WMC 8.8.5 MSI Installation Package for Win10/11

[JanSiegrist]

Greetings everyone
I'm attempting once again to install WMC on Win10
Tuners: 2) HDHomeRun Prime (3 tuners each) with cablecards
1) HDHomeRun Flex 4K (4 tuners) ATSC

The machine is a Dell Optiplex 755 Running a locked version of Win10 Pro at 1909
The MSI version is v1.0.3 of the WMC installer (is this the latest and greatest?)
For the guide I use EPG123.
The installation ran but had some issues when attempting to setup WMC
1) TV Setup has encountered a serious problem... / rebooted everything, on the 3rd try it got past that allowing to setup the 4 tuners on the Flex 4K card.
2) In TASKS / TV - Recorded does not let me set or define a path to the c:\RecordedTV folder
3) The 6 tuners attached to my two HDHomeRun cable-card tuners are not showing up at all. - these do show in the HDHomeRun App.

Soooo - is there no fix for being able to see these cable-card tuner cards in Windows 10?

Is the best solution to setup a Win7 Pro machine and just live with it? - the big issue with that is the HDHomeRun App that runs on Win7 does not have the features of the vers that runs on Win10. I'm still testing other software - Plex, NextPVR, HDHomeRun - App - but nothing is as easy to use as WMC.

I'm almost afraid to ask this but has anyone looked into installing on Linux using Wine ?
Thanks in advance for any input.
Jan

[technodevotee]

viewtopic.php?f=97&t=14105#p149733

[JanSiegrist]

Sorry - I think I posted to the wrong area - sorry - here it is again...

Thanks for the reply but if the issue is in Win10 versions after 15xx how is it that other software such as Plex, NextPVR, and even the HDHomeRun app run just fine on Win10 and 11 and can see my HDHomeRun Primes with cablecard? There has to be a patch or registry hack that will allow WMC to see the prime tuners - or perhaps install them from registry settings taken from a Win7 machine. It's been years since I've been involved in this kind of stuff but I'm going to take a peek and see what happens. There's gotta be a way...
Regarding DRM you may not get HBO to work but everything else should go - at least for Verizon Fios in RI.
Jan

[technodevotee]

The information I linked to in my previous response was rather simplistic wasn't it.

My understanding is that there are a number of issues:

Firstly, WMC doesn't know about HD Homerun tuners and requires a WMC service that was part of the HDHomerun software until SiliconDust removed the functionality (some time after 2015) so you would need to backdate that software and ensure that the WMC service is running to be able to see the tuners in WMC.

Other software works with HDHR because it knows about HDHR tuners.

Secondly, WMP and WMC do not natively support the DRM system used by cable card but rely on WMDRM, which was present until Windows 10 version1511, when Microsoft removed WMC. So even if you can detect the tuners in the HDHomerun, copy protected media won't work.

Other software that works with protected media has its own DRM mechanism built in and doesn't rely on WMDRM.

user patrick0525 did a writeup about getting HDHR prime tuners working in Windows 10 here: viewtopic.php?p=135021#p135021

Note that he used WMC V13 but other versions may also work although many of the workarounds in newer versions are not required for old versions of Windows 10 and may cause more issues than they solve.

[redsoxcpc]

I reported in an earlier post that I encountered several issues running WMC on an Intel NUC 12 Windows 11/10 system. After spending many hours reporting these WMC issues on Intel’s support site, and working with their support personnel, here is the final response I received:

“Thank you for your time. In this case, upon further review of the case, Windows Media Center (WMC) is not supported by Microsoft in Windows 10 or 11, so in this case, it will not be compatible with NUC. So for support of this specific product, please contact Microsoft.”

So be warned that NUC 12 or any systems with Intel Iris Xe graphics do not work well with WMC.

I speculate that the main issue is the incompatibility between Intel’s new graphics driver and the old video decoder in WMC. I had experimented with Codec Tweak Tool without any success.

Here are some questions I hope knowledgeable people in this WMC forum could help:

1. I assume the reason Gary’s MSI package requires DVD Player as prerequisite is that WMC uses some functions in DVD Player for decoding WTV file. There is a Windows DVD Player app in Microsoft Store, which was released on 7/20/2015 and costing 14.99USD. Is the DVD Player that Gary’s MSI package installed the same as this version?

2. Is there a way to install a newer codecs for WMC, instead of the aging ones in DVD Player?

[technodevotee]

Assuming that you have the DVD player installed now, can you play DVDs with it?

Yes, I believe it will be the same as the one on the Store.

Can you play WTV files using Windows MEDIA PLAYER?

These are both supported apps so if they don't work properly, that would be another angle to try without mentioning that you are using WMC.

[redsoxcpc]

My NUC 12 does not have an external DVD player, so I could not check if the DVD Player app could play DVDs.
The NUC 12 can play WTV files using Windows Media Player without any problem.

WMC problems I encountered are likely specific to WMC. For example, when changing channels in LIve TV, WMC needs to switch between MPEG-2 streams. DVD Player app and WMP do not have to handle this scenario.

The other problem that I could not explain is when WMC plays WTV files and I switch between windowed mode and full screen, it crashes.

Looks like if I want to use NUC 12 as HTPC, I have to take a look at Kodi or MediaPortal.

[technodevotee]

I use a USB BD drive on my NUC (older model so no help really) but you obviously don't have one of those so agree that doesn't help.

I assume that the crashing when switching between windowed and full screen doesn't happen in media player?

[redsoxcpc]

Media players, such as Windows Media Player, VLC, etc. don't have any problem.

[technodevotee]

OK, so it seems to be confined to WMC.

Have you tried WMC version 8.8.5?

I appreciate that this appears to be a video problem but have you run the audio setup to configure the output?

Do you have navigation sounds enabled in WMC?

[paulcarrm9mx]

Try v8.9.0 Gary's version

[technodevotee]

something else that occurred to me - looking at the spec for the NUC 12, I see there is a version that has HDMI and Display Port.

Is yours one of those?

There are documented issues with WMC not working properly when a DP adapter is present in the system.

[redsoxcpc]

My model is NUC12WSHi5. It has 2 HDMI and 2 Thunderbolt ports. I only use HDMI. I can't imaging they will impact WMC, but I'll investigate. Thanks.

[technodevotee]

no, I don't think thunderbolt ports are a problem as there's no problem with WMC on mine which also has them.

[DrBri99]

Thanks Gary!
I finally upgraded from my Windows 7 system, running since 2014, to Windows 10.

One little quirk I noticed, but has a work around.

I have been using MyRemote for years - https://sites.google.com/site/myremoteandroid/ - It's on an old tablet that gets passed around the living room.
with just a simple change of the IP address of the new PC, I'm ready to go.

The quirk: When WMC isn't running, tapping the green WMC logo would open Windows Media Center, on my new PC, it opens settings. I'm wondering if this has to do with the different location of the eHome folder?
Once, WMC is running, if I have another folder or program running in the foreground, tapping the green button will bring WMC back to the foreground.

The first part workaround is to just open by going to the touchpad option.

I'm assuming I would need to see the code of MyRemote to really know what's going on.

-Edit
I think I found my answer here:
viewtopic.php?f=97&t=13591#p145686

This is a wonderful community!

[DrBri99]

Update:
I could not find ehtray.exe in the ehome folder, I installed this version (8.8.5)
A recording was occuring and the Red button was not in the tray.
Is this something to add to the install? Or, should it be included?

Edit - Nevermind...I was trying to do this remotely from my tablet, I just missed seeing it.

[garyan2]

It is part of the 8.9.0 install. You should see ehtray.exe in the ehome folder. The startup "shortcut" is also part of the install.

[DrBri99]

Thanks, I was glancing over it.
I found it and added manually for my 8.8.5 install.
MyRemote is working as expected now.

I think one final question:
I vaguely remember having to check a box in power options, maybe, to allow the computer to wake up for recording?
Is this the default setting?

[Kestrel88]

Question,

Given how bad plex is when running through android, I was thinking about trying to get WMC up on my Win 11 laptop solely to use for recorded tv playback (still have a Win 8.1 unit as the backbone for the system).

Any tips/tricks I should now about before trying to run this install file or is it pretty well hammered out at this point?

[tshephard]

Well, Feb 2023, I thought I would ditch W7 finally and 'upgrade' all my WMC stuff to modern stuff!
2 machines went 'back' to the W10 I had tried while free (so M$ remembered them).
(I stream a lot, and watch WMC for things I can't wait for: Sunday cartoons, newsy entertainment, and ABC when necessary.)
After 3 days of farting around, I rejected MP2, Kodi, Plex, and set WMC10 up in a 1/2 hour or so!

Thank you, sir, for your work.

I ended up with:
HDHR Extend.
EPG123 with SD ($).
Full install on my 'server' system - W10 home.
'Client' install on my W11 home laptop. (Set media library to look at server drive only, so only 'Recorded TV", no guide, no live, etc.)
'Client' install on my W10 HTPC. (Set media library to look at server drive only, so only 'Recorded TV", no guide, no live, etc.)
(Both 10 and 11 required NOTHING special!)
4 Rokus with Jellyfin looking only at 'Recorded TV".

I have a XBox360 in the closet that was an extender in the bedroom system - mostly so we could set recording schedules together.
However, it made a lot of noise and heat, I don't wanna' go back to it.
It did handle commercial 'skips' in a way my hand knew how to operate (+30s, -10s, etc).
Is there another solution to setting WMC recording schedules remotely from the main server/WMC10/tuner machine?
Is there an extender-ish extension I could add to one of the 'clients'?

Again, thanks, ready for another decade!