Release notes for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 (887793)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005

INTRODUCTION

This Microsoft Knowledge Base article describes known issues and other information about Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. These known issues were not previously documented in a Microsoft Knowledge Base article at the time that Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 was released.

MORE INFORMATION

Create CD/DVD

  • You may not be able to use Windows XP Media Center to create DVDs of some recorded TV shows. You may receive a "Create Failure" error message or an "Unsupported File Type" error message after you start the DVD creation process. To resolve this issue, try to re-record the show at the same quality setting or at a lower quality setting.
  • If you receive a "Create Failure" error message when you try to create a CD or a DVD, Windows XP Media Center may exhibit strange behavior. For example, the disc may appear full when it is not. Subsequent tries to create a DVD may fail. To avoid this issue, leave the Create CD/DVD experience, and then re-enter it. Also, you can quit Windows XP Media Center and then restart it.
  • The audio on a video DVD is down mixed to be dual mono instead of true 2.0 stereo. This means that surround sound or stereo effects will not be present.
  • When you create a video or a slide show DVD, the computer can require as much as 6 gigabytes (GB) of free hard disk space to create temporary files. If this space is not available, the creation process could fail. You may receive a "Low Disk Space" error message. Alternatively, the computer may stop responding. To resolve this issue, make sure that there is enough hard disk space available before you create a DVD.
  • If you use new DVD media in a writable drive, the "Insert Writable Media" message may still appear when you try to enter the Create CD/DVD experience. This issue may occur if the writable drive does not support the particular type of DVD media that you inserted. For example, some drives only support DVD+/-R media. These drives do not detect DVD+RW/-RW media. See your hardware documentation for more information.
  • Only content on the Media Center PC can be added to a CD or a DVD in the Create CD/DVD experience. If you try to select an item that is not on the Media Center PC during the Create CD/DVD experience, you receive an "Unsupported File Type" error message. The item is not added.

My TV

Record/PVR

  • If you manually rearrange the channel order, the schedule recording priorities may change. If you previously made decisions about which show to record when there was a recording conflict, these decisions may be overwritten by the priority of the series. To resolve this issue, review your recording schedule for recording conflicts after you reorder the lineup.
  • After you upgrade to Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 from Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004, the default recording quality is reset to Best. To change the recording quality settings, follow these steps:
    1. On the Media Center startup page, click Settings.
    2. On the Settings menu, click TV.
    3. On the TV Settings menu, click Recorder, and then click Recording Defaults.
    4. Under GENERAL RECORDING DEFAULTS, select the scroll control next to Quality.
  • Enhanced channel scanning is now available for TV viewers who receive a PAL broadcast and who have not downloaded Program Guide information or do not have the Program Guide available in their region. After you upgrade to Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, you must redo your scheduled recordings to map to the correct channel position.
  • Metadata may be missing for DVR-MS files that have been manually moved to your My Videos folder. This issue only occurs when the file belongs to an ongoing series recording on your Media Center PC.
  • Manual recordings that have automatically inherited metadata, such as Title, will not update if you change your Guide provider. The show will continue to record on the time that is specified, but the old metadata remains. To resolve this issue, cancel and then re-create the scheduled recording.
  • If you start and stop the Windows XP Media Center services while recordings are in progress, files may be created that have ".corrupt" or ".recovering" extensions in the Recorded TV folder. These files are large and cannot be deleted by using the Windows XP Media Center user interface. To work around this issue, you must manually delete these files by using Windows Explorer.
  • You cannot migrate the scheduled recording list by using the File and Settings Migration Wizard. To resolve this issue, copy the Recordings.xml file to an external media source before you upgrade. By default, the Recordings.xml file is located in the following folder:

    C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\eHome\Recording

    After the upgrade is complete, stop the Media Center Scheduler Service, and then copy the Recordings.xml file back to the Recording folder. To do this, follow these steps:
    1. Click Start, click Run, type sysdm.cpl, and then click OK.
    2. Right-click Media Center Scheduler Service, and then click Stop.
    3. Copy the Recordings.xml file from the external media source to the following folder:

      Drive:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\eHome\Recording

      Drive is drive letter of your local hard disk. This is generally drive C.
    4. Restart the Media Center Scheduler Service.
    5. Start Windows XP Media Center, and then verify the schedule.
  • If you experience a signal loss while you are recording a DVB-T broadcast, the History entry for the recording does not report the signal loss.
  • While you are recording, Windows XP Media Center might experience a loss of audio data or of video data from the TV Tuner. Windows XP Media Center stops the recording and then restarts it to try to recover. The recording ends up in two pieces.

TV Playback

  • After you set up Windows XP Media Center in a set-top box configuration, the stopped screen may be displayed if you press LIVE TV. If you press RESUME, the TV plays correctly.

My Videos

  • If you change Windows XP Media Center from full-screen mode to windowed mode while a video is paused, the video automatically starts playing. This does not occur for Live and Recorded TV or DVDs.
  • If you are viewing content from a shared network location through Windows XP Media Center, the video thumbnails are regenerated on each visit to My Videos if you do not have read/write permissions to that share. To avoid this, change the permissions to enable read/write access.

Playback

  • If you install a new version of Windows XP Media Center over an earlier version of Windows XP Media Center, Digital Rights Management (DRM) licenses on the Media Center PC are erased. This means that recorded premier TV content that has copy protection enabled will not have licenses. Therefore, you will not be able to play them after you install a new version of Windows XP Media Center. To avoid this, you must back up and restore the DRM licenses before you install the new version. To do this, you will use Microsoft Windows Media Player to access your DRM licenses. Follow these steps:
    1. Start Windows Media Player.
    2. On the Tools menu, click License Management.
    3. Click Change.
    4. Locate a folder in a partition that is not erased by a new installation of Windows XP Media Center, open that folder, and then click OK.
    5. In the License Management dialog box, click Back Up Now.
    To restore your license after you install a new version of Windows XP Media Center, follow these steps:
    1. Start Windows Media Player.
    2. On the Tools menu, click License Management.
    3. Click Change.
    4. Locate and then open the folder where you backed up the licenses. Click the back up file, and then click OK.
    5. In the License Management dialog box, click Restore Now.
Your protected recorded files should now be viewable.

Setup

  • The following information is for the French version of Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 only.

    When you upgrade from Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 to Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, if the recorded TV storage was set to a drive other than drive C, you must copy all recorded TV files from the "TV enregistrée" folder to the "Recorded TV" folder manually by using Windows Explorer. You can do this only after you set the recorded TV storage drive for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 TV settings to the same drive that was used for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004.

Technical support for Media Center

Because Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition was included with your hardware device or system, the hardware manufacturer provides technical support and assistance for this software. Your manufacturer may have customized the installation with unique components such as specific device drivers and optional settings to maximize the performance of that manufacturer's hardware. If you require technical help with Windows XP Media Center Edition, contact your manufacturer directly because the manufacturer is best qualified to support the software that the manufacturer has installed on the hardware.

You can also visit the Windows XP Media Center Edition product information Web site at the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/

Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:12/15/2005
Keywords:kbtshoot KB887793 kbAudEndUser kbAudOEM
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