[Win7Fan]

Well, I am new to Kodi. It seems to be a good program, and I still have far to go in understanding all of its capabilities. For example, I am not sure if it can see Ceton cable card tuners in Win10. If it can, that would be spectacular. If that is the case, then why has no one developed a WMC-like skin. People do not like learning curves. Once someone has used a program like WMC for years to run their home theater, they will be extremely hesitant to switch to a new interface. OTOH, if Kodi had a skin that looked just like WMC and could see Ceton cable tuners in Win10, lots and lots and lots of home theater folks would jump on board. All of the people still using Win7 boxes to run their home theater would love to upgrade to a Win10/Kodi, cable card tuning, WMC interface. Thoughts?

[Win7Fan]

I currently use Kodi as an extender for my laptop and can play/record using it as an extender, but it needs a Win7 box as a server. It plays all of the programs recorded on WMC. Is there some problem using Kodi as a stand alone (no Win7/WMC box) program to play LIVE TV and record? Thanks for any suggestions.

[Gobberwart]

The short answer is that kodi is not designed to perform that function.

[PatK]

lots and lots and lots of home theater folks would jump on board. "Thoughts?"

Kodi is a free open source community driven project, coded and maintained by many talented people. As such, the number of users is not a priority, design, direction, and function, are left to those who contribute in some fashion. If your cable card tuner is supported, great Devices (wiki) Live TV and PVR/DVR Setup Guide (wiki) but in all probability, the cable people like to encrypt and monopolize their signal. There is a lot of skins, each having different views, some might resemble MC to some extent, (I used it many moons ago) I haven't tried them all out, skinners continue to contribute creations faster than I can test, let us say that Kodi default Estuary is unique and garners the teams largest effort of support while the popularity of customizing skins has created many threads in this fascinating forum.

people still using Win7 boxes to run their home theater

I'm sure you are aware that MS is curtailing support for windows 7 on Jan 20th, but for those dedicated home theatre enthusiasts it's not the end of the world. Everyone floats their own boat.

[da-anda]

I currently use Kodi as an extender for my laptop and can play/record using it as an extender, but it needs a Win7 box as a server. It plays all of the programs recorded on WMC. Is there some problem using Kodi as a stand alone (no Win7/WMC box) program to play LIVE TV and record? Thanks for any suggestions.

since KODI does support multiple PVR backends, chances are good that one of these backends does support your tuner card. Have a look at our wiki for a guide on how to setup PVR with KODI and an overview of PVR backends we currently have client add-ons for:
https://kodi.wiki/view/PVR

[Win7Fan]

I currently use Kodi as an extender for my laptop and can play/record using it as an extender, but it needs a Win7 box as a server. It plays all of the programs recorded on WMC. Is there some problem using Kodi as a stand alone (no Win7/WMC box) program to play LIVE TV and record? Thanks for any suggestions.

since KODI does support multiple PVR backends, chances are good that one of these backends does support your tuner card. Have a look at our wiki for a guide on how to setup PVR with KODI and an overview of PVR backends we currently have client add-ons for:
https://kodi.wiki/view/PVR 

So, before I go on my quest, are you saying there are backends that will do the same thing WMC can do - Record LIVE TV from all of my cable channels? Thanks for your comments.

[jjd-uk]

Depends if the cable services have DRM as I don't believe any of the PVR backends can decode services with DRM.

There is a WMC PVR client that hooks into WMC so perhaps ask on this forum as a first point of call https://forum.kodi.tv/forumdisplay.php?fid=205

[the_other_guy]

backends that will do the same thing WMC can do a windows mediacenter theme i have done one before it looks out of place on kodi and all images are copyrighted ehres\.rsrc\RCDATA

this will come down to your hardware having win10 drivers
https://www.nextpvr.com/
Devices
Supports most devices. DVB, ATSC, QAM, DMB-T, Analog, SAT>IP, HDPVR, and Copy-Freely CableCard