[mythtv-users] MythTV vs. Windows Media Center

[Reynolds, Brian]

I've read all about the media center extenders... and they CAN play copy
protected content because they don't store the content locally.  They
stream the video from the Win MCE machine, so they are made for this
task.

I realize that the extenders won't offer ALL the features of Windows,
but they play all of the popular media formats for video, audio and
pictures.  Perfect for a bedroom, IMHO.  Cheap and silent too.

Copy-never and Copy-once content cannot, however, be played/copied to
another Win MCE machine.  But I'm only thinking that I'll need one...
and it will serve all my needs and then some.

As for commercial-skip... I read that there is a fix/hack for that in
Win MCE, but I can't remember the details about it.

I like the idea of being able to skip the ads on DVD's, but it's not a
deal breaker for me... and there may be a hack for that in Windows also.

One really cool thing about the Win MCE setup is that the extenders will
allow me to watch a Blu-Ray that is inserted into the Win MCE machine.
Not in 3D, but 2D should play just fine.  3D will only be available on
the Win MCE machine with an installed video card that supports it.  That
will save me from having to buy a bunch of Blu Ray players.

You see, I just recently replaced ALL of my TV's with HDTV's... and now
I'm looking for what can be done with them.

I really like what you guys are doing with MythTV, but I think MCE will
be a better fit for me.  Now I just have to cough up the cash to try it
out.  That's a lot of money to dive into something without seeing it in
action first.  I'd love to hear any experiences with WinMCE (positive or
negative) from you guys.

-----Original Message-----
From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org
[mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org] On Behalf Of Eric Sharkey
Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2011 1:29 PM
To: Discussion about MythTV
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] MythTV vs. Windows Media Center

On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 12:51 PM, Reynolds, Brian
<Brian.Reynolds at fiserv.com> wrote:
> Also, with an X-Box or a D-Link or Linksys media center extender
(found on
> e-bay for $100), I can watch live or recorded TV, Blu-Ray movies,
DVD's, and
> just about anything else that Windows can decode on as many frontends
as my
> MCE server can handle,

I also meant to mention that this won't work in all cases.  For
content not marked as copy-freely, Windows can record it and play it
back locally only.  Copy-Once/Copy-Never content isn't sharable via
media center extenders as far as I understand it.  Even TiVo has this
same restriction.

Note also that such content can be recorded via MythTV with an HDPVR
(even video on demand) and can be streamed to any frontend.

Eric
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