New WMC7 installs w/Playready (Copy protected cable)

[seang86s]

Has anyone been able to set up a new Windows 7 Media Center install with a cable provider that has copy protected channels? I can't get past the Playready activation and without that, I can't receive copy protected cable channels.

I have an older machine that is running Windows 7 from years ago and it works fine in that regard. I also set up a VM under Hyper-V in early January and that also works fine. I tried to set up another VM after the Windows 7 support cutoff date but that one refuses to activate Playready. I tried quite a few different steps outlined on here to activate Playready and haven't been successful. I'm wondering if new installs of Playready will no longer work due to Microsoft pulling support for something on the back end.

[joelkirzner]

No idea about whether EOL Jan 14, 2020, on W7 affects Playready activation.
I can tell you that over the past DECADE plus of reformatting W7 machines, I've always had issues with Playready activation.
Eventually, I get it to succeed, but I have to dig back into MY OWN posts on this forum to see how I did it!

It's a pain in the butt, for sure. Hopefully, new installs can still be activated with playready; otherwise, you will be missing a lot of channels, not just premiums. My Verizon FIOS protects all premiums, PLUS all fox networks, along with others.

[seang86s]

I've installed W7 MCE several times over the years (been using MCE since XP) and I've always gotten Playready to activate one way or another. Most of the time on a fresh install, its actually been pretty easy. Right now, I can't get it to work even after trying all the tricks on here.

Just about all Cablevision channels are marked Copy Once so without Playready, I'll have to ditch Media Center.

[Paint]

I was able to get it to work. I needed to go through the digital cable adviser dialogs again, then call Microsoft to activate.

the command below should show that OCUR and Windows 7 are both activated

Code: Select all

cscript %systemroot%\system32\slmgr.vbs -dlv

Code: Select all

cscript %windir%\system32\slmgr.vbs /ato <activationid>

Where <activationid> is the Activation ID listed under the OCUR add-on.

if you run the command below via the command line, you should get the activation screen:

Code: Select all

SLUI 0x4

[Space]

No idea about whether EOL Jan 14, 2020, on W7 affects Playready activation.
I can tell you that over the past DECADE plus of reformatting W7 machines, I've always had issues with Playready activation.
Eventually, I get it to succeed, but I have to dig back into MY OWN posts on this forum to see how I did it!

It's a pain in the butt, for sure. Hopefully, new installs can still be activated with playready; otherwise, you will be missing a lot of channels, not just premiums. My Verizon FIOS protects all premiums, PLUS all fox networks, along with others.

Verizon FiOS does not protect all premiums. The only copy-once channels on Verizon FiOS are:

All Fox cable networks:
FX
FXX
Fox Sports
BTN
Fox Business Channel
Fox News
National Geographic
Fox Movie Channel

Premium Channels:
HBO
Cinemax

All other channels are not copy-once (including premium channels such as Showtime, Starz, TMC, Epix, etc.)

I was able to get it to work. I needed to go through the digital cable adviser dialogs again, then call Microsoft to activate.
...

You have to call Microsoft to get Playready to work? How long will that work if Win7/WMC is no longer supported?
Are you sure this is the only way to get it to work? Is there still some Microsoft server somewhere that needs to be updated or do they give you some sort of code to activate it?

If I already have a working Playready with my existing cable provider, and I change cable providers, will I have to go through these steps, or will Playready continue to work with the new provider (and new cable card).

[stuartm]

I don't think PlayReady has to be set up again if you change cable providers. I believe it just defines properties and keys of your particular "client" otherwise the model would be far too unwieldy since various streaming content (not cable TV) can use PlayReady protection as well and I don't think you need to redo PlayReady setup any time a new streaming content provider uses DRM.

[Paint]

No idea about whether EOL Jan 14, 2020, on W7 affects Playready activation.
I can tell you that over the past DECADE plus of reformatting W7 machines, I've always had issues with Playready activation.
Eventually, I get it to succeed, but I have to dig back into MY OWN posts on this forum to see how I did it!

It's a pain in the butt, for sure. Hopefully, new installs can still be activated with playready; otherwise, you will be missing a lot of channels, not just premiums. My Verizon FIOS protects all premiums, PLUS all fox networks, along with others.

Verizon FiOS does not protect all premiums. The only copy-once channels on Verizon FiOS are:

All Fox cable networks:
FX
FXX
Fox Sports
BTN
Fox Business Channel
Fox News
National Geographic
Fox Movie Channel

Premium Channels:
HBO
Cinemax

All other channels are not copy-once (including premium channels such as Showtime, Starz, TMC, Epix, etc.)

I was able to get it to work. I needed to go through the digital cable adviser dialogs again, then call Microsoft to activate.
...

You have to call Microsoft to get Playready to work? How long will that work if Win7/WMC is no longer supported?
Are you sure this is the only way to get it to work? Is there still some Microsoft server somewhere that needs to be updated or do they give you some sort of code to activate it?

If I already have a working Playready with my existing cable provider, and I change cable providers, will I have to go through these steps, or will Playready continue to work with the new provider (and new cable card).

If you run the command below, you will see that the activation URL is now a KB FAQ link. This is why the electronic activation of windows 7 and within windows media center do not work anymore.

The only way I was able to reactivate my OCUR license after changing some major hardware in my Win7 machine, was to call microsoft.

Code: Select all

cscript %systemroot%\system32\slmgr.vbs -dlv

[seang86s]

Strange. I was able to activate both Windows 7 and the OCUR without a problem electronically. Playready still refuses to update.

Is this an install you done before the support cutoff date?

[seang86s]

Here's a screenshot of my Windows 7 licenses, both of which activated online.



I did try activating an install via phone and I was successful, but Playready still fails to work.

Playready fails to update:

[joelkirzner]

I found a link to the solution I've used in the past:
viewtopic.php?t=3760

Hope that helps.

[seang86s]

Thanks for the tip but I've already tried this and it didn't help.

[seang86s]

Hi folks. Please try activating Playready now and see if it works for you. I was able to activate a Windows 7 and a Windows 8.1 install.

Unfortunately, I'm doing this remotely so I haven't actually tried tuning in a Copy Once flagged channel yet.

Follow thread: viewtopic.php?f=49&t=12878 for more updates.

[trelf]

@seang86s, are you around? For whatever reason, a PlayReady update was triggered on my main HTPC, and I'm right back in the place we were before last Thursday. Try as I might, PR fails to update. Ugh. I was kind of hoping you're still in contact with MS, or could point me in the right direction. Heeeeeeeelp. Thanks!

[Ken H]

I just got a refurbished PC with Windows 7 Pro installed on it, and installed a graphics card that I've used before which supports HDCP. The Digital Cable Advisor (I'm an Xfinity subscriber) says I'm good, and PlayReady installs good, but when i tune channels some of them say no dice, the PC isn't digital cable ready.

I'm going to beat on it for awhile and I'll get back with results.

[Dkeyguy1]

- Ensure that you're logged in with admin rights, and that under Control Panel->Folder Options->View, you have "Show Hidden Files, Folders and drives" selected and "Hide protected operating system files" unchecked.

- From Control Panel->Programs and Features, uninstall "PlayReady PC Runtime" if present (x86 or x64 as appropriate)



net stop ehrecvr

cd %programdata%\Microsoft\PlayReady

del *.hds

rmdir /s Cache

cd %programdata%\Microsoft\ehome

del *.hds

rmdir /s Cache

- Go to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\DRM and delete all files and folders underneath (don't delete the DRM directory itself)

net start ehrecvr


Run Windows Media Center. Update PlayReady by going through Tasks, Settings, TV, TV Signal, Update PlayReady.

[Dkeyguy1]

Works for me every time

[kapqa]

- Ensure that you're logged in with admin rights, and that under Control Panel->Folder Options->View, you have "Show Hidden Files, Folders and drives" selected and "Hide protected operating system files" unchecked.

- From Control Panel->Programs and Features, uninstall "PlayReady PC Runtime" if present (x86 or x64 as appropriate)



net stop ehrecvr

cd %programdata%\Microsoft\PlayReady

del *.hds

rmdir /s Cache

cd %programdata%\Microsoft\ehome

del *.hds

rmdir /s Cache

- Go to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\DRM and delete all files and folders underneath (don't delete the DRM directory itself)

net start ehrecvr


Run Windows Media Center. Update PlayReady by going through Tasks, Settings, TV, TV Signal, Update PlayReady.

Hello ,

tried this method just now (September 2022)
seems not to work on my computer

for no apparent reason (other than W7 is EOL?) i am getting the error
Update PlayReady
"Windows Media Center cannot connect to the Internet. Check your Internet Connection and try again"
Do you want to try again?
xYes
xNo

[garyan2]

Install PlayReady yourself from here (https://garyan2.github.io/drm.html).

[joeski]

I cloned the drive from my quite old pc that had been my previous WMC computer to a newer one (that way I had all my settings and setup already done). Worked for the most part but I am getting the same thing that kapqa was getting above...

Update PlayReady
"Windows Media Center cannot connect to the Internet. Check your Internet Connection and try again"
Do you want to try again?
xYes
xNo

I have gone through the steps above to delete the hds and cache files and removed PlayReady. WMC knew it was missing and reinstalled it but when trying to update I get the connection failure - any thoughts?

[joeski]

FYI - got it to work with the ResetDRM file at https://garyan2.github.io/drm.html - thanks again for another win!