Windows Media Center isn't ready for the digital transition

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Mar 17th 2009 at 7:09PM

Media Center fans woke up to a rude awakening late last week when they realized that many of their OTA HD channels were missing guide data. After a number of reports at The Green Button -- where Microsoft is usually very receptive to programming data problems -- it become apparent that almost all the channels missing data were the very same ones where the broadcasters stayed on schedule and shut off their analog transmitters in February. We dropped a quick note to Microsoft to see what the deal is, but while we wait for a response we theorized that this might have something to do with the way OTA HD used to work in Windows Media Center Edition. Back in those days you had to have an analog tuner in order to add an HD tuner, so it makes some sense that the two were linked together, at least at some point. Further lending to this theory is the fact that those running the infamous TV Pack aren't affected and nor are those running a Windows 7 Beta -- MS completely rewrote how the tuners work in the newer releases. Now if you'll please excuse us while we go manually schedule all of our recordings, you know, like on an old VCR.

Filed under: Media PCs

Tags: Digital Transition, DigitalTransition, Media Center, MediaCenter, Vista Media Center, VistaMediaCenter, VMC, Windows media Center, WindowsMediaCenter

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

Frederic @ Mar 17th 2009 8:05PM

Not only that... Microsoft is not aware that Canada (you know... the largest country in the world that is about 125 miles north of Redmont?) also uses the ATSC standard! That's right, even though lots of Canadian broadcasters are now doing so in full high-definition using ASTC, we're still stuck with analog-only Media Center. Now that's not just "not ready for digital transition", it's not-ready-for-digital-at-all. At least my ATSC-enabled TV does not care in which country it is...

Neutral

lilricky @ Mar 17th 2009 8:26PM

Yep, Microsoft seems to be completely ignoring Canada, which is kinda hard considering how close the Microsoft campus is to the border. Its silly to purposely piss off a whole country of willing consumers on purpose.

Neutral

Marcelino Martins @ Mar 17th 2009 10:00PM

Thank you, Ben, for reporting on this.

Engadget HD has the power to make MS give the right priority to this, as can be seen here:
http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/permalink/343325/344347/ShowThread.aspx#344347

As one of the people affected by this VMC Guide Outage, I thank you.

If you get an update on the fix, please report it here. I read this blog every day.

Marcelino Martins
http://mmartins.com

Neutral

anny @ Mar 18th 2009 3:48AM

very nice ,thanks for your sharing .,

Neutral

Phil @ Mar 18th 2009 7:52AM

The situation in the UK is the same for dvb-s. I can recieve about 1800 channels
but I only ever get now + next guide info (which only updates if you tune each
individual channel), so scheduling recordings is impossible. I even added an
analogue tuner and digibox to try to get $KY TV guide - still won't work.

I honestly don't think microsoft care either, threads on green button just
get ignored

Neutral

Mike @ Mar 18th 2009 8:29AM

Ben - I've seen this same problem too. My posts at TheGreenButton.com go unanswered so maybe this article will bring some exposure to light and light a fire under Microsoft to fix it.

Neutral

Mike Mosher @ Mar 18th 2009 11:19AM

I was able to get around this issue by hacking the registry and tricking the MCE guide. It took most of Sunday, but got it working. What a pain. I changed the registry keys that control the guide to point to my local digital cable provider. Had to determine what there guide code was. Then I deleted all the channels out of the atscchannels.xml file. Then I was able to manually setup the digital channels and associate them with the cable provider’s guide. Now I am getting guide data for the channels that my digital cable provider offers. I am missing guide data for the PBS substations and one other small carrier. But I do have guide data back for NBC and Fox. Can continue recording 24 and the Office. MS needs to get this fixed ASAP. By the way, I am running Vista.

Neutral

David Varney @ Mar 18th 2009 12:08PM

While I was setting up Win7 beta, I had to input a US zipcode from Grand Island NY, using that I got the guide with US and Canadian stations, although my indoor antenna cannot reach Buffalo, it did work for the Canadian OTA stations

Neutral

jolt @ Mar 18th 2009 2:27PM

I really like Media Center, but it does have its fallbacks. I have had past programming guide problems as well, but MS usually gets things taken care of. I agree they should be more responsive to end-user feedback. Part of the problem is that despite its technical merits, Media Center's market penetration, while admirable, still has a ways to go: http://www.statowl.com/microsoft_media_center.php

While there may be 25% market penetration, that is just the people who have it installed, the actual percentage that utilize Media Center is MUCH smaller. I think once Media Center catches on more, it will get more attention. Too bad you still cannot plugin a PCI cable card.

Neutral

Garst @ Mar 19th 2009 3:38AM

Unlike the Max X debacle of last summer, I'm not being affected by this. It sucked waking up Sunday only to find that Max X didn't record because WCIU added DRM that would let me record the show.

Neutral

Kevin @ Mar 21st 2009 4:09PM

Why doesn't this surprise me?

I mean, didn't they just finish fixing that whole Y2K thing?

Neutral

Jeff @ Mar 24th 2009 9:19PM

It is not true that this is not affecting Windows 7 beta users. I was fine until tonight...had guide data for all my OTA sub channels, and now I have nothing...no guide data, and apparently no hope of getting it. I'm running the 32 bit version of build 7057. It is incredible to me that Microsoft is so inept as to not have addressed this problem. I had such high hopes for Windows 7, and once again I guess I'll be forced to fall back to XP and something like BeyondTV.....Ugh.

Neutral

bohica @ Jun 23rd 2009 5:56PM

UPONLOOSING TV SIGNAL [DELL TECH SUPPORT INFORMED ME TO CONNECT A CONVERTER BOX] NOW I AM LOST JUST LIKE MY TV PICTURE! CAN ANYONE HELP ME?bohica@boom14verizon.net

The Best of Big Download: November 2 - 8 Japanese hardware sales, Oct. 26 - Nov. 1: Away we Go edition Final Fantasy XIII announcement possibly due on Nov. 13	HTML5 YouTube viewer: close, but not quite there Photoshop.com Mobile now available for Android devices Jailbroken iPhones in Australia getting Rickrolled by a worm
YouTube with all of the sizzle but none of the Flash Balloons! Sending out a mystery message on your iPhone Brenthaven: The best computer backpack I've ever seen	Sunday Funnies: Barron's predicting profits? Entrepreneur's Journal: Putting together a solid sales contract Walmart, Amazon now slash DVD prices: What's next?
Reminder: Watch the first episode of Halo Legends today [update: It's gone] Homemade Fallout 3 Shishkebab, make 'em now before the apocalypse Gears of War 2 celebrates first anniversary with triple XP	AutoblogGreen for 11.09.09 SEMA 2009 Worst of Show: This car stinks... The Tony Fox "Proud American" and "Bonneville Boss" Rocket Truck
The Best of Big Download: November 2-8 BioWare's Neverwinter Nights downloadable modules no longer available PC Modern Warfare 2 can't be played until Tuesday, even if you get it early	Four 'Contenders' in Serious Trouble Reborn Bengals Shut Baltimore Up Philip Rivers Redeems Self in 'Eli Bowl'