RIP Windows Media Center

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2945 posts

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#1298895 6-May-2015 10:45

Athlonite:
sm250:
Athlonite: Would it not stand to reason that WMC for windows 8/8.1 would also work fine in windows 10 could you not just install it and use it

I think the problem would be pulling out all of the required pieces and making them work. I'm not sure how deep the integration goes in Windows itself, there must be a codec for the recorded tv files I presume, and then there's the recorder and various other things, presumably including registry settings. I would imagine that it would be possible to pull them out if you had a lot of patience! But because Microsoft isn't willing to open source that no one can actually distribute those files so you would have to give clear instructions for others to repeat and it might be quite a complicated process.

Stefan

I thought that WMC was an separate download from MS so wouldn't it just require installing it as you would have done under win 8/8.1

You might find that the install would block if it wasn't run on Win8. Worth a try though.

RussellSmith

20 posts

Geek

#1298916 6-May-2015 11:08

sm250: I think the problem would be pulling out all of the required pieces and making them work.
I haven't heard anything about MS changing or pulling out their DX9, BDA, DirectShow or MediaFoundation frameworks. If the news is true (I'm still highly sceptical), then I suspect the reasons for pulling the plug are political and/or monetary rather than technical. For example:

.NET 3.5 - which I've been told is the framework that the WMC business logic uses - is going EOL/EOS, and they can't support it over the lifetime of W10
They want to [finally] pull DirectShow at some point, and this requires cutting all the components that have any dependency on it.

I think it was .Net 4...

But even if you could get all the components onto Windows 10, i suspect it would still require a valid OS license key for it to run - and none of the Win8 WMC license keys are going to work with Windows 10?

SJB

2945 posts

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Inactive user

#1298918 6-May-2015 11:10

mm1352000:
sm250: I think the problem would be pulling out all of the required pieces and making them work.

I haven't heard anything about MS changing or pulling out their DX9, BDA, DirectShow or MediaFoundation frameworks. If the news is true (I'm still highly sceptical), then I suspect the reasons for pulling the plug are political and/or monetary rather than technical. For example:

.NET 3.5 - which I've been told is the framework that the WMC business logic uses - is going EOL/EOS, and they can't support it over the lifetime of W10
They want to [finally] pull DirectShow at some point, and this requires cutting all the components that have any dependency on it.

I'm not sure about the version of .Net being relevant. If it's compiled for .Net 3.5 it should work on later versions of the framework.

Looking at the Win7 version of WMC with ILSpy the code comments mention .Net 2.0 which I would have thought was EOL/EOS some time ago.

They are going to have a hell of a job to get rid of DirectShow as well. Do you know of any Media Foundation projects apart those from MS itself?

I think you are right to be sceptical about them pulling the plug.

sm250

88 posts

Master Geek

#1298920 6-May-2015 11:13

mm1352000:
sm250: I think the problem would be pulling out all of the required pieces and making them work.

I haven't heard anything about MS changing or pulling out their DX9, BDA, DirectShow or MediaFoundation frameworks. If the news is true (I'm still highly sceptical), then I suspect the reasons for pulling the plug are political and/or monetary rather than technical. For example:

.NET 3.5 - which I've been told is the framework that the WMC business logic uses - is going EOL/EOS, and they can't support it over the lifetime of W10
They want to [finally] pull DirectShow at some point, and this requires cutting all the components that have any dependency on it.

What I was referring to was pulling out the pieces that make up WMC to make them available on Windows 10. As someone else has pointed out it would be even an issue of the activation key. I have no idea if they will remove support for various frameworks, but this does tend to happen over time, sadly sometimes when there aren't even decent replacements.

Stefan

mm1352000

1149 posts

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Inactive user

#1298945 6-May-2015 12:01

SJB: I'm not sure about the version of .Net being relevant. If it's compiled for .Net 3.5 it should work on later versions of the framework.

I don't think it works like that. If the code is compiled for .NET 3.5 then the .NET 3.5 framework needs to be installed. The .NET 4 framework [which is quite different] being installed would not be sufficient.

SJB: Looking at the Win7 version of WMC with ILSpy the code comments mention .Net 2.0 which I would have thought was EOL/EOS some time ago.

As MS says, .NET 2, 3 and 3.5 are "layers of a feature stack":
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2696944

You need .NET 2 to run certain .NET 3.5 code... so that's probably why you're seeing what you're seeing.

Support policy/dates are here:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/search/default.aspx?sort=PN&alpha=.NET%20Framework&Filter=FilterNO

Yes, .NET 2 is EOS.

SJB: They are going to have a hell of a job to get rid of DirectShow as well.

Too right!

SJB: Do you know of any Media Foundation projects apart those from MS itself?

Any media app that runs in the modern/metro UI uses a cut down version of MF.

SJB: I think you are right to be sceptical about them pulling the plug.

Yeah, I think even if they do actually attempt to pull the plug, they may encounter significant backlash. People won't want to choose between W10 and WMC... especially if there's no technical reason (eg. a significant incompatibility) for pulling the plug.

geekiegeek

2513 posts

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#1298947 6-May-2015 12:05

"People won't want to choose between W10 and WMC"

I'm not sure the install base is big enough to stop MS from pulling the plug especially when there are a number of 3rd party alternatives.

mm1352000

1149 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1298955 6-May-2015 12:07

sm250: What I was referring to was pulling out the pieces that make up WMC to make them available on Windows 10.

MS already identified, pulled and packaged the required pieces for W8/8.1. I can't think of any reason why those same pieces would not be compatible with W10.

sm250: As someone else has pointed out it would be even an issue of the activation key.

This should not be a big deal for a well designed activation system.

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

mm1352000

1149 posts

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#1298958 6-May-2015 12:11

geekiegeek: I'm not sure the install base is big enough to stop MS from pulling the plug especially when there are a number of 3rd party alternatives.

There are alternatives for us, yes... but there are no alternatives for people with CableCARD tuners that need access to "copy once" content. Our alternatives either don't want to implement the DRM support, can't afford compliance testing and certification in the first place, or would never get certification due to the fact that they're open source.

Satch

1985 posts

Uber Geek

#1298977 6-May-2015 12:20

mcraenz: WMC doesn't have the ability to record multiple channels on a single mux if I recall. That was always a big show stopper for me. Especially important for Sky subscribers. With MediaPortal I'm able to record upto 16 Sky channels simultaneously with a quad tuner.

When would you ever want to record 16 Sky channels at once let alone wanting to record 4 Sky channels at once on a quad tuner without multi-record per mux??

mm1352000

1149 posts

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#1298991 6-May-2015 12:36

Satch:
mcraenz: WMC doesn't have the ability to record multiple channels on a single mux if I recall. That was always a big show stopper for me. Especially important for Sky subscribers. With MediaPortal I'm able to record upto 16 Sky channels simultaneously with a quad tuner.

When would you ever want to record 16 Sky channels at once let alone wanting to record 4 Sky channels at once on a quad tuner without multi-record per mux??

Some people have different needs to you. ;)

I think the point is that other software enables increased flexibility with the same hardware... or the same capabilities with cheaper hardware (eg. 2 tuners instead of 3 or more).

Satch

1985 posts

Uber Geek

#1298995 6-May-2015 12:39

mm1352000:
Satch:
mcraenz: WMC doesn't have the ability to record multiple channels on a single mux if I recall. That was always a big show stopper for me. Especially important for Sky subscribers. With MediaPortal I'm able to record upto 16 Sky channels simultaneously with a quad tuner.

When would you ever want to record 16 Sky channels at once let alone wanting to record 4 Sky channels at once on a quad tuner without multi-record per mux??

Some people have different needs to you. ;)

I think the point is that other software enables increased flexibility with the same hardware... or the same capabilities with cheaper hardware (eg. 2 tuners instead of 3 or more).

Yes that is a fair point but it is like me saying that I have a mobile phone that stores one million contacts compared to your phone which only stores 5,000. Pointless unless you can use them all.

mm1352000

1149 posts

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#1299004 6-May-2015 12:57

Satch: Yes that is a fair point but it is like me saying that I have a mobile phone that stores one million contacts compared to your phone which only stores 5,000. Pointless unless you can use them all.

From my perspective your analogy would be more accurate/reasonable if it were phones with 50 vs. 500 contacts. As it stands, it just shows that you don't record many programs simultaneously, and WMC's capabilities are absolutely sufficient for you... and that's 100% fine. Variety and choice are great. That's why I'll be sad to see WMC go... even though I personally don't use it because it doesn't meet my needs.

Satch

1985 posts

Uber Geek

#1299011 6-May-2015 13:00

mm1352000:
Satch: Yes that is a fair point but it is like me saying that I have a mobile phone that stores one million contacts compared to your phone which only stores 5,000. Pointless unless you can use them all.

From my perspective your analogy would be more accurate/reasonable if it were phones with 50 vs. 500 contacts. As it stands, it just shows that you don't record many programs simultaneously, and WMC's capabilities are absolutely sufficient for you... and that's 100% fine. Variety and choice are great. That's why I'll be sad to see WMC go... even though I personally don't use it because it doesn't meet my needs.

I guess I am more questioning if there would every be 16 shows on Sky at the same worth recording. For me 16 in a month would be a great stretch.

mm1352000

1149 posts

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Inactive user

#1299019 6-May-2015 13:14

Satch: I guess I am more questioning if there would every be 16 shows on Sky at the same worth recording. For me 16 in a month would be a great stretch.

Possibly not. It's an extreme example... and the 16 number isn't the point.

mcraenz

1140 posts

Uber Geek

#1299043 6-May-2015 13:22

I guess I am more questioning if there would every be 16 shows on Sky at the same worth recording. For me 16 in a month would be a great stretch.

Um, it's Sky......do you really need to ask that question! ;)

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