Win7 MCE vs Win8.1 MCE

CaptNumbNutz

CaptNumbNutz

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I'm looking to re-install the OS for my HTPC in the near future. I have lost the license key for my current Win7 install on it (it was from my old technet license that I have mistakenly run testing on for far too long), making me a little nervous if I ever have to re-install.

I'm going to buy a new license and make sure it is 100% legit from here on out. But the big question is Win7 or Win8.1?

Cost is not an issue. I am fully aware that I have to pay $10 for Media Center Edition (MCE) on Win8.1 and I don't care. That's the cost of 2 cheeseburgers I don't need to eat. The system currently runs well on Win7, but I wouldn't mind moving to 8.1. I have zero problems with Win8's Metro interface, so lets please not argue that point. Please focus any info you have on MCE. I'm migrating other computers in my network to 8.1, and would like to keep other systems up to date if possible. I have to have Windows because of MCE, live tv and DVR capability with digital cable, and a possible upgrade to cablecard in near future.

1. If I move to 8.1, MCE needs to have the Wife Acceptance Factor that Win7 MCE had. Again, I'm talking only MCE here, not the Metro interface elsewhere on Win8. This is an HTPC first and foremost.
2. How does Win 8 handle cable card tuners? Is it the same as Win7? Are the drivers decent for the Ceton and others? I will be adding cablecard in the future.
3. I've heard that Win8 MCE does not start when hitting the green button on the standard MCE remotes. Is this true? If true, is there a fix or workaround? Has anything else changed about the remote control interface? I currently have a standard MCE remote with the round green button in the center.
4. I've heard that DVD codecs were removed in Win8. Is this true? Does simply buying a 3rd party software package fix the issue?
5. Anything I might have left out?

Thanks for your help.
 
1. Media Center on Windows 8 is the exact same as on Windows 7.
2. Windows 8 is the same as Windows 7 for Tuners
3. I do not know.
4. If you buy WMC on Windows 8, you will get MPEG-2/DVD Video Support
5. Unlikely.

There's no real difference between windows 7 and windows 8 for media center.
 
I'd like to second what Pinski says. I would also like to add that if I was in your shoes I would stick to Win 7. Everything I have read points to Win 7 still being more reliable for MCE.
 
The Lurker said:
I'd like to second what Pinski says. I would also like to add that if I was in your shoes I would stick to Win 7. Everything I have read points to Win 7 still being more reliable for MCE.
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Can you elaborate on what you mean by more reliable?
 
If you're going to use Extenders, only the Xbox 360 will work on Windows 8, since they changed RDP around.
 
So I have done both and here's my expierence.

Both operate exactly the same, though I have noticed less pairing issues using xbox 360's as extenders on win 8 than win 7. On win 7 the xboxes (using 2 as extenders) or windows would forget about once a month what media center they were paired with and I would have to repair them. This hasn't happened at all when I went to win 8. Win 8 mce seems to work a little faster on extenders for me as well.

Win 8 pretty much only allows xbox 360 as an extender so if you are using say a ceton extender in will only work on win 7.

Win 8 you can't set media center to start up on first boot like win 7. Driver wise they are the same, I am using some super old ati digital cable tuners that were originally made for vista and they work.

I have noticed I have to hit the media center button twice on my remote and media center opens up on win 8, win 7 was just once, but it does work on win 8.

When you purchase mce for win 8 it will have the dvd codecs.

One thing to be aware of, if you have any protected recordings unless you do an upgrade from win 7 to win 8 (not a reformat but upgrade over win 7) you will lose the ability to play the recordings of live tv.
 
munkle said:
So I have done both and here's my expierence.

Both operate exactly the same, though I have noticed less pairing issues using xbox 360's as extenders on win 8 than win 7. On win 7 the xboxes (using 2 as extenders) or windows would forget about once a month what media center they were paired with and I would have to repair them. This hasn't happened at all when I went to win 8. Win 8 mce seems to work a little faster on extenders for me as well.

Win 8 pretty much only allows xbox 360 as an extender so if you are using say a ceton extender in will only work on win 7.
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I don't have any extenders, have zero interest in the Ceton extender. If I ever do an extender, it might be the Xbox 1. This is sort of the reason why I'm considering Win8 over 7, because I want to keep my infrastructure as simple as possible and I no doubt MS will pull a fast one with their Xbox should I ever choose to go down that route.

munkle said:
Win 8 you can't set media center to start up on first boot like win 7. Driver wise they are the same, I am using some super old ati digital cable tuners that were originally made for vista and they work.
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Can't boot straight to media center. Not a deal breaker, but good to know. I intend on this being a game box with Steam Big Picture, and I have a Logitech DiNovo for keyboard/track pad duties as well as some Xbox 360 controllers.

I figured drivers would be the same, but you never know with the wonderful world of constantly changing DRM and recorded media. Thanks.
munkle said:
I have noticed I have to hit the media center button twice on my remote and media center opens up on win 8, win 7 was just once, but it does work on win 8.
Click to expand...
So this is where that rumor originated from. If I have to hit the button twice, so be it. Annoying but at least it still works.

munkle said:
When you purchase mce for win 8 it will have the dvd codecs.
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Someone else mentioned this, but thanks for re-confirming it.

munkle said:
One thing to be aware of, if you have any protected recordings unless you do an upgrade from win 7 to win 8 (not a reformat but upgrade over win 7) you will lose the ability to play the recordings of live tv.
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That's good to know, does not surprise me that they somehow key the DRM recordings to the individual window's install they were originally recorded from. Oh well. Lots of catching up to do on old shows. If I do this, it will definitely be a clean install.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One last set of questions for you guys. Since I am inquiring Win7 MCE vs Win8 MCE, please mention any details that might make a difference between the two.

I intend on going Blu-Ray. How is software integration into MCE? Is there software that will put an app in MCE like Netflix integrates? Or does the Blu-Ray player software simply startup when you pop in the disc? Reason I ask is I tend to leave discs in the drive. I would like to not have to exit from MCE to windows, fumble with a keyboard, then open a program later should choose to exit the movie and watch later. It would be preferable to just open "Movies" section in MCE with the remote like I do now with Win7. Is this possible?

Any particular preferences on Blu-Ray drive and software for the setup with the least headache? I would like minimal fuss. Blu-Ray burning capability not required, I will save that for a later date.
 
Just to throw it out there, if you plan on using a Ceton infiniTV4 PCIe with Windows 8, you cannot share the tuners via a network bridge (you can in Windows 7). The infiniTV 6 ETH would be the ideal solution if you have multiple HTPC's using Win8.

To answer your question about blu ray software - I use Archsoft TotalMedia for direct disc playback, and it seems to integrate the best with MCE. It gives you an 'App' or menu item in MCE to launch movies, and it's fairly good are resuming to MCE once you stop or go back while watching the movie. You may occasionally run into a situation where you have to minimize/maximize MCE/TotalMedia because of a glitch, but it's supposed to switch between the two nicely. Last I checked, TotalMedia also gives the best playback support to BDMV rip folders, but later versions do incorporate Cinavia DRM protection (you only have to worry about this if you playback rips).

If you're looking into playing back blu ray rips and forming a movie collection with an application that works natively inside of MCE, 'MyMovies' is the best product I came across. You can use applications like autohotkey to setup buttons on your remote that will launch straight into the MyMovies database, or any other MCE application for that matter.

edit: all (3) of my BD drives are LG in brand, and I've never had issues. I can get the exact models if interested (not near my PC's at the moment).
 
sKiDmArK said:
Just to throw it out there, if you plan on using a Ceton infiniTV4 PCIe with Windows 8, you cannot share the tuners via a network bridge (you can in Windows 7). The infiniTV 6 ETH would be the ideal solution if you have multiple HTPC's using Win8.

To answer your question about blu ray software - I use Archsoft TotalMedia for direct disc playback, and it seems to integrate the best with MCE. It gives you an 'App' or menu item in MCE to launch movies, and it's fairly good are resuming to MCE once you stop or go back while watching the movie. You may occasionally run into a situation where you have to minimize/maximize MCE/TotalMedia because of a glitch, but it's supposed to switch between the two nicely. Last I checked, TotalMedia also gives the best playback support to BDMV rip folders, but later versions do incorporate Cinavia DRM protection (you only have to worry about this if you playback rips).

If you're looking into playing back blu ray rips and forming a movie collection with an application that works natively inside of MCE, 'MyMovies' is the best product I came across. You can use applications like autohotkey to setup buttons on your remote that will launch straight into the MyMovies database, or any other MCE application for that matter.

edit: all (3) of my BD drives are LG in brand, and I've never had issues. I can get the exact models if interested (not near my PC's at the moment).
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Awesome. Thank you for the info. Network bridging was something I thought about, but hadn't figured out the logistics yet. I will consider the 6 tuner Ceton then if that comes up again. I would like to be able to stream tv back into my office when the GF has taken over the TV in the living room. :D Everything is already gigabit and Cat6, so no worries about bandwidth. This was part of the reason I was considering win8.1, since my desktop already has it and I wanted as least fuss as possible if I was going to start doing this. This Ceton Network tuner looks like the best option, then I won't have to jerry rig anything. My only concern is making sure I don't have router problems.

I really don't plan on doing anything fancy now, but I do want my options open. Right now, I live in a 2 bedroom apartment with my GF of 4 years. I plan on turning my current HTPC into a media/fileserver/game portal. I don't plan on doing anything special with the server side, just simple windows filesharing as I always have. There are currently 2 other PC's in my apartment, and only 1 HDTV in the living room, and a possible game console in the near future. In all reality, the console won't do much of anything, but I want my options open should I get a house and more TV's.

munkle said:
Just so you know the xbox 1 isn't an extender, crazy, I know.
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Thanks for the heads up. Seems typical of MS these days. Oh well. PS4 it is, and I won't bother with extenders. If I do, they will likely be cheap mini-itx boxes. But that is in the far far off future and tech will change by then. For now, just want to stream to my office.

Tvgenius said:
Drop mce go media portal way better.
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Since you can't be bothered to read the original post and see why I have to use MS windows, I kindly suggest you go back under your bridge.
 
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CaptNumbNutz said:
3. I've heard that Win8 MCE does not start when hitting the green button on the standard MCE remotes. Is this true? If true, is there a fix or workaround? Has anything else changed about the remote control interface? I currently have a standard MCE remote with the round green button in the center.
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Remote works normally. Green button starts Media Center.


CaptNumbNutz said:
5. Anything I might have left out?
Click to expand...
Yes. Media Center Extenders have been nerfed pretty severely.

Right now, the ONLY Media Center Extender that works with Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 is the Xbox 360. 3rd party extenders are not supported.
 
An actual Extender is required to view copy-once channels and recordings if you want a "whole-home DVR" experience. You won't be able to just move the files around and watch them. Copy-once channels are usually only the premium movie channels, but some providers like TWC flag everything copy-once.
 
One option to get around the extender issue with Windows 8.1 is to use XMBC with the serverwmc pvr add on. I use this so I can connect other machines with XMBC installed to the machine that has the TV tuner card. Still with copy protected channels you will not be able to view.
 
XBMC, not XMBC ;)

What's your cable company? If it's Comcast or Verizon FIOS, they only mark the movie channels copy-once.
 
Mediacom and I believe everything is open except the premiums. I can watch my DVR from any machine that connects to XMBC serverwmc addon. Works great :)
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
Can you elaborate on what you mean by more reliable?
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As someone mentioned the tuner sharing doesnt work on Win 8 and I have read accounts that the Ceton card overall is not as reliable on Win 8 as it is on Win 7. However, I could be wrong as the last time I looked it was a while ago.

However, given all the other negatives mentioned in this thread I would still do Win 7. Also a lot of the guides you find online are vista/win 7 specific, so anything you want to do beyond the ootb functionality may not translate into win 8.
 
The Lurker said:
As someone mentioned the tuner sharing doesnt work on Win 8 and I have read accounts that the Ceton card overall is not as reliable on Win 8 as it is on Win 7. However, I could be wrong as the last time I looked it was a while ago.

However, given all the other negatives mentioned in this thread I would still do Win 7. Also a lot of the guides you find online are vista/win 7 specific, so anything you want to do beyond the ootb functionality may not translate into win 8.
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The only negatives I see here have to do with extenders which I have zero desire to mess with now or in the future.

Tuner sharing is a gray area for me right now. I don't have a cable card tuner yet, but have plans to get one in the future. As someone already mentioned, I can get a network tuner instead and that will fix the issues. At this time I am undecided on which direction I want to go, but I'm glad to know what the limitations are first.

That leaves me with the final concern you mentioned. Where have you heard the Ceton tuners were not as stable under Win8 as Win7? This is the first I'm hearing of this particular issue. I would like to know more since I plan on going cablecard in the future.
 
I current have the Centon InfiniTV PCIe 6 and have used it both on Windows 8 and Windows 7. No issues on either OS as far as stability. Best decision to dump the cable rented box that I have ever made. Tuner sharing is not there which does not matter to me. I mainly use XMBC with the pvr.wmc addon to watch all the shows. Only time I launch wmc is to setup recordings. I have XMBC setup to launch when I press the green windows button. For me this is the best combo.
 
I've had numerous sleep issues with Win 8-8.1 Update 1 on my 2 HTPCs. You can manually put them to sleep fine, but when they wake to do a recording or an extender connects - they never go back to sleep after recording or after the extender disconnects. Every single fix/troubleshooting/figuring out what is keeping it awake via powercfg has yielded no results.

I've since gone back to Windows 7, where sleep works perfectly.
 
I've had sleep issues on both win 7 and 8 and they seem to come and go randomly.
 
In my case I'm running windows 8.1 on my HTPC i have WMC installed but I don't really use it..I mostly watch streaming stuff on netflix and hulu.. and animeseason mostly.


windows 8.1 sleeps fine for me...before it was waking up randomly but i just rebuilt it with a Z87 motherboard and hasswell dual core ... and it sleeps and wakes perfectly now.
 
I know you have stated multiple times you don't intend to mess with extenders but others might stumble upon this thread so I figure I will add this info. You can in fact use Ceton Extenders with Windows 8. The only caveat is that you have to use the Ceton Media Center App to make it do anything. You basically go into your recordings list in the app and tell it to play on the Ceton extender. Same thing with watching Live TV. Those two functions are the only things that work well on the Ceton Echo anyway since I have never been able to get it to play any of my own media without the Ceton Extenders crapping the bed. But for extending the whole home DVR functionality they have been rock solid.
 
vonmolk said:
I current have the Centon InfiniTV PCIe 6 and have used it both on Windows 8 and Windows 7. No issues on either OS as far as stability. Best decision to dump the cable rented box that I have ever made. Tuner sharing is not there which does not matter to me. I mainly use XMBC with the pvr.wmc addon to watch all the shows. Only time I launch wmc is to setup recordings. I have XMBC setup to launch when I press the green windows button. For me this is the best combo.
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Damn, hadn't thought about that. Good idea, I will consider running both.

morgwon said:
I know you have stated multiple times you don't intend to mess with extenders but others might stumble upon this thread so I figure I will add this info. You can in fact use Ceton Extenders with Windows 8. The only caveat is that you have to use the Ceton Media Center App to make it do anything. You basically go into your recordings list in the app and tell it to play on the Ceton extender. Same thing with watching Live TV. Those two functions are the only things that work well on the Ceton Echo anyway since I have never been able to get it to play any of my own media without the Ceton Extenders crapping the bed. But for extending the whole home DVR functionality they have been rock solid.
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Ok, fair enough. I've got the info I need, but if you guys want to keep giving info for everyone else's reference, go right ahead.:cool:
 
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