Netflix, renting movies, and the future of Win 8 MCE

[Danno100]

Well, as a long time Windows and Media Center CANADIAN user, I'd thought I'd share my frustration and strategy moving forward:

1. In Canada, we can't get a Netflix add-on to Media Center. I have no idea why, since the service is available on my Samsung TV, iPhone, and my three Apple TV's.
2. In Canada, Media Center doesn't support ATSC and ClearQam tuners. We have gone digital OTA, and in my case, I have 25+ channels that are clearQam through my cable provider. All my LCD. LED TV's have these tuners built-in. True, there is a hack to offset this.
3. In Media Center, I have no method of renting movies or TV shows. On my Apple TV, I can do both.
4. In Media Center, there is no built-in music streaming app, on the Apple TV there is.
5. I can Airplay my media from my iPhone/iPad/iPod to the Apple TV, and I don't know if an equivalent exists in Microsoft.
6. As far as extenders go, my 2 XBOX360's are becoming little more than paperweights. The Apple TV is 1/2 the price and uses 1/8 the electricity. Games using disks seem to be on the way out.

So, as a typical media center user, other than the ability to record analog cable TV (EOL technology), I see little reason to continue using Media Center beyond version 7. It sounds like MS has no intention of enhancing Media Center.

Bye bye Microsoft, you will be a slow death in this household as Pads,iPods, iPhones, Apple TV's, and Mac's win the day.

This is not meant to bash MS as I have been a long time supporter. I just feel as a customer, there has been little effort to address some basic functional issues so you have lost my vote to continue supporting your products.

[wayner]

These reasons along with a few others (CGMS-A flag preventing recording, overly restrictive DRM, no support for the HD-PVR) are why I shifted from MCE to SageTV about 4 years ago. But now SageTV was bought by Google and is unavailable, at least for now.

What cable provider do you have that gives you ClearQAM channels in Ontario? That is a rarity as with Rogers all you get is music channels.

MCE is still pretty good for Internet TV but in order to use it you have to tell the system that you are in the US and use unblockus.com or a VPN to appear to be in the US.

[Danno100]

These reasons along with a few others (CGMS-A flag preventing recording, overly restrictive DRM, no support for the HD-PVR) are why I shifted from MCE to SageTV about 4 years ago. But now SageTV was bought by Google and is unavailable, at least for now.

What cable provider do you have that gives you ClearQAM channels in Ontario? That is a rarity as with Rogers all you get is music channels.

MCE is still pretty good for Internet TV but in order to use it you have to tell the system that you are in the US and use unblockus.com or a VPN to appear to be in the US.

Cogeco has SD channels open, (maybe not for longer since I posted this!). It is a real shame that every TV in my house has built-in ATSC and ClearQam tuner, but my media center can't technically record the media (OK I do with the Peter Near Hack) because MS has disabled it. Oh, what I would pay to simply have clearQam open and not have to use cable boxes, but that would cut into the profit thing for the cableco's.

I haven't bothered to try the VPN route for Internet TV.

With all these future restrictions on recording TV, my next step is to cut the cable, and only use OTA HD. My antenna cost $45 and the picture qulaity is outstanding and free. Feels like the 60's again, just replacing the pliers to change channels with a remote.