Windows Media Center 8.8.5 is out

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

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Windows Media Center 8.8.5 is out

#1

Post by Kevin Chalet » Wed Sep 02, 2020 2:03 pm

Hey everyone :D

8.8.5 is now publicly available: https://mega.nz/file/GKQx3aTB#1PY2AgBQh ... Sc5b2G1XhE

Here's the changelog:
The package was updated to automatically restore the Microsoft SQL CE components (sqlcecompact40, sqlceoledb40, sqlceqp40 and sqlcese40) that were removed by Microsoft in Windows 10 2004.
Note: if you have used @technodevotee's restore_mssqllite script, installing 8.8.5 is not necessary: 8.8.5 actually restores more registry entries than the initial script I wrote (for completeness), but it shouldn't make any difference for WMC.

Thanks to everyone who offered to test it, it's muchly appreciated.

llloytron

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#2

Post by llloytron » Thu Sep 03, 2020 1:06 am

thank you so much great work

Kevin Chalet

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#3

Post by Kevin Chalet » Thu Sep 03, 2020 1:31 pm

My pleasure! 8-)

Joni

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#4

Post by Joni » Thu Sep 03, 2020 5:25 pm

I think that there is a huge problem with Media Center. I bought RX 5700 XT and I've been trying to get it working With Media Center, but WMC has washed out colours no matter what I do. I installed RX 7750 back and everything works fine again.

I really don't know why but with RX 5000 series there are no effects with ehpresenter.dll NominalRange registry key. On 7750 it works. Also on 5700 XT colours are washed out in WMC no matter what combination of RGB or YCbCr modes I try on Catalyst and TV. Everything works fine on other players, for example in MPC-HC and madVR I get correct video levels (Catalyst RBG Full > madVR RGB Full > TV RGB Full). Nothing changes in WMC, blacks are just grey.

Anyone have any idea what causes this? I'm afraid it has something to do with DirectX9 as I saw on AMD forums that people can't play older DirectX 9 games because DirectX9 was dropped from new GPU's.

Kevin Chalet

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#5

Post by Kevin Chalet » Thu Sep 03, 2020 5:48 pm

Honestly, no idea. I don't own any recent AMD card, so it will be impossible for me to reproduce it :shifty:

Joni

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#6

Post by Joni » Thu Sep 03, 2020 6:52 pm

Pinpoint wrote: Thu Sep 03, 2020 5:48 pm Honestly, no idea. I don't own any recent AMD card, so it will be impossible for me to reproduce it :shifty:
It was just a warning for anyone thinking of upgrading to rx 5000 series. I guess it's something that can't be fixed because of the video renderer WMC uses. Also Window DVD player displays correct Black levels but WMC and WMP don't.

It's a strange problem though. By default WMC uses 16-235 video levels. So one should be able to get correct blacks if GPU is set to limited and TV is also set to limited. But no all blacks are pale grey.

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#7

Post by Joni » Sat Sep 05, 2020 9:11 am

I returned 5700 XT and got RX 580 instead. Works perfectly in WMC with same driver version as 5700 XT. So it must be related to DX9 support that was dropped in 5000 series.

dustbro

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#8

Post by dustbro » Sun Sep 06, 2020 2:52 pm

Thank you so much! Downloading now

djiain

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#9

Post by djiain » Tue Sep 08, 2020 12:22 pm

Hi does anyone know if this will allow dvblink version 6 to work have just moved to a Windows 10 system as my windows 8 pc died and processor I'm using now won't support win 7 or 8 I am using build 1909 any help much appreciated everything worse if using wmc tuners dvblink scans channels let's me import them but they won't play

djiain

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#10

Post by djiain » Tue Sep 08, 2020 12:22 pm

Hi does anyone know if this will allow dvblink version 6 to work have just moved to a Windows 10 system as my windows 8 pc died and processor I'm using now won't support win 7 or 8 I am using build 1909 any help much appreciated everything worse if using wmc tuners dvblink scans channels let's me import them but they won't play

djiain

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#11

Post by djiain » Tue Sep 08, 2020 12:22 pm

Hi does anyone know if this will allow dvblink version 6 to work have just moved to a Windows 10 system as my windows 8 pc died and processor I'm using now won't support win 7 or 8 I am using build 1909 any help much appreciated everything worse if using wmc tuners dvblink scans channels let's me import them but they won't play

technodevotee

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#12

Post by technodevotee » Tue Sep 08, 2020 1:08 pm

djiain wrote: Tue Sep 08, 2020 12:22 pm Hi does anyone know if this will allow dvblink version 6 to work have just moved to a Windows 10 system as my windows 8 PC died and processor I'm using now won't support win 7 or 8 I am using build 1909 any help much appreciated everything worse if using WMC tuners dvblink scans channels let's me import them but they won't play
I haven't tried it for a while b/c my licences expired but as far as I know, 8.8.1 was the last version that worked with dvblink. However, you need to jump through hoops to get that to work on recent builds of Windows 10.

There was some discussion about it on MDL forums a while back.

djiain

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#13

Post by djiain » Tue Sep 08, 2020 1:23 pm

Cheers will give that version a try this evening

Kevin Chalet

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#14

Post by Kevin Chalet » Tue Sep 08, 2020 10:47 pm

If it doesn't work OOTB with 8.8.5, try to restore the MUI files as indicated here: https://forums.mydigitallife.net/thread ... st-1584674

Adding the MUI files is something I'm considering for a future version, but it's a super painful process.

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#15

Post by aquadextrous » Wed Sep 09, 2020 10:13 pm

Can confirm that copying the file as per the link in the post above makes DVBLink work again in all the versions of 8.8.X WMC on windows 10 (up to the latest 2004 update) Just as a side note the folder the file is in and goes into is dependent on your language - en-GB for UK, en-US for USA etc. Copy the file, reboot and DVBLink works as normal again :)

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Mugsy

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#16

Post by Mugsy » Sat Sep 12, 2020 5:27 pm

Ugh! I woke up at 5-30 this morning to backup my PC and install the new Win10 v2004 update.

When I was finally done several hours later, WMC 8.8.4 refused to run. So I rolled back the update and came here to find out if WMC was compatible with the new v2004 release only to discover this new 8.8.5 update for v2004.

:roll: :)

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#17

Post by berstuck » Sat Sep 12, 2020 8:00 pm

I just set this up and the tuner is working, but it's unable to download guide info. That's pretty much my only reason for trying to use WMC. Does anyone have a workaround?

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Mugsy

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#18

Post by Mugsy » Sun Sep 13, 2020 2:00 am

berstuck wrote: Sat Sep 12, 2020 8:00 pm I just set this up and the tuner is working, but it's unable to download guide info. That's pretty much my only reason for trying to use WMC. Does anyone have a workaround?
IINM, MS has pretty much abandoned Guide Support for WMC as they have abandoned the app itself.

The "work-around" is to subscribe to "Schedules Direct" and use "EPG123".

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Mugsy

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#19

Post by Mugsy » Sun Sep 13, 2020 6:22 pm

I can't get WMC to run after "upgrading" Win10 to 2004. :o

As seen above, I ended up rolling back the v2004 update to get 8.8.4 working again. I decided to give v2004 another go with the 8.8.5 update. Nothing.

I tried to run one of the "Installer" commands and it responded "patch already applied." I tried again to run WMC but it never loads.

"Workarounds.txt" says that if this happens, "just launch the new reset settings script once". I ran the "BackupRestoreSettings.cmd" first, then ran "ResetSettings.cmd". WMC STILL does not load.

So I ran "Settings.reg". Still nothing. Please tell me there's a fix. This is the second time I've installed v2004 and do not wish to roll it back yet again.

(Follow-up: It appears the missing "MSSQLLite" files had to be installed again. Unfortunately, I didn't figure this out before uninstalling WMC and losing my recording schedule.)

berstuck

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#20

Post by berstuck » Tue Sep 15, 2020 3:21 am

Mugsy wrote: Sun Sep 13, 2020 2:00 am
berstuck wrote: Sat Sep 12, 2020 8:00 pm I just set this up and the tuner is working, but it's unable to download guide info. That's pretty much my only reason for trying to use WMC. Does anyone have a workaround?
IINM, MS has pretty much abandoned Guide Support for WMC as they have abandoned the app itself.

The "work-around" is to subscribe to "Schedules Direct" and use "EPG123".
Thanks.

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