Now that we'll have multi-tuner functionality, maybe Ceton could work with MS enable live video channel previewing (or heaven forebid picture-in-picture) in MCE as MS does in U-Verse.

plastic101

Now that we'll have multi-tuner functionality, maybe Ceton could work with MS enable live video channel previewing (or heaven forebid picture-in-picture) in MCE as MS does in U-Verse.

I made this suggestion a while back on TGB right after seeing the U-verse stuff at a friend's place.  Its pretty neat, in the mini-guide on the U-verse DVR, it will give you a picture-in-picture of what is "now playing" on whatever channel you have highlighted.  I made a suggestion that they work on adding this...  If there's a free tuner avail, display the channel preview window...  That would be awesome!  I doubt we'll see this until Windows 8 though ... 

FSUGrad1999

I made this suggestion a while back on TGB right after seeing the U-verse stuff at a friend's place.  Its pretty neat, in the mini-guide on the U-verse DVR, it will give you a picture-in-picture of what is "now playing" on whatever channel you have highlighted.  I made a suggestion that they work on adding this...  If there's a free tuner avail, display the channel preview window...  That would be awesome!  I doubt we'll see this until Windows 8 though ... 

I recall there being some technical limitation that prevented the ehome team from implementing PIP- not just a hardware limitation. I believe they did mention (back in the days of Jessica and Windows Vista) that it was a highly requested feature, which means they were considering it. Of course, so are softsled, webguide, native guide logos, etc... yet here we are with only third party solutions for those types of things. P.S. What ever happened to the much more active ehome team involvement in these forums? Jessica made it a point to answer user questions like every day. At this point, the "Ask a Member of the Media Center Team" has just become another regularhelp forum. Too bad.

makryger

I recall there being some technical limitation that prevented the ehome team from implementing PIP- not just a hardware limitation. I believe they did mention (back in the days of Jessica and Windows Vista) that it was a highly requested feature, which means they were considering it. Of course, so are softsled, webguide, native guide logos, etc... yet here we are with only third party solutions for those types of things. P.S. What ever happened to the much more active ehome team involvement in these forums? Jessica made it a point to answer user questions like every day. At this point, the "Ask a Member of the Media Center Team" has just become another regularhelp forum. Too bad.

Yea I'm on this forum just about every weekday, and I'm tracking tons of threads.  I haven't seen anyone from Microsoft reply to ANYTHING in MONTHS.  You'd think they'd have more time to participate in the forums now that Win7 is released...  Yea, still really don't understand why they would by TGB if they don't plan to participate in any of the discussions with their fans/users/beta testers.

plastic101

Now that we'll have multi-tuner functionality, maybe Ceton could work with MS enable live video channel previewing (or heaven forebid picture-in-picture) in MCE as MS does in U-Verse.

 I think they will always need to give their big partners like AT&T  a one-up selling point over the average Joe.  Kind of like how you can do some stuff with RDP and Terminal services, but never as full featured as Citrix.

We're all catching up on thousands of hours of unwatched television from the last three years, and waiting for the Ceton tuner to arrive :)

There are Microsoft employees responding to questions, but generally a lot of the questions I'm seeing in areas I work in (Netflix, Internet TV, the top secret dinosaur cloning project) can be solved with the help of bing.com, or another forum member has already replied, so I wouldn't be adding much value in responding.

Thanks,

Jeff

Ha ha, thanks for the response, Jeff. By the way, dinosaur cloning projects tend to go horribly wrong. You have been warned.

 Quick question. I was talking to someone about making the switch to 7MC but they are with a cable company who flags everything except locals as copy once. Since extender's pretty much work by RDPing into the main pc with the tuners, would you be able to do the same thing from a second pc and still playback the flagged content?

Without any other extenders out there, I know this is one of the things that has cooled their excitement since they would be locked to one room or forced to record tons of duplicates which would mean they might as well stick with what they currently have.

 

brennok

 Quick question. I was talking to someone about making the switch to 7MC but they are with a cable company who flags everything except locals as copy once. Since extender's pretty much work by RDPing into the main pc with the tuners, would you be able to do the same thing from a second pc and still playback the flagged content?

No, that will not work.

Are there different types of cablecards? i.e. single, dual and quad stream cablecards? When I call Verizon to order a cablecard for the ceton card what should I ask for? Since the FIOS call center agent will probably not know what a Ceton card is can you give me any tips as to what type of cablecard to ask for? I imagine there are only a handful of companies that make cablecards. Is there a brand and model number I can ask for? Thanks, Vance

 You need an M-card, otherwise known as a Multistream card.

Just tell them you want a multistream or M card. There are only two types of CableCARD - Single stream or "S" card and Multistream or "M" card, with S cards not being widely available anymore. There are also a few manufacturers of them (SA/Cisco, Motorola, NDS and Evolution Broadband but you don't (and don't need to) have a choice in that matter. Don't bother them with details about what you're putting the card into unless they ask.

"Hello, customer service?....yes, I'd like to order an MCard for my T-7MC-iVo....cough"

brennok

 Quick question. I was talking to someone about making the switch to 7MC but they are with a cable company who flags everything except locals as copy once. Since extender's pretty much work by RDPing into the main pc with the tuners, would you be able to do the same thing from a second pc and still playback the flagged content?

 

The Media Center application blocks playing video over an RDP connection. 

Dan

VanceDailey

Are there different types of cablecards? i.e. single, dual and quad stream cablecards? When I call Verizon to order a cablecard for the ceton card what should I ask for? Since the FIOS call center agent will probably not know what a Ceton card is can you give me any tips as to what type of cablecard to ask for? I imagine there are only a handful of companies that make cablecards. Is there a brand and model number I can ask for? Thanks, Vance

 

 

I have Verizon FIOS and spent some time talking to my service tech the last time he came out.  He was extremely knowledgeable about Cable Card.  (Ironically he has Direct TV.)

Anyway he says that Verizon no longer purchases S-Cards so the likelihood is that you'll get an M-Card no matter what.  In fact, he says the S-Cards are in high demand as some older Tivos don't work with M-Cards.  He hoards the S-Cards for those Tivo customers and had about 10 of them in his truck.