How is this news? Be realistic. It already died many years ago, there have been zero development efforts since the Windows 7 release and that's about six years ago. But I'm sorry for the people who still use it and prefer it over other solutions for whatever reason. I used WMC myself a few years ago to occasionally watch DVB-T on a notebook. It would be pretty nice if they open sourced it but I doubt that will happen. I'm sure there a patents and other stuff that prevent such a step.
Silicon Dust recently released a Kodi plug-in that works with the HD Homerun Prime. However, while I really like Kodi for viewing, I still prefer Windows Media Center for recording. Paired with MCE Buddy, it is a hard combination to beat. I may just have to keep one of my computers on 7 (or SHUDDER, 8.1) just to use WMC.
It seems to me like a lot of you don't even know what Windows Media Center was actually being used for? How could you possibly claim XBMC / Kodi to be superior when it does not even support the main feature behind Windows Media Center which makes many of us rely on it; Support for tuners and PVR-functionality. I just replaced our ADB 5720SX (Canal Digital) satellite / parabol tuner (DVB-S2) with a HTPC running Windows 8.1. Normally I just map my server shares directly in Windows and use MPC-HC + MadVR + SVP for playback, and on mobile devices we use Plex but in-terms for getting our satellite broadcast up and running Windows Media Center has been the only reliable option that supports decoding of encrypted channels. And you know what? The experience have been great. We use DVBLogic's software on the back-end, and use EPGCollector to grab EPG-data from the various SAT frequencies once and save it to a XML that's being picked-up by DVBLogic and exported into Windows Media Center. It's Windows Media Center itself that handles the PVR and everything, and even-though the GUI feels somewhat dated (it was obviously design for Windows Vista and have not been changed or improved since) it's darn user friendly and does everything it's supposed to do. Combine it with MediaBrowser Classic / Emby Classic and I get direct playback to MPC-HC with a darn good GUI for browsing my servers media content. With Windows Media Center gone I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do in-terms of our HTPC and our DVB-S2 satellite broadcast playback and recording. Solutions like XBMC / Kodi is not remotely close to resemble the functionality and capabilities of Windows Media Center when it comes to satellite support and the plugin they've got for DVB-S2 and PVR relies on Windows Media Center so I guess it won't even work no more with Windows 10. This is really sad news.. I do not understand why Microsoft is not capable of maintaining Windows Media Center as an add-on for Windows 10.. It's not like they've done anything with the software since Windows Vista, so how hard can it be to just make the existing software and code work with Windows 10? This forces me to choose between having a perfectly working Windows Media Center with satellite support and drop all fancy new universal apps coming with Windows 10 which might prove great to have on a HTPC, as well as the DircetX12 support for gaming or forcing me to find yet another software package to handle the satellite portion and explain my fiance how to use this new setup..
That's funny, my old AVerMedia Hybrid NanoExpress ATSC tuner is supported in Kodi/XBMC. It is also supported in SichboPVR. (Even though AVerMedia and Dell no longer support it.) All I have to do is hook up my digital antenna or a cable line or a satellite cable and viola!
FWIW... As we know, WMC is an upgrade option in current builds - however inserting a Win 8 WMC key doesn't work if Win 10 has been activated, as is currently, with a Win 8 Pro key - it does accept WMC keys after a Win Next Pro key had been installed, however it fails installation due to non-activation. ...AFAIK, no official announcement from M$ yet.
Alternative for what? To see some DLNA video WMP is enough. WMC is meant (mainly) to manage one or more LIVE TV Tuner(s), to record and/or timeshift the LIVE TV, to collect the EPG, and (thanks to third party additions) to share the LIVE TV over the network. What "Square" App can do this?
I don't follow this logic? Simply because you consider there to be better options choice is not a good thing? Which solutions are supposed to be superior in-terms of fully fledge DVB-S2 (Satellite) support and everything?
I'm so sad to hear this.. I think most of those dissing WMC don't use it for the LIVE TV and DVR functionality. It's hands-down the best DVR solution i've found. If alternatives exist with this functionality, i'm game to try.
I agree. People saying that there are alternatives have no idea what WMC actually does. I have a 1TB hard drive dedicated to recording all of my cable TV shows (not just OTA or unencrypted signals) with 5 tuners and 2 xbox360s to work as extenders. Basically my PC acts as a DVR and the xboxs act as cable boxes, but I don't have to pay any monthly fees. None of the alternatives will work with cable cards nor use my xboxes as extenders.