[DISCUSSION] Patch WMC to run on Windows 10 final & possible alternatives

Discussion in 'Windows 10' started by ricktendo64, May 8, 2015.

  1. kryger1961

    kryger1961 MDL Novice

    Nov 26, 2015
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    I have a problem when starting live tv, it takes really long time to start up but when started it shifts smoothly between channels, what could the problem be?

    Almost forgot to say that I'm running WMC 8.8.5 with the latest Windows function update
     
  2. technodevotee

    technodevotee MDL Senior Member

    Sep 18, 2015
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    This might be to do with PlayReady which is required for material protected by DRM. If you don't use protected media, you can probably safely rename the datafile MSPR.HDS and it will create a new file. (%programdata%\microsoft\PlayReady\mspr.hds).

    Note however that if you do use protected media this will cause issues when trying to play existing recorded TV.
     
  3. dkazaz

    dkazaz MDL Novice

    Aug 27, 2008
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    I have a problem with my WMC remote on a new install.

    I setup an HTPC with windows 8.1 (some of the hardware is a bit old and the drivers work better in Win 8.1). I used the latest installer v8.8.5 to add WMC, which worked great. However none of my WMC (RC6) remotes work out of the box.

    I used some instructions FROM the kodi site to hack the registry so I can use an Xbox Media Remote, that I had handy and that works ok, but the regular RC6 remotes won't work (I have the original Microsoft one and a Phillips). I would like to use them as they have some key features missing from the xbox remote (especially the color-coded buttons).

    Has anyone dealt with this before? I assume another registry hack will be needed...
     
  4. technodevotee

    technodevotee MDL Senior Member

    Sep 18, 2015
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    #10364 technodevotee, Apr 8, 2021
    Last edited: Apr 8, 2021
    Update on 21343.1000 - WMC works fine but the drivers for my old ASUS Tiger DVB-T cards, which work fine in 20H2 aren't recognised as valid. If I install them anyway, they don't initialise properly and don't tune anything in WMC.

    No great shakes but it rules out testing the system with recording and Live TV.

    System is in the throes of installing a new version (21354.1) anyway so I expect other things will stop working.

    21354.1 finished installing and WMC stopped working as usual. Reinstalled WMC and restored the settings but the database was trashed again.
     
  5. Bigal

    Bigal MDL Member

    Mar 4, 2011
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    long story short -
    updated from
    OS build 21343.1000
    Experience Windows 10 Feature Experience Pack 321.7401.0.3
    to
    OS build 21354.1
    Experience Windows 10 Feature Experience Pack 321.7601.0.3
    reinstalled WMC with backup
    restored epg123 backup
    all ok

    long story long -
    after windows update, WMC would not open, as expected, i compared
    C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome, was the same
    C:\Windows\ehome, ehshell.exe was missing, i tried to copy it over but got security errors
    would it be possible for someone to make a script that only applies permissions for the needed directories without reinstalling the whole thing and restoring a backup?
    not sure if the registry entries are kept after updating windows, i didnt check, i can on the next windows update.

    WMC working ok but error with dvbguide;
    C:\DVBGuide\findrepl.bat(946, 1) JavaScript runtime error: Object doesn't support this action
    in WMC, not all listings for channel data has the "-DVBGuide" at the end
     
  6. technodevotee

    technodevotee MDL Senior Member

    Sep 18, 2015
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    These type of upgrades normally remove MSSQLLite, the WMC assemblies, services and most of the registry entries. It is sometimes possible to do an over-the-top reinstall but the database is often trashed and rebuilt and the GUIDs of the tuner cards sometimes get changed as well.
     
  7. technodevotee

    technodevotee MDL Senior Member

    Sep 18, 2015
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    #10367 technodevotee, Apr 15, 2021
    Last edited: Apr 16, 2021
    I may have found a (somewhat crude) solution to the problem with the database getting rebuilt after reinstalling WMC and restoring the settings following an upgrade.

    My Insider PCs both got updated to 21359.1 today and after reinstalling WMC and restoring the settings, the database on both of them got rebuilt.

    I removed the contents of programdata\ehome and restored it again but renamed counter.mem before starting WMC. It reported that an error had been corrected and a new counter.mem file appeared but not a new database. Everything that was in the database before the upgrade remained in tact.

    Nah, all the new stuff was gone this morning and it had reverted to how it was when it was installed.

    Bummer.

    Actually, one of them is OK but the backup on the other one wasn't as recent as I thought which is why it didn't have everything in it. So I guess it was a partial success.
     
  8. technodevotee

    technodevotee MDL Senior Member

    Sep 18, 2015
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    #10368 technodevotee, Apr 16, 2021
    Last edited: Apr 19, 2021
    I might have another problem with 21359.1.

    WMC works fine with TV channels that already existed but I can't add new channels. When I select a transponder, it show there is signal but doesn't find any new channels. It is the same for all transponders on all satellites that I have tried. Also when uninstalling and reinstalling V8.8.5 and V13, it detects the tuners and configures the satellites but won't add any new channels.
     
  9. Bigal

    Bigal MDL Member

    Mar 4, 2011
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    #10369 Bigal, Apr 19, 2021
    Last edited: Apr 19, 2021
    have you tried NOT using a restored backup?

    updated to
    Edition Windows 10 Pro
    Version Dev
    OS build 21359.1
    Experience Windows 10 Feature Experience Pack 321.7601.0.3
    A few problems that were sorted with a few reboots and problems with media libraries not listing everything but after a while all was ok

    DVBGuide error again
    "C:\DVBGuide\findrepl.bat(946, 1) JavaScript runtime error: Object doesn't support this action"

    Im in the U.k using DVB-T2, i scanned for extra channels and it found some but they were duplicates but it worked ok.
     
  10. technodevotee

    technodevotee MDL Senior Member

    Sep 18, 2015
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    #10370 technodevotee, Apr 19, 2021
    Last edited: Apr 19, 2021
    yep. I re-installed Windows from scratch and went through the setup as usual i.e. not restoring my backup. It recognised the satellites and populated the guide. I can view and record channels that are already in the guide (including HD ones so the tuners, the drivers and the registry entries are working) but when I try to add new channels it says there's nothing found.

    It was working fine on 21343 so I'll go back to that and try again.

    Unfortunately, as I posted recently, my DVB-T cards are no longer recognised so I'm using old DVB-S2 in the test PCs so that may have a bearing on the issue.
     
  11. Bigal

    Bigal MDL Member

    Mar 4, 2011
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    OS build 21364.1
    Experience Windows 10 Feature Experience Pack 321.9601.0.3
    all ok
    cumulative update
    OS build 21364.1000
    Experience Windows 10 Feature Experience Pack 321.9601.0.3
    all ok, didn't need to reinstall WMC
     
  12. Bigal

    Bigal MDL Member

    Mar 4, 2011
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    Edition Windows 10 Pro
    Version Dev
    Installed on ‎03/‎05/‎2021
    OS build 21370.1
    Experience Windows 10 Feature Experience Pack 321.9601.0.3

    all ok, needed to reinstall WMC
     
  13. kryger1961

    kryger1961 MDL Novice

    Nov 26, 2015
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    Hi, I'm running WMC 8.8.5 on the latest Windows 10 20H2, build19042.985 and Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.2020.0.
    Everything works live tv (it takes a long time starting up) with DVB-T2 tuner, the only problem I have every time after funktion update is my music library it causes WMC to crash when opened and I have managed to solve the problem the previous times but I keep forgetting, do someone have a "How to" that they can post?
    Thanks in advance.
    Michael
     
  14. technodevotee

    technodevotee MDL Senior Member

    Sep 18, 2015
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    #10374 technodevotee, May 24, 2021
    Last edited: May 24, 2021
    WMC crash when using the Music Library is usually due to having the option to download DVD and CD artwork and metadata enabled in settings/general/automatic download options.
    Long delay when playing Live TV can be caused by PlayReady. If you don't need DRM, you can rename or delete the data file (%programdata%\microsoft\PlayReady\mspr.hds)..
     
  15. j.c.f.

    j.c.f. MDL Member

    Mar 1, 2016
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    #10375 j.c.f., Jun 20, 2021
    Last edited: Jun 20, 2021
    I like to use the win10 magnifier tool to view sports when they put side by side boxes of sport and advertising and several years ago after they'd updated the magnifier tool I noticed that the WMC progress bar would die when you magnified a screen and to get it back you either stopped and started the video or clicked back and then selected the video again. And then it went away, possibly when I changed options in the magnifier to not track the cursor or some such thing. Now my machine updated itself to 2004 and the magnifier got updated again (this time for the worse, bloody options panel no longer stays fixed relative to the screen but moves with the magnified display which is completely stupid because you can loose it) and to add insult to injury it's killing the video progress bar again and no amount of gerfingerpoken with options is stopping it from doing so. It's possible I figured something out last time and have since forgotten what it was and my googlefu is no longer cutting it but if someone else notices it and has a solution I'll be greatly in their debt...
     
  16. j.c.f.

    j.c.f. MDL Member

    Mar 1, 2016
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    Hmm, I'm betting the TPM 2.0 requirement for win11 means no more NSUDO which means no super user access and no more WMC. I guess the latest work to fully export all the system DLLs WMC in 8.8.5 might just mean that WMC can install with a normal administrator privileges instead of super user ones but that's beyond my pay grade. win10 has support till 2025, maybe we'll get a few more years of extended support I suppose. Of course that might not matter if everything goes ATSC 3.0...
     
  17. technodevotee

    technodevotee MDL Senior Member

    Sep 18, 2015
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    I haven't had a chance to try it yet but people on TGB are reporting that it still works
     
  18. acer-5100

    acer-5100 MDL Guru

    Dec 8, 2018
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    For now there are likely 15 ways to install W11 w/o any tpm (even in 15 years old PCs), and WMC works just fine. (original T-S 8.8.1 installer + wmc multitool)
    We will see if they enforce the TPM requirement in the official release.

    BTW, here the switchoff to HEVC/H265 codec transmissions will start in matter of months and looks like WMC doesn't like those codecs, if coming from the TV broadcasts.

    So unless someone figure how to patch WMC to digest the new standards, WMC will die before MS kills it.
     
  19. j.c.f.

    j.c.f. MDL Member

    Mar 1, 2016
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    Yeah, we can hope that the blow back is so huge that MS give up the TPM requirement but I'm not holding my breath, they've been at this stuff for years (look up Paladium some day). Basically they want to stop people pirating 4K streams and the way that apparently gets done is by hacking one's OS, essentially what we do to run WMC. In any event I'm happy enough using win10, on the upside maybe we won't have to uninstall and reinstall WMC on a yearly basis because they'll just start providing security updates instead of the stupid feature stuff.

    As for ATSC, yeah there are 3.0 stations in Phoenix and LA is next. The powers that be have mandated keeping the old ATSC 1.0 stuff going for a few years, I'm betting that the bit rates of the 1.0 streams will get knocked back at some stage and we'll loose HD (but not the aspect ratio).
     
  20. j.c.f.

    j.c.f. MDL Member

    Mar 1, 2016
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    Yeah, I noticed the most recent Insider Preview is 10.0.22000, one of my users used it and I'm like what's that and go and look it up and I see it's the win11 preview so one can in fact check it out fairly painlessly. Not sure I'm about to though.