TV Channel wont play at first - "The Channel May Not Be Supported" (it is)

[Ex_Brit]

After months of flawless performance my WMC is acting up on one TV channel and I can't figure out why.
The only change recently was that I enabled the DVD Library to be displayed with a registry hack as per a seemingly reliable article I read.
This is only happening the first time after I boot.

I call up WMC and go to the TV Guide. If I select Channel 50 (only) it will not tune in and I get a screen that says
"Cannot Play Program"
"The channel may not be supported. If you cannot tune to any other channel,
restart WMC or restart the computer, then try again"

If I then use the guide to go down or up one channel they play OK and
returning to ch50 - it then plays fine. Very odd.

Any ideas anyone?

The registry tweak was, I realised afterwards, unnecessary as I'm not using
this machine as a media center anyway and I'm not sure what the original
setting was.
Now it is set at..
HKCU>Software>Microsoft>Windows>CurrentVersion>Media
Center>Settings>DVDSettings
Showgallery - regsz - gallery

I have tried reloading the guide from my cableco and it seems to go without any hitch.

 

[Clevo]

It might seem painfully obvious but have you tried removing the DVD library registry hack you mentioned...everything seemed to work, as you said, before that hack

 

[Ex_Brit]

I would if I knew what the default entry is for that particular item. I don't have a restore point unfortunately.

I found the "hack" which is a misnomer I suppose as Microsoft published it: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930526

 

[johngalt]

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Settings\DvdSettings]
@=""
"ShowGallery"="Play"

Copy the text above into notepad, save as a .reg entry on your desktop, then import it into the registry.

Voila!

 

[Ex_Brit]

Thanks. After 1 reboot it seems to be OK. I'll keep an eye on it. Much appreciated.

 

[johngalt]

Yer welcome - and a beautiful signature image there as well.

 

[Ex_Brit]

Thanks.

 

[Ex_Brit]

It's doing it again, so there must be a glitch somewhere. If I go straight to live TV and 50 is the last channel I had tuned to, it gives the error. But if I then call up the guide and click on the channel from there it plays.

Very strange and it appears to be only that one channel out of the 100-odd that I can bring in.

 

[johngalt]

Is it possible that that channel is simply experiencing a lot of interference on your cable line? I'd call the cable company and have them run line tests....

 

[Ex_Brit]

Did that and it tested out OK. It has no problems via cable direct to my TV either. I think something has corrupted the WMC database somehow. It's not serious as I can eventually tune it in.

 

[johngalt]

That is weird. have you looked into resetting the WMC database itself and starting from scratch setting it up? I am not even sure if that can be done....

 

[Ex_Brit]

I've done a bit of searching and haven't come up with anything so far.

 

[johngalt]

Try How to restore factory default setting in Windows Media Center « mceworld

And I just thought of something - it may not be the cable line but the TV tuner card that is causing the problem as well....

Admittedly, that is a *long* shot, but still....

 

[Ex_Brit]

Well, thanks for that link. I've bookmarked it. The one problem is that this only happens in Vista (don't have MC in my XP boots) and the patches refer to XP Media Center.
The tuner card has the latest drivers. It's an ATI TV Wonder 650 Pro.

 

[Ex_Brit]

Just did some quick research and it appears that there is no way of repairing Vista MC easily other than doing an sfc /scannow in an elevated command prompt.
I'll try that.
All the fixes I've found so far are old and for XP.
In my travels I came across TVTonic and found it rather interesting but wonder if it will interfere with the regular cable channels I receive now. I may give it a try later.

Addendum: SFC found no issues.