I am seeing reports that Windows 7 Service Pack 1 is causing problems for people using Windows Media Center Extenders. There is a thread on TGB with numuors users complaining about an error “files needed to display video are not installed…” when playing back TV content on an Xbox 360. It looks like uninstalling the service pack does not fix the problem, so I would hold off install SP1 for now until we have more information. Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 doesn’t have any new features for Media Center users but I do remember seeing at least one Media Center fix included in the update.

The Media Center PC I have that connected to my Extender doesn’t have SP1 on it at the moment and works fine, so I am going to take one for the team and install SP1 on it and see if I can reproduce the problem and maybe work out a solution.

UPDATE: I have just installed on my Media Center machine and Recorded TV playback still works on my Xbox 360 Extender, my machine is 64bit with HD Homerun

If you have you SP1 installed please let me know if recorded TV playback is working and whether you have the 32 or 64bit Windows and which tuner you are using.

NewImage

26 thoughts on “Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Breaks Media Center Extenders? Updated”
  1. All my extenders (Linksys 2100, 2200 and Xbox 360) are working fine on 32bit Windows 7 SP1 – recorded TV is behaving itself. A few reloads of the music library, but that’s par for the course to be honest.

  2. I have installed SP1 on a 32-Bits machine, and both my XBox360s are working great. I have the Ceton tuner installed.

  3. I installed SP1 on my HTPC, and it did break my connection with my Linksys 2200. I am running Win7 Pro 64bit with a Ceton.. Ultimately I was able to reconnect it through media center. The thing is it took more than one attempt to work. The other problem that I have found with SP1 is that it appears to me that it has killed the sleep funtion on all of my systems. None of my systems go to sleep any more. I rolled back SP1 on one of my systems and sleep works fine again. This is a bigger concern for me. Has anyone else experienced this as well?

  4. It’s exactly as you described it: After SP1 install, recorded tv playback is not working, and moreover, live tv is not working on the xbox360 extender. The error message was something like “files needed …are not installed”, or similar in German. And uninstall did not fix the problem – I had to switchback to some disk image which was unfortunately some months old. Switching back to this image solved the issue, but installing SP1 again still breaks down live tv.
    But, I found something interesting in the media center event log: there is a “DRM error with media extender” each time i tried to access live tv or recordings. I found some article in the web related to hardware changes, and how to “reset” windows drm, but that did not work.
    I have a suspicion now: Maybe the problems are caused by a hardware update between the initial install of my windows 7 and the SP1 update? I have changed the CPU, harddisks and added another DVB-S2 card. Did that change something with the digital fingerprint of my system? I am using 32 Windows 7 Home, 2 TechnoTrend S2-1600 DVB S2 cards, and a Digital Devices cineS2 twin tuner DVB S2 card.

  5. I now have two inoperable XBOX media extenders after the Win7 SP1 install. Had to reestablish the connection to the Ceton card first, was easy and uneventful. Thougth that was the problem but it was not. I then thought it had to do with the fact that SP1 breaks Norton 360 (crippling the firewall due to API changes). After upgrading Norton 360 to v5, still not working. Next I removed/uninstalled the extenders and in trying to reinstall them was getting an error that Norton 360 was blocking the connection, so I uninstalled Norton 360 completely. Still unable to install the extenders, gets to the last step during setup (after building the catalog) and then fails saying the XBOX can’t connect. I did notice an XBOX update about the same timeframe, but evedently it wasn’t a fix. Very frustrating as I was just about to convert my wife to all MS based DVR:(

    Would be happy to attempt any recommended fixes or assist with troubleshooting.

    Win7 64bit Pro / ASUS P5W E6800 / 8 GB RAM / Ceton X4 Card / MCE Buddy -> MP4 -> Zune Sync -> WinPhone 7

    TJ

    1. Make sure Norton is completely off the system (use Microsoft Security Essentials is much better) and make then go through the connection wizard again and see if you can pair them up

  6. I have Windows 7 x64 ultimate and I don’t have any extender in WMC or any XBOX. But before installing SP1 I was able to watch, record and view recorded TV in my computer using my Digital TV Tuner but now I can’t watch TV or view recorded TV anymore. The weird thing is WMC is still capable of recording TV programs!! (the ones he was already programmed to record).
    I can’t watch those recorded TV programs in WMC, but If I load the .wtv files in another third party software like Media Player Classic, I can watch them.
    Also, the TV option has disappeared from the main menu of WMC

    1. try going thought the setup of Media Center again, I am guessing that you have a Setup TV option where live TV used to be

  7. My problem is very similar to what I read everywhere else with install of SP1 in Win 7. I now can’t access recorded or live tv on pc or extender (D-Link DSM 750) Also cant watch dvd rips or downloads but can watch AVI’s on both pc and ext. I have updated everything in sight from drivers to codec pack and eventually uninstalled all codec packs as they made no difference anyway. Less is more in my opinion. Audio is fine and I run FFDSHOW for audio. Any offers of help or experience would be appreciated.

  8. hi have a simular problem and it started a couple of days ago! i have s2-3650 and the FTA is still working whitout any problem in windows media center.
    the encrypted channels has all worked but now of some strange reson they dont.

    this is whats now happens:
    after a couple of seconds the channel freezes and if i change channel it show text “service is crypted” on all channels (exept FTA)
    i have to pull out the cabel ant put it back before i can see again…. but only for a few seconds until it freezes again.

    only thing i can image is that its might be a win update that has made it. one of the updates is SP1 för w7. unfourtunaly i cant undo the update.

    its making my hair gray

  9. installed SP1 on 64bit last night, xbox connected to pc fine through video library until this afternoon (neither computer or xbox were turned off or restarted during that time) xbox no longer appeared in network map on the computer, though was connected and using xbox live just fine through local router.

    After noticing that SP1 had ERASED the sharing settings to ALL of my folders on ALL of my hard drives, i reset the sharing settings on my movie/tv folders to “everybody: read” and the computer still would NOT see the xbox and the xbox would not see the computer, finally i UNCHECKED “stream my pictures,music, and videos to all devices on my network” and the SAVED CHANGES, then RECHECKED it and SAVED CHANGES, after about 15minute wait while the sharing settings were reset on the harddrives the computer IMMEDIATELY reappeared to the xbox and the xbox to the computer.

    TO FIX THIS, UNCHECK, SAVE THEN RECHECK the “stream ictures,music,video to all devices on my network” located in “controlpanel>all control panel items> homegroup”

    Cheers from the great white north, eh!

  10. I am very late to the game for really leveraging my Windows 7 Media Center, and I finally have setup my XBox 360 as an extender – which was sweet once I had doen it. But in looking at the other devices that Microsoft lists as compatible as Windows 7 Media center extenders (Samsung, HP, D-Link), are extenders basically dead as a product category except for the Xbox? I wanted to add an extender for another TV in the house (using a wired connection), but I don’t need another Xbox to do so.

  11. Has anyone found a fix for this? I just installed SP1 a few days ago, and now my extenders don’t work. I have 1 Linksys 2200 and 1 Xbox 360. They will play music, pictures, videos, but no Recorded TV or Live TV (WTV format?)

    I lost the System Restore point in making changes to try to fix this. I’m down to two options: restore from a backup or reload. I’ve spent at least 15 hours (!!) pouring through blogs, forums, wikis, etc…but no one seems to have resolved this yet (Phil’s fix above didn’t work).

    My setup: Ceton, Hauppauge 2250, 32-bit Windows 7, nVidia GeForce 9400, Intel processor.

    WAF dropping precipitously!!

    1. What is the sound of one hand clapping?

      If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

      What is the sound of Microsoft losing interest in a product?
      (Just ask MSN Music customers)

    2. Hi

      I was wondering if you (or anyone) found a resolution for the SP1 breaking extender (live + recorded) issue.

      Like everyone else I feel like I have changed about everything I can apart from doing a rebuild.

      Regards

      TW

  12. F*** MICROSOFT! I have 4 360’s in the house that were all capable of finding my 64bit copy and streaming all my vidoes, music, etc, think terrabytes and terrabytes of the stuff.
    Now since SP1 autoinstalled itself it’s screwed the lot. All the 360’s can still find the pc, but then just fail to load anything at all. I then tried WMC on one of the 360’s, got it installed and the library working, but then it failed to load the library ever again.
    Trying the same with another 360 was even worse, the pc fails to pick the 360 up as an extender.

    This has pissed me off to no end…. looks like no solution either, even though it’s been freakin months…..
    PS3 media server I hear calling, what’s the bet that I run into problems with that shutting itself down as it pleases again though….
    I swear I’m .this. close to switching to linux altogether……
    If anyone has a solution without needing a PS3 media type program please please please share it….

  13. I have the same problem. I did the xbox update a few weeks ago and the new console interface worked fine and it worked fine as an extender. Just recently I updated to Win 7 SP1 and my xbox cant be used to play recorded tv shows or watch live tv anymore. I can’t beleive that there is no fix released yet. Maybe there are not a ton of people using an xbox as an extender but this should be addressed asap for those who are.
    I do not have a restore point to use due to my haphazzard house cleaning so right now I can’t use my xbox as an extender, which is the main reason I bought it to begin with.
    If anyone has a fix to this problem, Please post it so we can all benefit.

    1. Hi

      I am 100% in the same boat as you. Have tried many attempted fixes – all to no avail.

      Would also love to hear of success stories in fixing this.

      TW

      1. Yeah, you would think after a year they would have a fix for this. It is bullcrap I can’t use my xbox as an extender anymore.

      1. I had this problem with my XBox and a Linksys Media Extender. I fixed it by going into Media Center on my computer: Tasks > Settings > General > Media Center > Run setup again. This restored all my functionality (after three days of pulling my hair out). I hope this helps others.

Leave a Reply to JustSmittyCancel reply