jennyfur

[jennyfur]

Hmm. Keep getting errors when I try to post and my replies aren’t showing up as the latest post, so just trying another reply from a different browser to see if that helps…

[jennyfur]

Surprise! I’m still around. And I’m in the same boat as the OP here, been contemplating my options over the past couple weeks. Think I’ve finally made a decision.

First off, since I’m bumping an old post, just wanted to update this for anyone coming in later since the post before mine is a bit misleading. As of May, it was absolutely confirmed that there’s no media center in windows 10. You can even hear it from the horse’s mouth: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/wiki/insider_wintp-insider_install/frequently-asked-questions-windows-10/5c0b9368-a9e8-4238-b1e4-45f4b7ed2fb9

(use ctrl+F to find “media center” since it’s a long article)

So on to my dilema. Currently, I’m using Win 7 for MCE with an xbox 360 extender. I want to upgrade this machine to Win 10, which will cause me to lose MCE. I have a few options though.

1. I have a really old macbook pro that’s bootcamped with Win 7. It would be the perfect solution to this problem if it weren’t for the fact that it’s horribly unstable and locks up almost daily, not to mention the battery is broken so it has to stay plugged in at all times (okay the latter isn’t so much of a problem in this scenario, just an annoyance if I want to use the macbook for anything else). If it wasn’t such a POS, I would just run it as my new MCE box since I have no intention of upgrading it. Would need to save to someplace else though since it doesn’t have much hard drive space.
2. Option 2: there’s rumors of the xbox one eventually getting a DVR solution. This rumor makes enough sense to believe as they really want the xbone to be the center of your living room, also because of the HDMI passthrough cable features, along with the death of MCE. Problem with this option is the timing… who knows when this will happen. I highly doubt it will be in time for when I plan to switch to Win 10. But I didn’t bother buying an xbone in the hopes that it would do something about the lack of MCE extender capability, so waiting isn’t really a problem (unless I’d run out of time for free Win 10 while doing so).
3. Lastly, and looking to be the option I’m leaning most towards at the moment, is HDHomeRun DVR. Their kickstarter got plenty of funding, including meeting their stretch goals for Kodi and iPad support. I’d planned on buying a NAS for backup reasons anyway, and HDHomeRun DVR is supposed to be able to run off one. They list QNAP as a brand they plan to support, and I was leaning towards the TS-251 anyway (which happens to run Kodi and has hdmi out). I understand the $30 fee for EPG data, it sucks but it’s reasonable and still cheaper than what I’d pay the cable co. The only downside of this option is if I spend all this money on the necessary hardware and then option 2 (the xbone solution) actually comes to fruition at a later date. Would be taking that chance.

[jennyfur]

So looks like Blacksumac (makers of Piper) got bought by iControl. Should be interesting to see what impact that has. 

 

Also, looks like they added two-way audio support.

[jennyfur]

Glad to see Piper finally got some coverage here in the CES article, I was beginning to think nobody else cared hehe. 

Hopefully by the time the cellular version is released, they’ll have added some of the other features I feel are lacking with their offering right now (it’s new though, so I don’t blame them at all and so far the rate at which they’ve been releasing things is pretty impressive). I was hoping I could use it by itself controller wise, but perhaps using it in tandem with a Vera device might be more my thing, especially if MiCasaVerde is making their UI more friendly.

Right now here’s the things that bug me about it, though none are actually deal breakers. Not gonna put lack of cellular version on this list since that’s on its way:

1. Mediocre image quality, no night vision
2. No possibility for monitoring (yet – this is on their list of future possibilities I believe)
3. Limited Z-wave component compatibility (so far – they’re working on this so we’ll see. could impact my Vera decision)
4. No remote video storage
5. No web portal/desktop version
6. No sunrise/sunset triggers
7. No two-way audio (not a big deal)
8. I’m not sure about multiple users

[jennyfur]

I’m only seeing this post now, but also had come across Piper awhile ago and have been keeping an eye on it since. I was previously planning on waiting for news from MiCasaVerde regarding new Vera devices, but now I’m somewhat more interested in the upcoming cellular version of the Piper. 

http://getpiper.com/

 

[jennyfur]

My most recent machine has been alive and kicking for almost 3 years I think. I almost never used it standalone, it was mostly accessed via extender (the PC and TV were on different floors of the house). It’s a 2 tuner cablecard system, and there was a few times I considered upgrading to one of the ceton devices but that never happened and now that I don’t have to share it anymore, there’s no need to. I moved and got FiOS a few months ago, which greatly improved my cable situation since unlike Comcast, it actually works. Big improvement on the MAF there hehe 😉

I decided about 4 years ago that it wasn’t worth it to maintain a separate HTPC anymore though, I just beefed up my main rig to do double duty (and really, what little it does besides HTPC duties is minimal anyway). I just couldn’t afford to keep upgrading it as well as a separate HTPC. I would have an xbox regardless since I’m a gamer, so it was a no brainer for me to go the extender route.

[jennyfur]

I’m having the same problem. I’ve missed tons of recordings already. Redoing the tuner setup  just fixed it for me as well. Hopefully it holds. Whatever caused it must have been the same for me. I’ve got FiOS, if that matters. And judging by the fact that you said it was a Wednesday (I unfortunately didn’t notice which day the problem started as I don’t record daily and don’t use this for watching Live TV) it could have been a good ‘ol Windows Update on a Tuesday that caused it.

[jennyfur]

Pssshh, over a hundred views and no answer? Surprising. 🙂

 

[jennyfur]

I second Mike’s Harmony suggestion. I’ve seen tons of deals on the lower end models between $20-50. They’d do what you want and more.

[jennyfur]

You may want to read the most recent review of My Movies, which is only a few months old. Anything worth mentioning that has changed will be there. But I don’t think much really significant has.

http://www.missingremote.com/review/mymovies-4

I’m also going to second the suggestion of Auto Rip N Compress, I use it to rip my DVDs to wtv and then use media center to access them. I’m partial to Media Center Master for my meta data needs.

[jennyfur]

[quote=Aaron Ledger]

I missed out on the Pulp Fiction BD from Amazon for $4 🙁

[/quote]

I did too. It went so fast online!

[jennyfur]

[quote=umdivx]The snapstream remote is and was only made for beyond TV. So out of the box it will only work with the Beyond TV application. [/quote]

That’s slightly misleading. The Firefly remote works out of the box with many 3rd party applications (http://www.snapstream.com/Products/firefly/supportedapps.asp). And that includes Media Center, which I’ve used it for periodically since Win7 came out (and I’ve had 64bit the entire time). I moved a year ago though and now only use 7MC exclusively through my extender so I don’t have the Firefly installed anymore, but it did work just fine when I did. No special configuration needed. Can’t speak for XBMC though.

I do wonder what “isn’t flexible” enough about Media Center though, over the years so much has come out that modifies it (themes, menus, media players, you name it) that I’m wondering if it’s just due to the fact that you’re unaware of these apps. I’ve gone through countless HTPC frontends over the years (SageTV, BeyondTV, Meedio and more) but lately I tend to like 7MC since like Josh said, it’s easy to set up and very user friendly. I got tired of constantly configuring and tweaking my installs of other software. Media Center just works, with little fuss. Plus now I’ve got a cablecard tuner, which is a pretty big bonus over other apps.

[jennyfur]

Welp, after much digging around I finally found the answer that worked for me. Posting the link in case anyone else runs into this problem.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977116

As a last resort that I thankfully didn’t have to do, I also saw a few sites that suggested removing WMC then adding it back. To do so, go to control panel > programs and features > turn windows features on or off. WMC is under “Media Features”, uncheck the box. Think you have to reboot afterwards. Then repeat the process to turn it back on. Hopefully the above link will do the job though so this won’t be necessary for anybody.

[jennyfur]

[quote=SikSlayer]PS: Dump AVG, just use Microsoft Security Essentials.[/quote]

Too bad I’m paid through another 2 years. Seems like a waste to dump it, wish I’d known the MS one was free back when I bought it.

I’m at a loss at this point regarding what to do with media center not updating those tiles. Is there a log file anywhere that I may be able to figure out what’s failing? Cuz there’s gotta be something keeping it from downloading.

[jennyfur]

[quote=mikinho]

What DNS servers are you using?  If you are using OpenDNS…don’t or temporarily use local ISP DNS servers.

[/quote]

LOL I had to google OpenDNS to even find out what it was… so no, not using it.

Though likely unrelated, I am using AVG as my antivirus however, and had even tried shutting it off completely for the last of those 3 7MC download attempts.

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