Conflicts between RVC and XP Media Center OS

[nkkiegem123]

yeah, it works on my computer.

[phoggy]

Well 2 more lost sales cause of this issue - installed the new demo on 2 separate computers with XP Pro and got the media center conflict on both within a day.
On one, uninstalling and rebooting resolved the problem. On the other even after uninstalling RVC, trying system restores, and trying several fixes from Microsoft, still could not get Windows Media Center to work, and had to reformat my hard drive. :-( .

[cdburdick]

Update: After weeks of researching and trying to get my MCE to work last year, it became a lost cause. I followed every suggestion to the letter, and it's been useless. I orginally bought the PC to use for the Media Center function. I finally threw in the towel and bought myself a new computer -- something I hadn't planned on doing for a few years.

I was really hoping that Applian would have come up with a fix by now. Maybe I should have asked for a refund while I was still eligible instead of being so patient in waiting for a fix. Your other software products are great, but RVC destroyed the main function of my PC. If I knew there was someone at Applian working on this issue, it would make me feel a tiny bit better. Just a tiny bit ...

Overall, I'm very happy with Applian products and their customer support. I purchased RVC less than 24 hours ago. I tried it out, but I couldn't get the audio to work. So I gave up and was going to try later. In the meantime, I went to use my Windows Media Center, and I kept getting Media Center Receiver Service errors every 10 seconds. A few hours of research produced no answers. Finally I uninstalled RVC, and the message stopped popping up. I thought all was fixed ... I couldn't be more wrong!!!

I've spent the last 6 hours trying to revive my MCE. I ran the setup several times, and all the componants seem to be in place and working. But I can no longer download the Media Guide (I have FiOS TV ... which is an absolutely amazing product!!!) and I keep getting an error message sauing, "Unable to load new guide file. Code: 23." I went to Microsoft and HP (I have an HP m7260n Media Center PC) to research electronic program errors, and none of the suggestions have worked. Besides being unable to load the guide, the live TV isn't working either so I can't even set up a manual recording.

I really like my Replay A/V suite, and thought RMC would be a good addition. But now I've lost the use of the Windows Media Center, which is why I bought the PC in the first place! I am devastated.

It's not even the issue of a refund ... I need to get my PC back and as one poster put it, "get on with my life."

Please. Help me. I'm begging.

[phoggy]

Amen cdburdick.
For an issue that apparently only involves 1-2 files conflicting with Windows Media Center and is obviously widespread - hard to believe a solution cannot be found.

And don't think this issue doesn't get posted on several websites reviewing the product. Too bad - as otherwise I'd give this software an excellent review.

[sawoobley]

I found this suggestion from another website and it makes the annoying pop-up warnings disappear but it disables your ability to watch live TV from your cable or satellite provider. However, you could use your replay capture software now. If you wand to use XP windows media center again you will have to uninstall replay video capture. Apparently, windows media center has a file that is always running that hogs the TV tuner and prevents any other video capture software from running at the same time, so the problem is with windows. Here is the temporary fix:

Issue : "Media Center Receiver Service has encountered a problem and needs to close." This error message
pops up every 10 seconds even when we are not using the Media Center on the computer

Cause : If the TV Tuner Card installed on the computer is being used by any other software other than Media Center for capturing purposes this issue will occur.

Description : Starting with Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE) 2005, a process (ehrec.exe) runs at all times, monopolizing the tuner device on the system. The solution is to disable the service responsible for
starting the "ehrec.exe" process. Note that this does not occur with versions of MCE prior to 2005. This issue will only occur if a customer is using a software other than Media Center to capture Analog Signals.

Resolution/Workaround:
Navigate to CONTROL PANEL --> ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS --> SERVICES.
Find the "Media Center Receiver Service" in the list; rIght-click on it and select "Properties." On the "...properties" window that appears when you do so, find the "Startup type:" entry on the "General"
tab. Set "Startup Type" to "Disabled" (as shown in the screenshot below) and hit APPLY. 4- Then, reboot the computer.

CAUTION : Disabling this service will prevent the Media Center from showing Live TV. Please educate the customer by informing him that the TV Tuner card can be used by a single software at a time, so if the Media
Center is running in the processes (ehrec.exe), use of any other capturing application will cause this error to pop-up on the screen. Ideally customer should only use the Media Center softwares for capturing purposes.

[sawoobley]

I wonder if there is an alternative program to XP media center that will allow us to watch videos on our PC from a VCR or from cable (live TV)? That way we could disable windows media center and use our replay video recapture to record videos from our VCR or our cable provider.

[cdburdick]

Thanks for the suggestion. I was able to disable to popups by uninstalling RVC last year. I realized when I first installed RVC that it was incompatible with Windows Media Center. I decided that I would rather have the program guide and recording capabilities of Windows Media Center than what RVC, so I uninstalled Applian RVC. The popups did stop, but so did all functions of my MCE. I now get daily popups saying that the guide is unable to load, and I can't watch live TV, let alone record it.

I went through the steps you described below to check it against my current settings, and confirmed that my "Startup Type" was set to "Automatic" (not "disabled") to enable MCE's use of the tuner.

I just want to have my Media Center working again -- program guide, live TV and recording capabilities. Has anyone else's Media Center been killed by RVC? Applian -- any suggestions to revive it?

I found this suggestion from another website and it makes the annoying pop-up warnings disappear but it disables your ability to watch live TV from your cable or satellite provider. However, you could use your replay capture software now. If you wand to use XP windows media center again you will have to uninstall replay video capture. Apparently, windows media center has a file that is always running that hogs the TV tuner and prevents any other video capture software from running at the same time, so the problem is with windows. Here is the temporary fix:

Issue : "Media Center Receiver Service has encountered a problem and needs to close." This error message
pops up every 10 seconds even when we are not using the Media Center on the computer

Cause : If the TV Tuner Card installed on the computer is being used by any other software other than Media Center for capturing purposes this issue will occur.

Description : Starting with Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE) 2005, a process (ehrec.exe) runs at all times, monopolizing the tuner device on the system. The solution is to disable the service responsible for
starting the "ehrec.exe" process. Note that this does not occur with versions of MCE prior to 2005. This issue will only occur if a customer is using a software other than Media Center to capture Analog Signals.

Resolution/Workaround:
Navigate to CONTROL PANEL --> ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS --> SERVICES.
Find the "Media Center Receiver Service" in the list; rIght-click on it and select "Properties." On the "...properties" window that appears when you do so, find the "Startup type:" entry on the "General"
tab. Set "Startup Type" to "Disabled" (as shown in the screenshot below) and hit APPLY. 4- Then, reboot the computer.

CAUTION : Disabling this service will prevent the Media Center from showing Live TV. Please educate the customer by informing him that the TV Tuner card can be used by a single software at a time, so if the Media
Center is running in the processes (ehrec.exe), use of any other capturing application will cause this error to pop-up on the screen. Ideally customer should only use the Media Center softwares for capturing purposes.

[Cheryl Wester]

This is something that is really strange to have happened. A suggestion would be to do a system restore to a point where the program did work for you.

[stream-recorder.com]

I wonder if there is an alternative program to XP media center that will allow us to watch videos on our PC from a VCR or from cable (live TV)? That way we could disable windows media center and use our replay video recapture to record videos from our VCR or our cable provider.

There are several alternatives that you can use, for example, free open source MediaPortal, free open source MythTV, GB-PVR. After trying the features that they offer you may never return to Window Media Center again

[oldiesfan]

I just discovered that I have the same issue. The irony is that I upgraded to the Replay Capture Suite in part at the suggestion of a moderator here because the standalone convertor was not working sufficiently. Guess what? It still isn't and now I get this error message until I uninstall RVC.

Some advice I can offer to those who have found their Media Center apps don't work properly even after uninstalling RVC. Make sure you are doing a full uninstall and not merely uninstalling through Windows' Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs. I suggest you reinstall RVC and then search for and download and install "Revo uninstaller" [totally free]. Then open it and use it to uninstall RVC. It will take you through steps that will include removing it from the Registry. If you don't do this you are leaving remnants which may be causing you trouble with Media Center. I did this and Media Center works fine for me.

As to this issue, it's way past time for Applian to become proactive in finding a fix for this. The original complaint for this was almost a year ago. Although they've acknowledged the problem they have not yet fixed it.

I like Replay AV and use it extensively. It works great with just an occasional hiccup. Besides the issues I have with convertor that was the other reason I decided to upgrade.

Come on Applian. Fix this problem with Media Center PCs.

Thanks