint laptop.
If my cable provider didn't cut most of it's analog channels or I wasn't ever exposed to HD TV, I would keep this setup forever.
Or if MS decided to support HD TV decoding / input I would keep WMC as my TV front end.
Since this is not true, I need to figure out what to do next.
Right now I have composite TV coming into HTPC and IR extender which changes channels on my motorola tv box.
I also have HD PVR which bypasses PC completely.
I also have all available OTA channels (6 HD local TV stations) coming down from my attic in my basement. My TV tuner doesn't support digital TV so I might have to add a new ones.
I have Asus My Cinema-P7131 which was given to me and manual says it supports digital TV (not sure if HD will be supported by Windows ?). I have never tried it.
I also believe MS does not provide EPG for OTA channels in Canada.
(Anyone to confirm this as well ?)
So anyone still current in HTPC game to help me choose way forward ?
As I said I would keep on going forward with same setup if there was way of adding HD TV input to HTPC (either through RGB video in or local OTA decoding + EPG). I am actually debating on cancelling cable sub since it's not worth money I spend. I would sign up for NBA league pass or some alternative content provider + Netflix and I would be set.
So, what would you suggest ?
I am interested in live HD TV (w guide) + video/photo/music library front end similar to WMC or plex.
WMCE does show it's age with bad Netflix client, no ability to incorporate YouTube, no movie tagging in it's video library etc...
I like how Plex works, but it doesn't have much of TV capabilities.
I have never tried XBMC, I heard it can download file's subtitles automatically which is great since I watch a lot foreign movies.
I forgot to add - I use Harmony remote to control everything and I also use dinovo mini keyboard for rare occurrences I look for subtitle or need to go to YouTube.
My HTPC is located in my furnace room and with it's 9500GT dual DVI outputting 2x DVI to HDMI video to 2 different TVs (both Samsungs, and both times connected to HDMI 1 (DVI/HDMI))
Audio is coaxial split to 2 different amplifiers.
What would you suggest me ?