I believe I read somewhere that it is available in the US only.
I looked at it a bit on my system, and based on what I saw you aren't missing much. A lot of clips and a couple of full length programs.
It is one of those options that sounds better than it really is unless I missed something.
Thanks for the reply Little Darwin...it's really annoying as this was one of the reasons I got Windows 7. I got the impression you could pull all your favourite internet feeds under the one roof...a cunning ploy for gullible fools like me I guess
If you live in the US, and had no Internet TV option showing, simply downloading updates, as a lot of search results tell you to do to solve the issue, probably brought it up for you. But, if you live outside of the US, like me, nothing seemed to work, and you've probably found that downloading the updates, and/or re-doing setup and then downloading updates, or even deleting the contents of the eHome folder, running setup again, and downloading updates still didn't bring up the Internet TV option.
After searching for days and days and trying everything I read and still not seeing Internet TV as an option, like most of you, I assume, I was very frustrated as to why it wouldn't work. Well, I finally got it to work. It seems that all of the methods I read about left out certain things for getting the Internet TV option for non-US residents. It is fairly straightforward and doesn't involve hacking the registry or anything like that. Here is what you do:
1. Open Control Panel and then open Region and Language.
2. Under the Formats tab, change format to English (United States).
3. Under the Location tab, change Current location to United States.
4. Under the Administrative tab, click Change system locale... (You may get a pop-up asking you to apply previous changes, click Apply) and change Current system locale to English (United States).
Note: you do not need to change your keyboard setting.
5. Restart the computer as requested.
6. Once the computer has restarted, go to Start>Computer and double-click on your C: drive. Click Tools> (or press alt key to show menu then click on Tools) Folder options...>View and click beside Show hidden files, folders, drives.
7. Open ProgramData>Microsoft>eHome and delete the contents in the eHome folder.
8. Now open Media Center and scroll down to Tasks and click on Settings, then click on General and then Windows Media Center Setup.
9. Click on Set Up Internet Connection and go through the steps.
(I don't know if this is required but the first time I did this procedure it said I didn't have an Internet Connection even though I was connected, so it is probably best to do this just to be safe. It is quick and easy.)
10. After your Internet Connection Setup is complete, click on Run Setup Again. Click Yes when the warning comes up and then select the Custom option and go through the steps. Once setup is complete, close Windows Media Center (Don't worry about doing the Automatic Download Options>Download Now thing you have probably read about, it doesn't usually make the Internet TV option appear if you are outside the US - as I'm sure many of you know from trying to get it to work -but the next step will.)
11. Go to Start>Accessories, and right-click on the Command Prompt and click Run as Administrator. Type the following three commands, hitting enter after each line:
cd \
cd c:\Windows\ehome
start /wait mcupdate -u –nogc
After the last command, it will appear that nothing is happening for several minutes or longer, but it is working away, so be patient. Once c:\windows\eHome appears in the Command Prompt window, it is done. Type Exit and hit Enter.
12. Now open Windows Media Center and navigate down to TV. You should see Internet TV listed. Select it and go through the setup process. This has worked for me on three computers when all other methods I found online failed.
If you want to watch the shows listed that are available to US residents only and not available for your country/region, you will have to install VPN (Virtual Private Network) software that will make your IP appear to be US based even though your actual IP doesn't change.
Just wanted to add, in case anyone was wondering, the reason using Download Now under Automatic Download Options does not add Internet TV if you are outside the US is that Download Now runs mcupdate.exe, which runs under the NetworkService account. The NetworkService account presents your computer's credentials to remote servers. Therefore your user account, the hidden Admin account, and any other user accounts you may have created are created with the original region/country that you selected when you installed windows/purchased a computer in your country with Windows pre-installed. However, even though you have changed your Region and Language settings all to US (which you have to do), the NetworkService account is still set to the original country/region, which you can't change short of doing a clean install of Windows and selecting US for all Region and Language settings during install. The third command listed in my previous post allows mcupdate to update and basically ignore the country/region listed in the NetworkService account, which is why clicking Download Now as other online forums mainly suggest, does not work... updating that way still sees your original country/region and does not download the Internet TV option because it is not available for your country/region.
The commands by the way were given by a Microsoft Tech. The problem was, that is all they gave as how to get Internet TV, while others gave the various combos of the eHome file deletion/re-do setup/Download Now instructions without the Command Prompt part. I didn't know any of that Network Service stuff when first attempting to get the Internet TV option. It was through searching and research that I eventually found this out, and came up with the idea of trying to combine deleting the eHome files, re-doing setup and then skipping Download Now and doing the Command Prompt thing instead... and it worked.
Ok, just discovered that if you shut down or restart your computer Internet TV disappears. However, if you Hibernate or put into Sleep mode, Internet TV remains. If you do shut down or have to restart, you don't have to delete the files in the eHome folder and re-do setup again, all you need to do is enter the three commands in Command Prompt (running as Administrator) and Internet TV will be back. If you shut down all the time, try Hibernating instead and if you have to restart a lot, perhaps copy and paste the three commands to a text document and store it on your desktop for convenience. Entering three lines of text once in a while is not a big deal to have the Internet TV feature though.
Hello Guys, I used to have Windows 7 RTM and Windows Media Centre's Internet TV would never work. I then brought Windows 7 Professional from Software4Students for £40 and I then went in to Media Centre, it then asked me if I wanted to install Internet TV, I know this is proberly no help, just thought I'd say.
Just an FYI for those living in Canada. Internet TV doesn't work in WMC, and you aren't able to set up an HD source like QAM tuners, at least with a Hauppauge 1600 MCE edition card, even though WMC detects the tuner. It will not allow it to be configured.
This is due to CRTC regulations, and the fact that the TV broadcasters have a lock on what can be distributed as "television" in Canada. That's also why you can't see streaming video from places like CBS.com if you have a Canadian IP address.
Don't expect this to change any time soon, as the Commission is hoodwinked by the major broadcasters and cable companies into believing that our TV industry and internet content market share needs to be protected, and that fair competition is bad for the marketplace. The cable industry is given carte blanche to overcharge us for minimal content and bandwidth, while grudgingly doling out TV channels like one hands cookies to an overweight child.
Sad, but true.
/End of rant.
Thank you this worked for me also and I downloaded Hotspot to get everything from the US to play. Thanks!
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