Upgrade to WIN10 or nah?

[davestr]

I have Nextpvr running quite happily with an older dual core AMD HTPC build on windows 7.
I have both an HDHomerun Prime with cablecard on Comcast, and an HDHomerun Extend, which both are working fine with Nextpvr.

If I upgrade to Windows 10 and lose WMC, will I end up with crippled HDHomerun Prime cablecard usage?
Does DRM get hosed when losing WMC or just codecs?
I dont want to lose the ability to record and view the HD channels (non premium) on Comcast if I upgrade.

I anticipate eventually rebuilding the HTPC in the next couple years, but right now its running fine.

Should I stay put on Win7 and skip the free upgrade?

[mikeh49]

I would stay on Win7, in my case it's working fine and I use the MS video decoder. If you currently use WMC for DRM channels, then you will definitely lose that. NPVR can't use DRM channels, so if you're only using NPVR now, that would not change.

So, two things in 7 not in 10: WMC can record DRM channels; MS video decoder works in NPVR for MPEG2 video.

[pcostanza]

I'm happy with W10 but I see no reason to jump unless you have an older computer. I'm not sure how long Microsoft will support WMC but it'll likely be for years. And, in my opinion, TV will be almost all thru the internet in a few years anyway so it won't matter what you're using to watch it. TV's already have built in everything so much of what we use now to watch tv will be gone in 5 years.

[davestr]

Well, I don't have any pay channels such as HBO or anything like that, but I do pay for HD channels beyond the standard base lineup.
So, I am assuming all of my HD channels are just marked with copy once flags, and that is how Nextpvr is able to record these?

I would stay on Win7, in my case it's working fine and I use the MS video decoder. If you currently use WMC for DRM channels, then you will definitely lose that. NPVR can't use DRM channels, so if you're only using NPVR now, that would not change.

So, two things in 7 not in 10: WMC can record DRM channels; MS video decoder works in NPVR for MPEG2 video.

[sub]

So, I am assuming all of my HD channels are just marked with copy once flags, and that is how Nextpvr is able to record these?

NextPVR can record/watch all the channels marked 'copy-freely'. If you can watch those channels today in Win7 using NextPVR, then you'll still be able to watch them in Win10.

Which channels are marked copy-freely varies cable companies. You could try watching your channel, then view the channel status info in the HDHomeRun tools, and it'll show you what copy protection that channel is flagged for.

[davestr]

Thanks Sub,

I'll try that and double check the channels.
Didn't know if WMC provided anything NextPVR needed for the Hdhomerun Prime cablecard to work or not.
I vaguely remember running a WMC tuning assistant or something after first installing the prime, but that was probably just for WMC, which I really never directly used.

NextPVR can record/watch all the channels marked 'copy-freely'. If you can watch those channels today in Win7 using NextPVR, then you'll still be able to watch them in Win10.

Which channels are marked copy-freely varies cable companies. You could try watching your channel, then view the channel status info in the HDHomeRun tools, and it'll show you what copy protection that channel is flagged for.

[sub]

Didn't know if WMC provided anything NextPVR needed for the Hdhomerun Prime cablecard to work or not.

No it doesn't. Those channels you can currently watch in NextPVR with Win7 will still be available to you in Win10.

[episode10]

I have Nextpvr running quite happily with an older dual core AMD HTPC build on windows 7.
I have both an HDHomerun Prime with cablecard on Comcast, and an HDHomerun Extend, which both are working fine with Nextpvr.

If I upgrade to Windows 10 and lose WMC, will I end up with crippled HDHomerun Prime cablecard usage?
Does DRM get hosed when losing WMC or just codecs?
I dont want to lose the ability to record and view the HD channels (non premium) on Comcast if I upgrade.

I anticipate eventually rebuilding the HTPC in the next couple years, but right now its running fine.

Should I stay put on Win7 and skip the free upgrade?

I did in May as I figured better to do while it's free, would hate to have found WMC was dumped or Win7 was no longer supported and I had to upgrade to it anyway.

First thing to do is to make an image of your system, Macrium or one of the other free system imaging programs are your first step, if you find it was not what you wanted, you can go back to Win7, another option is use a different HDD for for testing Win 10, install win7 or Win8 and upgrade from that, many are finding upgrading a complete chore, took me 3 weeks and in the end I re-installed Win7, did all necessary updates then upgraded from there, if you try to do a upgrade, turn off screen saver and stop your system from using any power saving, those systems kicking in stuff up the upgrade (how stupid is that!?) the WMC setup available that is out there that some people have coded up to install on Win10 became flakey for me very quickly, it's not uninstallable except you manually stop all services, stop them from starting during boot then delete all associated files. give Win10 a go but make sure you have the option of going back to what you have.

[episode10]

I'll add that Win10 has been far more responsive and solved several minor problems I was having, I was stuck using 32bit OS as Videoredo would not work in 64bit, meaning some of my ram was not addressable, that same program must have had memory leaks in win7 as I'd need to close it after each use and start a new episode of it, it was often sluggish not only for VR but in other areas also, these problems were present from the beginning and after much experimentation and forum lurking found I was stuck with them, all gone in Win10 64bit, that said, if your rig is doing what you ask, no reason to change anything.