ESX is way too complicated for the average user. Just go with my solution using Vmware workstation and DVBlink.
Do you know how I could get this working with Media Browser/Emby? I guess I would install the Media Browser server on the VM as well, but then I have Media Browser create huge video and music libraries from the files on my local drives. If I used a VM then how would I access those files? If it is over the local network then it seems like there would be lag as it would be network > media broswer> back to network again. Media Broswer would have to transcode MKV files from within the virtual machine. Seems easier just to stick with Win 8.1...
Why complicate your life installing Emby on the virtual machine? The virtual machine should be configured for the minimal cpu usage, network traffic, ram usage and so on. Just use the VMware (workstation, not ESX) to run the WMC application and let the tuning, transcoding, whatever to the real W10 machine. In short install DVBlink server on W10 machine, install W8 WMC and DVBlink client on the virtual machine. Optionally install Emby/Plex on W10 machine and use the dvblink addon to access the TV channels.
You can map a real partition to a VM Anyway, the idea is that if you use the dvblink server on a machine w/o WMC installed it's own recorder will be used, so the recording path is a DVBlink configuration. If you install the DVBlink server on a different machine that has WMC installed either the wmcrecorder or the dvblink recorder can be used
Because I use Emby as an addon for Windows Media Center, which is then accessed through my Xbox360 Extenders.
I know little about the Xbox extenders, anyway with the setup I suggested you have a great amount of variations. You can have a dvblink server machine on the lan, different from the w10 machine, that could be a WMC machine, a W10 machine, a Win [home]server machine, or even a NAS or a raspberry based appliance. With that basic configuration, you can access the live tv from a WMC client (trough the DVBlink network client), from a kody client (via the dvblink addon), from your android phone (via the official android DVBlink app), and via the web interface trough almos any browser. You can also install a plex or emby server (plus the emby or plex addon), and access the live tv via a further web UI, and trough any amby or plex server. Not enough, you can also install WMCserver on the server (if WMC enabled) and access the live tv trough kodi, plex, emby and the related wmcserver plugin Not enough you can install wmcserver on a WMC client machine which, in turn, connects to the dvblink server, and share the livetv with it. There is also a script that makes the mediaportal server able to access the DVblink server via the IPTV virtual tuner, so you can even use the mediaportal clients for windows and android. Using a single W10 machine the possible combinations are slightly reduced, because the resources involved, and because you can't have the WMC server there. All you have to do is to experiment and found the best combination, according to your setup and your needs. We can talk for days about all the possible variations.
I am using ProgDVB7 free version, it's the closest to WMC that I have found, simple to set up. The free version has EPG and pause/play, If you want the record feature there is paid version.
Hi, Media Player Classic Home cinema is able to catch DVB tuners (I didn't check if it can record). But Media Center is easier to use. I'll upgrade soon to Windows 10 from 7 to make my licence legit, and I'll test it. Since a DVD Player appeared via Windows Store, may we hope a TV/Cable app ? If someone succeeds to make WMC work on W10, I will keep it. In the other case, I'll go back to Windows 7.
Nope. Microsoft will make XBox One able to record TV, and probably make Windows 10 Movies & TV application able to access recordings. pcworld.com/article/2956599/video/xbox-one-is-getting-over-the-air-dvr-with-caveats.html