Today you may find that your Windows Media Center is downloading some updates, I just saw mine downloading some updates only a moment ago and now I know why it was. Personally I haven’t experienced any of these problems but apparently users have been having trouble with the TV Tuner and also some users are reporting a “Low Bit Rate” error.
Thankfully Microsoft have released 4 updates that are now available for download that fix these issues, hopefully once and for all.
The Low Bit Rate issue can impact Windows 7 machines used by customers to watch live analog TV in Windows Media Center via an analog TV tuner. It was somewhat of a nuisance for users. At random intervals, while watching live TV, the screen would suddenly turn blue and display a “Low Bit Rate Error” message. Users could still hear the audio, but the video would disappear for anywhere from 5-15 seconds.
Microsoft explained in a support article
Windows Media Center monitors the incoming bit rate of live TV. Without this monitoring, the bit rate drops very low when the analog TV input is weak or does not have a signal. This causes a black screen or a static screen to be displayed. With this monitoring, Windows Media Center displays an overlay message to indicate a possible issue with the incoming bit rate when the analog TV input is weak or does not have a signal. However, the method that is used to monitor the incoming bit rate on analog signals is too sensitive. This may cause a false detection of a low bit rate,
The second update is in relation to TV Tuners. When users are using a TV Tuner with Windows Media Center, Windows could produce different error messages, informing users of the existence of a “Tuner Conflict” or that there is “No tuner available to satisfy the current request.” In addition, the Windows Media Center Receiver Service (Ehrecvr.exe) can also freeze and remain unresponsive until a restart.
Microsoft said that this may be caused by changing channel too quickly.
This issue may occur if you change channels fast and frequently (also known as ‘channel surfing’), in Windows Media Center, These symptoms may be caused by other issues that are not related to this update. For example, you may receive similar symptoms when you try to query [the] current state of a TV tuner or of a malfunctioning hardware device.”
So hopefully those of you who where having these problems should be sorted now with this update. If they haven’t been downloaded automatically to your machine you can download them at the links below
Fixes for the Low Bit Rate overlay messages:
- For 32-bit (x86) Windows 7
- For 64-bit (x64) Windows 7
TV tuner functionality fixes:
Awesome. I have had the second problem since beta, through RC and now in Ultimate retail. I was confident MS would get around to fixing this and now they have. One less niggling concern in the back of the mind is always a good thing.
now if media player quit freezing up on me.
i had problems with this…
thanks alot mate
5 stars for this post
Thankfully Microsoft have released 4 updates that are now available for download that fix these issues.
I’m having problems with Media Centre in Windows 7 not updating. I always get Error, will try again and then the date and time. But then that update will not work and then the one after that. It’s only since they release service pack 1 that I have been having problems. No more internet tv in media Centre now until the problem is fixed.
can’t get it to work; can’t correct my low bit rate error message