VISTA WMC Stuck on Zap2it

Discuss Vista Media Center & XP Media Center Edition
dkrom

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#121

Post by dkrom » Tue Sep 01, 2015 1:01 am

Looks like someone figured out how to get an alternative guide working on the XP version which seems to act like a Vista machine with no TV Pack. I don't have Vista, but figured this might help some who can't get the TV pack on their Vista machine.

The post at http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 372#p94372 has some info you need, but the one with directions on setting up the alternative guide download is two posts below on the same page.

Cheers!

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#122

Post by Vistaar » Tue Sep 01, 2015 4:35 am

tillerr wrote:It's back. "The video decoder has either malfunctioned or is not installed. Please restart Windows Media Center or the computer." ATI TV Wonder USB tuner.
WMC uses Microsoft video decoders. TV Pack installs the Microsoft DTV/DVD Video Decoder, which is the same as Windows 7. The older Microsoft MPEG-2 Video Decoder is still there. I have NextPVR installed, which has decoder settings, and I can select and use either one; however WMC has no such settings, and TV Pack no doubt uses the newer decoder (or else why install it?). Is it possible that this only happens when you're watching channels with rather poor reception? In that case the decoder might be crashing, in which case restarting the PC is the best fix. But if it happens even when reception is excellent, and never happened before installing TV Pack, then my best guess is that the driver for your ATI tuner doesn't get along very well with the new decoder. I do not have an ATI tuner myself, nor am I getting any decoder errors watching QAM cable. While participating in NextPVR forums, I learned that ATI has been acquired by AMD, and they don't have very good support for "legacy" tuners. If you could post the full name of your specific model (it seems like nearly everything they made was "TV Wonder" something), then I could try to help you find a driver update that might solve the issue (although I'm very skeptical). Of course another possibility would be to try another tuner.

I'm very happy with TV Pack myself, and definitely will not be following dkrom's suggestion or attempting to provide any support for it. It would probably be much simpler to either (A) give up on WMC (e.g. NextPVR) or (B) give up on Vista (i.e. Windows 7).

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#123

Post by Vistaar » Tue Sep 01, 2015 5:07 am

mtreehugger wrote:(because if it's the same one I have, Hauppauge, then I give up on getting my guide up and running)
It's a free country and you can give up any time you like (in fact Microsoft would prefer that you do exactly that), but you might be relieved to know that my tuner is a Hauppauge HVR-1800 card and I haven't seen any decoder errors. (Hauppauge has made many models, and does a good job of keeping their drivers updated.) If you want to know whether or not you are subject to the same decoder errors as tillerr, then I would suggest watching a lot of live TV in WMC. I just don't know why you still don't have Rovi guide data when every other person who has installed TV Pack was able to get it. You might try complaining to that ISP that forces you to use Norton.

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#124

Post by dkrom » Tue Sep 01, 2015 10:58 am

dkrom wrote:Looks like someone figured out how to get an alternative guide working on the XP version which seems to act like a Vista machine with no TV Pack. I don't have Vista, but figured this might help some who can't get the TV pack on their Vista machine.

The post at http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 372#p94372 has some info you need, but the one with directions on setting up the alternative guide download is two posts below on the same page.

Cheers!

Another plus to this method is that it would allow you to keep the zap2it guide data which seems better than the Rovi guide data for now...

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#125

Post by Vistaar » Thu Sep 03, 2015 6:47 pm

Someone posted a YouTube video August 22 demonstrating that installing TV Pack allows Rovi data for Vista: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klGGQBxtKY4

The video states that running MediaCenterRecoveryTask is a very important step. I doubt that, since no one in this thread reported doing so; but mtreehugger and others might want to try it. In case the instructions aren't detailed enough, I made a screenshot for you. (Note: I did not press "Enter" because my WMC has been doing fine for more than a month, but let us know how it goes.) As always, if anyone running Vista without TV Pack is getting Rovi data, I hope you will be good enough to post and tell us about it!
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#126

Post by mtreehugger » Thu Sep 03, 2015 6:56 pm

Vistaar wrote:
mtreehugger wrote:(because if it's the same one I have, Hauppauge, then I give up on getting my guide up and running)
It's a free country and you can give up any time you like (in fact Microsoft would prefer that you do exactly that), but you might be relieved to know that my tuner is a Hauppauge HVR-1800 card and I haven't seen any decoder errors. (Hauppauge has made many models, and does a good job of keeping their drivers updated.) If you want to know whether or not you are subject to the same decoder errors as tillerr, then I would suggest watching a lot of live TV in WMC. I just don't know why you still don't have Rovi guide data when every other person who has installed TV Pack was able to get it. You might try complaining to that ISP that forces you to use Norton.
Thanks! Good to know. I haven't gotten green button e-mails lately so I've been away. Good to know about your Hauppauge. Danged if the manual program I set a few weeks back wasn't erased due to my latest attempt to get Rovi (Grrrrr.) but I digress. I find your idea that my ISP or Norton could be part of the problem intriguing. I might try re-installing all the junk with Norton turned off, but I may first try the suggestion at the top of this page.

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#127

Post by mtreehugger » Thu Sep 03, 2015 6:58 pm

Vistaar wrote:Someone posted a YouTube video August 22 demonstrating that installing TV Pack allows Rovi data for Vista: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klGGQBxtKY4

The video states that running MediaCenterRecoveryTask is a very important step. I doubt that, since no one in this thread reported doing so; but mtreehugger and others might want to try it. In case the instructions aren't detailed enough, I made a screenshot for you. (Note: I did not press "Enter" because my WMC has been doing fine for more than a month, but let us know how it goes.) As always, if anyone running Vista without TV Pack is getting Rovi data, I hope you will be good enough to post and tell us about it!
AWESOME! THANKS! will report back in a few days, after I've had a chance to do some stuff.

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#128

Post by tillerr » Thu Sep 03, 2015 7:00 pm

Vistaar wrote:
tillerr wrote:It's back. "The video decoder has either malfunctioned or is not installed. Please restart Windows Media Center or the computer." ATI TV Wonder USB tuner.
WMC uses Microsoft video decoders. TV Pack installs the Microsoft DTV/DVD Video Decoder, which is the same as Windows 7. The older Microsoft MPEG-2 Video Decoder is still there. I have NextPVR installed, which has decoder settings, and I can select and use either one; however WMC has no such settings, and TV Pack no doubt uses the newer decoder (or else why install it?). Is it possible that this only happens when you're watching channels with rather poor reception? In that case the decoder might be crashing, in which case restarting the PC is the best fix. But if it happens even when reception is excellent, and never happened before installing TV Pack, then my best guess is that the driver for your ATI tuner doesn't get along very well with the new decoder. I do not have an ATI tuner myself, nor am I getting any decoder errors watching QAM cable. While participating in NextPVR forums, I learned that ATI has been acquired by AMD, and they don't have very good support for "legacy" tuners. If you could post the full name of your specific model (it seems like nearly everything they made was "TV Wonder" something), then I could try to help you find a driver update that might solve the issue (although I'm very skeptical). Of course another possibility would be to try another tuner.

I'm very happy with TV Pack myself, and definitely will not be following dkrom's suggestion or attempting to provide any support for it. It would probably be much simpler to either (A) give up on WMC (e.g. NextPVR) or (B) give up on Vista (i.e. Windows 7).
Sorry I didn't respond sooner. The initial decoder error was not resolved by restarting WMC or the computer. I had to go through initial setup. When the error appeared again a day or two later a computer restart seemed to fix it. I had a recording set for Monday night that worked with no issues, as far as I can tell. I haven't used WMC or my Xbox 360 (I use this primarily to access WMC as an extender) since so I'm not sure if it crapped out again or not. I hope to test it out tonight and respond with specifics on my tuner. For the record the decoder error is an all or nothing error. All of my main broadcast channels have a great signal and when this error hits it takes down all channels, not just certain ones.

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#129

Post by mtreehugger » Thu Sep 03, 2015 7:02 pm

dkrom wrote:
dkrom wrote:Looks like someone figured out how to get an alternative guide working on the XP version which seems to act like a Vista machine with no TV Pack. I don't have Vista, but figured this might help some who can't get the TV pack on their Vista machine.

The post at http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 372#p94372 has some info you need, but the one with directions on setting up the alternative guide download is two posts below on the same page.

Cheers!

Another plus to this method is that it would allow you to keep the zap2it guide data which seems better than the Rovi guide data for now...
Thank you! Will try, if this looks like it will somehow restore my now-broken connection with Zap2it. Is it possible to explain how zap2it is still an option--I thought I heard MS killed it as far as WMC is concerned.

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#130

Post by dkrom » Thu Sep 03, 2015 9:18 pm

Zap2it is still around as a provider of guide listings, MS just decided to drop them as the provider for Media Center guide listings. The method posted uses a grabber called Zap2xml to get the good Zap2it data. Unfortunately my old XP machine died after 10 years of nonstop use so I can't test this method myself. I have upgraded to 7 and the new data is okay, but it does lack full descriptions for many shows (you never know who will be on Jimmy Fallon), there are only 3 movie categories that aren't even correct, and the pictures don't match the shows for many recordings. Although with this method you won't have any picture clips at all (again that may be a good thing since they seem to lag out my extenders anyway).

Good luck! If you try it let me know if you are successful. You might find some more help on the other thread since Vista without the TV pack seems to act just like XP Media Center.

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#131

Post by mtreehugger » Fri Sep 04, 2015 1:37 am

Vistaar wrote:Someone posted a YouTube video August 22 demonstrating that installing TV Pack allows Rovi data for Vista: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klGGQBxtKY4

The video states that running MediaCenterRecoveryTask is a very important step. I doubt that, since no one in this thread reported doing so; but mtreehugger and others might want to try it. In case the instructions aren't detailed enough, I made a screenshot for you. (Note: I did not press "Enter" because my WMC has been doing fine for more than a month, but let us know how it goes.) As always, if anyone running Vista without TV Pack is getting Rovi data, I hope you will be good enough to post and tell us about it!
Vistaar, I tried this suggestion just now but it didn't work. For the record, running mcupdate from "the ehome directory" was actually suggested earlier in this thread, but apparently with some extensions. I have 2 ehome directories: one in local and one in roaming. I tried it back then in both and it didn't work. Since this one said "Type ______.exe ..." I tried it too (today), but got the same results. "command unrecognized" in both ehome directories. Since I don't remember my DOS command extension syntax all that well, I typed the command exactly as shown in the video and also without the "-MediaCenterRecoveryTask" blurb, just to be 100% certain I'm not blowing it (I think it's just a descriptor that DOS ignores).

Oh well, onto the next suggestion one of these days real soon...

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#132

Post by Vistaar » Fri Sep 04, 2015 2:03 am

mtreehugger wrote:I have 2 ehome directories: one in local and one in roaming.
If you can't read my screenshot in post #125, try increasing browser ZOOM.

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#133

Post by mtreehugger » Fri Sep 04, 2015 6:53 pm

Vistaar wrote: If you can't read my screenshot in post #125, try increasing browser ZOOM.
Actually, I couldn't read it, but now that I have, I find it odd that your ehome directory is located differently than either of mine! Rest assured that I typed the command exactly as your screenshot shows in both of my ehome directories.

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#134

Post by Vistaar » Fri Sep 04, 2015 10:40 pm

mtreehugger wrote:I find it odd that your ehome directory is located differently than either of mine!
Perhaps you never heard of hidden folders, and maybe your system drive is not C, but your OS is exactly like mine and you definitely have a WINDOWS\ehome directory, and that is where mcupdate.exe is located. For the record, the one person in this thread who earlier mentioned MediaCenterRecoveryTask (lees40, page 6, post #102) had upgraded to Windows 7 by that time. Nobody running Vista has ever suggested it that I know of, except the person who posted the YouTube video and thinks it is a very important step. Let us know if you ever actually run the command.

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#135

Post by Vistaar » Sat Sep 05, 2015 5:11 pm

mtreehugger wrote:i actually first noticed the download error back in january, so i've been getting it since well before Zap2it went away...I find your idea that my ISP or Norton could be part of the problem intriguing.
There is a recent post by dnsacks (page 82, post #1635 of the megathread) that you should probably read: http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... =93#p95977

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#136

Post by mtreehugger » Mon Sep 07, 2015 11:13 pm

Vistaar wrote: Perhaps you never heard of hidden folders, and maybe your system drive is not C, but your OS is exactly like mine and you definitely have a WINDOWS\ehome directory, and that is where mcupdate.exe is located. For the record, the one person in this thread who earlier mentioned MediaCenterRecoveryTask (lees40, page 6, post #102) had upgraded to Windows 7 by that time. Nobody running Vista has ever suggested it that I know of, except the person who posted the YouTube video and thinks it is a very important step. Let us know if you ever actually run the command.
Well whoda thunk it? Apparently I have no less than 3 ehome directories, yet running the command in the one that was hidden from me in windows accomplished nothing.

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#137

Post by mtreehugger » Mon Sep 07, 2015 11:16 pm

Vistaar wrote: There is a recent post by dnsacks (page 82, post #1635 of the megathread) that you should probably read: http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... =93#p95977
And I have Centurylink/Norton as well! I tried to disable Norton but it wouldn't let me! Uninstalling and then reinstalling would take hours. I don't think I'm able to do what dnsacks did either.

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#138

Post by Vistaar » Tue Sep 08, 2015 12:12 am

mtreehugger wrote:And I have Centurylink/Norton as well! I tried to disable Norton but it wouldn't let me! Uninstalling and then reinstalling would take hours. I don't think I'm able to do what dnsacks did either.
Hello mtreehugger, I was beginning to think you had given up - and who could blame you? It does seem likely that either Centurylink or Norton has caused you to fail where others have succeeded. Unfortunately for you, Centurylink is not my ISP, and the only thing I know about Norton is how to get rid of it. (My PC came with a Norton free trial back in 2008, and when I was forced to do a factory restore some time ago - which BTW is why you really need to learn about imaging software - that old free trial came back to haunt me.) Is it possible to turn off Norton's firewall long enough to attempt setting up TV signal 2 or 3 times? I'm sure Norton has a forum, and probably Centurylink does too. I have posted at my ISP's forum a few times to complain about slow connection speeds. All I can really do is wish you the best of luck! BTW, if you think you might want to restore your system to a point before TV Pack was installed, it might be best to do so before installing Windows Updates for September. Only so much space is alotted for restore points (although there's a way to increase that), and Windows Updates automatically create a new restore point.

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#139

Post by Vistaar » Tue Sep 08, 2015 1:00 am

Wait a minute: If Norton was the problem, then why didn't it stop dnsacks when he connected via AT&T? The problem has got to be with CENTURYLINK. I just reviewed other posts by dnsacks, and he had tried Hosts file modifications and all that jazz. I suppose you have too, although I never recommended it myself. Complain to Centurylink, or get another ISP.

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#140

Post by dkrom » Tue Sep 08, 2015 1:02 am

mtreehugger - If you have cell service and can share data, try borrowing/buying a wireless USB adapter, connect to your cell and attempt the download. If it downloads, you know it's Norton or you ISP, if not, then your computer has a problem. You could even bring the computer to a friend or family member and connect to their network to see if you can download.

A side note - here is an 11 page thread on complaints about Rovi guide data - http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... f=6&t=9026 and this is a 5 page thread on people attempting to get zap2it back http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 7&start=80 - and their solution even requires payment to Schedules Direct! I just point this out because you may just want to try the method I posted earlier from the XP thread (it's free). I personally haven't had too much of a problem with the data from Rovi, but I don't record many of the shows people are complaining about. We'll see what happens when the new TV season starts.

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