Windows 8 Media Center to Abandon Broadcast TV Tuners?

[Reid Kistler]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://pcmusings.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!42B71883C19FDDAE!1005.entry?wa=wsignin1.0&sa=593621934' target='_blank'>http://pcmusings.spaces.live.com/bl....0&sa=593621934</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"A week or two ago, details of Windows 8 leaked.... The pages that have been posted on various sites are marked 'Windows 8 discussion, this is not a plan of record', so they must be taken as such and not necessarily as what might eventually appear in Windows 8. That said.... one page in particular caught my eye, titled 'Consuming TV in Windows'. The page states 'Our view is that broadcast TV for PCs via tuner cards will be replaced by Internet-sourced TV and broadc</em><em>ast TV via DLNA-connected tuners.'"</em><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1279059631.usr19541.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>It seems too early to get excited about Windows 8 yet, but already some writers appear to be up in arms about the possibility that the Windows 8 Media Center will <a href="http://www.zatznotfunny.com/2010-06/microsoft-windows-8-to-abandon-tv-tuners/" target="_blank">drop support for broadcast TV tuners</a> in favor of web-based television. Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows provides <a href="http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/win8_leak.asp?utm_source=twitterfeed&amp;utm_medium=twitter" target="_blank">"A First Peek"</a> at Windows 8 (apparently due in mid-2012), and does mention that it will likely mark a "move away from traditional TV tuners in Windows"; but that statement is open to interpretation, and is hardly in the category of "We will no longer support...!"&nbsp;Do you currently use a broadcast TV tuner in conjunction with Windows Media Center? And, if so, how worried are you about the possibility that eventually, maybe, some day Microsoft will no longer support that functionality?</p><p><em></em></p>

[Sven Johannsen]

Well, sure. If it's working lets get rid of it. Yes I use tuners in my PCs, three of them in fact. All pretty basic Win 7 machines, one in the family room, one in my Wife's office and one in my den. Each tuner is hooked to the cable and the little tuner box is integrated, so I can set up recordings. I can record my stuff, she can record hers and the family room is there for whomever. The recordings can be and are often sent to the Home Server, and whether ther or not, a recording can be watched at any other PC in the house. WHS even provides for the ability to transcode the recorded TV into a more portable format for transfer to a Zune or Win mobile phone. That transcode/transfer can even be automated by having the Zune or Media Player software watch the right directories and having auto playlists set up.

Yea I can get all this with PVRs from my cable company...right.

[freitasm]

I actually use a HDHomeRun for networked HDTV. Brilliant stuff - any PC connected to your network can receive HDTV broadcast so you don't need to install a physical card on your box - only drivers. Still broadcast TV anyway though.

That's how I use a Dell Zino HD as my HTPC in the lounge - very small, quiet box.

[whydidnt]

I use the broadcast tuner in my family room for many of the reasons Sven mentioned. I have to say Microsoft's move to IP based TV sounds like a horrible idea. Their current offerings in that area are pathetic. In areas such as this, much like we saw in music are always so far slanted to protect the content provider that it's too difficult or confusing for the end user and ends up getting ignored.

I can only hope that a decision not to support broadcast tuners means maybe they'll actually put some effort forth towards internet TV. My guess is we'll get a half-hearted solution and most of use will be using Google TV or something similar in a few years.

[ptyork]

I'm wondering whether y'all are reading this the same way I am. They're not saying that they are getting rid of broadcast TV support. They are saying that, instead of PCI or USB tuners, it is more likely that a new breed of networked tuners (ala HDHomeRun) will be addressable using DLNA. I don't see the big deal. I mean if they did a 100% non-MS thing like drop support for existing cards I could see being unhappy in a couple years. But this seems more of a statement of vision and support for DLNA tuners than lack of support for connected tuners. And CERTAINLY not a move to compete with the WDTV and Boxee Box in the internet TV only world.

'Course, I never thought MS could possibly release a mobile OS without multi-tasking or copy and paste, either...

[bwaibel]

@ptyork - yeah, I read it the same way. Get the tuner out of the PC and instead standardize dlna devices that plug into the broadcast system. I've been hoping they'd do something like that ever since I saw the hdhomerun for the first time.

On the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised at all if they dropped support for many of the in-box tuners that exist today. CableCard is, unfortunately, probably first on the chopping block.

The other thing I could see going wrong is them relying on Comcast and their CableLabs friends to build the dlna specs into their digital cable boxes and falling gloriously short of anything useful. No guide, no scheduling, no live tv, just a stupid box full of a terrible ui that you can barely coerce into recording anything at all. All we get is a castrated media center with a list of recordings at half definition because it transcodes the quality down for dlna endpoints. Soon I'll be hitting the channel up button to see what's on again, yee haw!

Sorry, that sounded pessimistic didn't it, I'm 3 years past 11 years of working there and I can't help but be skeptical that they'll ever execute even moderately well on anything ever again.

[jacklf]

We just recently started using HD Home Run with Media Center 7 + Hulu for watching TV. It would be a shame if hardware tuners weren't supported in WMC, but it seems early to judge those comments too harshly since it is also hard to imagine what the landscape of broadcast "TV" will look like 3-4 years from now. Everything seems to be changing pretty fast. Nearly every show we watched on Dish is now on Hulu, so moving to OTA+WMC is pretty easy. I wouldn't want to lose my local station broadcasts (news, weather, etc), but perhaps even those will have easily consumable digital internet streams for WMC in the future?