RTM Users: H.264 in Xbox Extender working?

[Silversee]

I find WMC in Windows 8 to be a big improvement over Windows 7, especially when used with Xbox 360 extenders.

(For a feature that supposedly "isn't being actively developed", it's a big step forward in terms of performance--which makes it worth it to me to upgrade. I suspect many of the performance gains are due to improvements in the underlying OS, but hey, I'll take it.)

However, there seems to be one major issue in WMC in the Windows 8 Release Preview: an inability to play back H.264 video files on the Xbox 360 in Extender mode. WMV works just fine, but any H.264 video in either M2TS or MP4 containers don't work for me, and apparently for others as well. This is pretty much a deal breaker for any whole house setup with personal media collections.

Based on the overall improvements in responsiveness I'm seeing, I'm keen on upgrading to Windows 8 WMC, so if someone has gotten this to work with the Windows 8 RTM installed with Media Center, I'd sure appreciate it if you could share your experiences. Thanks!

[JazJon]

That's not good, we can only hope it's supported in RTM once MS releases the Media Center add-on for RTM in October

[gpatlanta]

This is the first time I have read of anyone experiencing improvements with WMC in Win 8. I read a lot of people claiming no improvement. Where are you seeing the performance improvements?

[Silversee]

This is the first time I have read of anyone experiencing improvements with WMC in Win 8. I read a lot of people claiming no improvement. Where are you seeing the performance improvements?

I think people are seeing no new features and inferring that there have been no worthwhile changes. However, I am seeing improvements in two areas:

1. Improved UI responsiveness, particularly for extenders, when WMC is running on the same hardware vs. Windows 7.
2. Improved audio quality when playing back music via extenders.

Since we use Xboxes to stream both audio and video and prefer the WMC interface over the native dashboard players, both of these improvements are a pretty big deal. If you have a good quality audio system with sufficient resolution, you will notice that In Windows 7, WMC music playback on an extender is of noticeably lower quality than native playback on the HTPC, manifesting in reduced dynamics, presence and volume. This discrepancy has vanished in Windows 8, thankfully.

It's possible that most if not all of these differences are due to architectural improvements in Windows itself, but that doesn't matter. For our use (our HTPC is headless and sits in a closet), improvements to extender performance and usability are worth the upgrade, even without visible new features.

[gpatlanta]

Interesting, thanks. I don't think that is compelling for my use since I'm HTPC and linksys 2100's. However, I wonder if these improvements in UI would be visible on linksys extenders and ceton echos.

[Silversee]

A quick update on this... I believe the issue I am experiencing may be related to having a second audio stream in the file.

For future proofing, I routinely encode with both a 2-channel and 5.1 channel audio streams (support for which is supported in the Apple ecosystem, but lacking in Windows).

This was a non-issue before, as In Windows 7 the secondary audio stream is ignored by Media Center when playing on an extender, but I think this is what is breaking Windows 8. I would welcome any other experiences.

[turnma]

Just to say that I have this problem as well, and am really hoping that the RTM version fixes it. But I've got files with only a single audio stream that I can't play, so it's not limited to double audio streams. Just another four weeks and hopefully we'll be able to get hold of the RTM version to test!

thanks

Mike

[foxwood]

Many countries outside the US are using MPEG-4/H.264 for their digital broadcasts. It would be a pretty big screw-up if MPEG-4 isn't supported.

(Having said that, Microsft has recent form on screwing up in Europe )

[STC]

Many countries outside the US are using MPEG-4/H.264 for their digital broadcasts. It would be a pretty big screw-up if MPEG-4 isn't supported.

(Having said that, Microsft has recent form on screwing up in Europe )

[adam1991]

Echo echo echo echo echo echo....

[foxwood]

(Having said that, Microsft has recent form on screwing up in Europe )

There are screw ups, and there are screw ups that carry a potential for a $7 Billion fine! (forgetting to make the Browser Choice screen available in Win7 SP1. Though I actually have some sympathy with MS in that case - the regulator should be fined for not noticing that the screen wasn't showing up!)

[mark1234]

(Having said that, Microsft has recent form on screwing up in Europe )

There are screw ups, and there are screw ups that carry a potential for a $7 Billion fine! (forgetting to make the Browser Choice screen available in Win7 SP1. Though I actually have some sympathy with MS in that case - the regulator should be fined for not noticing that the screen wasn't showing up!)

Actually I think Opera deserves the fine for raising the spurious complaint in the first place. Firefox and Chrome have proved it was/is possible to compete with IE, as long as you have a decent product. Opera failed in the market so turned to the EU superstate to help it. It's still failing in the market.