Oh ya... before anyone wastes their time applying XP SP3 to their MCE box to see if the promised "FIX" is in there....    it's not.  

:-(

holy shocking news batman

Tikker:

holy shocking news batman

LOL, ya, well, it was worth a shot.  The fix  * WAS * promised for January, and the XP SP3 RC2 or whatever it is was built on DEC 27.   And it wasn't "pulled", as Ian says, till after that... so I thought maybe it would be in there.   dang it.

This has been the second biggest issue with Windows Media Center and holy cow have we been left in the dark.

First a fix is on the way, a year later it is still on the way, then it's coming right away, and then it's pulled with no info...

The other issue is QAM support of course.

I've been lucky I only get this once in a while but it sure would be nice to have some software that works.

Those of us in Canada who have the most serious problem don't give a damn about QAM since no channels are in unencrypted QAM here.

Well, one thing's definitely true - we as consumers are getting screwed here. I'm cynical enough these days to believe that there's no point in hoping for any kind of recourse, but if there is one I'd like to know it. Anyone?

It doesn't make any sense to me, but Microsoft is proving without a doubt that they really couldn't care less about the Canadian market segment.

Are we truly that insignificant?  What other reason could there be for Microsoft leaving us with non-functional software for well over a year, when a relatively simple fix could have been implemented ages ago?

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STB w/R5000HD USB I/O, Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4, Quad Q6600, 4.0 GB RAM, ATI HD 3870 512MB, Ultra XVS 600W PSU, 3x SATA 500GB, 2x SATA 300GB, LG GGC-H20L, PVR-250, Toshiba 51H83 (51" HDTV), Yamaha RX-V2400 Amp, 5x Energy Speakers, SVS Sub, Harmony 880 Remote

HT Slider:

  What other reason could there be for Microsoft leaving us with non-functional software for well over a year, when a relatively simple fix could have been implemented ages ago?

they already have our money, what do they care if we switch to sagetv now?

The sad part is that we will continue to give Microsoft money.  A perfect example is Microsoft Word.  A real piece of crap.  Always has been.  Yet it remains number one in the marketplace.

If you search Microsoft's knowledgebase, you'll find that there has been a problem with the renumbering functionality changing the tabs and indentation randomly in every version of Microsoft Word going back to 1995.  That's 13 years of people complaining about a problem that is extremely annoying and could easily be fixed.  Yet Microsoft has never bothered to fix it.  Let's face it, responding to customers with quality software products is not Micrsoft's thing.  Throwing around a lot of cash in attempts to dominate every market is what they do best.  Once they establish a foothold, they leave behind a small group of sub-par developers to "enhance" the product and the innovators and rainmakers move to the next big thing.  I am afraid that is where we are with Media Center.

WRK

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4396890233075684249

Sorry,this is old but enlightning.

In response to your complaint about Word.  I just wanted to let you and anyone else know, there IS an alternative.  Open Office is basically an open format of the Office suite which people are collaborating to continuously improve.  It's freeware and M$ free.

Silvercloak:

In response to your complaint about Word.  I just wanted to let you and anyone else know, there IS an alternative.  Open Office is basically an open format of the Office suite which people are collaborating to continuously improve.  It's freeware and M$ free.

I don't understand the complaint about Word at all.  As far as I'm concerned, it works extremely well, rarely crashes and most importantly does what it is supposed to.  Microsoft generates an incredible amount of very good software and I don't think a day has gone by in probably 15 years where I haven't used Microsoft software for at least something.  Media Center too is a very impressive piece of software, even though it is missing some of the most important features (flexible HD inputs, sharing Recorded TV with other Media Center PCs, DVD streaming to extenders, etc.).

What I find appalling about Microsoft is how sluggish and non-responsive they are at fixing critical bugs in Media Center.  Microsoft is fairly good at fixing bugs in Vista and other software - at least within a "couple of months" time-frame, but for some reason while Media Center keeps getting updates that seem to fix nothing, none of the major bugs get fixed (Recording TV not working properly in Canada, Recordings ending up with incorrect durations, no parental controls for Canada, etc.).

It is almost like the management team running Media Center is out of touch with what the customer wants and is focused on some sort of personal agenda while wearing blinders.

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STB w/R5000HD USB I/O, Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4, Quad Q6600, 4.0 GB RAM, ATI HD 3870 512MB, Ultra XVS 600W PSU, 3x SATA 500GB, 2x SATA 300GB, LG GGC-H20L, PVR-250, Toshiba 51H83 (51" HDTV), Yamaha RX-V2400 Amp, 5x Energy Speakers, SVS Sub, Harmony 880 Remote

Hi -- I wanted to reply to the comment about Microsoft not caring...we do.

The Media Center Team and Microsoft are aware of this issue. It’s not that we don’t care about fixing the problem, or the Canadian market. This is a complex issue and we are investigating.  We will post more information once it is available. However, in truth this is also an example of broadcasters not using the “copy freely” flag correctly. The reason other DVRs are not affected is they probably don’t respect content protection flags.

Thanks for your patience.

 

 

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This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

In one week and one day it will have been 1 year since this thread was created. 

 

LizSanocki:

Hi -- I wanted to reply to the comment about Microsoft not caring...we do.

The Media Center Team and Microsoft are aware of this issue. It’s not that we don’t care about fixing the problem, or the Canadian market. This is a complex issue and we are investigating.  We will post more information once it is available. However, in truth this is also an example of broadcasters not using the “copy freely” flag correctly. The reason other DVRs are not affected is they probably don’t respect content protection flags.

Thanks for your patience.

 

 

You are welcome - hey what's a year among friends?  5 days to 1 year...

p.s. the "We will post more information once it is available" has not happened either.