WMC 8.8.5 MSI Installation Package for Win10/11

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

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#201

Post by John UTAZ » Thu Apr 27, 2023 3:00 pm

"I really don't know why someone would hold on to WMC if not for cablecard use. Nearly every major network has it's own streaming or is part of some package somewhere."

We have very good OTA and WMC/epg123 is far superior to streaming or watching as part of some package. The ability to fast forward, avoid commercials plus most major networks only allow a few episodes and then lock the rest without a subscription. Plus, part of some package normally comes with $$$ attached.

Not looking for a debate as I use it for my reasons and others make their own decisions but we are glad that Gary & WMC/epg123 have kept this option available.

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StinkyImp

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#202

Post by StinkyImp » Thu Apr 27, 2023 5:21 pm

John UTAZ wrote: Thu Apr 27, 2023 3:00 pmWe have very good OTA and WMC/epg123 is far superior to streaming or watching as part of some package...
Agreed! I threw a cheap yagi antenna on my roof years ago and in my market (as of my last scan) I have 104 OTA channels. Granted, a bunch aren't interesting but it includes every major and minor network.

So that's why I'm holding on to WMC :D

prsa01

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#203

Post by prsa01 » Fri Apr 28, 2023 10:46 am

StinkyImp wrote: Thu Apr 27, 2023 5:21 pm
John UTAZ wrote: Thu Apr 27, 2023 3:00 pmWe have very good OTA and WMC/epg123 is far superior to streaming or watching as part of some package...
Agreed! I threw a cheap yagi antenna on my roof years ago and in my market (as of my last scan) I have 104 OTA channels. Granted, a bunch aren't interesting but it includes every major and minor network.

So that's why I'm holding on to WMC :D
Agree! We certainly stream more content than in the past but while we don't get quite as many Ota as you we certainly get plenty of content that way. We've been so used to all the dvr features going all the way back to the original ReplayTV that watching live TV just seems lacking. We can barely watch sports anymore live it seems so slow and ad filled.

FYI - To the user talking about missing dvr features for streaming content, "Video Stream Controller" is a chrome browser plug-in that allows many of those features on streams. I've only tried it on mlb.tv and pluto so far but it allows skip, ff, etc on those streams and makes them much more watchable for us. For mlb we can watch at 1.5x speed (or whatever) and skip commercials.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta ... ppdk?hl=en

joeer77

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#204

Post by joeer77 » Tue May 09, 2023 11:52 pm

There's life after cable cards and WMC guys. Comcast Xfinity jacked up the price so much on me last Aug I said enough was enough. I too had a Ceton Tuner and used WMC since 2011 and saved a ton of money. Just not worth it to me anymore.

Since I gave up on WMC and Ceton cable card tuner, I have been using HDHomerun dual tuner for OTA TV. Silicon Dust charge $3 a month for DVR service. It has been great and recording organization almost as good as WMC. I also just started using Sling TV for $40 a month. In combo this makes a pretty good viewing package if you get all the major networks over the air.

Kudos to Gary for trying to keep WMC alive for Windows 10/11.

redsoxcpc

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#205

Post by redsoxcpc » Fri May 19, 2023 8:00 am

scott750 wrote: Tue Apr 25, 2023 12:22 am
redsoxcpc wrote:My model is NUC12WSHi5. It has 2 HDMI and 2 Thunderbolt ports. I only use HDMI. I can't imaging they will impact WMC, but I'll investigate. Thanks.
Did you ever find out if switching to v8.9.0 fixed your video problem with your NUC 12? I'm looking to update my old HTPC to a NUC 13 which also has Iris Xe IG and want to know if I should hold off until Intel fixes their driver issues first.

Sent from my SM-S906U1 using Tapatalk
WMC v8.9.0 did not work well on NUC 12. I bought a mini-PC based on AMD Ryzen 5 5600H CPU. It worked smoothly.
The problem with NUC 12 was apparently caused by graphics driver, and Intel refused to fix it. The NUC 12 was repurposed.

scott750

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#206

Post by scott750 » Sat May 20, 2023 2:38 am


redsoxcpc wrote:
WMC v8.9.0 did not work well on NUC 12. I bought a mini-PC based on AMD Ryzen 5 5600H CPU. It worked smoothly.
The problem with NUC 12 was apparently caused by graphics driver, and Intel refused to fix it. The NUC 12 was repurposed.
Thank you for updating me. That's sad to hear Intel won't take this issue seriously. I'll start looking into a Ryzen mini-pc, as I've only ever had Intel based PCs.

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sunnyevw

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#207

Post by sunnyevw » Sun May 28, 2023 12:56 am

[/quote]
you can just go the Windows Apps and click 'Modify' on Windows Media Center and choose to repair the installation.
[/quote]

I'm running windows 11 22H2. The Modify option in Add/Remove Programs is greyed out, leaving only the uninstall. Is this expected?

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garyan2

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#208

Post by garyan2 » Tue May 30, 2023 6:35 pm

sunnyevw wrote: Sun May 28, 2023 12:56 am I'm running windows 11 22H2. The Modify option in Add/Remove Programs is greyed out, leaving only the uninstall. Is this expected?
Yes, it is expected now. I had to remove that option since a Modify/Repair option would wipe the registry and you would have to perform setup again. Might as well uninstall/reinstall.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

Kirben

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#209

Post by Kirben » Fri Jun 02, 2023 11:24 pm

I'm having strange performance issues, Media Centre starts up fine and runs smoothly. But the interface slows to a crawl, if I use Live TV, even after I stop the Live TV. If I close and restart Media centre, the interface speed is back to normal.
All video playback (Blu-ray via Power DVD, DVD or Live TV via Media Centre) is fine, only the Media Centre interface slows down.

I recently upgraded to an Intel NUC11PAHi5, clean install using all the latest drivers. The system uses the Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics, but I can't reproduce the other problems mentioned on similar systems above.

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garyan2

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#210

Post by garyan2 » Fri Jun 02, 2023 11:45 pm

The only thing I can think of right offhand is your storage location. WMC will buffer/save the video stream to the drive... the other functions of WMC do not do that. I'd open your Resource Monitor to see if either your memory or drive usage is high while watching live TV.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

Kirben

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#211

Post by Kirben » Sat Jun 03, 2023 4:08 am

The system disk is on an SSD, and Media Centre uses a new Western Digital 2.5" 2T drive. Live TV is via ethernet from a HD Home Run.
The disk and memory usage isn't that high on the resource monitor. I noticed the GPU usage in Task Manager is rather high (88-90) when using the Media Centre interface though.

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garyan2

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#212

Post by garyan2 » Sat Jun 03, 2023 6:25 am

Ah, sorry. Should have looked up your NUC. There have been plenty of reports that the newer gen Intel GPU drivers don't work well with WMC. Not sure if there is a workaround, but there are probably a number of threads here to look at.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

Kirben

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#213

Post by Kirben » Sat Jun 03, 2023 2:01 pm

Only crash and freeze issues are mentioned above, and in the related article at Intel though. I can't find any other references to using the Intel Iris Xe Graphics with Windows Media Centre.

What is the last known Intel NUC series that still works well with Windows Media Centre?

technodevotee

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#214

Post by technodevotee » Sat Jun 03, 2023 2:50 pm

I've got a NUC 10 and that has been OK running WMC so far.

However, given that Intel don't care about WMC because it is not supported by Microsoft, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they break it on that as well.

I am pretty sure that WMC will just stop working with most modern GPUs and drivers one day for the same reason.

I am having video/sound break up issues running WMC with the AMD cards in my other PCs and I'm pretty sure that is related to the Windows 10/11 drivers not 'knowing or caring' about WMC.

Other software works fine, it is just WMC that is having problems.

I went through horrible problems with WMC using the onboard Intel graphics on my HTPC a few years ago but Intel fixed eventually.

Kirben

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#215

Post by Kirben » Sun Jun 04, 2023 2:01 pm

Does Windows Media Centre actually require specific support in graphics drivers though?
If it is just a case of uncommon drivers features, couldn't we find other effected games or software?

Kevin Chalet

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#216

Post by Kevin Chalet » Thu Nov 30, 2023 11:51 am

If anyone is interested, I'm looking for users who own a recent Intel NUC 11/12/13 to test a patched version of ehshell.dll that may help with the issues described here: viewtopic.php?p=152427#p152427 :mrgreen:

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