Viable alternatives to Win7 Media Centre??

[fstorm]

Hi,
I've been using Win 7 beta since its been out. Very impressed with it overall.

The only things I don't like are :

1) The DRM imposed by MS
2) Restrictions on codec 3rd party codec use in MC
3) Inflexibility of the .WTV format, no way of choosing the bitrate etc and stuff recorded in HD won't get transcoded to the .MS format

Can any one suggest an open source alternative ?

1) Must have a 7/14 EPG
2) I use a Pinnacle 7010ix Dual Sat Hybrid TV Tuner PCI-e
3) The PC is a E6300, 2Gb RAM, graphics card is an ATI 3450
4) Interface should be intuitive to use and suitable for a 40" TV 4m away
5) Be controllable from MS MC remote
6) Want to be able to record using H264 codec pref, or at least transcode at a later time

Any ideas

Cheers

[this_is_gav]

To be honest, it sounds like you want Windows Media Center.

MediaPortal will probably do most of that stuff just as well, but you'll inevitably find a show-stopper when using it - an example of which is the inability of use full-screen on many systems. It's highly customisable, and as such desirable, but the multitude of bugs stop many from using it all of the time.

1) I wasn't aware that MS used DRM in Media Center?

2) Is fair enough - it's not always easy to get it to play with some of the newer formats.

3) WTV is new, but companies such as VideoRedo are slowly introducing support for it. What is the .MS format you mention? You won't be able to choose a bitrate for .WTV anyway - it just saves the stream which is downloaded. Converting it to another container isn't a job for WMC.

[fstorm]

Gav,
Yes, I'm ready to buy it when its on retail release, but if there is a better alternative, I'd like to give it a try.

Cheers

[CaptainCrash]

Hi,
I've been using Win 7 beta since its been out. Very impressed with it overall.

The only things I don't like are :

1) The DRM imposed by MS
2) Restrictions on codec 3rd party codec use in MC
3) Inflexibility of the .WTV format, no way of choosing the bitrate etc and stuff recorded in HD won't get transcoded to the .MS format

I haven't (yet) come across any DRM restrictions, but yes, it does make me feel a bit uneasy, and I can't help wondering where Win7's current Gestapo-like attitude to third-party codecs is ultimately going.

There seems to be a working hack for getting MC to use FFDShow here, although so far I've been to lazy to try it myself

edit: apparently it doesn't work for live/recorded TV anyway
edit2: you could try this...

I can't help you with HD WTV stuff I'm afraid - I know if you right-click on a .WTV file in Explorer you can convert it to DVR-MS, but I don't have any HD .WTV files so couldn't say if it works for those.

Other than that, I think MediaPortal is probably your best option, although it's admittedly the best of a bad lot. In its defence, it's nowhere near as buggy as it used to be, although I imagine you may be spending a fair bit of time in their cluttered and confusing support forums.

[fstorm]

Captain,
.WTV to DVR-MS only works for non HD material unfortunately, interesting stuff in link2, thanks for that.

[directhex]

You cannot pick a recording bitrate for digital TV - what flies through the sky is already MPEG2 data streams with their own bitrate defined. All your computer is doing is saving those data streams

[Steve]

You cannot pick a recording bitrate for digital TV

But you can transcode.

[TheAnimus]

1) The DRM imposed by MS

I'm guessing you don't understand this.

It isn't forced, its purely optional. There are many content providers who are legally un-able to release data without some protection mechanisim been added. This provides the option for people to use it. It is in no way imposed.

The same way anyone can register a codec so long as they have local admin rights.....

[fstorm]

I'm guessing you don't understand this.

It isn't forced, its purely optional. There are many content providers who are legally un-able to release data without some protection mechanisim been added. This provides the option for people to use it. It is in no way imposed.

The same way anyone can register a codec so long as they have local admin rights.....

I didn't realise that, I was under the impression that content I record, say from BBC HD is viewable only on the same machine.

I would still like to be able to transcode to a different format, with the option of lower bitrate or more efficient encoder.

[Agent]

Well the DRM only extends to streams with the flag set I believe, which is hardly any. I've been running MC since MC2005 and have never found it an issue. It doesn't "time bomb" your content or anything like that, it just restricts you to watching it on that machine.
DRM on any audio files ripped from disk is optional and it clearly gives you the option the first time you rip them. You can also easily turn it off again later.

The second one is mainly because it is beta. Unless they have changes things from MC2005/Vista there are normally ways to get almost any codec working, it's just that they may not be avaliable in the format you want.

WTV is new, but I'm sure the option for HD streams will be added at some point to one of the many apps

As above, your next alternative is probably media portal. I used it for a while and went back to MCE as I found it far too buggy (although I love the idea of it). It may be a bit more mature now though - give it a try and let us know?

[fstorm]

Ok guys,
looks like I'm sticking with Win7 - I'll buy it when it goes on gen release, in the meantime I'm on using the RC and wait for someone to release a transcoder that'll do .WTV.

Thanks to all.

[fstorm]

On a different track, how do I thank people?

[TAKTAK]

On a different track, how do I thank people?

You cannot until you have made 25 posts

More information via the links in my sig (post counts and other rewards)

[TheAnimus]

You have to have more posts!

Don't worry about the DRM thing, most people who are complaing about it are more about a "political" (anti IP) types, who are against people having the option to have any DRM and spout fud against it. I recall lots of people complaining about TPM some 9 years ago now, saying it would be impossible for people to make things without paying hudge license fees. Obviosuly all the happened is we got technologies like BitLocker, or the weird Toshiba version for XP i use on my tablet PC (i like the idea that anyone who steals my laptop can't get any of my data, because i've a fair bit of a code, design documents, and confidentual stuff which is all my IP and i'd hate to have that stolen!).

You tried MediaBrowser yet? With win7 its a bit hidden in the extras menu, so you'll want to fiddle with that so that you get it in a more prominent place, the fun of running pre-release software , at the moment you have to fiddle with the registry to do this. Google can probably help.

007 Shark's codec pack for win7 will let you play all the mkv file stuff, to disable sub titles coming up, you have to set the settings in WMP, MCE inherits those.

[CaptainCrash]

007 Shark's codec pack for win7 will let you play all the mkv file stuff, to disable sub titles coming up, you have to set the settings in WMP, MCE inherits those.

The Shark007 codec pack's Haali splitter allows you to play MKVs, but Win7 still does its damnedest to make sure its own built-in codec is always used in preference to ffdshow or whatever, regardless of any user settings or merits.

MS have gone on record as saying that third-party codecs *won't* be blocked in the final release, so hopefully the current situation is for testing purposes only and not a sign of things to come.

[Funkstar]

You could always have a look at MediaPortal (http://www.team-mediaportal.com)

By no means perfect, but a lot more flexible than WMC, even with the mediabrowser plugin etc.

But if you want easy to set up and configure, it isn't really for you.