Error message when starting WMC.

I get this quite a bit. I close it, restart it, and it works fine. I'd rather not have it at ALL. Is there some way to fix this error, or can WMC be downloaded as an exe?

Could be an indication of a relatively slow hard drive that is just not delivering data fast enough. Most likely to occur when one or more recordings are taking place simultaneously with playback or a previously recorded program, thus really putting the screws on the hard drive performance specs.

I had to offload quite a bit of Summer Olympics recordings from my high-speed large-cache internal SATA drives (primary recording folder for WMC) to make room for the hundreds of hours of incoming new recordings over the 16 days, and my 2TB external USB 3.0 drive (Verbatim, which is actually a Samsung HD204UI SATA drive inside) seemed like the right place for it. Well, space became an issue even on that drive, so I ran out and bought a second 2TB USB 3.0 drive (this time a HitachiGST SATA drive inside).

So I have recordings split across the two drives. Both are supported by a USB 3.0 PCIe adapter in the PC.

I never see any of these "media file errors" coming from playback of the recordings on the Verbatim/Samsung 2TB drive, but see them fairly often (and annoyingly) playing recordings from the Hitachi 2TB drive.

I can't recall seeing these errors ever when playing recordings from internal SATA-II hard drive folders in the past. With my motherboard upgrade (to ASUS P8Z77-V Pro) I've now upgraded my internal hard drives to 2TB SATA-III as well, which are even faster and have even larger cache... and I NEVER see these errors.

==> "Green" drives may run cooler and quieter and use less electricity, but they also do not have the performance required if you're going to be recording 3-4 programs at once while also watching programs (live or recorded, doesn't matter). Remember that watching "live" actually goes through the hard drive just as recording a program does, to accomplish the 30-minute buffering in support of "pause live", "rewind live", etc.

I've opted for high-performance SATA drives, since high reliability error-free WMC record/playback is one of my uncompromising criteria.

eknirb said:

I don't think it's a question of a slow hard drive. My PC is pretty powerful.

Could also be a problem of overload when the recording was made, so that there are errors in the recorded WTV that show up with that error message during playback. Actually, that error message is kind of a general catch-all for lots of "should not occur" situations.

Anyway, if you push STOP and WMC responds, you can go back and RESTART the recording to start from scratch. It's very likely you will get the same error at the same location playing the second time, if the problem is actually with the recorded data. But if you FAST-FORWARD (or successfully repeat 30-second skips) past that point (assuming you remember about where you were in the time-scale when the original error occurred), then you will now be in a new section of the recording where (fingers crossed) you won't see a repeat of more data errors.

Again, could be a problem in the recorded data, or during playback if the hard drive just has a problem delivering the recording to WMC. It's not really just a matter of how strong your PC is. Mine are very strong as well, but it's sometimes tied to what was going on during the original recording and how the WTV data got recorded. You wouldn't think there could be any defect or error in that data, but there's no other way to explain how the playback could get stuck at the same place every time unless it's in the recorded data itself.

Anyway, this clearly should not be occurring. But you're not alone. And yes, it does sort of seem random.

I get the message when I start it up. Doesn't have to do with recording. I just launch it, and I get the error.

Hi eknirb Try This >>
When I used the Online Media feature of Media Center Extender, I received an error message: "Video Error" or returns to the Gallery

u have to do all steps mentioned in the link.not only fix it.
Do all steps properly see if it solve u'r problem :)