Windows Version 1903 Issues

Discussion of getting WMC to work on Windows 10 (unsupported)
tdarlington3

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Windows Version 1903 Issues

#1

Post by tdarlington3 » Thu May 30, 2019 2:17 pm

Just installed Windows 1903 on a test PC.
Reinstalled both WMC V8.8.2 and V8.8.3 (one at a time).
Tried copying CPFilters.dll from a Version 1809 PC.

Reinstalled STANDARD_Codecs_v794 (against MS recommendation).

WMC does not crash, but there is NO audio and NO video when trying to play a pre-recorded wtv file off my NAS drive.
The data is being transferred (8-10 Mb/s rate) but the WMC window is a blank blue.

HELP !!!

technodevotee

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#2

Post by technodevotee » Thu May 30, 2019 10:44 pm

I've successfully installed WMC on three PCs with 1903 now - an insider upgrade from 1803, a fresh RTM installation and an RTM upgrade from 1809.

But I found that you need to use msvidctl, cpfilters and encdec from an older version (like 1709) to make everything work on 1903 even with 8.8.3.

Every one needed those three DLLs and the registry entries for encdec (the XDS Codec), which are completely missing on a fresh install of 1903.

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#3

Post by scott750 » Fri May 31, 2019 1:39 am

technodevotee wrote: Thu May 30, 2019 10:44 pm I've successfully installed WMC on three PCs with 1903 now - an insider upgrade from 1803, a fresh RTM installation and an RTM upgrade from 1809.

But I found that you need to use msvidctl, cpfilters and encdec from an older version (like 1709) to make everything work on 1903 even with 8.8.3.

Every one needed those three DLLs and the registry entries for encdec (the XDS Codec), which are completely missing on a fresh install of 1903.
Forgive me if this is a noob question, how do you install those DLLs and regirtry entres?

I just upgraded from 1803 to 1903 and while WMC is able to open, it's acting like I just freshly installed WMC. I have to go thru setup all over again. Do you know if my settings are still somewhere on my laptop? I'm running WC 8.8.2.

technodevotee

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#4

Post by technodevotee » Fri May 31, 2019 6:03 am

scott750 wrote: Fri May 31, 2019 1:39 am
technodevotee wrote: Thu May 30, 2019 10:44 pm I just upgraded from 1803 to 1903 and while WMC is able to open, it's acting like I just freshly installed WMC. I have to go thru setup all over again. Do you know if my settings are still somewhere on my laptop? I'm running WC 8.8.2.
Did you run backuprestoresettings.cmd before upgrading?

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#5

Post by technodevotee » Fri May 31, 2019 8:37 am

It is definitely a good idea to use the backup feature in the WMC installer folder before upgrading Windows and restore the settings after.

Here is a preliminary guide to reinstalling WMC after upgrading Windows. It is a bit rough round the edges and needs some work.

Code: Select all

Preliminary guide to reinstalling WMC after upgrading Windows

All usual warning apply:
1. There are numerous possible combinations of Windows and WMC versions and these steps may or may not work for you.
2. It is assumed that you made a backup of the system before carrying out any of these steps.
3. Be very careful when using the trustedinstaller command prompt as you can do almost anything in there.
4. Don't blame me if you mess up your Windows installation!

part 1a
You had a working system and made a backup using BackupRestoreSettings.cmd before upgrading. You haven't uninstalled and reinstalled WMC.

If the backup is old or there have been a lot of changes made since it was done, you should copy \programdata\Microsoft\ehome somewhere safe before continuing. 

Go into the WMC installer folder and run Uninstaller.cmd, reboot, go into the WMC installer folder and run Installer.cmd followed by BackupRestoreSettings.cmd to put Media Center back to how the system was when the last backup was done.

go to part 2

part 1b
You had a working system and hadn't made a backup using BackupRestoreSettings.cmd before upgrading. You haven't uninstalled and reinstalled WMC.

Go into the WMC installer folder and run _testrights.cmd. This will give you a command prompt with trustedinstaller privileges. Copy windows.old\windows\system32\config and windows.old\programdata\microsoft\ehome (if it exists) to somewhere safe. If there's no ehome folder in windows.old\programdata\microsoft, copy it from \programdata\microsoft instead.

Download registryexplorer and run it as adminstrator. Load the software hive from the config folder you saved earlier. Navigate to windows\currentversion\, rightclick on mediacenter then export, key, to .reg format (recursive) to somewhere safe.

Go into the WMC installer folder and run Uninstaller.cmd, reboot, go into the WMC installer folder and run Installer.cmd.

Copy the ehome folder you saved to the root of the WMC installer folder and rename it SettingsBackup.
Open the registry entries you exported in a text editor and change every occurrence of HKEY_CURRENT_USER to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and save it to the root of the WMC folder, as settings.reg.

Go into the WMC installer folder and run backuprestoresettings.cmd to restore the settings.

go to part 2

part 1c
You had a working system and hadn't made a backup using BackupRestoreSettings.cmd before upgrading. You have uninstalled and reinstalled and discovered that you have a fresh install of WMC.

You can try using the method described in part 1b but if the folders aren't in windows.old you will need to recover them to somewhere safe from a backup. If that isn't possible, you will need to run through the setup again.

go to part 2.

part 1d
You had a working system and made a backup using BackupRestoreSettings.cmd before upgrading. You have followed the steps in part 1a and but discovered that it was a long time ago and there have been lots of changes made since then.

You are in much the same position as part 1c and can try using the method described in part 1b but if the folders aren't in windows.old you will need to recover them to somewhere safe from a backup. If that isn't possible, you will need to run through the setup again.

part 2
Go into the WMC installer folder and run _testrights.cmd. This will give you a command prompt with trustedinstaller privileges.

CD into \windows\system32 and copy the cpfilters, encdec and msvidctl dlls from windows.old\windows\system32. You may want to rename the existing ones rather than overwriting them.

Comments welcome (be gentle, I haven't had a lot of sleep lately).

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#6

Post by scott750 » Fri May 31, 2019 5:38 pm

technodevotee wrote:
Did you run backuprestoresettings.cmd before upgrading?
I did not. But I do have a wmc backup I did from EPG123, is that the same? WMC is installed on a secondary laptop that if I have to redo setup, it's not a problem. I merely got this laptop to see how and if WMC works with Win10 as a Guinea pig for when I update my HTPC from Win7 to Win10.


technodevotee

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#7

Post by technodevotee » Fri May 31, 2019 9:24 pm

Unfortunately not. The backup feature in EPG123 exports the WMC database to a bunch of mxf files that are only really of any use to EPG123.

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#8

Post by garyan2 » Sat Jun 01, 2019 3:56 am

technodevotee wrote: Fri May 31, 2019 9:24 pm Unfortunately not. The backup feature in EPG123 exports the WMC database to a bunch of mxf files that are only really of any use to EPG123.
Not quite true. The backup EPG123 does is really just copy the files in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\mcepgX-Y\backup\lineup, \recordings, and \subscriptions. Though the files in those folders don't have an extension, they are MXF files. A restore of those files will restore everything except the actual guide data. All tuner setups, custom numbering and favorite lineups, recording schedules will be restored.

The caveat is that for the tuner setups to work, it will need to be on the same computer and install that the backups were made from. I haven't done the work to make it restorable on any computer yet.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

technodevotee

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#9

Post by technodevotee » Sat Jun 01, 2019 3:35 pm

Fair enough Gary but the point was that a backup done by epg123 is not the same as a backup done by backuprestoresettings.cmd because that copies the entire \programdata\Microsoft\ehome and exports the registry settings for wmc.

You may be able to 'talk someone through' recovering their Media Center using just those files but that is outwith the scope of the conversation we were having.

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#10

Post by SpencerC » Sun Jun 02, 2019 5:41 am

Any hope on getting cable card tuners working? I know it is tied to playready and the update in Win10 killed cable card tuner detection. Just asking in case somebody got it working again.

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#11

Post by scott750 » Sun Jun 02, 2019 3:02 pm


technodevotee wrote:I've successfully installed WMC on three PCs with 1903 now - an insider upgrade from 1803, a fresh RTM installation and an RTM upgrade from 1809.

But I found that you need to use msvidctl, cpfilters and encdec from an older version (like 1709) to make everything work on 1903 even with 8.8.3.

Every one needed those three DLLs and the registry entries for encdec (the XDS Codec), which are completely missing on a fresh install of 1903.
I've been replacing the DLL files you mentioned, but having a real hard time with cpfilters in the system32 directory. I'm trying to follow the steps to change the permissions, (https://appuals.com/fix-failed-enumerat ... container/) but when I go to APPLY, I'm getting the error "Failed to Enumerate Objects in the Container". I tried to restart in Safe Mode, but I can't get past the log-in screen because it says I'm typing the wrong password. I know it's correct because I can reboot in normal mode and the password works. Apparently this is a bug with Safe mode. Any suggestions?

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#12

Post by scott750 » Sun Jun 02, 2019 3:56 pm

Nvm I figured it out. I had to use my Microsoft Live password. So was able to get into Safe Mode, get the permissions changed and copied the CPfilters file into system32 directory. Now to copy the other 2 files copied.

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#13

Post by madblake » Mon Jun 03, 2019 10:54 pm

Well after 1903 update i can still record live tv in WMC but i have to watch on other players because WMC wont play live tv or anything it records but it will play other media files just not .wtv everything else works fine

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#14

Post by scott750 » Tue Jun 04, 2019 1:04 am

Try uninstalling PlayReady from the Uninstall Programs.

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#15

Post by madblake » Tue Jun 04, 2019 1:34 am

yeah just did the cpfilters.dll switch from second pc that hasn't got the 1903 update to the one that does. They both have 8.8.3 wmc on them then i copied MSVidCtl.dll locted in windows ehome and and replaced the one in system32 with that one you need to take permission of the dlls and rename the original ones to cpfilters.dll.old and MSVidCtl.dll.old .Anyway working fine now plays live and recorded tv now

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#16

Post by technodevotee » Wed Jun 05, 2019 9:01 am

Just put an 'intelligent' DLL replacer on dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ff3xso3hmr7dq ... s.zip?dl=1

Unzip it into whichever WMC installer folder you are using and run replace_dlls.cmd whenever WMC stop working because MS replaced the DLLs.

Make a backup first just in case though.

Let me know how you get on with it.....

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#17

Post by wmc1000 » Thu Jun 06, 2019 4:24 pm

Was having guide download issues after upgrading to Windows 1903. Tried both WMC 8.8.2 and WMC 8.8.3 without success even after following workarounds.txt file. Looked around online and found that CatapultSystems.com had 72.246.56.59 listed for the hosts file instead of 2.16.216.176 shown in workarounds. Used that ip address in addition to the 65.55.186.113 for the data file ip address and now all is working fine! I can even watch in full screen without lockup as was occurring in Windows 1809 with WMC 8.8.2 :clap:

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#18

Post by technodevotee » Fri Jun 07, 2019 4:24 pm

As we know, Kevin Chalet fixed a number of issues with 8.8.3 by putting local copies of DLLs in the windows\ehome folder and re-engineering the WMC executables.

But if you are using a previous version on 1903 like I am, installing encdec.dll and registering probably won't bring back the thumbnails because the registry entries for the bda cp/ca filters and XDS Codec are completely missing.

As detailed elsewhere, I'm using a hybrid of version 12 / version 8 on most of my PCs and had to go through the performance of importing the missing registry settings, copying in encdec.dll and registering it which is a bit of a faff so I created a tool to do the job for me.

I have put it on dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/s/207hvmlxu0j7s ... s.zip?dl=1 in case anyone else wants it.

It should work on any affected version of Windows 10 running any version of WMC but as stated, it shouldn't be needed for Version 8.8.3.

Just unzip it into the folder containing whatever version of WMC installer you are using and run fix_thumbnails.cmd.

As always, I'd recommend make a backup first - just in case.

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#19

Post by mja492 » Sat Jun 15, 2019 8:56 pm

I upgraded my PC to Windows 10 1903 and installed WMC 13, but got the decoder error when trying to play recorded TV. :cry: I Googled the error and found out about the magical fix_thumbnails and replace_dlls packages (many thanks to those who put them together!!). I downloaded and ran both packages, but still got the decoder error. :x

So I dug into the cmd files and replaced the exit statement at the end of each with a pause statement, so I could see what was going on. I ran them again and was now able to see they were trying to run nsudoc.exe from their respective bin folders, but it was absent from both. So I Googled and downloaded Nsudo - which includes nsudoc.exe - copied it to both bin folders, and ran the two cmd files again. I could see the dlls being replaced and registered, and I am happy to report that WMC plays recorded TV again! :D

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#20

Post by technodevotee » Sat Jun 15, 2019 9:39 pm

mja492 wrote: Sat Jun 15, 2019 8:56 pm I upgraded my PC to Windows 10 1903 and installed WMC 13, but got the decoder error when trying to play recorded TV. :cry: I Googled the error and found out about the magical fix_thumbnails and replace_dlls packages (many thanks to those who put them together!!). I downloaded and ran both packages, but still got the decoder error. :x

So I dug into the cmd files and replaced the exit statement at the end of each with a pause statement, so I could see what was going on. I ran them again and was now able to see they were trying to run nsudoc.exe from their respective bin folders, but it was absent from both. So I Googled and downloaded Nsudo - which includes nsudoc.exe - copied it to both bin folders, and ran the two cmd files again. I could see the dlls being replaced and registered, and I am happy to report that WMC plays recorded TV again! :D
I guess you missed the bit about unzipping fix_thumbnails and replace_dlls in to the folder containing whichever WMC installer you used.

They are intended as add-ons to the installer rather than stand-alone utilities and are included in WMC-V13.

I'm glad they worked for you though.

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