Windows 8 - Does NPVR work?

[Tinker]

I am looking at buying a new PC for my server and I found a good deal for a great machine but it comes with Windows 8. I don't normally use this machine to watch anything but it will do all my recording. Will it be a problem if I install NPVR on windows 8? I have seen some threads that talk about problems with windows 8 but there are also threads about problems on windows 7 etc. I am wondering if anyone is running NPVR on windows 8 successfully. My old rig is XP and runs great. Windows 8 is so different I would expect there to be problems. I understand that Windows 8 is not officially supported but can anyone help clarify this?

Thanks!

[pcostanza]

I've got NPVR running on 2 systems with W8 and have had no problems. Personally, I neither hate it or love it but I wouldn't suggest to most to upgrade from 7 to 8 but when someone wans a new computer, I say, go for it!
Windows 8, for me, boots MUCH, MUCH faster, has hardly crashed (and that was do to a bad driver) and once you get use to Metro with the help of free or cheap add-ons, it's not bad. The update later this year is supposed to be even better.
I've only had one program miss recording in the last 8 months and I don't believe it was the fault of NPVR.

[Lao Pan]

Short answer -Yes

Long answer - Sub is doing all his development work on W8 - I have used it since the day it was released (W8) and it works perfectly - it is more efficient than even W7 - only down side was I had to buy Start8 ($4.99) to get the start menu and boot to desktop back, and you need to supply a MPEG2 decoder to watch in W8 - SAF 6 gives a good one. You don't need the MCE addon unless you do stuff with US Cablecard.

[Kiwi]

I got no problems too.

As for getting the start menu back, u can install Classic Shell if u dun want to spend on Start8.

[Tinker]

Great! That is what I was wanting to hear. I am not really wanting to go to windows 8 but the PC that I am looking at has it and I don't want to have to purchase windows 7 and downgrade if I don't have to.

Thanks for your feedback!

[Tinker]

I got my new PC. Do I need the same prerequisites for windows 8 64 bit as is listed in the forum or is there something different that I need to do to set it up?

[Zeb]

The same, however some Windows 8 users report that they needed the full DirectX end-user runtimes rather than the web installer version at the usual link. Don't forget firewall exceptions if you're still using an HDHomeRun. If you will never watch TV or recordings on the server, then you could do without decoders. If the new PC came with Cyberlink software, then you might be able to borrow their excellent MPEG-2 decoder. Or you could install SAF6 "unlocked," which would give you not only MPEG-2 and AC3 decoders but also the full DirectX runtimes.

[Tinker]

I got almost everything setup and working. I am just wondering if I can import my channel data from my old setup. The problem is the old PC doesn't run. I have the hard drives and the data is all there but I can't export from the original install. Is there a way to get the channel mapping data from the raw files and import it into my new install? I had some strange things where the names didn't match up. It took me a long time to get it all setup right the first time. I would love to import this so I don't have to do it all manually again.

[mikeh49]

If you have the same version of NPVR on the old system as on the new, you should be able to just copy the config.xml and npvr.db3 files to the new system and have the identical setup. You might not even need the config file, as all the channel data is in the database file. This might not work/be more difficult if you have existing recordings and have changed their location, directory name, drive letter.

Someone more knowledgeable will probably weigh in, but in the absence of other info, I'd try the above. Save the config and db files on the new system so you can go back. I don't think you can break anything with this.

[Zeb]

My old rig is XP

Directory names will most definitely be different. I wouldn't try it myself.