Live TV and WTV files not working

[r_sauve]

Hello all,

I have a Windows 10 22H2 PC running WMC 8.9.1 by GaRyan2 (wmcsetup-x64.msi) along with the the Windows DVD Player app (kb3106246).

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z87N-WIFI
TV PCIe card: Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2205.
RAM: 10GB DDR3
System drive: SK hynix SC300 2.5 7MM 256GB (SSD)
Media Drive: WDC WD30EFRX-68AX9N0 3TB HDD

When I had Windows 7 (64bit) running on this PC, live TV and recorded TV (.wtv) worked in the Media Center.
I then blew away Windows 7 and installed Windows 10 (64bit) with the stuff mentioned above.

Now when I go to live TV I see a stuttering screen alternating between black and recorded video, audio also stutters. It's all herky-jerky and unstable.

The recorded TV (from the Windows 7 install) plays back fine in VLC, however it does the same stutter thing in Windows Media Center and Media Player.
I installed K-Lite_Codec_Pack_1750_Full. No luck. I removed K-Lite and installed Shark007 STANDARD_Codecs_v1290. Again no luck.

I tried recording some live TV. I can play it back without fault in VLC but WMC or WMP does the same stutter thing.

I also tried this from viewtopic.php?t=12201
Replace file CPfilters.dll located in C:\Windows\System32 with one from Windows 10 1803. You will need to take ownership and change the permissions to allow Administrator full control to do this.
I also needed to replace MSVidCtl.dll located in C:\Windows\System32 with one from C:\Windows\ehome. You may not need to do this after installing v8.8.3 as I haven't tried that version yet.
But it did not work.

I am running out of ideas...
Does anyone know what is going on with this issue and what is required to resolve it?


Cheers

[prsa01]

In the shark007 settings did you select wmc settings and save?
Do you know what video format your recordings are (mp4, mp2, etc)? Will be driven by your tuner/capture hardware unless you have reencoded.

If mp4 you could have a driver issue preventing correct utilization of gpu (if present). With Intel cpus with integrated gpu I've sometimes had to try different Intel driver versions to get mp4 working smoothly. I don't have experience with other processors.

[technodevotee]

I have also had issues with video drivers causing the sort of thing you are experiencing.

I also tried this from viewtopic.php?t=12201
Replace file CPfilters.dll located in C:\Windows\System32 with one from Windows 10 1803. You will need to take ownership and change the permissions to allow Administrator full control to do this.
I also needed to replace MSVidCtl.dll located in C:\Windows\System32 with one from C:\Windows\ehome. You may not need to do this after installing v8.8.3 as I haven't tried that version yet.
But it did not work.

These steps are not relevant to any WMC installer after 8.8.3 as the DLLs in the Windows\system folder are no longer used by those versions.

[r_sauve]

In the shark007 settings did you select WMC settings and save?
Yes both 32bit and 64bit. Though there is no WMC, its WMP (this is for version 12.9)


Do you know what video format your recordings are (mp4, mp2, etc)? Will be driven by your tuner/capture hardware unless you have reencoded.
Here is the specs:
https://www.hauppauge.co.uk/site/produc ... 200mc.html

From the above link:
With Microsoft Media Center and the WinTV-HVR-2200 MC you can

Watch Freeview digital TV (DVB-T) or analogue TV on your PC screen while recording a different channel on the second tuner!
Pause analogue or digital TV, with instant replay, skip, fast forward and rewind.
Record digital TV programmes in original MPEG-2 quality.
Record analogue TV to disk in high quality MPEG-2 quality with the hardware MPEG-2 encoder.
Use Media Center’s TV scheduler to automatically record your favourite TV shows. Playback your recordings at any time on your PC screen.

Watch analogue and digital TV on your Media Center PC. The WinTV-HVR-2200 MC includes everything you need to watch, pause and record analogue PAL and digital Freeview TV on your


In my case its digital live TV is recorded as MPEG-2 which saves in a WTV container.

The PC's CPU is a Intel Core i5 4570 and yes, I am using the integrated graphics. The PC is connected to our Sony 4k TV via a HDMI cable with a screen resolution of 3840x2160.
I have no problem playing MP4, MKV or AVI files.
I have tried at lower resolutions like 1920x1080 but this does not make a difference when it comes to live TV or WTV playback in WMC.
Windows 7 did work at 3840x2160 and played WTV files and displayed live TV in WMC.

These steps are not relevant to any WMC installer after 8.8.3 as the DLLs in the Windows\system folder are no longer used by those versions.
Thank you for clearing up that idea.

I like the Windows 10/11 port of WMC everything seems to work except the most important parts: live TV and recorded TV playback. I may have to revert back to Windows 7.

[prsa01]

Since the issue "seems" to be narrowed down to mp2 processing I would do some focused searches re drivers, processor, etc mp2 handling. Try back-revving your Intel /chipset drivers. I "think' old std hd (1080) dvds are/were mp2. How does it do with them?

Mp2 is becoming an outlier so handling may be becoming a secondary priority for newer drivers, etc.

OK, sorry. I went back to refresh my memory on your OP and see vlc works fine on the same files so seems less likely to be something system wide like drivers. So probably need to focus on MPlayer. Maybe try back revving it. I thought there were discussions on having wmc use an alternative player, ie vlc, but I may be wrong.

If you do find a solution, please post it back here because I will be heading from w7 to w10/11 at some point as well.


Wys "tried reducing to 1080" do you mean reducing at the tv or at the pc? Are you doing your upconverting interpolation to uhd at the pc or tv? Do you know that vlc is handling it the same way (vlc output settings)?

All I can think of right now.

[r_sauve]

My main PC is running Win 10 22H2 plus I have another all-in-one PC running Win 10 22H2. They both have the same issue as the WMC PC when it comes to .wtv playback (all herky-jerky and unstable).
I then dug out a old laptop which has Win 10 21H1 and I tried playing back a .wtv video file. It worked!
So somewhere between lease 21H1 and 22H2 Microsoft has taken away .wtv playback support.

I restored my Windows 7 ghost image back onto the WMC PC. All is good again.
I might have a look at Windows 10 and WMC 8.9.1in the future if it ever works with live TV and .wtv playback.

[garyan2]

WMC works in all Win10 and Win11 versions. This is going to be a driver issue (video and/or audio). I've never had an issue with any of my computers with any version of Win10 and above, but I also don't use the integrated graphics.

[technodevotee]

I agree with Gary that this is a driver or hardware incompatibility issue.

However, unlike Gary, I have had issues with WMC due to driver problems in the past and still have issues with WMC on two of my PCs which I attribute to hardware incompatibility.

viewtopic.php?f=97&t=14197

[garyan2]

That reminds me. One of the differences between 8.9.0 and 8.9.1 is mplayer.dll and msvidctl.dll. I believe that was due to the version in 8.9.0 did not support 5.1 channel sound (or was difficult to setup). You can try 8.9.0 and see if that clears things up.
https://github.com/garyan2/wmcsetup/releases/tag/v8.9.0

[r_sauve]

I downloaded WMC 8.9.0 and installed it on both my main PC which uses a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 PCIe card and on our all-in-one PC with uses a Intel HD Graphics 530 CPU integrated video device.
Both played back recorded video (.wtv) from our WMC PC. I then updated to WMC 8.9.1 and that worked too.

I then realized that I had not installed WMC 8.9.1 previously on these PCs, I was relying on the Windows 10 Media player to play the .wtv files which did not work until I installed WMC 8.9.0.

So for my WMC PC, I have restored it back to Windows 7. I'm not keen on going through the re-installation of Windows 10 again but I do have a USB stick with Windows 10 to Go on it. I will boot the WMC PC from the Windows 10 to Go USB stick and install WMC 8.9.0. We will see what happens.

[r_sauve]

Okay, I booted Windows 10 to Go on our WMC PC. I installed WMC 8.9.0 and tried to play a recorded TV file (.wtv) in Media Player and WMC. Same result all herky-jerky and unstable.
I then booted Windows 10 to Go on our all-in-one PC and my main PC. Both played .wtv files fine in Media Player and WMC.

So, yes, it must be a driver issue on WMC PC.

The WMC PC has Intel integrated graphic and so does the all-in-one PC.
Here is a comparison between the two.

WMC PC
Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600
Driver Date: 4/11/2020
Driver Version: 20.19.15.5171
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4570 CPU @ 3.20GHz

All-in-one PC
Intel(R) Graphics 530
Driver Date: 3/04/2022
Driver Version: 30.0.101.1692
Intel(R) Core(TM)i5-6500 CPU @ 3.20GHz

[garyan2]

I think vanilla Win10 will have problems playing wtv files without installing the Windows DVD Player that gets installed with 8.9.x. The DVD Player provides proper drivers for MPEG2 decoding.