Windows10 + Win7 VM/ServerWMC and USB ATI TV Tuners

[cutty201 1]

Hi Folks,

This is my first post . Glad to be part of the community! Have been using Media Browser since 2009.

 

More accurately I have been stubbornly using my original mediabrowser plugin for WMC on my Win7 based HTPC. I just recently upgraded to Windows10 on my laptop and am loving it. Wanting to update my HTPC, I took a gander at Emby and wow I cannot believe how incredible this whole package is. Emby Theatre can totally replace WMC in my life.

 

I currently rely on two ATI TV Wonder Digital Cablecard tuners for live TV; AFAIK these are only compatible with Windows Media Center. My plan to upgrade is to utilize a Windows 7 VM to host ServerWMC. [unrelated: I tried utilizing Hyper-V natively to host the VM, but the lack of USB support made this very difficult, VirtualBox has USB Passthru. On top of it, the VM is much more performant running VirtualBox 5 on Windows10 (WU took ~2hrs on VirtualBox, versus 12+ hours in HyperV)]

 

I currently use two ATI TV Wonder Digital CableCard Tuners with 7MC. I am planning on upgrading to Windows 10 and running a Windows 7/7MC+SWMC VM to host the tuners. To test this before disrupting my HTPC, I have setup and configurated

• a Windows 7 VM Setup on a Windows 10 laptop
  • Using USB PassThru I've connected and configured one of the ATI Tuners (Video Works)
  • ServerWMC is Installed and running
  • Emby Theatre installed on Windows 10 Host
• Emby Server installed (on current Win7 HTPC)
  • ServerWMC Plugin Installed and configured to point to Win7VM over wireless
  • ServerWMC "Recorded TV" Share Setup and configured
  • The PC is connected via HDMI to a Large Screen Display, Emby Theatre will be used for LiveTV viewing

With this setup I was able to connect from the Emby Server and have it populate the "Live TV" section via the Web. When trying to view a program it starts then stops after a few seconds. ServerWMC is Recording and Transcoding to the Emby Web Clients. When trying to use Emby Theatre locally on my Windows 10 Laptop, hosting the VM, I consistently get an "error occurred proccessing request"; Emby Theatre is connected to the Emby Server running on the Win 7 HTPC.

 

In my final setup the ServerWMC will be configured to use a local-hostonly address, using the VirtIO drivers, bandwidth should not be a problem at that point. That said, I'd like to see this working in my test setup before I commit to upgrading and making the move to Windows 10 + Emby. I've seen other posts about this stopping and starting, I'm still sifting through those but I now have some questions:

 

• I'd much rather have ServerWMC (On VM) offload the video, via DLNA, to the EMBY Server (on Host) and have it displayed natively in EMBY Theater (on Host). Is this idea correct?
• If I am attempting to watch Live TV via a Web Client or on an off-network Emby Theatre or App, I assume that ServerWMC (on VM) is responsible for the record-then-transcode functionality, correct? If so, could the reason for my video stopping be a symtom of lack of resources available on the VM? (if so I can take measures to correct) 

Was wondering if anyone had any answeres, thoughts, tips, suggestions or comments as I make the transiton (or helpful links). Thanks! Keep up the great work. 

Edited September 5, 2015 by cutty201