The Amulet Windows 8-compatible Beta Release is now available for download here (it runs fine on Windows 7 also):

• 32-bit: ftp.amuletdevices.com/files/Amulet_4.0.01.msi
• 64-bit: ftp.amuletdevices.com/files/Amulet_x64_4.0.01.msi

We're interested in any feedback you may have (there is already some discussion in the Windows 8 support thread here).

At the risk of stating the obvious, you must have Media Center installed on Windows 8 before installing this release; it is not included in the base operating system but must be purchased separately from Microsoft.

Here is a summary of changes since the previous releases, Beta 3.00.01, Beta 2.18.14, Beta 2.18.16 and Beta 2.18.17:

• Fix: Running Scanner from a Custom command using RUNBACK no longer causes an exception
• Fix: Talker's Volume slider adjustment can no longer stick at '0' on Windows 7/8
• YouTube Search functionality has been removed, due to YouTube switching to a non-compatible
  player that Amulet can't drive remotely
• Fix: FIND SONG no longer causes an exception with certain types of search results
• Fix: DBGView startup now works correctly, regardless of the DebugView version
• Fix: EPG scanner no longer causes an exception on systems with TV enabled but no channels
• Fix: SHOW <genre> FILMS now correctly goes to the MyMovies movies page when appropriate;
  previously, only SHOW <genre> MOVIES did this.
• Fix: Movies or TV shows with parenthesis immediately after the word 'the' no longer cause
  an exception
• Fix: Assorted 64-bit issues that were causing launch issues on Windows 8
• Fix: '&' in movie titles no longer causes speech recognition issues
• Fix: Disabling MonitorTV setting in Amulet.ini no longer disables nightly media scan
• Fix: Amulet.Scanner and Amulet.Monitor now run correctly on Windows 8
• Fix: Amulet plug-in no longer tries to read MyMovies genre names when MyMovies is not
  installed (was generating a benign exception)
• New: Settings TV Guide page now allows monitoring of TV recordings to be turned off (can
  reduce incidence of 0x046B failures on systems with a lot of TV activity)
• New: configurable setting MyMoviesPlayAction controls how playback of MyMovies
  titles is achieved. The default is MyMoviesPlayer, which uses the MyMovies internal
  webservice to launch playback of selected titles; if this fails (e.g. due to
  insufficient account credits), then playback is automatically started with the
  Amulet player instead. Selecting MyMoviesDetails will launch the MyMovies app
  with the selected movie's information displayed - you can then say OK if you want
  to go ahead and play the movie. AmuletPlayer always uses the built-in Amulet player,
  which can be a little faster if you use MyMovies but do not have 2500 points on your
  account (i.e. the MyMovies player will always fail). Note that the Amulet player does
  not natively support Blu-ray or HD-DVD content.

The x64 version states "can only be installed on windows 7" when run under 8.1

Spitefulgod wrote: Hi,

This appears to be the result of an over-zealous version check. It will be fixed for the next release, but in the meantime, the easiest work-around is to select properties for the installer and set the Compatibility mode to Windows 7. Then the installer should run fine.

Thanks,

Eddy

The only option available in 8.1 is "run as previous version", which doesn't work, neither does running as admin or running the compatability wizard which is supposed to disable version check but that fails also. I'll wait for a new version to be released