Windows 7 Media Center

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by ghostlobster

Oh man....pulling up a chair here to watch this....this is getting interesting!

Move over a bit please, do you mind me sititng next to you?

[HawgGuy]

Originally Posted by HelenWeathers

I am most curious about the HiDef codecs that are included for video and audio.

I am favorably impressed with my brief trial. WMP couldn't handle my Blu-Ray rips well; they would play - but caused problems with the Nvidia driver, causing it to unload. Installing the Haali splitter and ffdshow worked well and all played smoothly.

[Taddeusz]

Right now I think the only thing that MC7 has going for it is the interface. I've messed around with it a little bit here at work and it like it's brethren has a fairly slick interface.

One thing that I've always felt about the default SageTV UI and by extension SageMC is that it just kind of lacks flash. I sincerely believe you can have flash and functionality without sacrificing anything. I personally prefer SageMC over the default UI simply because it is simpler. The default UI while it may provide what some would say a more powerful experience it seems too busy and cluttered at times. While the layout of SageMC is quite a bit more conservative without the clutter.

"My TV" in SageMC is a good example. On one screen you can see and watch the 4 most recent recordings and see the next 4 upcoming recordings. From there you can go to live tv, all your recordings, the guide, or see the entire recording schedule. The list of recordings is concise and uncluttered and can be quickly sorted and grouped without going into configuration boxes.

SageMC's video library is MUCH more configurable and simpler to get movie data and such. Organizing movies by genre rather than the file structure is a more intuitive approach than the default UI.

The only place I believe SageMC is lacking is in the music library. It is only moderately better than the default UI, which, IMHO, is horrible for music.

I personally like SageTV for an entire media experience. SageMC is cleaner and more to the point than the default UI for this purpose.

[rswoods]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

...One thing that I've always felt about the default SageTV UI and by extension SageMC is that it just kind of lacks flash. I sincerely believe you can have flash and functionality without sacrificing anything. I personally prefer SageMC over the default UI simply because it is simpler. The default UI while it may provide what some would say a more powerful experience it seems too busy and cluttered at times. While the layout of SageMC is quite a bit more conservative without the clutter...

I feel exactly the opposite.

Maybe I didn't give it long enough, but I did try SageMC and simply didn't like it. I felt *it* was too cluttered.

Good thing we have a choice...

[SprDtyF350]

Originally Posted by tsitalon1

How many tuners doe Windows 7 MC support? Also, will it work with a HDHR?

I am running it with an HVR-1600, a PVR-150, and an HDHR. So, for me 3 Digital and 2 analog. I don't think it cares anymore. The HVR-1600 needed a registry patch so it could do QAM.

As far as the operating system itself it seems everything I hated about Vista is better. The install process is fast, didn't have to load any drivers, it didn't ask me a billion questions. Seemed a lot like a Ubuntu install. The silly Vista UAC is much less annoying. I did load the Vista Nvidia driver but that has been it.

Windows 7 won't be replacing my Sage setup anytime soon though. It works fine for the standalone system am using it for but I would want to use my MVP's and it doesn't do that.

My Sage setup runs on a WHS server with 4 tuners and 2 tb's of storage. Movies, music, tv, etc. lives in that box and it is appliance like reliable. I use it with 5 MVP's and a bunch of older 4:3 analog TV's. For me it is perfect for that. And, I prefer the stock UI over Sage MC or any other.

Windows 7 is running on my office machine where I watch my HD stuff. I have found that the decoder that comes with Windows 7 works better than the Nvidia decoder I have been using forever. Lower CPU usage, no stuttering, etc. Windows 7 played my Xvid stuff right out of the box with no added decoder. It also plays my DVD's that I have ripped into video_ts folders. I don't know about extenders, but it will now let you use Media Center without tuners in another computer and share the recordings between machines.
I never thought I would be ok with getting rid of XP but I think Windows 7 is going to be good enough to do that.

[stanger89]

Yeah, I installed 7 on my desktop, and I'm still determined to give Media Center "a shot". But I ran it a bit last night and well, it didn't make me want to switch. And I still can't figure out what the big deal about MyMovies is, it misidentified a lot of my DVDs, and with stupid errors, like suggesting Vol 1 for volumes 2-5 of a series and stuff.

[Ryokurin]

Originally Posted by EricandLorrie

Concerning 7mc and the number of cards it will support. My understanding you can have 4 each (as in 4 analog turners, 4 ota and 4 receiving stb etc). Put this could be pulled in with the release and which version of Windows 7 you buy.

Originally it was 1 tuner, then 2005 raised it to 2. After the two rollups it was 2 analog and 2 digital tuners all using the same guide data. In Vista, with the TV pack installed, its the same as the 2005 rollup (2 tuners of each type) in Home Premium, and 4 tuners of each type in Ultimate.

It should be noted that at least from 2005 and on, you could add more tuners by changing some registry settings, but you still can't get past the single guide data, and no subchannel support until you install the Vista TV Pack.

I admit, I've used 2005 for a while, and 2007, but I always came back to Sage just because the inflexibility of media center, mostly the pain of adding more tuners, not being able to do mulitple guides, and missing placeshifter. Yes its much easier to setup out of the box, but I just can't use it all the time. I haven't even started it up in 7 to give it a try this time, but maybe I'll do that this weekend just to get a feel for the GUI.

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by Slack

Haven't tried 7MC yet. and from the DRM issues mentioned, and others It is not likely to supplant Sage.

Which got me to thinking. Could 7MC be used as a 'skin' for Sage? Meaning tell 7MC to forget about TV. Put sage to sleep or service mode, Let 7MC have focus with it's apparently improved interface. And share the SageTV recording directory for 7MC to browse.

I mostly use the web server plug-in for Sage to schedule recordings etc. Dunno bout having to use it to delete something after I watched it. Will have to see. Just wondering.

Someone could write a MCML experience to tunnel SageTV content into MC, metadata and all.

The only thing that would be a major challenge is Live TV/watching a file while it is recording.

[tsitalon1]

Originally Posted by EricandLorrie

Concerning 7mc and the number of cards it will support. My understanding you can have 4 each (as in 4 analog turners, 4 ota and 4 receiving stb etc). Put this could be pulled in with the release and which version of Windows 7 you buy.

Has this been verified? Also does 7mc allow conversion to iphone or h.264 built in, like sage does?

[Ryokurin]

Originally Posted by tsitalon1

Has this been verified? Also does 7mc allow conversion to iphone or h.264 built in, like sage does?

I answered the first part earlier. For the second part, no it does not.

[jimwhite]

As for the DRM, it's also a REAL issue when it is falsely triggered... happnes quite often for me on my third install (and all previous installs) of Vista VMC on the Fox channesl whenever a Lipitor commercial is aired... my Q9300 is colestoral-free

[tsitalon1]

Originally Posted by Ryokurin

I answered the first part earlier. For the second part, no it does not.

Sorry, I missed it.

[pawn]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

I am one of those who likes the stock UI. I do not find it ugly or hard to navigate. My wife, 7 year old and 9 year old all prefer the stock UI to SageMC.

What I am saying is that the lack of a "modern looking" UI, rightly or wrongly, DOES make a big different for first impressions. Of course once you "look under the hood" Sage compares very well in terms of functionality, flexibility and reliability. The issue is getting people to take notice and invest the time in getting to know SageTV.

Add me to the list of people who are fine with the stock UI. Yes, I sometimes fondly admire some of the slicker UI's (SageMC and other apps), but in the end, I *always* revert to the stock UI, because it's functional, intuitive and stable. In the end, that's all that matters.

The only reason I wish they'd add more pizazz is to draw in more users and keep the ones we have (i.e., the type that care more and finish than form), so Sage remains profitable and continues to be developed and the hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars I've invested into Sage as my media backbone isn't flushed down the toilet.

[pawn]

Originally Posted by babgvant

The only thing that would be a major challenge is Live TV/watching a file while it is recording.

Is that much of a problem still? Orb has no problems transcoding and streaming files currently being recorded on my system.

[briands]

Originally Posted by babgvant

Someone could write a MCML experience to tunnel SageTV content into MC, metadata and all.

The only thing that would be a major challenge is Live TV/watching a file while it is recording.

Of course, Sage would prefer you buy a client license or extender from them.... I assume that is why they choose a proprietary database (Wiz.bin). They do need to make money after all.

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by pawn

Is that much of a problem still? Orb has no problems transcoding and streaming files currently being recorded on my system.

It's [obviously] possible, because Sage manages to playback the file using directshow while it's recording.

But that you can't control playback graph creation in WMC, which makes it a big problem.

[Slack]

So far color me unimpressed. One day with the beta, and I found something scary.

I copied a folder of music from my ReadyNAS to the desktop. Right clicked on it and selected 'Include in Library > Music'. Then I fired up media center, and went to Music area. I noticed it was taking a while for the cover art to display, despite the fact that the folder has a 'folder.jpg' for each album / nested folder. Then I noticed that for the last album I added to this folder the cover art looked pixelated. But I recall that image as being ginormous. So I go over to the folder in question to open said 'folder.jpg' And it is gone! So I check the ReadyNAS folder that was copied to make sure I wasn't hopped up on goof balls. Sure enough there it is in all of it's ginormousness.

I am certainly glad I didn't just point media center to my ReadyNAS. Media centers that delete files without some sort of warning are not good.

[cncb]

Originally Posted by Slack

I am certainly glad I didn't just point media center to my ReadyNAS. Media centers that delete files without some sort of warning are not good.

I noticed that somewhere along the way in trying out Vista Media Center that it took all my (painstakingly) scanned-in cover art from a nice high, sharp resolution and shrunk it down to a small, crappy pixelated mess. All without my consent. Bastards! I'm pretty sure I had my whole music directory write-protected but it did it anyways.

[Slack]

Originally Posted by cncb

I noticed that somewhere along the way in trying out Vista Media Center that it took all my (painstakingly) scanned-in cover art from a nice high, sharp resolution and shrunk it down to a small, crappy pixelated mess. All without my consent. Bastards! I'm pretty sure I had my whole music directory write-protected but it did it anyways.

I don't really know what I was thinking. Those great blog reviews simply cannot be trusted. I repeated my experiment, because frankly I though I was doing something wrong. This time - before adding anything to the library in mc7 I went into mc7 settings and unchecked the items pertaining to downloading cover art - thinking this would fix the issue. I then re-added the desktop copy of my ReadyNAS 'new stuff' folder. After playing around in MC7 a bit - when I search the ReadyNAS folder for 'folder.jpg' I get 28 hits. When I search the desktop copy I get 18 hits. So 10 (arbitrarily it seems) cover art files were nuked by MC7. WTF?

I also discovered...
Slide shows - ignore EXIF data. Which surpised me. EPIC FAIL
Video: Seems to ignore .mkv (which I kinda expected)
Video: Seems to ignore .isos

I typed up the folder.jpg business and the EXIF info into a feedback form and sent it off. Redmond needs put the Starbucks down and think about how people use things.

[fyodor]

I've often wished for something like this. IMNAAHO SageTV's only really compelling feature is its TV engine. It's a sufficiently compelling feature that many people put up with other limitations to take advantage of its vastly superior recording capabilities. I know that some people prefer the interface/media features too, but many people don't, and at the very least it doesn't seem to be what drives people to STV.

It would be nice of there were some way to separate out the TV engine and use it has a backend for a MCE/VMC/W7 frontend.

I think that at one time the BeyondTV folks discussed something like this as a possibility, but never ended up doing it.

F

Originally Posted by babgvant

Someone could write a MCML experience to tunnel SageTV content into MC, metadata and all.

The only thing that would be a major challenge is Live TV/watching a file while it is recording.