Considering the move from WMC (1 Viewer)

David Becht

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Hello,

I have been a longtime WMC user. I have been mostly happy with the product but as of late it has become apparent that Microsoft has abandoned the product and will not be part of future releases of it's operating system. My current setup includes three Windows 7 Media Center PC's, two of which contain Ceton Infinitv 4 tuners. One of which uses one of the tuners through what they call network connect. I also have a Ceton echo connected to a TV.

The reason I am attracted to MediaPortal is because it appears as though it is at the growing stages of it's lifecycle unlike Media Center which appears to be on life support. It also looks like there are a number of things which can be added to it which make it better than what I have available to me with media center.

My objective here is to make the transition with as little loss of hardware as possible and no loss of functionality.

I have a few questions which may help me with my decision process.

1. Will MediaPortal work on Windows 10 when it arrives next month?
2. Will it work if the Server is on Windows 7 and the clients on Windows 10?
3. Would I be able to have both WMC and Media Portal running on the same machine so that I could keep my Ceton Echo working as an extender? or Is there a work around from within MediaPortal which would make that work? Do the two applications conflict in any way?

I am excited about what I have been able to read about MediaPortal. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

Dave
 

Edalex

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    Hello,
    I'l try to answer. :)
    1. Will MediaPortal work on Windows 10 when it arrives next month?
    Yes, I was running MP on win10 technical preview myself.
    2. Will it work if the Server is on Windows 7 and the clients on Windows 10?
    Yes, it should. But you need to have same version of MEdiaportal and TV server on those PCs
    3. Would I be able to have both WMC and Media Portal running on the same machine so that I could keep my Ceton Echo working as an extender? or Is there a work around from within MediaPortal which would make that work? Do the two applications conflict in any way?
    You could install both WMC and Mediaportal on the same PC but Mediaportal will require exclusive access to tuner so WMC can't work with them at the same time. ALso the could conflict about your remote control since WMC has its own service for recieving signals and MP has its own. Often you should disable wms service to use Remote with Mediaportal.
    Though I'm not an expert and many guys here can answer last question more professionally :)
     

    Skywizard

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    With MePo you have a server and client which can run on the same PC or a separate PC. The client will run on other PCs on your network so you can do away with network connect and use MePo client on any PC you want to watch live TV, Recorded TV, music and DVDs etc. I do not know if you have to have a spare tuner or a tuner available at the time to be able to do that. I too am running Win 10 OK - and I say that Win 10 have done me a favour by not supporting WMC anymore; I thought the world was going to end when I heard that WMC was going to end.
     

    LJG

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    Hello and welcome!

    Yes, as others have said, you should find the shift to MP will work well with your hardware, although you might want to sell or retire your Ceton Echo.

    A usual set up would be to have one machine acting as a TV server and have all of the tuners in there, doing all of your live and recorded TV. One advantage of MP over WMC is that one tuner can simultaneously access all the channels on one Mux - at the same time. So with just one or two tuners you could probably watch and record 10+ channels. EDIT: Unless it's a cablecard tuner (see below)

    That machine could also have the client MP software installed, where you can set up the TV guide and all the other functions / plug ins that you want, such as Moving Pictures for your films and MP TV Series for your TV series, I also recommend Online Videos, Trakt, and don't forget the auto refresh rate changing option, which WMC was lacking.

    Then you can install the MP1 client on your other Windows machines, they will connect to the server machine via your home network, and you will have the exact same experience on there as you would on the server machine.

    I am about to move to a new house, where I will have one loud and noisy server machine in the loft acting as a TV server and file server for all my media, then lots of small quiet Windows PC's connected to the TV's throughout the house, running MediaPortal 1 client software.
     
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    mm1352000

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    Sorry lisag, I don't mean to nitpick, but I need to contradict you to avoid a misunderstanding...

    One advantage of MP over WMC is that one tuner can simultaneously access all the channels on one Mux - at the same time. So with just one or two tuners you could probably watch and record 10+ channels.
    This is true for DVB, ATSC (over the air) and clear QAM/OpenCable tuners... but not for CableCARD tuners.
    Due to their interface design (stupid CableLabs!), CableCARD tuners can only tune 1 channel per tuner.
     

    LJG

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    Sorry lisag, I don't mean to nitpick, but I need to contradict you to avoid a misunderstanding...

    One advantage of MP over WMC is that one tuner can simultaneously access all the channels on one Mux - at the same time. So with just one or two tuners you could probably watch and record 10+ channels.
    This is true for DVB, ATSC (over the air) and clear QAM/OpenCable tuners... but not for CableCARD tuners.
    Due to their interface design (stupid CableLabs!), CableCARD tuners can only tune 1 channel per tuner.

    Oo, thanks for the info, very clearly my mistake, I need to know this so I don't give people wrong information! My apologies.
     

    David Becht

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    Thanks for the information. It sounds as though MP will clearly work with Windows 10 and it doesn't matter if other machines are running Windows 7. I am still a little unclear about my third question above. From what Edalex stated above, it sounds like I could run both WMC and MP side by side on a Windows 7 machine to only service the Ceton Echo for the time being. The issue would be if I could leave one tuner from my Ceton Infinitv available for WMC/echo and then leave the other three available to MP. Is that possible? I know that the ideal solution would be to abandon the echo altogether, but I would prefer not to have the expense at this time. Is what I am saying possible? To be clear, the Infinitv tuner card is a CableCard Tuner card which includes 4 tuners onboard.
     

    HTPCSourcer

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    it sounds like I could run both WMC and MP side by side on a Windows 7 machine to only service the Ceton Echo for the time being
    Yes and no. MediaPortal will deactivate the WMC Windows services by applying a policy. This means that
    • it is not possible to run MediaPortal and WMC in parallel at the same time
    • Switching from one to the other will require the reactivation of said services and deactivation of TV Service + reboot
    I don't know how the Ceton Echo operates, but IP TV can be managed by MediaPortal.
     

    mm1352000

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    The issue would be if I could leave one tuner from my Ceton Infinitv available for WMC/echo and then leave the other three available to MP. Is that possible?
    You can certainly apply arbitrary restrictions on MediaPortal's TV Server. To configure TV Server to leave one tuner for WMC, simply untick one of the tuners in the TV Server configuration tuner list (refer to the description for "enabled"):
    http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_.../TV-Server_Configuration/02_TV_Servers#Tuners

    However, I don't know if WMC will restrict itself to one tuner. Nor do I know which tuner WMC would choose.
     

    mm1352000

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    • it is not possible to run MediaPortal and WMC in parallel at the same time
    • Switching from one to the other will require the reactivation of said services and deactivation of TV Service + reboot
    I don't think I agree with these.
    Does WMC actively use tuners when closed with the services enabled?
     

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