Friday, June 12, 2009

Microsoft MCE fails users with major error: won't list Digital Sub Channels

Today is the last day of analog TV broadcast. Yet, Microsoft has still not fixed a well known, well documented error in Windows Media Center for Vista and XP. Apparently the bug is fixed in Windows 7 beta, but that doesn't help 99.9% of us right now.

This bug has been documented everywhere, all over the internet. For a very long time now.

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vistamedia/thread/52c101b6-9cae-45f4-81e4-d7370bcbb54a

The bug prevents you from getting ATSC (over the air) tv listings for sub channels. For example, channel 13-1 will show in the listings. But channel 13-2, 13-3 and 13-4 will all have exactly the same TV program listings as 13-1. This means that you can't record from the sub channels. It's a huge pain in the ass for people who rely on over the air TV reception.

Yet Microsoft doesn't respond, doesn't fix the problem. They seemingly could care less.

I am told the only way to fix this is to lie to Media Center and tell it you have a cable TV connection, and then to tediously remove all of the channels manually. Yeah, right.

Come on Microsoft, get with it!!

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