Recorded TV won't play, or Record

[Cyterio]

I've been beating my head against the wall with this error: Files needed to display video are not installed or are not working correctly. Restart Windows Media Center or restart the computer.
This is a fresh install of Windows 7 with nothing but the windows updates installed. I have 1 ATI DCT installed and working perfectly. My recorded tv is all that is throwing this error. Its really odd because, I have recorded movies over the air that I moved from recorded tv, to the movies strip and they play fine. I just can't record tv or play any old recorded tv.
I've tried audio drivers current and old, I've tried video drivers, current and old. I've tried the stereo settings with no luck. Its just really odd because I had this same setup running flawlessly last year and then I upgraded to windows 8. That lasted only a few months, and here I am back to windows 7 but with this mess now. Any suggestions?

[milli260876]

Playready??

[Cyterio]

I tried that as well and had no luck. I completely uninstalled and followed the instructions on SiliconeDusts website to update. I updated through Media Center and got to the confirmation screen informing me that I can now watch and record content. Live TV works fine, its just recorded tv that won't play, and I can't record.

[holidayboy]

Completely mad idea - have you tried moving the recorded TV storage location in tasks>settings>tv>recorder to a different hard drive just for a laugh?

I assume that live TV is broken too?

[Cyterio]

I have tried moving it, no change. I don't have a problem with live tv, it works fine. Like I mentioned before, I can play movies I ripped to the hard drive, I can play movies I recorded off a previous install of media center and moved from the recorded tv folder to the movies folder. Its only recorded tv that won't play, and I can't record tv. To give an example, I can tune a channel to watch, it will play fine, I will hit the record button to record it live, and media center will stop the show and throw up the message about needing files to play the video and try restarting. Maybe I'll just wipe the OS again and try one more time.

[holidayboy]

It was a mad idea! I'm not in the US so have no idea about DRM etc and whether that is involved, good luck. Maybe worth turning off media center in programs and features, then turning on again?

[dmagerl]

This isnt the old 5.1/stereo audio configuration bug, is it?

Make sure your audio set up in the Sounds control panel for the HDMI output device is set to stereo and MCE set to anything but that.

[Cyterio]

SOLVED!!! I decided to try playing the .wtv files with another player, VLC, which plays everything I've ever thrown at it. Well, even it wouldn't play the files. To make a long story short, I have 3 hard drives, one for the OS and two 1.5TB drives for media. Turns out Windows 8 along with home group must have fudged all my permissions. I had no problem accessing the folders and sub folders and viewing everything on those hard drives, just couldn't obviously play anything. I only figured this out when I tried to rename my recorded tv folder and it wouldn't let me. I changed all permissions back and it instantly started working fine.

The really odd thing was when it was broken and I tried to record a station, I would get the blue missing file screen. It actually recorded the station though and was viewable.
Thank you all for your suggestions!!!

[offroad]

Make sure you do the DIGITAL READY tests. Else drm will prevent you.