Just Got Windows 8.1. Can't Watch Freeview Now (No WMC). What Can I do?

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Just Got Windows 8.1. Can't Watch Freeview Now (No WMC). What Can I do?

steve181

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#151768 4-Sep-2014 15:03

I used to have Windows 7 & watched Freeview through WMC. 8.1 doesn't have WMC.

All I want is a simple program that will run Freeview when I open it.

I got the tv running in mediaportal but the interface is an absolute joke, overly complicated & tacky.

It blows my mind that there doesn't seem to be simple software that works like a normal TV (i.e. open it/turn it on, then freeview starts playing.

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#1121894 4-Sep-2014 15:03

it does run WMC you need to buy it.

steve181

130 posts

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#1121896 4-Sep-2014 15:06

l43a2: it does run WMC you need to buy it.

Who the hell is going to waste over $100 or whatever it is on that?

jonb

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#1121897 4-Sep-2014 15:13

Does VLC player work with freeview?

Is thread from 2010 any help?

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=84&topicid=73614

geekiegeek

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#1121912 4-Sep-2014 15:23

pretty sure MediaPortal can be configured to launch live TV when entering the TV section.

tanivula

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#1121914 4-Sep-2014 15:29

Hmm, while I tend to agree WMC7 was the bee's knees, a lot of the community work to make it more awesome has dissapeard/turned into a pay per install affair. This has lead me to mediaportal (tried XBMC and mediabrowser, the latter of which is getting more and more enticing).

While there is a huge learning curve with MediaPortal, there is so much more you can do with it, than WMC. Have you tried some alternate themes? I'm a big fan of StreamedMP. While I've kinked out most of my setup bugs, there are a few that I haven't been bothered to address (audio drops sync when skipping ahead). The biggest things I'm missing from WMC are

favourite music auto playlists - adds your high rated music + recent additions to the library
music playing while TV off (more a hardware problem I think)
umm I thought there was more, but it looks like that's it

I would persist with MediaPortal if I was you, did you give MP2 a crack? Though still heavily in dev, it seems more in line with WMC, where everything is setup within the program (other than TV server perhaps) rather than in multiple other apps.

steve181

130 posts

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#1121916 4-Sep-2014 15:30

geekiegeek: pretty sure MediaPortal can be configured to launch live TV when entering the TV section.

Mediaportal just seems like rubbish overall to me bro. It's crazily complicated for someone who wants a simple program to act like a basic freeview TV.

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mattwnz

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#1121930 4-Sep-2014 15:37

I beleive WMC was free intially when windows 8 first came out, but you needed to get a license by a certain date. Can you downgrade to window 7?

steve181

130 posts

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#1121938 4-Sep-2014 15:42

mattwnz: I beleive WMC was free intially when windows 8 first came out, but you needed to get a license by a certain date. Can you downgrade to window 7?

If I get frustrated enough with 8.1 I will put a pirate copy of 7 on (Downgrading from legit 8.1 that came pre-installed with my new laptop).

Disrespective

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#1121947 4-Sep-2014 15:50

I have 8.1 Pro and the upgrade is only $10 I think. Is that because it's a pro licence or is the media center upgrade always only $10? It'd be worth checking.

There are so many options for live TV out there it's crazy now. None are just plug and play, however. There are plenty of good guides for using and setting up TVHeadEnd, NextPVR, MediaPortal though.

My preferred setup at the moment is a custom XBMC build by a guy called Margro. It has some channel change speed optimisations to bring it down to about 2sec per change. I use a NextPVR backend and the Xperience1080 skin. It's not perfect but that's mostly pebkac...

code15

201 posts

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#1121948 4-Sep-2014 15:50

steve181:
l43a2: it does run WMC you need to buy it.

Who the hell is going to waste over $100 or whatever it is on that?

It's $12.99...

steve181

130 posts

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#1121958 4-Sep-2014 15:57

code15:
steve181:
l43a2: it does run WMC you need to buy it.

Who the hell is going to waste over $100 or whatever it is on that?

It's $12.99...

If you have the pro version, I don't.

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code15

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#1121963 4-Sep-2014 16:07

steve181:
code15:
steve181:
l43a2: it does run WMC you need to buy it.

Who the hell is going to waste over $100 or whatever it is on that?

It's $12.99...

If you have the pro version, I don't.

Sorry, you're right. I assumed it would be available on Core for the same price.

What the hell Microsoft. It makes no sense why you need to be running the Pro version of Windows to get the Media Center add-on!

sultanoswing

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#1122041 4-Sep-2014 17:39

It makes no sense why you need to be running Windows

There. Fixed it for you ;)

rlevis

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#1122046 4-Sep-2014 18:02

MediaPortal is the bees knees in my opinion. Sure it does 1000 times more than just watching/recording TV, but you can configure it to start a TV channel automatically when you select TV off the menu.

davidcole

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#1122057 4-Sep-2014 18:25

Switch to MediaPortal or nextpvr if you don't want to pay for wmc, or obtain an unused key from someone.

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