PlayReady Issues After Fresh install of Windows 10

Discussion of getting WMC to work on Windows 10 (unsupported)
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WINDOWSMCEIT

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PlayReady Issues After Fresh install of Windows 10

#1

Post by WINDOWSMCEIT » Tue Jan 24, 2023 12:24 am

Hello everyone,

I am running a fresh install of WINDOWS 10 PRO X64 with WINDOWS MCE 8.9.0 and Playready 1.3.10 (Manually installed). The problem I am having is whenever i am prompted to update PLAYREADY it says it cannot connect
to the internet. Even though I have tried to turn off the WINDOWS FIREWALL, and even made an exception in the firewall for WINDOWS MCE. I can't get a live signal. The TV TUNER is already installed. Please help.


Specs:
AMD RYZEN 2200G (4C/4T)
8GB DDR4
500GB in NVME Storage
AMD RADEON VEGA 8 IGPU
Windows 10 Professional X64
Last edited by WINDOWSMCEIT on Tue Jan 24, 2023 1:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

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garyan2

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#2

Post by garyan2 » Tue Jan 24, 2023 12:42 am

I just successfully did this to check it out. YMMV.

In WMC, goto settings/General/Windows Media Center Setup/Set Up Internet Connection and set it for an always on internet connection (select 'Yes'). IMPORTANT: DO NOT CLICK THE [TEST] BUTTON. IT WILL LOCK UP WMC.

Close WMC.

Manually install PlayReady 1.3.0. Version 1.3.10 does absolutely nothing for you and I believe I saw in the WMC code that it checks for 1.3.0 and not 1.3.10.

In WMC, goto settings/General/Windows Media Center Setup/Install PlayReady and go through the prompts. It shouldn't try to check for PlayReady over the internet and will complete automatically because you just installed it.

So you should uninstall 1.3.10 and then try the sequence above.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#3

Post by garyan2 » Tue Jan 24, 2023 12:45 am

I guess I should note... if you are using WMC in Win10 for OTA, you don't need PlayReady at all. PlayReady is only for CableCARD users in the USA, and then you can only use CableCARDs on Win10 1511 or older.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#4

Post by WINDOWSMCEIT » Tue Jan 24, 2023 1:13 am

UPDATE 1: Uninstalled PLAYREADY 1.3.10. Re-ran the tv setup and it says PLAYREADY UPDATE IS INCOMPLETE. It will not let me go any further. Thank you for your help in advance.

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#5

Post by WINDOWSMCEIT » Tue Jan 24, 2023 1:13 am

UPDATE 1.1: The setup is for OTA content only.

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garyan2

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#6

Post by garyan2 » Tue Jan 24, 2023 1:17 am

If it is for OTA only, don't even bother installing PlayReady.

You don't want to try to install PlayReady as part of TV Setup, you want to go through WMC settings I outlined above. Trying during TV Setup will cause WMC to try and get it over the internet and will fail.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#7

Post by WINDOWSMCEIT » Tue Jan 24, 2023 1:38 am

MORE CONTEXT: As I go through the TV SIGNAL SETUP it asks to update PLAYREADY

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garyan2

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#8

Post by garyan2 » Tue Jan 24, 2023 2:34 am

So if you uninstall PlayReady, does it still ask to update it? Is there the option to say 'No'?
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#9

Post by WINDOWSMCEIT » Tue Jan 24, 2023 6:27 am

So if you uninstall PLAYREADY, and run WINDOWS MEDIA CENTER as administrator it will install PLAYREADY 1.3.10, and then proceed to do it all over again a second time. This causes LIVE TV Content to not work.
I do not know what am i missing here, but this does not feel like normal MCE Behavior.

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#10

Post by jerryrigit » Sun Jan 29, 2023 3:49 am

garyan2 wrote: Tue Jan 24, 2023 12:45 am I guess I should note... if you are using WMC in Win10 for OTA, you don't need PlayReady at all. PlayReady is only for CableCARD users in the USA, and then you can only use CableCARDs on Win10 1511 or older.
OMG! This thread just resolved an issue I was having with random delayed start (0-50 seconds) at the beginning of playback of recorded or live OTA TV. After removing PlayReady per Gary's note, my random delayed starts subsided. I wasn't aware PlayReady was only for Cable until reading this. THANK YOU GARY!!!

Last week I upgraded from OTA WMC on Win 8.1 Pro to Win 10 Pro and installed Gary's wonderful 8.9.0 WMC MSI install. For ~13 years I have only used WMC with OTA and believe PlayReady was installed as default by the original MS Win 8 WMC Pack back in 2013. The Control Panel->Programs and Features listed it way down the list as installed in January 2013, even though I recently upgraded to Windows 10 Pro. This 2013 date corresponds to when the system had the WMC Pack installed. If I only would have done a clean install instead of an upgrade install of Win 10, I could have avoided this issue all together.

I recently donated to Gary for all his help with WMC MSI and EPG123. I hope others do too!

THANK YOU GARY for all your help keeping WMC alive!!!

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#11

Post by sunnyevw » Fri May 26, 2023 8:29 pm

garyan2 wrote: Tue Jan 24, 2023 12:45 am I guess I should note... if you are using WMC in Win10 for OTA, you don't need PlayReady at all. PlayReady is only for CableCARD users in the USA, and then you can only use CableCARDs on Win10 1511 or older.
After local OTA TV started complaining of problems needing a PlayReady solution, I wasted a couple of hours messing with that. I upgraded to the new 8.9.1 MSI installed WMC and still had the problem. I found and installed a PlayReady 1.3 (after removing my 1.3.10), but still had the problem. Using your hint about Win10 OTA not needing PlayReady, I uninstalled PlayReady and the OTA started working! Thanks for the hint!

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#12

Post by sunnyevw » Fri May 26, 2023 10:42 pm

OOPS! I spoke too soon . . .
OTA TV worked until I hit an "on demand" channel, which gave me the Update PlayReady screen. Now any OTA channels give me the Update Play Ready, even after a reboot. It's broken again :(

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#13

Post by StinkyImp » Sat May 27, 2023 3:18 pm

sunnyevw wrote: Fri May 26, 2023 10:42 pmOTA TV worked until I hit an "on demand" channel...
I'm legitimately curious. In my local market (United States) I have 100+ OTA channels available and not a single one is on demand. What channel or call sign in your market is "on demand". :think:

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#14

Post by garyan2 » Sat May 27, 2023 3:23 pm

So you're not really OTA, but are ClearQAM?

Here's what I would try:
1. Close WMC and uninstall PlayReady.
2. Run ResetDRM (https://garyan2.github.io/downloads/DRM/ResetDRM.zip)
3. Reboot.
4. Install PlayReady 1.3.0 (https://garyan2.github.io/downloads/DRM ... PC_x64.msi)
5. Open WMC and go to setting/General/Windows Media Center Setup and select 'Install PlayReady'
- Gary
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#15

Post by sunnyevw » Sat May 27, 2023 8:11 pm

garyan2 wrote: Sat May 27, 2023 3:23 pm So you're not really OTA, but are ClearQAM?
. . .
My TV tuner card takes SVGA input from my Comcast cable box and has been working for years until a recent glitch started complaining about PlayReady. Following your instructions, I closed WMC, ran the ResetDRM script, rebooted windows, installed PlayReady 1.3.0, opened WMC and there was no "install PlayReady" menu item. That item only appears for me if I have not PlayReady installed. Have I done something wrong, or is the fact that I'm using my remote control of my Comcast cable box to feed my SVGA input part of my problem. I'm flailing wildly, with many hours of not getting it right. I've had two times where it started working, but attempting viewing of an "on demand" item breaks the path and I can't figure out how to (reliably) fix it. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Carl

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#16

Post by stuartm » Sat May 27, 2023 10:55 pm

Hmm, IIRC taking content from SVGA means you are exploiting the HDCP "hole" there is no copy protection on SVGA signals. You should not need PlayReady as all validation/decryption is being done by your cable box. (I assume your tuner card or PC uses an IR transmitter to tune the cable box when you tune a channel). Be sure you are configuring WMC for a set top box.

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#17

Post by sunnyevw » Sun May 28, 2023 1:38 pm

Discoveries after 3rd day of "fixing" (probably mostly true-from scribbled notes):
Starting with no PrintReady (PR) installed:
First time - ResetDRM, uninstall WMC (reboot), install WMC, LiveTV works!. Using remote, changed cable box to On Demand channel and started receiving PlayReady errors. After this "mode" was set, all subsequent attempts of LiveTV (even after reboots) gave PR errors.
observation: earlier versions of PR always wanted to update to PR1.3.10
Running ResetDRM, then WMC without PR would do "searching for tuners" for a long time with no success.
Once PR error mode was set, no LiveTV could be viewed.
While typing this (after a restore point from yesterday), I tried running WMC to find exact error from PR. The searching for tuner message showed up for a few seconds and then the LIveTV channel showed (without PR error). I'm going to leave the system as it is now (after another restore point is saved) to see if today's scheduled recording works. My big question for the group is "What is going on and how can I avoid the locked-in PR loop that I keep falling into"? I've spent about 15 hours over the last 3 days without getting smarter (finding a recipe to reliably address or even understand the problem).
Thanks for your help!
(environment: Win11 22h2, Hauppauge tuner with video input from Comcast cable box)

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