Our main TV PC spends most of its time running the awesome XBMC software. It has everything you need in a media player except one – recording. Whilst there are forks of it out there which work with the MythTV or Media Portal recording software, I’ve never had much success configuring either reliably.
As I mentioned before, I accidentally discovered late last year that Windows Media Center is fantastic at handling TV. It detected both my PCI Satellite card and USB Saorview stick, scanned all the tv stations and then gave me a full integrated multi-week TV guide for both. Not only does it show TV beautifully but it records it too. And does series-link perfectly.
However, I don’t use it as the main media player because it is rubbish for playing AVIs. Between AV sync problems, the lack of a simple directory browser and the lack of codecs, it’s not worth the hassle.
Then last night I had a brainwave. Could XBMC play the WMC recordings? The signs weren’t good as the recordings were in some format I’d never heard off. But I added the directory as a source on XBMC and kaboom, it worked perfectly!
You don’t need to leave WMC running to do this as it has background processes taking care of recording. So I only have to start it up to configure new recordings or watch live TV.
If your media PC runs Windows, give this a try, it works so well. Apart from the “why did they bother” hamstrung versions of Windows Vista and 7, I think WMC comes with all Win PCs.
If I ever revert that PC to Ubuntu, I may try the XBMC-PVR plus MythTV again since it’d be ever better to be able to watch live TV inside XBMC.
Speaking of which. Two projects which may be of interest:
- XBMC Live USB – Put Ubuntu + XBMC on a USB stick and try it out on your PC. Great way to see if it works with your hardware without having to install anything.
- Ubuntu TV – Not content with pushing that Unity rubbish onto your Desktop, now they want to destroy your TV viewing experience too. I’ll still give it a try when it’s released.
Strange, as i found my WMC recordings don’t really play nice with XBMC. They initially play, but they cut off, especially when i attempt to fast forward etc.
As you say though, the PVR versions of XBMC are, compared to Windows Media Center, a nightmare to try and set up. I for one gave up after attempt five or six, i just couldn’t get it to work.
Yeah, I’ve been finding that cut-off issue too, usually when 75% of the way through the show.
There is a tool out there which automatically converts the WTV files to MP4 but I haven’t bothered install it.
If I want to hold on to a recording, I pass it quickly through Handbrake to create an MP4 and then play that in XBMC.
Apparently the next version of XBMC (Frodo) plays much nicer with WTV files.
Now if only they could make the PVR section of as easy to setup and powerful as Windows Media Center they’d be onto something, especially now since WMC has been abandoned by Microsoft.
Very interesting! I must try some nightlies of Frodo. I was stunned how WMC could provide a 7 day EPG for a Freesat Card in my PC when there isn’t one available from Freesat itself!
I hadn’t heard that they had abandoned it. Might explain why installing Netflix is close to impossible on it.
I haven’t tried Frodo myself, but according to a thread on the XBMC forums it handles WTV better. Whether ‘better’ equals flawlessly is another matter, although it is still Beta so,in time, here’s hoping.
Windows Media Center is not in Windows 8 by default. You can get it as an paid add-on for the Pro version of Windows 8 but it’s not updated at all, and in fact as had some features removed, dvd playback being one. I did hear on a recent Podcast that it’s now free, but most of the news i’ve read suggests the add-on pack with Media Center in it has to be paid for.
Basically it’s been abandoned because Microsoft doesn’t see the HTPC/PVR setup as the way forward, it’s all about streaming these days apparently. Those of us with large local media collections and connections/data caps that aren’t quite up to streaming would beg to differ.
Very silly move. It forgets the hundreds of millions of us who struggle to stream even a single SD channel over DSL. And let’s not forget “unlimited” packages that aren’t.
Exactly. Plus, maybe i’m old fashioned but i like ripping and organizing my dvds in a Media Center. The idea of the Internet being down/slow one night and thus not being able to watch something via streaming because of that just seems silly to me. All i can think of when i think streaming is seeing the words ‘buffering’ showing up on my screen..no thanks.
Microsoft *might* be putting their Media Eggs into the new Xbox due late 2013, which is possibly, according to the recent leaked documents, going to be a games console version, and a set-top box/pvr version.
Either way, if XBMC got their act together with PVR, i’m sold.