I'm done.

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sailracer

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I'm done.

#1

Post by sailracer » Fri Jan 03, 2020 7:38 pm

I've been seeing a lot of "goodbye" messages and am inspired to leave one myself. I've been a long-time lurker but rarely posted here. The info on these forums has been invaluable in helping me save lots of money over the last 8 years by not having to rent cable boxes from Verizon. I want to thank all the contributors for making this possible and convincing me to jump in and give it a try!

I finally had enough programs I wanted to run that required Windows 10, that I decided it was time to build a new computer last month. I moved my old Windows 7 computer over to the TV to run my WMC installation with HDHRPrime cable card tuner (and backup OTA card). I started playing around with WMC on the Windows 10 machine, but couldn't get it to play .wtv files and didn't even try getting the cable card tuner to work after reading about all the difficulties here. The methods to get this all working are starting to get beyond my patience level. Then the last straw was when I was blindsided last night by my program guide being empty on the Win7 machine. I immediately checked these forums and discovered Microsoft stopped support for it on 1/1. So I'm done. I'm done with media center. I'm done with cable TV. Maybe I'll subscribe to YoutubeTV or maybe not if I decide I can live without the two or three shows I watch on cable anymore or if I can't improve on the clunky OTA tuner, EPG and DVR programs I'm using. My new computer can transcode my recordings from .wtv to .mp4 reasonably fast, so there will be a little bit of hassle, but I can maintain my library. As far as I can tell, the only thing I am going to lose is Comedy Central. I could stream the shows off their website, but that's too clunky to do from the couch, so I'll likely just stop watching those shows. If I don't subscribe to YoutubeTV I will save money ($50/month seems like it costs more than the value I will get from it). With youtubeTV I might break even if I can negotiate a lower than published rate for my Internet service with Verizon. If not, it would end up being a little bit more per month. In the end, I am hugely disappointed Microsoft stopped supporting WMC- it was a great program for my setup and situation. Best of luck to you all and enjoy the tinkering!

n127

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Joined: Fri Aug 07, 2015 9:28 pm
Location: Fairfax, VA 22031, FiOS

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#2

Post by n127 » Sat Jan 04, 2020 12:05 am

But the guide just came back up.

sailracer

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#3

Post by sailracer » Sat Jan 04, 2020 2:33 am

Did I do that? Microsoft saw my post, grew a heart and decided to restore the guide? :lol:

Well my Verizon bundle runs until March, so I guess I have a little more buffer to work out a transition.

Space

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#4

Post by Space » Sat Jan 04, 2020 6:24 am

sailracer wrote: Sat Jan 04, 2020 2:33 am Did I do that? Microsoft saw my post, grew a heart and decided to restore the guide? :lol:

Well my Verizon bundle runs until March, so I guess I have a little more buffer to work out a transition.
Do you have guide data for cable channels? Because I have FiOS and it was only able to download guide data for OTA channels.

EDIT: It looks like I am now downloading the FiOS guide, I had to run this to get it working:

start /wait c:\windows\ehome\mcupdate.exe -uf -dbgc

toshfive

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#5

Post by toshfive » Sun Jan 05, 2020 1:31 pm

Happy to report I too have guide data back on WMC. New years day I had nothing... scheduled recordings on too. This morning, all are back.

Just a side note for those with FiOS & Cable cards (HDHR-prime) like myself. If using Kodi as an extender, Raspberry Pi's in my case. Guide data comes from FiOS. I am running a few PVR's on Kodi that schedules recordings independent of WMC sorta. I still need WMC for ServerWMC, but recordings are scheduled from Kodi.

If you're needing to run ServerWMC on Windows10 read this https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=253336 and viewtopic.php?f=97&t=12314
Last edited by toshfive on Sun Jan 05, 2020 3:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

sailracer

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#6

Post by sailracer » Sun Jan 05, 2020 2:48 pm

I could never warm up to Kodi. I have it and run it on occasion, but it always seems slow, clunky to use and not very intuitive. I just downloaded Emby and paid for a month subscription to try out. So far I am impressed with its ease of use. I got live TV working with the HDHR prime with no hassle. Guide data came in nice and easy. I still need to set it up with the OTA tuner, but I expect that will be easy as well. I need to do a bit more experimenting- the quick test I did with using the app on the firestick to play movies from my library had lots of quality problems (interlacing?). I don't know if that is the Emby server transcoding or firestick or the app. If I can get that worked out, this may end up being not only a replacement for WMC, but an improvement on it since almost any device can connect to it. And I like that it has a lifetime subscription option. I hate monthly fees over the long run.

toshfive

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#7

Post by toshfive » Sun Jan 05, 2020 3:07 pm

Kodi is horrible on Firesticks!!!!..... Even my Oculus Quest runs Kodi better then those crappy Firesticks.

sailracer

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#8

Post by sailracer » Sun Jan 05, 2020 3:46 pm

I expect the same is true for Emby. I just tested the Emby app on my LG TV and it looks good, so I strongly suspect it is the firestick that creates the image quality problems. Any idea if a fireTV or 4K firestick runs better?

toshfive

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#9

Post by toshfive » Sun Jan 05, 2020 4:55 pm

I away suggest people trying the Raspberry pi first before spending money on higher end hardware. $40 RPi vs $300 Nvidia Shield TV

Unfortunately your LG TV (some, not all models) have reported problems with CEC. Just means you'll need an alternative means to navigate Kodi other than your TV remote.

Both Windows and Linux versions of Kodi (Debian & win8) of Kodi work good. https://libreelec.tv/downloads_new/

Some Target stores even sale RPi's now...

toshfive

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#10

Post by toshfive » Mon Jan 06, 2020 2:32 am

Old Video....HDHR prime, Kodi on Raspberry Pi with PVR WMC Client , WMC box running ServerWMC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBby5NxIwQg

Yet an older video....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VCcBcH8CrE

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