Well, I got the download link for Windows 8 to give it a try, but before I did I read up on some info regarding this, and then realised that Windows Media Centre has not been included within the download.
For me, I use this a lot in regards to Media Browser, and playing music videos for the kids etc.
Apparently, Microsoft believe that WMC is now underused with only around 6% of the whole customer base regularly using this program. Other points of interest is that some video codec and Dolby Digital will not be included when it is released within the finished product which is all to do with licencing and keeping costs down for them.
Maybe for home cinema enthusiasts such as ourselves Windows is now the lesser product and time to start looking for alternatives.
Further information on this can be found here:-
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/media-cen...-away/3860
(10-24-2011 10:35 AM)tonyc Wrote: [ -> ]Well, I got the download link for Windows 8 to give it a try, but before I did I read up on some info regarding this, and then realised that Windows Media Centre has not been included within the download.
For me, I use this a lot in regards to Media Browser, and playing music videos for the kids etc.
Apparently, Microsoft believe that WMC is now underused with only around 6% of the whole customer base regularly using this program. Other points of interest is that some video codec and Dolby Digital will not be included when it is released within the finished product which is all to do with licencing and keeping costs down for them.
Maybe for home cinema enthusiasts such as ourselves Windows is now the lesser product and time to start looking for alternatives.
Further information on this can be found here:-
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/media-cen...-away/3860
cheers for that. It will be interesting to see further developments.
(10-24-2011 10:35 AM)tonyc Wrote: [ -> ]Well, I got the download link for Windows 8 to give it a try, but before I did I read up on some info regarding this, and then realised that Windows Media Centre has not been included within the download.
For me, I use this a lot in regards to Media Browser, and playing music videos for the kids etc.
Apparently, Microsoft believe that WMC is now underused with only around 6% of the whole customer base regularly using this program. Other points of interest is that some video codec and Dolby Digital will not be included when it is released within the finished product which is all to do with licencing and keeping costs down for them.
Maybe for home cinema enthusiasts such as ourselves Windows is now the lesser product and time to start looking for alternatives.
Further information on this can be found here:-
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/media-cen...-away/3860
Yes, I feared that Windows 7 was the last great Media Center option for us users.
To be honest, I can't see them improving on Windows 7 ability to record OTA channels etc anyway. TV content is going the way of the web browser so Win7 is as good as we'll ever need I think.
Paired with DVBLink TVSource and it doesn't get any better
I'm in the process of getting a new TV, (Panasonic TX-P42GT30B for those interested) and it occurred to me with it's ability to connect to online demand, record from the freesat/freeview with an external usb hard drive and to connect via ethernet/wifi to your network so you can watch DLNA content from a NAS or pc almost makes the future of the media centre dead.
Now I'm not going to sit here and say "I'm slinging all my old tech, this will replace everything before hand no problem", that just wont be the case, but what I'am saying that in 5 years I believe the TV will be good enough to take over.
We spent energy to get our iPhone/androids to connect to media centre through 3rd party apps but now big company's like Samsung or Panasonic are making app's to let us take control of the content on the screen.
Only now are the company's looking at making an experience we all wanted from the start.