Of course, the cheapest way would have been Windows Media Center on my Surface Pro, but the guide is being discontinued (though not for 6 years) and the Tablo is easier. I can manage it with my universal remote, rather than switching to a computer app and a mouse.
What would you use for tuners on your Surface Pro? And I thought WMC was discontinued already.
I have a Hauppauge USB tuner attached to the Surface Pro. Works beautifully.
The one thing I havenāt figured out (and donāt need to figure out because I have the Tablo, but Iām curious if thereās a solution) is thisā¦
For some reason, the tuner needs to be plugged directly into the USB port, canāt be plugged into a port expander, and thereās just one USB port on the Surface Pro (at least on this first version, which is what I have). For serious recording, Iād want to attach a USB hard drive, but the USB port is in use. Thereās probably a way around this. I need to understand whatās special about plugging directly into the port.
My Windows 7 computer, which also has WMC, is attached to many external hard drives, but canāt broadcast to my television (itās a feature of Win8+ and requires special hardware). I can connect it through an HDMI cable, but itās inconvenient because I use this computer for other things (itās a work machine). The Surface Pro is little, dedicated to home theatre, and can broadcast wirelessly to the television.
Microsoft is not distributing WMC anymore, but itās still supporting existing installations on Win7 through Jan 2020, and Win 8.x through Jan 2023. This info is buried in one of their Win10 info pages.
Do you have a powered USB hub? Does it have itās own power supply? If not, it probably canāt provide enough power for the tuner hardware.
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I came back to post that exact thought. I strongly suspect this is the issue. The 3.0 hub I tried it with is unpowered. I have a powered 2.0 hub I can try as a test. Iāll go dig that out.
That was it, just needed a powered hub.