The Cumulative Update for Media Center for Windows 7 (KB977863) has been released to Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center. 

x86: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=ebc79f54-744b-4b43-9d03-84e3a5e8a59d

 

x64: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=e0506961-68a5-43ff-b29f-300c5a4eef03

 

KB article link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977863

 

Any idea what "Improves the overall experience for systems that are configured by using digital cable card tuners" actually consists of?

Tim, after dealing with MS for as long as I have, there is always the 'private' list of things that have been fixed.  The list of changed files seems to indicate that there is indeed more behind the scenes on this update, if that's true can you share what, if anything, else was fixed/changed with this update?  I only ask because frankly it seems that every one of these that comes out messes up as many people as it fixes, and if we know the whole story in advance we can judge for ourselves if we want to use it.

Again, maybe the KB article is 100% accurate, but it doesn't feel that way.  I've seen the "real" spreadsheet of things resolved in a Service Pack as opposed to what the KB article says before, and it always seems like only 40-50% of the story is made public.

 Thanks in advance, not trying to make you angry.  Just trying to keep my box working this time.  "Burn me once (or thrice), shame on me" kind of thing.

KB article link appears dead to me...

...not that it matters a lot, since I don't have my HTPC built yet, because Ceton hasn't released their tuner yet. YOU HEAR ME JEREMY HAMMER? [shakes fist angrily at no one in particular]

[EDIT] It seems to be working now. Carry on.

Link is working for me, installing as we speak.  Maybe it will help speed up channel changing on the DCTs.  I'll update if I see any noticeable differences.

 -Sean

It is a challenge to identify the correct level of information.  Since Media Center is primarily consumer focused, the information provided in the KB article is very high level to provide broad picture of areas of impact.  For this update, that's extensibility applications, digital cable card tuners, issue specific to Hijri calendar and recorded TV and systems with ISDB tuners.

There can be additional considerations on what information we provide ranging from impact of the issue (some affect only small subset in specific region yet nature of the issue warrants release to Windows Update) to consideration for partners.  I will try to provide more detailed information where appropriate for future Cumulative Update releases.

Sorry for being dense, but do we need to actively download this update, or will our Windows Updates push this to us at some time in the future (if it hasn't already)?

 

Thanks,

Oy.

Well, my overall experience just went significantly south after installing this update. Recordings on my cable card tuners failed with "tuner is not working or is not installed" and I couldn't tune to any of the channels, either. I also have a HDHomeRun and it was recording fine on the HDHomeRun, but 20 minutes ago it was supposed to record Nip/Tuck on FX HD, which failed with the above error. Just uninstalled the update and now my DCTs are working again. Way to go eHome team!

This installed overnight with Automatic Updates & now  MC crashes everytime I try to navigate around Recorded TV

Consequently, I too will be uninstalling this "update", not sure what I'm missing. I have been having the ATI HD4550 Mpeg4 TV picture pixelisation/block issue & was hoping this might have had a fix for this.....ATI Catalyst CC 10.2 didn't fix it..... the wait goes on......

I was hoping this would fix the problem with the missing guide data when sharing recorded tv shows with other Media Center PC's. 

Haven't noticed anything major after installing this update. My default sound device was changed to my SPDIF after the install and my ATI HDMI sound device wasn't even in the list of devises in the sound control panel. Went to device manager, uninstalled the ATI HDMI sound device, rescanned for new hardware, it reinstalled and it showed up in the sound control panel and I was able to set it to default. It works now.

Wheeker:

This installed overnight with Automatic Updates & now  MC crashes everytime I try to navigate around Recorded TV

Consequently, I too will be uninstalling this "update", not sure what I'm missing. I have been having the ATI HD4550 Mpeg4 TV picture pixelisation/block issue & was hoping this might have had a fix for this.....ATI Catalyst CC 10.2 didn't fix it..... the wait goes on......

Wheeker -

I've sent you email asking for additional information around this crash.  I'm hoping you're able to help us identify what might be happening here as we saw no crashing behavior in our testing of KB977863.

Tim,
Any thoughts on the tuner not working issue I ran into last night and posted a few posts up? Have you guys tested this update on a system with DCTs and a HDHomeRun? My system appears to be working again now after uninstalling the update. The episode that failed last night aired an hour later and it recorded properly after I managed to uninstall the update prior to the start of the recording. I might give the update another try over the weekend when I have more time.

I'm running Release 20100121 of the HDHomeRun driver, which contains the receiver service deadlock workaround, which as far as I understand is caused by a bug in Media Center. I'm wondering if this workaround conflicts with one of your fixes.

We're aware of the deadlock issue and investigating.  While too early in the process to go into details on this, there is no obvious connection between the issues addressed in KB977863 and the deadlock issue nor did we have any negative feedback on our testing of KB977863 on systems with HDHomeRun tuners. 

 

 

TimSchreck-MS:

We're aware of the deadlock issue and investigating.  While too early in the process to go into details on this, there is no obvious connection between the issues addressed in KB977863 and the deadlock issue nor did we have any negative feedback on our testing of KB977863 on systems with HDHomeRun tuners. 

What's your recommendation then? All I know at this point is that my system had no issues before installing the update, after installing the update the DCTs stopped working and started working again after uninstalling the update.