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

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

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B1GGLZ

1960 posts

Uber Geek

#1122095 4-Sep-2014 19:22

jonb: Does VLC player work with freeview?

Is thread from 2010 any help?

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

Yes
and
Yes.

KiwiTim

343 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1122303 5-Sep-2014 08:40

I can recommend DVBViewer. I have tried them all and DVBViewer is the best. Very stable, very configurable, and with a very supportive forum. It can use one DVB tuner to record all channels on a single transponder at the same time. I think WMC can only record one channel per tuner. I have tried NEXTPVR and MediaPortal, but found them to be less reliable and less stable than DVBViewer.

Try the demo version to see if you like it. Full version is 15 euros for a life time license and for that you get continual upgraded versions as they are released.

http://www.dvbviewer.com/en/index.php?page=demo

The best way to run DVBViewer is to also install DVBViewer Recording service (RS). RS is free if you have a DVBViewer license. With this program you can schedule recordings; you can shut down DVBViewer and the RS will record quietly in the background ... it will even wake the PC from a sleep state to record and then shut down the PC at the end of the recording.

It can be a little complicated choosing the right options during the initial setup, but the DVBViewer forum has all the answers.

Tim

geekiegeek

2480 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

#1122304 5-Sep-2014 08:47

tanivula: 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.

Slightly off topic but have you been through this post on getting perfect playback in MP - http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/guide-perfect-playback-display-calibration.119610/

I can highly recommend it.

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My thoughts are my own and are in no way representative of my employer.

steve181

68 posts

Master Geek

#1122360 5-Sep-2014 10:22

KiwiTim: I can recommend DVBViewer. I have tried them all and DVBViewer is the best. Very stable, very configurable, and with a very supportive forum. It can use one DVB tuner to record all channels on a single transponder at the same time. I think WMC can only record one channel per tuner. I have tried NEXTPVR and MediaPortal, but found them to be less reliable and less stable than DVBViewer.

Try the demo version to see if you like it. Full version is 15 euros for a life time license and for that you get continual upgraded versions as they are released.

http://www.dvbviewer.com/en/index.php?page=demo

The best way to run DVBViewer is to also install DVBViewer Recording service (RS). RS is free if you have a DVBViewer license. With this program you can schedule recordings; you can shut down DVBViewer and the RS will record quietly in the background ... it will even wake the PC from a sleep state to record and then shut down the PC at the end of the recording.

It can be a little complicated choosing the right options during the initial setup, but the DVBViewer forum has all the answers.

Tim

Thanks for that. I tried it but can't seem to set it up correctly. I tried using the instructions here; http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=83&topicid=19328#Dvbviewer but they are 6 years old so don't make much sense for the current version of dvbviewer.

I also tried getting at least one channel running in VLC but again can't figure out the settings. (I'd love to ultimately have a simple VLC set-up, I have no requirement to record programs, so just need channel streams).

I used this guide for VLC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26IrTFR_G74 for frequency I used " 682000" (TVNZ) & nothing happened.

The issue I have is there seem to be no recent NZ based step-by step guides for VLC or dvbviewer & I have spent hours searching.

Having a simple Freeview HD set-up running on 8.1 will just have to remain a dream I guess.

KiwiTim

343 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1122394 5-Sep-2014 10:43

I sent you an email with an offer to help you to install DVBViewer.

First, read the following post.

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumId=83&topicId=151262

You will see that the codec selection is discussed. This is where a lot of people go wrong with DVBViewer. Please try the settings I recommend. If your still stuck, give me a call and I'll see if I can talk you through it. My phone number is in the email.

Tim

steve181

68 posts

Master Geek

#1122399 5-Sep-2014 10:53

KiwiTim: I sent you an email with an offer to help you to install DVBViewer.

First, read the following post.

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumId=83&topicId=151262

You will see that the codec selection is discussed. This is where a lot of people go wrong with DVBViewer. Please try the settings I recommend. If your still stuck, give me a call and I'll see if I can talk you through it. My phone number is in the email.

Tim

Thanks for your offer Tim. I sent you a message. :)

reven

3468 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1122454 5-Sep-2014 11:38

slightly OT, but does WMC for windows 8.1 support netflix?

i didnt even know you could get WMC for windows 8.1

I have the netflix app, but that doesnt work with a remote/controller

tanivula

760 posts

Ultimate Geek

Subscriber

#1122458 5-Sep-2014 11:41

geekiegeek:
Slightly off topic but have you been through this post on getting perfect playback in MP - http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/guide-perfect-playback-display-calibration.119610/

I can highly recommend it.

Thanks - no, can't say I've seen it. Will def check this out.

@steve181 - have you gone through the MediaPortal NZ Wiki section - this is a pretty good setup guide for NZ and following from that, I used this thread on the AVS forums to do the rest. Some things are dated on the AVS thread as things have either been included into the base MP install, or not compatible with the current version but it's still pretty good.

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