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[WereTiger]

I know I'm going to get a couple of people suggesting I should search the forums, but maybe you haven't looked at the SIZE of the forums lately   They're delightfully active, but it's information overload.  I have quite a few questions about some things I've noticed missing from Media Center 10 trial version that would prevent me from buying it.  I'm curious about what's been addressed for MC11.

1) In-engine TV listings (like how digital cable/satalite does it)

2) Scheduleing TV recording without having to do it in an external program

3) I try to exclusively use Theater mode when just leisurely playing media, but if I play something then double click in the display to return to the theater interface, it goes back to the 'standard view' instead.  If I'm using this in a theater setting (which i am) would it only go back to standard view if I explicitly tell it to?

4) I use Winamp TV and Radio a lot, I'd like to get the ability to play it within MC. Is that in MC11? (especially internet TV, ESS is awesome)

5) DVD playback: this is confusing but I've tested it repeatedly.  WinDVD came with my dvd player, so it's the decoder I use.  When playing a DVD through MC the performance is almost unwatchable (audio stutters terribly and the framerate is slow) but if I play it through WinDVD directly the performance is signifigantly improved.  Why is this? can it be (or has it been) circumvented without me having to open WinDVD myself?

6) Media Library doesn't seem to clean itself up.  I move things around a lot, rename stuff, delete stuff, put new stuff in.  Media library only seems to add things I play myself.  Can it monitor directories I specify and routinely add/remove content?  If not, can someone PLEASE add Drives & Devices navigation to the Theater View. (or has this been done in MC11?)

7) can I specify a playlist or directory for images for the images 'display' when playing audio files? I have collections and I'd rather not have to maintain two collections of them. (one where I'd like to keep them, one where that images visualization wants them)

DVD playback:  Even when in WinDVD I'm capable of chapter-forward'ing past FBI warnings and whatnot, MC's DVD navigation doesn't seem to work properly. I'm guessing that functionality doesn't come from the decoder. regardless, I hope there's been improvement.

9) 'fast forward' option in DVDs or video playback?


I hope my questions can be answered by the informed community, and concens addressed by the developers.  This software seems to have the potential to be exactly what I've been looking for without having to use linux, and I can only hope it can be rounded out to suit my needs perfectly.

[modelmaker]

6) MC only "remembers" if you move, delete or add file from within MC. If you go to My Computer in the MC tree, you can drag and drop, delete, rename etc. and MC's database will update itself. There are other functions available thru MC's Library Tools.

However MC does not track what you do outside. If you change things in Windows, MC won't know, except that it can't find the file anymore.

[WereTiger]

Since virtually all of my file manipulation is done on other systems via filesharing with read-only access, that kinda limits my using MC to do organization.

[modelmaker]

There is a lot of functionality in MC. I use one of the older versions of MC, so I'm not up on all the latest capabillities. I believe MC can do most of what you  asked in your first post. JRiver is constantly improving MC(see MC 11 beta - it's quite stable). This program does more than any other program of this type out there. Of course no one program can please everyone all the time, but they certainly try here.

Hopefully someone with some experience in the other areas you inquired about will pipe up soon (altho it has been a bit quite here the last couple of days).

For my part, I generally manipulate most of my files outside of MC, recording LPs w/Magix' AudioCleaningLab, photoshop for photos, etc. Then import everything into MC for quick access and tagging etc.

You can create audio/video(or image) playlists to answer one of your questions. You should also check out MC's plugin page and KingSparta's plugin website as well http://www.spartasoft.com/.

[WereTiger]

I've been looking at MythTV as an alternative, but I'd really miss my Winamp5 Internet TV (MythTV is linux based).

I came within a click of buying Media Center 11 today, but decided to try the trial version of MC 11 first instead.  I have to say it's a very nice improvement, but it doesn't really address any of the problems/issues I was wondering about.

Would MC11 integrate with my RCA Lyra 2840? Maybe upgrading my PC will get DVDs to play smoothly in MC. (they just BARELY play smoothly in WinDVD now) 

Maybe the developers will eventually integrate Directory Content Monitoring, Shoutcast support, Better TV Listings (using the web to get Yahoo listings just BARELY cuts it) and point and the ability to record shows on the fly (think PVR style).  but that's 4 really important features to me. If they're on the roadmap, wonderful.  If their Plugin support would allow for integration to that level maybe I'd write them myself, but from what I've seen it doesn't seem to.

All I can do now is hope.

[JimH]

PVR on the fly?

If you hit the pause button in MC, it begins recording TV.  You can then fast forward, reverse, etc.  Is that what you mean?

[WereTiger]

I'm sorry, I meant to say 'schedule the recording of shows on the fly'
As in, looking at a programming grid being able to just right click on a show and choose to record it (or record it on a weekly re-occuring basis), etc.