Successfully upgraded to Windows 8.. some tips. (1 Viewer)

[Lotsofjazz]

Hi all,

Last weekend I have upgraded my system to Windows 8 Pro, as upgrade from Windows 7 Pro, so no clean install.

Mediaportal 1.3.0 ALPHA seems to work Great!... after I ironed out a few problems.

First issue was that my TV resolution of 720P was too low for Windows 8 (refused to install with 720P), I needed to increase to 1080i. By doing so I had to increase the font size to 150% and made a custom Windows layout with increased Font sizes, to be able to read everything from my couch standing 7-8 feet from my 32Inch TV..

Second thing was that VirtualClonedrive is not compatible, among a few other programs that I did not use anyways, so I had to uninstall these.. Deamontools seems to be compatible with Windows 8, but I did not try this yet.

Third thing, and most cumbersome in my opinion, because it was hard to find a solution for this on the internet, was that AMD Catalyst Control Center software to configure my AMD Radeon HD4650 Graphics card, refused to start... And I really needed it because I had a 1 inch black bar all around the displayed image, so I needed to overscan the display to get a full screen image. ATI has not made a compatible version for "legacy" cards.. In October 2012 they released a Windows 8 Compatible version for Radeon 5000 series and higher ONLY..This means that AMD Series Radeon 4000 and lower cannot be used with the latest catalyst software and drivers... After many hours searching I found out that Installing an OLD version of CCC does the trick..

Uninstall current version of CCC (Do a complete uninstall, by starting the original installer, and then at some point click the UNINSTALL button)

Download and re-install CCC 11.10 from here:

32 bit:
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/previous/11/Pages/radeon.aspx?os=Windows Vista - 32-Bit Edition&rev=11.10

64 bit:
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/previous/11/Pages/radeon.aspx?os=Windows Vista - 64-Bit Edition&rev=11.10

Restart the computer (yes this is required, I did not do it, and got a blue screen!)

With this version CCC works again and I was able to configure the graphics as I like, including the overscan so the LCD panel is fully used.

Ok tried Mediaportal first with a few movies.. no problems whatsoever.

But then with watching TV (single seat), it stated that it lost connection with the TV Server (or something like that).. restarting the TVService did not help..Then Searching this Forum I quickly found out I had to replace the TVLibrary DLL inside the Mediaportal TV server directory. After replacing the DLL file, restarting the TVservice and then starting Mediaportal, and start watching Live TV, did work very well.

Untill now I did only watch a movie and watched TV, and till now it seems to work fine.. I even have the impression TV runs smoother with fewer hickups, and better in sync with the audio.. but that can be psychological, of course

As far as windows 8 goes, when you go into youtube, many, many video's to be found with tips and tricks.. What I like is that it comes out of hybernation, very quickly (no boot screen!), once found out how it works , it is not much different then windows 7.. but it runs smoother and quicker!

I hope this helps a few.. If people like to add more tips and tricks, please do so.. I upgraded my system specs, so you can see what works with Windows 8.

 

[krikkit]

there is a CCC for your card... http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/catalystlegacywin8.aspx i use that driver for my radeon hd 4200 with win8 x64... ...you mention somethinge about a "TVLibrary DLL" you had to replace... can you post a link to this info?

 

[Lotsofjazz]

Hey thanks man! I will try that 12.6 legacy driver tonight.. I have searched for hours for a solution, but never was 'googled' to this obvious web page.

EDIT: Legacy 12.6 CCC works!.. Thanks!

The TVLibrary DLL I found right here on this forum:
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/tv-server-and-windows-8.106286/page-3#post-882121

 

[SpudR]

This is a most useful post!
Thanks for that

 

[limpwhizkid]

Second thing was that VirtualClonedrive is not compatible, among a few other programs that I did not use anyways, so I had to uninstall these.. Deamontools seems to be compatible with Windows 8, but I did not try this yet.

daemontools works, but for me also virtual clone drive works fine..

 

[Sebastiii]

I think it's Daemontools (pro) that is compatible right ? not the lite version (for now) ?

 

[limpwhizkid]

as discussed in the other threads, i might be because i disabled the "user account control" to zero .. that it works for me and not for others that follow the secure MS guidelines

but remains to be seen if someone experiencing the problem sets account control to zero and tries it out..

 

[Sebastiii]

I have disable UAC
I have to try again DTLite

 

[tourettes]

A clean OS install is always recommended instead of upgrade. Even Microsoft doesn't have enough testing resources to test all weird 3rd party stuff so there could be some failures because of those after an upgrade.

 

[bil1010105]

daemontools works, but for me also virtual clone drive works fine..

Does Pro work? Or just Lite?

Also, interested in your installation of Virtual Clone Drive, since that simply blue screens for me (although MS have "cutesied" it up a bit... bless). Are you running Win8 x32 or x64?

I agree with the general comments though - Windows 8 is much smoother than Windows 7 on my HTPC. Stuttering seems a thing of the past (although that might be down to just letting LAV handle everything and not installing any other crapware codecs).