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[MrHaugen]

Have you thought about testing MC16 on Win8 yet? The thought of having MC16 running on a Pad, using it as a full client on the go, or as a remote with Tremote is just jaw dropping. Just to mention a few uses for this OS with MC. They released a Developer build yesterday. This OS really looks like it will change almost everything to the better. I've watched the keynotes video, and I can just say "wooow". Here's a few things that really draw my interest.

- Backward compatibility
- App Store for Win8 apps and normal Win32 apps
- Metro and normal UI
- Superb touch capabilities
- Easier than ever to develop apps for both normal desktop and metro
- Support for a HUGE range of hardware
- Same OS for all devices
- Open and intuitive settings/file reset and complete Factory reset
- Built in Hyper-V support

That's just a few of the things I liked. iOS really got a competitor now imo :-)

[JimH]

We haven't tried it yet.

[glynor]

MC will, of course, be compatible with Windows 8 generically.

I am curious to see if J River might be planning to do an ARM ISA build of MC.

[JimH]

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1360312

[glynor]

Hopefully we get some Windows 8 ARM tablets that don't suck eventually.  I was REALLY hoping that the Samsung tablet they were going to give out at BUILD was going to be an ARM-based system.  Unfortunately, it was essentially a Macbook Air with a multitouch screen instead of a keyboard.  We already have those, frankly (and I'm sure the retail price on that thing if they were selling it would be closer to $1200 than $499).

I know they're planning more, but when?  If we're looking at Holidays 2012 before we get competitive Windows 8 tablets, it might be a very different playing field than what we have now, and they might have a lot more trouble getting traction.

[MrHaugen]

It'll probably take a while before we see good ARM tablets that can run Win8. But it will come. And until it does, it would be cool to look at the possibilities for MC on the platform

One really cool thing would be a simplified client (launched from the Metro UI) to get streaming content from your server. Simply launching Theater View from the Metro UI would work here. Though the views might have to undergo some work to make it more touch friendly? I've not tried MC on a touch screen yet, so please correct me if I'm wrong here.

[sillibil]

JRiver MC runs on Win 8 I tried it. No problems.
Installing Win 8 on a seperate HDD, you should  disconnect all other HDD's for your safety of not losing your current O.S.

[glynor]

Hmmm... Doesn't look good for us to get any good Windows 8 ARM devices anytime soon.  Joanna Stern just posted a quick article over at This Is My Next investigating all she could learn about ARM tablets at Build.

While the x86 version of the Windows 8 Developer Preview was released last night and attendees were given Intel Core i5-powered tablets, there’s been very few public demos of the new OS on ARM devices here at Build. And while we’d love to say that’s changing today, it seems all the Win 8 ARM devices are being guarded quite closely. Reference design tablets running the Developer Preview from Nvidia, TI, and Qualcomm are now on display at the show, but sadly, most of them are behind glass with just the Start screen showing.

She goes on to talk about basically three different tablets "on display" (if you can call it that) at Build.  However, none of these three was actually a "product".  All three were reference designs from ARM chipmakers (one from Nvidia, one from Qualcomm, and one from TI).  And, worse, the only one even remotely "working" was the Qualcomm one.  The other two were only shown under glass, just showing a static display of the Start Screen.  She was able to get a very short demo of the Qualcomm one, but they couldn't touch the screen themselves, couldn't take video, and didn't really look at any apps of any kind other than flipping around the Start Screen and desktop.

This is almost certainly not a good sign if you were hoping for a competent ARM tablet to ship close to the launch of Win8.  These aren't consumer products.  These are reference designs, that would then be taken back by Samsung, LG, Lenovo, ASUS, and the rest and used to make actual consumer products.  If the reference designs are in this state (and if they're only being shown under glass, we can assume they really aren't "running" competently), then Asus and Samsung and the rest probably haven't really even started the process of designing their own.

That makes me think that Windows 8 ARM tablets might not be a viable contender until 2013.  That's a LONG time from now.

[newsposter]

In the media player world, I don't see anything in Windows 8 of interest to MC users.  No critical fixes, no lowered internal latencies, etc, etc.  Layers of more enforceable DRM yes.

If someone wants to build a Metro-like skin for MC, more power to them.  But that doesn't tie us to Windows 8.

Not much to see here folks.

[glynor]

I disagree, newsposter.  I really appreciate that Microsoft is not just aping Apple/Google and is really trying something original here.  It might not work, and I have serious concerns about timing, but there absolutely is some very interesting, and unique, work in here.

Anyway, I may have spoken too soon.  Or, someone from Nvidia saw Joanna's post and went out and found her on the floor.

[fitbrit]

Anyway, I may have spoken too soon.  Or, someone from Nvidia saw Joanna's post and went out and found her on the floor.

Did she pass out?

[newsposter]

With all of the programmatic changes needed to port applications to Windows 8, MSFT is going to have to offer something serious beyond the Metro visuals.

[Matt]

With all of the programmatic changes needed to port applications to Windows 8, MSFT is going to have to offer something serious beyond the Metro visuals.

From what I can tell, Metro UI would be a rewrite using XAML, the Silverlight / Windows Phone UI language.

Hopefully it's possible to write simple little Metro controller apps that talk with a full install of Media Center.  I'm imagining a Gizmo for Windows 8 Tablet (that might also run on Windows Phone).

[ThoBar]

From what I can tell, Metro UI would be a rewrite using XAML, the Silverlight / Windows Phone UI language.

Hopefully it's possible to write simple little Metro controller apps that talk with a full install of Media Center.  I'm imagining a Gizmo for Windows 8 Tablet (that might also run on Windows Phone).

My impression is that this is the case...

FWIW, I'm having trouble connecting to my MC Library Server.... but haven't had time to check settings yet. Anyone else having any success?

I think Metro is a good thing TBH. Some of the UI elements that have been introduced really quite useful, once you wrap your head around them.

Cheers
C

[MrHaugen]

Hopefully it's possible to write simple little Metro controller apps that talk with a full install of Media Center.  I'm imagining a Gizmo for Windows 8 Tablet (that might also run on Windows Phone).

I think it would. The language seems very intuitive and fast. Another positive thing is that such a app would probably work on a windows phone as well. At least after a few tweaks.

[wig]

Hopefully it's possible to write simple little Metro controller apps that talk with a full install of Media Center.  I'm imagining a Gizmo for Windows 8 Tablet (that might also run on Windows Phone).

Matt, not sure what your long-range plans are for Win8, but I hope you'll consider developing a full-featured client app for Win8 tablets. I've just started following the Win8 development and I'm pretty excited by the news, mainly as it relates to JRiver.

I accept that Gizmo lacks a lot of features; cross-platform development can be time consuming and expensive. But being offered just a Gizmo style app on a Windows platform tablet would be a major letdown.

Thanks.

[MrHaugen]

A full MC client for Metro would be pushing it a bit far. It would need to be a very stripped down MC. If most basic play functions could be added, and you could use local files as well as files on the server, this could very well be used for all users. It could bring much more interest to MC if it's done right and if it's free.

You'd need a good looking player which plays music, video and images. Play, stop, forward, backward, seek, shuffle, playing now, normal playlist, cover art. It would be a project for sure, but I think it would pay of in the future. Perhaps you could start by just integrating with the MC client first, and then perhaps look at the possibility of making it a standalone player so it can be used on all devices?

[wig]

A full MC client for Metro would be pushing it a bit far. It would need to be a very stripped down MC. If most basic play functions could be added, and you could use local files as well as files on the server, this could very well be used for all users. It could bring much more interest to MC if it's done right and if it's free.

The strength of JRiver for me is the incredible database. Any client that doesn't allow me to interact with the database has limited value to me.

Gizmo is nice for controlling playback, but I when I have keep going back to my PC to rate songs and edit my tags it really degrades the experience.

[MrHaugen]

Well... Just don't get your expectations to high. We can't even hope that JRiver will use all it's resources to produce a similar player just for the Metro UI. Other things would be down prioritized, which not many of us want. There has to be severe limitations. However, if the integration with the full client or a server could be done easily, I don't see why you could not use many of the powers of the library. Even without it, it should be possible to rate songs etc if the player writes tags to the media. If we ever hope to get a player for Metro I think it would be wise to limit this to playback first and for most. Even if it would be unusable for a few. I think that things like rating songs should be a part of the basics as well, but managing meta data.... That's a different story. That is really what Standard view is there for imo.

[wig]

Well... Just don't get your expectations to high. We can't even hope that JRiver will use all it's resources to produce a similar player just for the Metro UI. Other things would be down prioritized, which not many of us want.

Good advice, MrHaugen. I'm just stating where MY priorities lie. I know JRiver is working hard to increase video support, and I certainly can't fault them for reaching out to a new user base. I'm not really interested in .vob files or where subtitles might appear on my screen  , but the idea of untethering the JRiver listening experience from my desktop is extremely attractive.