After lots of deliberation I decided to install TV Pack 2008 on my main machine. It’s a Dell XPS 420 with two ATI Digital Cable Tuners and an HDHomeRun (two QAM tuners). One of the main reasons I decided to take the chance at installing TV Pack was I wanted to be able to use one of my analog tuners that were laying around my house. With TV Pack, that would be possible. I also liked that fact that QAM was natively supported and that I could also add more tuners easily since I have Vista Ultimate installed. With TV Pack and Vista Ultimate, up to four of each type of tuner can be installed. Therefore, I could have 4 ATI DCTs if I chose or 4 QAM tuners if I chose. I haven’t had a need for that yet but I like the idea of being able to add more tuners easily at any time.

One of the main concerns I had about installing TV Pack 2008 was that it’s only supposed to be installed over a clean install of Windows. I had lots of HD movies recorded along with other CableCARD content that I would lose access to if I reinstalled Windows so that was not an option for me. I noticed some individuals on The Green Button were having luck installing it over the top of their current installation so I decided to try that as well.

The install went well. Everything was working properly for a few weeks and then all of the sudden I started getting the following error on a nightly basis:

Windows Media Center Store Update Manager stopped working and was closed

I didn’t really notice any problems when I first started getting this error so I didn’t think too much of it. Then all of the sudden I noticed my series recordings were not being scheduled anymore. The guide was still updating, but for some reason every time the guide updated it was not finding the upcoming recordings. I discovered that if I went into the series info and clicked “Save” it would then find the new recordings. Going through all my series recordings and doing this was not an option for me so I decided to look for a solution to my issue. I came across a posting on The Green Button regarding this issue but the posting was for Vista Media Center prior to the TV Pack 2008 release. I decided to go ahead and send a private message to Mike Hayton, a Microsoft employee who started the thread on The Green Button.

The result of that message to Mike was a solution to my problem. Basically, I had to delete the Media Center database and start over and go through the Media Center setup again. Not a big deal for me if I was able to get everything working again. I just had to configure my tuners and set up my scheduled recordings again. In preparation for this I made print screens of my scheduled recordings so I could set them up again. I deleted the database, went through setup again and setup all my series recordings on Thursday, September 25th and since then the guide has been updating correctly and my recordings have been getting scheduled when it updates. In a nutshell, it appears to be fixed.

I wish I could post the solution (how to delete the Media Center database) but Mike asked me not to post it. Instead, he asked me to refer people on to him so they know how many people have been having issues and the extent of the issues. I didn’t have an issue complying with this due to the fact that if a lot of people send in their error information Microsoft will be able to pinpoint the issue and find a solution quicker. So, if you are having issues with your TV Pack 2008 install please send Mike a private message through The Green Button. He should be able to send you the information he sent me that will allow you to fix the problem.