We’ve finally received the news that we’ve expected for years but had hoped wouldn’t come. It’s now being reported by Ed Bott of ZDNet, and we can confirm, that Windows Media Center will not be available in Windows 10. To be clear, that means it won’t be available at all. There won’t be any SKUs that include it, and you won’t be able to purchase it as a separate add-on (like you can with Windows 8.1.)
While this marks the end of an era, we’re not calling it the death of Windows Media Center. Sure, it won’t be available in the next version of Windows, but that doesn’t mean that current installations will cease functioning. If you have a Windows 7 or Windows 8.x Media Center computer setup, it will continue to work the way it has for years. That being said, it’s important to know that if you were to upgrade an existing Windows Media Center machine to Windows 10 you will lose Media Center. On the flip side, why would you even want to upgrade a perfectly functioning HTPC? Many Media Center users are still using Windows 7 as their HTPC’s base operating system, because Windows 8 offered few compelling reasons to upgrade an HTPC.
So if Windows Media Center isn’t dead, when will it be? We’ve said for years that we’re going to keep on using Media Center until something that is far more compelling becomes available or until Microsoft stops providing electronic program guide data. After all, Media Center wouldn’t be a very useful DVR solution without TV listings. While we don’t have any inside information to rely on, we don’t expect that Microsoft will stop providing that guide data anytime soon. If we had to put money on it, we’d guess that the Xbox OneGuide uses the exact same data feed. We’re assuming that as long as the Xbox One is getting guide data that Windows Media Center users will too.
What’s Next?
So what should you do? Is now the right time to abandon Windows Media Center? As with most difficult questions, that depends. If you’re using the TV functionality, and you’re using a CableCARD tuner with copy-protected channels, you don’t have many options. Windows Media Center is still the only PC-based DVR solution to support copy-protected CableCARD usage. If you fit into this category, your only other options are to use your cable provider’s DVR or switch to TiVo. SiliconDust’s forthcoming HDHomeRun DVR is hoping to support copy-protected content too, but we’ll most likely be waiting a few months before we know for sure.
If your TV viewing is limited to over-the-air content, then you actually have a lot of options. Again, TiVo has an offering. ChannelMaster and Tablo also have interesting products for those seeking over-the-air service. If you’d like to stay in the Microsoft camp, you can even use the Xbox One to view over-the-air TV, but you can’t use it to record. We’re hoping that will change soon.
So while there are obviously other options on the market for fans of Windows Media Center, we don’t feel that any of them offer the total solution that Media Center does. There’s no doubt that many have already moved away from Windows Media Center. It’s definitely hard to see Windows Media Center taking one more step toward extinction. But as long as Microsoft keeps the guide data flowing, we’ll keep talking about it and writing about it to support its enthusiastic community of users. And many of us at the Digital Media Zone will continue to use it in our homes and with our families.
“we’re going to keep on using Media Center until something that is far more compelling becomes available”
Something more compelling has come along, TiVo Roamio. It literally does everything I ever wanted Media Center to do.
But I agree, Media Center will be dead when MS stops providing guide data.
The Roamio has terrible soft focus for interlaced cable content.
Regards the guide, that’s when third party guide scrapers come in to play.
Nothing is over until the fat lady sings.
Have to agree with the above poster. I wrote in a couple months ago about switching from media center to tivo. Tivo is just a better DVR system. So glad I move onto tivo when i did.
Its only a matter of time before the guide data stops updating. Every time when you see guide data not updating, as that has happened in the past. It will have people worring that this is it….
The really sad part of this, still today it’s the product that EVERY home theater PC based software is compared to, it IS the reference standard in this type of software. This still after 5-6 years after it was released ? Impressive.
Sure there is a lot of HTPC based software out there but, nothing else does it simple, or easy to use/setup. No other product RIGHT NOW, does DRM protected channels off cablecards, it’s the only one that has cablecard certification.
Tivo and other DVRs come with a monthly fee to use, WMC’s guide data is free. Then you have the other features of WMC, the custom interface, the movie, Music, video libraries, something you CANT get in a Tivo or other DVRs.
Then you have the aspect of exenders using Xbox 360s, Try to see how much it would cost you per month for 5+ TVs all viewing the same content with a shared guide and up to 12 tuners so unlimited recording and tuner availability. IS there even a 3rd party option that could do this today ?
Microsoft fucked up here with this product (no other way to put it). They never really promoted it (2-3 vista commercials was all I know about and even in that it was 2-3 seconds of the Vista ad), no marketing, and the only thing that was said “You can watch TV on your PC” They don’t do anything with it, it gets a loyal fan base for about 6-10% of windows(according to MS) users (and still numbers aside that is still a lot of people). And they just kill it off…
So, I am a Windows Phone user, so on that logic I should get a different phone, as WP only has about 2-5 to 4% of the market share. As WMC users were about 6 – 10% of users, that means WP days are numbered as they are going to kill it off.
If MS’s numbers were low, they should of tried to market it as a specialty product before killing off the eHome team, a separate product, always updated on newer tech and sold for $200+, to see if it did well instead of being a built in part of Windows..even if it had a yearly fee for it.
If you wanted to Hang around, there is a 3rd party hack to add in guide data from other sources. And that it comes as an option for Windows 8, it should be around 5+ years anyway still working with guide data.
This was/is truly one of the best applications that Microsoft has made and another example of MS not doing things correct.
I was a Media Center MVP for 2010 and 2011. I am also a Certified WMC installer from Microsoft.
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“It literally does everything I ever wanted Media Center to do.”
Just curious, do you use the Tivo to watch local content (ie the way you use Plex/Emby/Video libraries on an HTPC)? Until Plex arrives on Tivo I can’t see going that route.
Nothing will ever replace MCE. So far ahead of the curve yet given so little love by Microsoft. Satya wants us to “Love” Windows 10 but they have completely ignore the people who are infatuated with MCE. Everyone who has ever seen or used it loves it. Whatever the 2% of the 6% of us “DVD” users find to “replace” MCE will never compare and will sadly be a step down for all of us….
I thought Microsoft’s vision was the “Home-Connected-PC”…a central point of interface for all media, all information, and IOT-Home controls?! Did they just give up half way there? I guess I was an “early-adopter”. Way-back, I started with a similar configuration when my tuner was an ATI Video-ISA capture card connected to a 14″ monitor, and a 36″ tube TV, and I had to use ATI’s software. It did scan and record NTSC cable TV successfully. Then there was XPWMCE! A dream come true. I now have one fast WM7PC at a desk in my den, connected to a 70″ Sharp TV above the desk, and a 23″ monitor sitting on the desk. There are no more BSDs and VXD “issues” with Windows 7; we have recording HDTV over the air, (or a cable-card feeding several USB tuners), and YES, I’m sitting in my easy-chair writing this post on that 70″; thinking…I can’t believe Microsoft is so against marketing their own product, progressing forward to dominate the PVR, HTPC, and IOT industries. I can’t believe a dumbass at M$ is going to push me into some variant of Linux! Is setting up a Linux based HTPC a giant pain in the ass? Sure it is, but it’s no more of a pain than doing the same thing on Windows without Media Center.:
1. Install Kodi.
2. Learn Kodi doesn’t have the ability to tune TV, and needs NextPVR.
3. Install NextPVR.
4. Learn NextPVR needs some sort of HomeRun program.
5. Learn that HomeRun needs some other program…
6. Fucking give up, and curse Microsoft at the top of my God-Damned lungs!
I understand being upset about Microsoft not continuing to improve Windows Media Center, but why do you feel the need to go through all that work to switch to a lesser solution? Windows Media Center will most likely continue to work through the support lifecycle of Windows 7 and 8.1, so you’ve got at least another five years there.
I’m a fat-old-family-man (FOFAM), so that 5 years will blink by in no-time 🙂 Do you think Microsoft will change their mind some time during that 5 years (in the past they’ve been well known to stupidly end life cycles of excellent software…I’m still using FrontPage2003)?
Now, I realize that’s plenty of time for either Myth, Kodi, or some other developer to pull their shit together and produce a comparable “end-to-end” solution, but how long have they had to do this already? My CFO (who uses “only Linux” at his home), still has to tweak his “solution” to steal / use the programming data feed from M$!
Uhmmmm, don’t you have to pay like 15 bucks a month for TiVo? How is it is compelling to give up something that is free and pay 15 bucks a month for the same thing????
Depends what it’s worth to you. I use TiVo in addition to Media Center—Media Center for my personal favorite TV recordings and local content while TiVo hosts household recorded TV. TiVo really is good now, and it’s certainly a better alternative to any cable provider’s offering.
If you get a good deal on the lifetime updates for the device, then it is between the channel master 16gb that you need an external drive and the 1tb option. And the Tivo does 4 shows at once.