# Windows 7 Media Center Video & TV Playback not working - I need help



## Boulevardier (Nov 25, 2013)

I have just installed Windows 7 Media Center. The following do not work...need help.

1) Live TV shows blue screen with error message "files needed to display video are not installed or are not working correctly"

2) Videos in WMV, AVI and all other formats will not play at all. I get the same error message "Files needed to display video are not installed or are not working correctly ..... ". N.B. These files play fine in the Windows Media Player.

3) Recorded TV Files will not play at all. Nothing happens after you click on the Play button. Again these files play ok in the Media Player.



I have an HD cable STB box (from Rogers Cable in Canada) with HDMI-out going into a TV Tuner PC card (Hauppauge Colossus) HDMI in. Could HDCP be messing up the HD HDMI signal from the cable box? My previous satellite HD STB box (Bell Satellite) had no problem with HDMI out into a Colossus.

All device drivers are the latest Windows 7 versions obtain directly from the card manufacturers sites. Windows 7 Ultimate updates are fully up to date.

The Graphics card is Nvidia GEFORCE 220 with latest drivers. This card has an HDMI cable out to a 52 inch LCD flat screen TV.

The Sound card is a Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D Fatal1ty PCIe card with the latest drivers. This card has a digital optical out cable to a Technics 5.1 surround sound system. Music and videos played by the Windows Media Player look and sound great on the TV and surround sound system.

What am I missing?



I've been reading about DVBLink, is that something I need for the TV input?


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

Boulevardier said:


> I have just installed Windows 7 Media Center. The following do not work...need help.
> 
> 1) Live TV shows blue screen with error message "files needed to display video are not installed or are not working correctly"
> 
> ...



Have you let Windows install all the updates? Once all the updates have been installed... If it still does it turn the PC off and back on and it should find it. If it doesn't work then I would say you might have a corrupt install.


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## Boulevardier (Nov 25, 2013)

All latest Windows 7 updates are installed. System has been powered down and back on several times.

The puzzler is that the Windows Media Player plays all video formats but Media Center won't play any.
Media Center will also not pick up the TV signal from the HDMI input which I know is a good signal because when I stick the same HDMI straight into the TV there is a beautiful picture. Could HDCP protection be fouling me up?

I think the video display problem is not related to the TV problem because I noticed it before I installed the Colossus TV tuner card.


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

Mine gave the error you had in #1 and all I did was let windows update do all the updates, and then I rebooted one extra time and it works now.


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## Boulevardier (Nov 25, 2013)

Problems solved :

1) TV Tuner - It turns out that the Rogers cable HD STB (Cisco 4640) has fully implemented HDCP on the output HDMI port. The Hauppauge Colossus card also conforms to HDCP specs on the HDMI input port. That's why I didn't get a picture in the Media Center HTPC. The solution: I had to go to the 3 wire Component Video cable (which is not encumbered by HDCP) and the 2 wire RCA stereo cable for audio. I will try a digital optical cable to hopefully pipe in a decent audio signal later. Right now it looks like I have to put up with 5 fat cables instead of 1 skinny HDMI cable. THANKS HDCP!

2) "Files needed to display video are not installed or are not working correctly ..... ". The solution to this problem was difficult to track down but easy to fix. I use the LogMeIn remote PC access to administer and control my Windows 7 HTPC setup. Whenever I ran LogMeIn the video would not work in the Media Center application only. Videos in other applications (Windows Media Player, VLC etc.) worked fine. I think LogMeIn and Media Center clash in the ActiveX, Java or Flash area. Not sure precisely which one. Don't care...because the fix is dead simple. Reboot.....and don't use LogMeIn at any time during the session. Videos work fine now.


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