Program Cache in WMC?

[jeam]

Hello,

This is my first post here.

We would like to get rid of the cable company DVR and rely on Windows 7 Media Center for our cable watching and recording needs. We’re hoping that it will be more reliable than the DVR, which has a way of missing scheduled recordings, leaping to the end of recorded shows when we hit fast forward (ruining the ending for us), and assorted other annoyances.

The big question I have, though, and which may have a big effect on my wife’s reaction to WMC, is whether (as with the DVR) there’s any way to start watching a channel and then, some time later, record everything that came on beginning from the point when you switched to that channel. She uses this DVR feature pretty often — she’ll be browsing through the channels, leave something on that looks interesting, and after a few minutes decide to jump back a few clicks to go over something that was said before, or to call me over and show me what she found.

I haven’t been able to determine for sure if it’s possible with WMC to do what I just described. Is that possible, and if not, then is there any update, add-on, plug-in, or app that will enable such a feature in WMC?

Thanks very much.

 

[Aaron Ledger]

Unfortunately, this feature doesn’t exist in WMC.

Many moons ago when I had Dish Network, their DVR did have this feature and at the time, my wife and I sometimes found it useful. Over time though, the feature became much less useful to the point that my wife and I never needed it because we completely transformed our viewing from a world of live TV (and commercials) to one where everything is recorded prior to viewing.

Perhaps you can overlook this deficiency in favor of all the other functionality that WMC will give you over the terrible experience you currently suffer from with the cable DVR.

[jeam]

Thanks for the scoop. That’s too bad. We’ll see if all the other (and properly working) features in WMC will more than make up for the lack of a program cache… at least in my wife’s eyes. She IS looking forward to having virtually unlimited program storage space.

Would it be right to say that no third-party software exists to enable a program cache in WMC? How about other (non-WMC) software to watch cable through a PC — is there any that includes this feature?

Thanks again.

 

[Aaron Ledger]

There are no third-party add-ins that I am aware of which will bring that functionality to WMC.

The feature may exist in other software packages. How are you planning to bring TV content into the HTPC? If it is via a DCT (CableCARD tuner) and your cable provider marks channels as Copy Once, you are currently limited to WMC for those.

[jeam]

Hi,

Yes, the plan is to use an InfiniTV 4-tuner card in a PC. The cable provider is Comcast — I guess we’ll find out soon whether they’re doing Copy Once here.

Thanks for the information.

 

[Aaron Ledger]

From what I understand, most Comcast markets are Copy Freely on everything but premiums such as HBO. This would give you flexibility to choose different software. Unfortunately, SageTV is no longer an option for new users. You could look at MythTV or a variant if you are comfortable with Linux. There are some people who have been working on getting the InfiniTV to work in Linux.

[jeam]

It’s good to know that we may not be facing copying issues on Comcast, that’ll be a bit of a plus. We don’t do premium channels, so copying restrictions might not affect our situation.

Out of curiosity, this program cache feature we’ve been talking about — is that something that a good programmer could develop on his own as a WMC add-on/plug-in, or is it something that would really need to be part of the standard “out of the box” WMC code?

 

[volfan6415]

Jeam – just wanted to clarify: are you 1: wanting to be able to click record and have WMC record the entire program that you are viewing from the moment you started watching or 2: are you simply curious if WMC will let you pause/rewind live TV.

WMC does have a live TV buffer that is built in (default is 30 min however this can be changed by a reg hack). This would I think let you do what you want to do. That is start watching a program and then rewind it some to rewatch what was just aired.

What aaron is referring to is the inability for WMC to create a recording from the live TV buffer. That is to start watching a show and then press record and have WMC record everthing to recorded TV from the moment you begin watching. WMC will only record from the moment you press record, it discards the part that was already recorded to the live TV buffer.

Just wanted to make sure that we were talking about the same thing…

[jeam]

Zach,

Interesting that you mention that. I guess that in our home we haven’t drawn a clear distinction between the two ideas, because we do some of each and either way we’re relying on that cache or buffer to “make it so.”

But it sure helps knowing that, at least, we can rewind and review something (even if we can’t record that part). Just this morning my wife had CNN on for background while doing something else, and she heard a guest say something she wanted me to hear, so she called me over and rewound to that point so that I could hear it. If we can still do that in WMC (and it sounds like we can), then that’ll go a long way toward mitigating this drawback of WMC, while enjoying all of its pluses over the cable company DVR.

Thanks very much!

 

[Aaron Ledger]

Thanks for clarifying that Zach.

[Author]

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