[DISCUSSION] Patch WMC to run on Windows 10 final & possible alternatives

Discussion in 'Windows 10' started by ricktendo64, May 8, 2015.

  1. DavidinCT

    DavidinCT MDL Addicted

    May 9, 2015
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    Nice but, VMing it is not ideal in any means. Still cool. Looking for a way to natively run it under Windows 10. People trying to run WMC with live video and recording video better have a pretty bad a$$ machine. VMs are not optimized for streaming video, even Hyper-V or VMware workstation, so unless your machine is up to spec, you can expect choppy video, mouths not lining up with the audio/audio delays and a ton of other media based issue.

    Finding a way to run it under Windows 10 would be the best with the best performance... Wish someone would just pay off Microsoft to make this happen as nothing else is seaming to work..
     
  2. JakeStockton

    JakeStockton MDL Novice

    Sep 4, 2013
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    I really believe that since Windows Media Center is a protected "service" as designated by the FCC, ie. CableCard for cable television is a mandated requirement for the cable companies and therefor should extend to Windows Media Center.

    I don't think that it is "reasonable" that Microsoft can discontinue one of the FEW CableLabs certified DVR products and the ONLY one which runs on ANY computer/PC -- without giving consumers any warning and/or not give their users an upgrade path.

    You could argue that Microsoft is not requiring people to upgrade from 7/8 to 10 and will in keep providing security updates for the time being, but when a company such as Microsoft gives so many consumers an incentive to upgrade and leave 7/8 behind, they are telling their OEMs, hardware and software developers to ALSO stop supporting those products.

    We already see many major OEMs discontinuing support for Windows 8.0 and are only supporting 8.1 - again, the free upgrade incentivized 99% of all users to leave 8.0.

    I also have found that since Microsoft came out and said that Windows RT based Surface devices would not be receiving Windows 10, not only are new apps NOT being developers and released for the platform, but programs that once were available such as VLC are no longer available to install or even re-install on their ARM devices.

    These are just a couple examples of Microsoft's influence on the market and no matter what support Microsoft continues to offer RT and 8.1 users, they have no control over their partners and we can be 100% sure that there will be NO MORE development and no more support for even existing hardware we already own and are using.

    The FCC and even the FTC are government agencies which are supposed to protect consumers and they should be paying attention to this lack of future of CableCard products and platforms that they at one time demanded the industry create FOR CONSUMERS.
     
  3. T-S

    T-S MDL Guru

    Dec 14, 2012
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    #123 T-S, Jun 26, 2015
    Last edited: Jun 26, 2015
    Looks like you didn't read carefully what I wrote.

    There isn't any streaming coming from the VM (for the record I tested that scenario, it isn't good enough on low powered machines).

    Streaming/recording is done on the real server machine (which is anything but a superpowerful machine in my case) WMC is used just as a client, both on the server machine itself and on W10 clients.

    Alternate desktop and mobile clients like Kody, Emby theater, Plex, or even Mediaportal can be used on real machines as well (I guess not to play protected contents)

    Using a ThinPC or (even better) a tweaked Win8 installation the resources used are relatively low.

    WMC needs by itself some 300MB of RAM, another 350/400 are needed by the OS, if the not needed services are disabled and the VM is used for the sole WMC purpose.

    So 750/800MB assigned to the VM are more than enough to make it working flawlessly. And nowadays 800MB are easily taken by a browser opened with a couple of tabs opened, so not a biggie.

    On less constrained machines, especially if running on SSD, the whole WMC can be used W/O any problem even as server or single seat setups.

    That is.

    As I said a native solution would be more than welcome, but in the meantime this is working perfectly for both Win Server and WMCless Win 10 installations.
     
  4. DavidinCT

    DavidinCT MDL Addicted

    May 9, 2015
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    Now that we are getting closer to release, I wanted to bring this topic up again. I will continue to attempt to hack WMC into Windows 10 but, I am waiting till we get the official RTM version. There is no need to do it now as code will change before RTM and anything done could be un-done.

    Although it needs a protected path for cablecards, as long as we can get playready installed, we should still have that protected path (assuming WMC can get fully installed), WMC needs Playready and Directx. These are both available for Windows 10, so it's all depending on version support.

    Would love to see if anyone has some input here, I have been thinking about brining this subject up over at XDA, as there has been some Windows hacking there....thoughts ?
     
  5. dejong12

    dejong12 MDL Member

    Jan 4, 2009
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    I really hope you'll succeed. After trying a few software options like DVBViewer and MediaPortal on Windows 10, I have to say nothing beats Windows Media Center. I'm seriously thinking about returning to Windows 8.1 in order to use WMC, even though I really like Windows 10.
     
  6. unrealmaniac

    unrealmaniac MDL Novice

    Apr 29, 2015
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    this is just a random guess but what if we could somehow install the WMC feature pack from windows embedded standard. I was playing around with windows embedded yesterady and noticed that it stores it's feature packages as .cabs on the disk and found the wmc pack. it probably wont work i just thought it was worth mentioning
     
  7. s1ave77

    s1ave77 Has left at his own request

    Aug 15, 2012
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    From what i got so far, the files are not the problem. The huge challenge is the fact that WMC is protected by licensing, so you'd had to mess with it.
     
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  8. dejong12

    dejong12 MDL Member

    Jan 4, 2009
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    I think it would be a good idea to bring this up at XDA. Maybe they can shine their knowledge over this.
     
  9. Tito

    Tito Super Mod / Adviser
    Staff Member

    Nov 30, 2009
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    I've seen emerging number of threads & discussion regarding alternatives of WMC or possible way of porting. That's why I've made this thread a sticky - please discuss here.

    :)
     
  10. phrunt

    phrunt MDL Addicted

    May 1, 2007
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    yes, I hope it can be done, I'm not going to upgrade 2 of my machines because I need media center on them, damn Microsoft for removing something they could of just put in with minimal effort, it doesn't matter they don't update it anymore, it worked, that's all we needed.
     
  11. DummyPLUG

    DummyPLUG MDL Novice

    May 31, 2008
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    Typical MS: you like something? you find it is useful? we will make sure we screw it in the next version
     
  12. CorporateRAT

    CorporateRAT MDL Member

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    They might develop new store "APP" for that and charge moneys for it, so it's a win win for them. You get windows 10 "free" for life after all ;)
     
  13. ZaForD

    ZaForD MDL Expert

    Jan 26, 2008
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    I swapped the HDD's in my HTPC's, installed Win7 + Cert and did the upgrade to Win10. Made sure it activated and swapped the HDD's back.

    If an alternative turns up that runs on Win10, I'll swap them back. :p
     
  14. phrunt

    phrunt MDL Addicted

    May 1, 2007
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    then it will only activate with the hdd that you had in there when you did the activation, i've seen this happening already
     
  15. phrunt

    phrunt MDL Addicted

    May 1, 2007
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    you would have to be insane to buy it, its a stupid dvd player, and its pointless.. vlc does it for free with far more features, this new microsoft one is just the most basic thing i've ever seen
     
  16. T-S

    T-S MDL Guru

    Dec 14, 2012
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    Wow.

    A DVD player, what a smart idea!!!:D

    Even my washing machine plays DVDs nowadays :mad:
     
  17. shawnmos

    shawnmos MDL Member

    Oct 27, 2007
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    LOL, like a freakin DVD player is supposed to replace Media Center. Do the new people working at Microsoft even know what Media Center did??? :mad:

    I really hope someone has made some progress getting media center to work on 10.
     
  18. @it

    @it MDL Novice

    Mar 6, 2010
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    I concur not switching from W7Pro (although tempted to update to 8.1) until MS sort something similar to WMC.

    @it