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

[limpwhizkid]

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).

i can only confirm (and others) of dtlite, i dont have pro ..

everything is x64 over here..

p.s. we actually already found out that disabling User account control in Win8 made DTLITE work .. so probably the same for pro .. just disable it..

 

[Lotsofjazz]

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.

I know, but so far so good.. and I do not have too much BS software on my HTPC.. call it lazyness, I did not want to spend time to install everything from scratch...

 

[Lotsofjazz]

Hi all,

I have re-installed Catalyst Control Center 11.10.. 12.6 legacy did not remember my settings after a reboot, and overall it seemed to slow down my system somehow and also on two occasions the driver stopped working even while system is up and running (with no reason, screen reverts back to the smaller size display..then try to start CCC, it fails!) with 11.10 it just runs smoothly.

Also the connection with the TVService is troublesome at startup.. most of the time I have to manually restart the Tvservice in taskmanager before starting Mediaportal.. I must say I also had this once in a while in Windows 7, but in Windows 8 it is required everytime.. Can be a combination of 1.3.0 being an Alpha release, and windows 8 which is not yet officially supported.. But if this is all.. I can live with that, everything else seems to work fine!

 

[wonkyd]

Getting MediaPortal to display rather than ModernUI was a bit of a hack, had to change this in the registry:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"Shell"="explorer.exe /select,explorer.exe"

or

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"Shell"="explorer.exe, explorer.exe"

 

[c128]

Just to chip in with some experiences, this being the latest Windows 8 thread...

I'm successfully running MediaPortal 1.3.0 alpha client on Windows 8 Pro using Argus TV running on Windows 7 as the TV server.
I did a vanilla MediaPortal install, with no changes, and despite the auto-launch at start-up not working (not tried the workarounds mentioned above) everything seems to be working as it should be. Argus TV, as 4TR is now known, is also an easier plugin install with 1.3.0 alpha as the MediaPortal client supplied works without any patching.

Happy so far.

Slightly OT: I find Windows 8 a weird experience, but not quite the horror that I've read elsewhere. In fact...it's more convenient in one way, in that the Windows 8 start screen can be navigated with a remote to select and launch apps. In addition, you can use the Windows 8 boot loader to launch other OSs (using Easy BCD) and select which OS to boot, from a nice UI, using the remote from your armchair too - I'm currently dual booting Windows 8 Pro and Ubuntu 12.10. Getting HDMI audio working with AMD graphics on Ubuntu to try XBMC on Linux is another matter though .

 

[Lotsofjazz]

After a week of more or less trouble free watching TV, I start to have crashes of the GFX card, TV stops

I also still have problems with TV stopping now and then, seems to be related when the internet connection is lost for a few seconds (happens now and then with wireless connections).. BUT I do not think this is a Windows 8 related problem, I also had this when running windows 7.

I have ordered a new Videocard (http://www.komplett.nl/Komplett/pro...radeon_hd6570_ultimate_1gb_pci_e/details.aspx), because the old one starts to make a lot of noise (the fan that is) but also I hope it will help to solve some TV decoding issues I have ever since some programs were delivered in HD by my cable company. (works great but on some channels every 10-15 minutes the Live TV gets jerky, bocking appears, stops momentarily, but after 20-30 seconds everything is OK again.. tilll after 15 minutes this happens again.. very strange) Also this I had under Windows 7.

 

[Lotsofjazz]

Some issues using the Windows Remote controller (works after 20-11-2012).

I use the Microsoft Remote controller (RC6), for most part to control MP, but I found that pressing the OK button or PLAY button, does not work to start a live TV program (from the EPG) and also fails to start Playing a Movie.. Also the volume buttons do not seem to work, everything else works fine (navigating, pauze timeshifting when live TV is playing, skip fwd or aft using the navigation keys, and all other buttons work fine.. so ts very odd only the OK and Play button don't work).. pressing a number does start the correct TV channel, so this also works OK.

So navigting to a program using EPG or My Movies, then select and press play or OK on the remone does not work. I have to use the mouse or keyboard to start playing the movie or program.

EDIT 20-11-2012: After a windows Update that came in Yesterday, the OK and Play Button now work correctly.. I do not know if it has to do with the Computer reboot, or indeed with the windows update.. at least it works now.

 

[c128]

I've personally not had the issue with the remote, but if it's update related I may have had everything that was required at the point I installed.

I have had a couple of glitches, although they may not be Windows 8 specific:
Mediaportal has hung a couple of times on resume from standby (required a Task Manager kill and restart).
Mediaportal doesn't respond to the remote for 5-10 seconds on resume from standby, but works after this period - pretty much happens most of the time now.

Other than that, I've had few issues which I think are more likely related to Argus TV (or the Argus TV Mediaportal client) rather than Windows 8 i.e. Recorded TV page not showing anything and the system becoming sluggish, same when trying to bring up the scheduled recording screen. Only happens occasionally.

In general, system is pretty much usable, although I've yet to tax it too much with hard use.

 

[c128]

I have had a couple of glitches, although they may not be Windows 8 specific:
Mediaportal doesn't respond to the remote for 5-10 seconds on resume from standby, but works after this period - pretty much happens most of the time now..

Actually, scrap the above. This is an issue I have had before, on Windows 7 too, and that's that Mediaportal is unresponsive to the remote on resume unless you select the Green Button (which changes to the other main view) and then back again - then everything's fine. I wonder if it's a Window focus issue...

 

[Arturas1976]

Win 8 and MCE remote RC6 for me made volume not working on remote. I found 2 HDD disks that were somehow making this happen because disconnected both and restarted win8 got me remote working again. Still don't know what exactly is teh problem with those disks. Really weird.