Windows 7 HTPC - Extend to Windows 8?

[GregoryV]

Hi, first I'll admit to being a complete newbie at HTPC's. I just got the infiniTV cable card installed last week on a Windows 7 system after reading about Windows 8 not being a good host for it. It literally took 3 calls to Comcast to activate the M-Card. Their automated line is broken and just says "cannot find account". I'm happily up though now. Loving the functionality of Windows Media Center and learning as I go.

I'm struggling though figuring out how to extend TV to other systems. Particularly Windows 8. Can anyone provide me a few tips on what I need to do on the Windows 8 system? This system has Windows Media Center installed as well.

The main point of this exercise, of course, is to get TV into my home office.

Thank you!

[foxwood]

You're not "extending" anything - you're trying to share a tuner. It might sound pedantic, but you're much more likely to find useful information if you're using the right search terms.

To share one of the 4 tuners in the InfiniTV, you have to install the optional Network Tuners feature during setup - once a tuner has been shared, it is not available for use on the host PC.

If you don't care too much about live TV in your home office, and are just looking to access your recordings, then you don't need to share a tuner, you just need to share your Recorded TV folder. You won't be able to schedule new recordings from with WMC on your office machine in this case, but you can watch existing recordings without any difficulty.

[JohnW248]

I don't think there is a way to share the tuner on Win 8 like you can on Win 7 for the Ceton device. You can however see content that is not marked copy once. Go to Media Center on Win8 and to Recorded TV and then click on Shared. It should open up a window that will show you the Win7 machine and any other Media Center machines you have on the home network (must be set to home and "I think" you need homegroup running). Click on the win7 machine and all the recordings will open on your Win8 machine. You can only view or copy those that are not protected and that will vary with service providers. With TWC it is limited to over the air restransmssions with other services it is all but premium services. Those you can't play usually have a little yellow triangle with an exclamation point in them.

[foxwood]

Ceton has a detailed document explaining how to set up Network Tuners.

The very first line of that document is

Network Tuners is compatible with PCs running Windows 7 with Media Center only. It is not supported on Windows 8.

I was under the impression that the Windows 7 limitation was only for the machine hosting the tuners, and that Windows 8 machines could be use Tuners shared by a Win7 Host, but unfortunately, the Ceton documentation doesn't make an explicit statement about that situation one way or the other, unless you read the phrase "Network Tuners" to refer to both Host and Client. I'm surprised though, because I haven't seen any specific complaints about this particular behavior, even though the lack of support for Network Tuners with Windows 8 as the host has been discussed.

[GregoryV]

So, can a Windows 7 HTPC with the InfiniTV make the network tuner available for the Windows 8 pc to see?

I thought the compatibility issue was Windows 8 to anything else, not Windows 7 to anything else.

[volfan6415]

As I recall the Win8 limitation is due to the fact that Win8 no longer allows for bridging of internet adaptors ... hence a host PC running win8 would not be able to share out the tuner. The limitation however does not mean that a Win8 wouldn't be able to see a network device on another machine.

[foxwood]

I thought the compatibility issue was Windows 8 to anything else, not Windows 7 to anything else.

That's what I thought too, but the Ceton documentation implies that the Network Tuner wizard doesn't work on Windows 8 clients either (without coming straight out and actually saying that it doesn't work, versus it's just not supported).

I know why using Windows 8 as a host doesn't work, and I know that Network Tuners work in Windows 8 work for users of the HD HomeRun Prime, and I haven't seen anyone complain that Windows 8 clients can't access InfiniTV Network Tuners physically hosted in a Windows 7 machine, but I can't say for sure that it works.

And I'm not messing with my setup just to test it out

[GregoryV]

Theoretically, then...

So, I need to, on the Windows 7 box (with the infinitv card) go through network sharing 1 of the 4 tuners out.

Where do I go on the Windows 8 box to connect? Is there a guide written?

It seems like I may need to run this up the ladder with Ceton Support for clarification?

[foxwood]

Is there a guide written?

Other than the one I linked to above?

[GregoryV]

Ah ha... I missed step 12 on that document! That seems easy... hopefully windows 8 sees it.