[T800]

I've been using WMC as my primary PVR for ~7 years. I also use Remote Potato and XBMC to access my recordings throughout the house and over the net. Contrary to what has been said, WMC is not "dead" quite yet. It is included in the upgrade version of Windows 8 Pro and available as a download for Windows 8 Standard. My hope is that after the Windows 8 launch, WMC will get more development time. Being a separate app should allow for easier updates and hopefully more features. If this latest bit of bad news from the FCC is any indication, WMC will be the only viable CableCard backend after ALL channels are encrypted and copy-once:
FCC Allows Basic Cable Encryption

The one upshot to the news is that cable providers will be required to offer IPTV streams of encrypted content. Perhaps this will enable more backends access to content.

Ummm, no, it's Dead. It's being included as an Add-On sure, but it's never going to be developed beyond what it is, in fact it's been degraded backwards a little from the Windows 7 version.

It's a shame XBMC doesn't do PVR like Windows Media Center because it really is elegant and powerful. All this backend stuff the way it's done in XBMC is the reality of the situation but it sure is messy and confusing.

After setting up FortheRecord and NextPVR on my HTPC to try them it made me realise how much there is to a backend, I'm glad XBMC isn't taking the time to write their own.
It would take valuable time away from other things and would take much longer.