Windows 7: Sharing Recordings on another PC

I run Media Center on two PC’s - one Windows 7 and the other Vista and would like to share OTA recordings on the Windows 7 with the Vista. Everything is correctly shared and mapped, i.e. recordings on the Windows 7 PC can be viewed and accessed on the Vista PC in My Computer. But when in Vista Media Center going to Settings – Recorder – More TV Locations – Add Folder to Watch, the mapped hdd with the recordings on the Windows 7 doesn’t even show up. Any suggestion on how show mapped hdd?

Media Center -> Tasks (Settings) -> Media Libraries -> check "recorded TV", NEXT -> Add folders to the library -> on this computer (includes mapped network drives)

Then navigate to the drive location (i.e. mapped drive letter) on the other computer where the "\Recorded TV" folder is for WMC on that machine, and where your OTA recordings from that machine get stored. Check that "\Recorded TV" folder, and NEXT.

I don't share folders between my two machines on the LAN. I simply map drive letters, with "full access" permission so that I can read/write to any drive (and by implication any folder/file on any drive) on either machine from either machine.

And I can also add that \"Recorded TV" folder on the recording Windows 7 machine to the "recorded TV" library on my second machine. That automatically makes all of the WMC recordings on the Windows 7 machine appear in the "recorded TV" list (which is actually the "recorded TV" Library) via WMC on my second machine.

I basically followed these steps (a little different in Vista) but still couldn't get Vista to recognize the wtv files. I converted a wtv file to dvr-ms and it then showed up on the Vista. It appears you can't watch wtv files recorded on Win 7 on Vista PC. Although, you can watch wtv files recorded on Vista on a Windows 7 PC.

Could absolutely be the explanation.

I believe WTV was invented with Windows 7, to support the DRM requirements associated with supporting cablecard-enabled tuners and delivering copy-protected content.

Any plans to upgrade your Vista machine to Windows 7?

Do you have the Fiji TV Pack installed on the Vista machine? That will change Vista to see .wtv files since that is the pack that added it. If not your can still download it.

While Vista worked fine, I liked the fact Windows 7 used less resources. So as soon as RC2 was released I haven't looked back.