The plot thickens…
I wrote an article about Internet TV for Windows Media Center and how I couldn’t get it to work, then I heard other people were unable to access it and that the service had been pulled. A reader then commentated on the post saying he had got the service to work on one of two PCs so today I had a look for any news about Internet TV for those of us in the UK, looks like Microsoft think it is already here.
On the UK Media Center micro site which talks a lot about Internet TV and there is even I found a Learn More page about Internet TV where it clearly states that users should just wait for the download and then Internet TV will appear on their machine. That is definitely not something that is happening for most people I have spoken with. I have tried to find this download as a standalone and have yet found nothing.
As I continued to look for more info on this I also found that on the Now Playing tab of the micro site the only mention of Internet TV is by using the Sky Player which I don’t believe is the only way to access Internet TV. The Sky service is not yet live with no info on when users can download it (the “Get Sky Player Now” button takes you to a sign up page with no way to download the Sky Player afterwards).
Now I am very confused about this service, my understanding is that users aren’t meant to be able to watch TV through the internet and also download the Sky Player if they want to to access unique/live content. Also why is it very few people currently have access to the Internet TV service in the UK when the Microsoft site about gives the distinct impression users should be able to access it now?
I can only guess that either there is something very wrong with the way Media Center checks users PCs before downloading and installing the Internet TV service or that only PCs with Windows 7 installed after October 22nd can get access to the service (would explain why so many people I speak with have not got access to the service; I have tried setting up Media Center from scratch but still no luck) or that Microsoft are waiting till the Sky Player is ready before allowing users to access the Internet TV service (doesn’t account for a few people already having access to the service or make sense why Microsoft would wait for Sky).
As a student without the means to pay for the TV license I hope the Internet TV service works soon, the iPlayer is good but doesn’t (yet) have a collection of programs from all providers.
EDIT: I have found a way to get the Sky Player to show up as a service in Media Center, it still “Coming Soon” so no functions yet but its an improvement to not having anything show up. I had hoped for Internet TV to show up by using the following method but I would guess that it is not possible for people to get the service yet as I don’t see what else I could so.
*Some data/information may be lost if you use this method*
It turns out that when users select to “Run Setup Again” there are a few files that aren’t changed which mean some new services, like Sky Player, wont be downloaded by Media Center, to ensure that you have a completely clean setup of Media Center navigate to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome and delete all the files in there then go to Media Center and select “Run Setup Again”. After setup the program should start downloading necessary files and any extras, such as Sky Player or, as I am hoping, Internet TV.
Let me know how you get on with this.
Update: The Sky Player has now come to Windows Media Center in the UK – Internet TV comes (poorly) to the UK
Update and Fix: The fix that seems to be working for most people comes from Dave, in the comments below.
None of the advice I’ve found anywhere online has helped get my Sky Player working in WMC, which has steadfastly refused to work.
However, after a lot of mucking about I’ve now figured out a way to get it to work (at least it worked for me):
Run up regedit (Start Menu/Run and type regedit into the dialog box). When in Regedit, navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Settings\ProgramGuide
The strCountryCode key should be set to GB in order for SkyPlayer to download and install itself properly (it only installed in the UK, which is identified by the GB entry in this key). If its not set to GB already, this is probably your problem, so set it to GB and exit Regedit. Then re-start Media Center. Go into Tasks/General/Automatic Download Options, and select Download Now. Once the download has finished, hey-presto SkyPlayer should appear.
Hope this works for you as well as it did for me.
