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No Media Center in Windows 10


KarterJK

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8" and the new, amazing 5 1/4" floppies, that is... ;).

 

Man it took forever to load those programs onto the trash-80 from a cassette.

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8" and the new, amazing 5 1/4" floppies, that is... ;).

 

Man it took forever to load those programs onto the trash-80 from a cassette.

It wasn't so bad loading from cassette on the trs80 coco. They could chain load sequenced programs and had several loading screens, which was how they got around their limited kilobytes of RAM. The commodore64 had notoriously slow serial interfaces. Its first line of drives were so slow, it was questionable why people upgraded from tape to them. It wasn't until the 2nd version which was only marginally faster than tape, that sales began to influence game design. This is when infocom games were used to spur disc sales in many systems.

 

I loved 5 1/4 discs, especially ECHO branded ( https://books.google.com/books?id=msSKK7cn2K4C&pg=PA324&lpg=PA324&dq=echo&source=bl&ots=1hLhqsUM7d&sig=exP4_o2Ojin2FtfATfWBpJqWWeY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hDLRVL3nK4ergwTUsoDIBg&ved=0CDYQ6AEwCA ), using the notch nibbler to create an index hole and write protect notch so the disc could be flipped over and used in the backside. Apple started the 3 1/2 inch discs in 1984, which used dual sided heads in the drives, making flipping over the disk, and the notch nibblers pointless. People wrongly assumed because of the rugged, durable casing on the 3 1/2 that they were called "hard disk" even though they were still floppies. Just not truly, floppy, and made of materials easily flexed.

 

I still have my Tandy coco2 with multi pack expansion interface, rs232pack, and dual 5 1/4 disc drives w/cassette interface. Its hard adapting rf-modulators with today's televisions and keeping vsync held. There is no vertical hold adjustment...

Edited by speechles
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Keep your TRS-80s as Radio Shack will disappear as a company those units will become expensive collectors items, maybe even making it into Smithsonian Museum next to the Intel 4004 & 8008 units.

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...and just to clarify....

 

"As an example, the CoCo cassette interface is perhaps one of the fastest available (1500-bit/s) but it does so entirely under software control. While reading or writing a cassette the CoCo has no CPU time free for other tasks. They must wait until an error occurs or all the data needed is read.

 

The precise timing loops made the CoCo useful for laboratory purposes. Since it has no operating system servicing interrupts, it can do precisely timed read-modify write operations for scientific instrumentation, at a speed that cannot be matched by even the newest computers running Microsoft Windows without disabling the Windows operating system."

 

Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80_Color_Computer

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  • 4 weeks later...
tornadotj

I've worked in IT at banks, and OS/2 was in use for a lot of things.

Most common that I saw was for an application called NDM. It's still around today, but it is called Connect:Direct.

 

I've also seen it used for Wildcat BBS V and Right Fax.

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  • 3 weeks later...
jhoff80

The 'ehome' team was disbanded years ago.  If there is WMC in Windows 10, I'm sure it's going to just be the same exact program.

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  • 3 weeks later...
jhevener

The 'ehome' team was disbanded years ago.  If there is WMC in Windows 10, I'm sure it's going to just be the same exact program.

 

Well that's fine by me, UNLESS, Emby Theater starts kickin' butt! If it ain't broke don't fix it. Maybe they'll go open source on it as they appear to be opening up to (no pun intended). That would be awesome.

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  • 2 weeks later...
jhevener

The 'ehome' team was disbanded years ago.  If there is WMC in Windows 10, I'm sure it's going to just be the same exact program.

 

Since they offer an upgrade to Windows 7 users, I think it's safe to say WMC will still be around for a while.

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techywarrior

Since they offer an upgrade to Windows 7 users, I think it's safe to say WMC will still be around for a while.

That's not really a good assumption. I have no idea if WMC will be included or not but just because they are giving Win7 users an upgrade to Win10 doesn't mean every thing is the same. 99% of the users don't use WMC so MS would be more then happy to get people onto their newest OS and maybe have a few people not upgrade or complain about losing functionality.

 

I do hope that WMC is still around, but then again I would have been really happy if they had actually worked on it and fixed some bugs in the last 5 years too :)

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jhevener

That's not really a good assumption. I have no idea if WMC will be included or not but just because they are giving Win7 users an upgrade to Win10 doesn't mean every thing is the same. 99% of the users don't use WMC so MS would be more then happy to get people onto their newest OS and maybe have a few people not upgrade or complain about losing functionality.

 

I do hope that WMC is still around, but then again I would have been really happy if they had actually worked on it and fixed some bugs in the last 5 years too :)

 

We will see if they are willing to disable current functionally even to such a small percentage of the customer base but like I've seen mentioned, "if it works in Windows 8.1 it will probably work in Windows 10". It's the guide I'm worried about but my hunch is someone will come up with a third party solution for that if necessary. Early Windows 10 tech preview users were able to add WMC as a feature so that is a good sign as well. Personally, I would be happy to have the current functionality for Live TV retained as I have a Ceton and HDHomeRun tuners and get some premium content from Comcast currently. Everything else I use Emby for. :)

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At some point they have to kill WMC in the OS.  Maybe it is with 10 maybe not but this project was shut down and abandoned by MS years ago so they can't keep it going forever.

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Deihmos

Someone from Microsoft revealed the name of the releases for Windows 10 and it has Windows 10 with media center. I think they will continue to provide wmc once it is compatible but once that breaks it will be the end. Sorry I can't find the link right now and it is still not confirmation .

Edited by Deihmos
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Koleckai Silvestri

Windows Media Center is the only software approved for use with encrypted content on Cable Cards in the US. Since the Cable Companies (Comcast, Time Warner, etc...) are legally required to offer Cable Cards as a solution to their customers, they will need to make sure that Windows Media Center stays alive and well.

 

That doesn't mean that Microsoft has to provide it for free with their OS though. It will probably be part of a $99 upgrade package to a Pro version from the free upgrade they are offering people.

Edited by Koleckai Silvestri
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Windows Media Center is the only software approved for use with encrypted content on Cable Cards in the US. Since the Cable Companies (Comcast, Time Warner, etc...) are legally required to offer Cable Cards as a solution to their customers, they will need to make sure that Windows Media Center stays alive and well.

 

Probably the only reason it hasn't been killed as of yet.

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techywarrior

I don't agree with that reasoning.

 

Yes, the cable companies are required to provide Cable Cards but no one is actually required to make software to use it. MS, or Ceton aren't required to make the hardware/software to utilize the cards. It also costs something like $100k to get licensed as Cable Card approved (just one of the reasons it never took off).

 

The main reason that Cable Cards were required was to allow people to purchase their own STB and not rent one from the cable company for an exorbitant amount.

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jhevener

Windows Media Center is the only software approved for use with encrypted content on Cable Cards in the US. Since the Cable Companies (Comcast, Time Warner, etc...) are legally required to offer Cable Cards as a solution to their customers, they will need to make sure that Windows Media Center stays alive and well.

 

That doesn't mean that Microsoft has to provide it for free with their OS though. It will probably be part of a $99 upgrade package to a Pro version from the free upgrade they are offering people.

 

 

Not any more...

 

 

President Obama signs STELAR into law, officially kills the CableCARD

December 5, 2014 | By Daniel Frankel

 

 

President Obama signed off on a bill Thursday that will assure that 1 million satellite TV subscribers in rural areas will continue to have access to the major broadcast networks after Dec. 31.

 

Official passage of the Satellite Television Extension Act Reauthorization (STELAR) also ends the Federal Communications Commission's ban on cable set-top boxes with integrated security features, the so-called CableCARD law. Enacted in 2007, the rule never achieved its goal of creating a robust retail market for pay-TV set-tops, and it was unpopular among pay-TV operators.

 

As signed, the bill also renews the FCC's authority to enforce good-faith negotiations between broadcasters and pay-TV operators on retransmission deals. It restricts stations with different owners from conducting coordinated retrans deals.

 

At its core, STELAR allows satellite-based pay-TV operators to pull a distant broadcast signal from another market if a local affiliate for a specific network isn't available.

 

Cable companies, however, were pleased with the other stuff that made it onto the bill.

 

"CenturyLink applauds Congress and the President for reauthorizing legislation that will increase investment, innovation, competition and consumer choice in the pay-TV market," said VP for federal legislative affairs David Bartlett, in a statement obtained by Multichannel News. "STELAR goes a long way toward making retransmission consent negotiations more fair and balanced, and creates a more competitive pay-TV market for providers and consumers alike, but more video reform is needed."

 

That being the fact, I don't think CableCARD is going anywhere soon as virtually all cable set-top boxes use one.

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  • 2 weeks later...
techywarrior

I'm not surprised at all. I said this was most likely the case early in the thread. Disappointed like anyone else who uses WMC but not surprised. At least we can stay with Win7/8 for now.

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tekno23

With this now being confirmed (ie no WMC in Windows 10 when it's released), what do people recommend as a (software) alternative for recording TV to feed into Emby?

 

I'd ideally like to get that set up and working *before* Windows 10 is released (I'm running W10 on my laptop, with minor niggles), and will definitely want to upgrade my main desktop (which also has a dual-tuner, and is my main Media Center PC).

 

Any advice/suggestions gratefully accepted!

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sub3

With this now being confirmed (ie no WMC in Windows 10 when it's released), what do people recommend as a (software) alternative for recording TV to feed into Emby?

NextPVR.

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politby

 

 

With this now being confirmed (ie no WMC in Windows 10 when it's released), what do people recommend as a (software) alternative for recording TV to feed into Emby?

 

Any advice/suggestions gratefully accepted!

DVBlink, definitely. With the reservation that it is more geared toward European than U.S. broadcast standards, but I believe it supports at least ATSC.

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Damstas

WMC is not so big deal for European users, since to my knowledge no software is authorized to use CI+ standard, which is equivalent to a Cable Card.

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