Normal
This is not the case. Some of it's functionality probably may work without internet (the same is valid for MP too) but it is no way fully working without internet connection.Also not true... On WMC you can not play MKV, and no h265 (HEVC) videos out of the box so you miss the vast majority of videos nowadays. Especially MKV is the most flexible (not to say the best available) and for this the most common video container right now. MKV is not supported in Win7 (and for this not supported in WMC too) without installation of external (Open Source or commercial) software so you ootb can not play about 90% of all video files existing worldwide,... You can't name this "fully functional",Using a system with such sensible data for general purpose is somehow not the best decision. PC are not very expensive those days, at least if you only store data or do media playback... A dedicated system with the sensible data that is not used for general purpose would be a much better (and much more secure) solution. I'm no gamer but afaik most games are also need to have an internet connection...Many modern TV are able to record to an attached USB drive. If recording and skipping commercials is the only purpose this would be the much easier way to go. You only need to read the manual of your TV...
This is not the case. Some of it's functionality probably may work without internet (the same is valid for MP too) but it is no way fully working without internet connection.
Also not true... On WMC you can not play MKV, and no h265 (HEVC) videos out of the box so you miss the vast majority of videos nowadays. Especially MKV is the most flexible (not to say the best available) and for this the most common video container right now. MKV is not supported in Win7 (and for this not supported in WMC too) without installation of external (Open Source or commercial) software so you ootb can not play about 90% of all video files existing worldwide,... You can't name this "fully functional",
Using a system with such sensible data for general purpose is somehow not the best decision. PC are not very expensive those days, at least if you only store data or do media playback... A dedicated system with the sensible data that is not used for general purpose would be a much better (and much more secure) solution. I'm no gamer but afaik most games are also need to have an internet connection...
Many modern TV are able to record to an attached USB drive. If recording and skipping commercials is the only purpose this would be the much easier way to go. You only need to read the manual of your TV...