Windows Firewall and Media Center

[149047]

Hi all!
I am experiencing issues with WMC in combination with Windows Firewall. With the FW turned on I cannot watch live TV and get an event viewer message "WMDRM-ND" Error. Turning Windows Firewall off resolves the problem. As I do not want to turn the FW on and off all the time I would like to know where I have to apply the relevant tweaks so I can watch TV with the FW on.
Ideas anyone?
Thanks for reading
Markus

 

[shmO]

If the firewall is the reason behind it im not to sure what there is that you can do to "Tweak it". What firewall are you using Microsoft Security Essentials? I think this would be one of the situations where you have to just bite the bullet. Your router should have a built in firewall system? Should be fine for protecting your computer for the hour or two you spend watching tv. If its not the firewall its going to be because maybe an update was applied incorrectly? Thats my best guess.

Couldnt you just watch your shows on a TV?

 

[dsperber]

Hi all!
I am experiencing issues with WMC in combination with Windows Firewall. With the FW turned on I cannot watch live TV and get an event viewer message "WMDRM-ND" Error. Turning Windows Firewall off resolves the problem.

What is your TV tuner hardware? Is this for cable system content, through an M-Card enabled tuner (either internal, USB, or external network-based)?

Are you trying to play copy-protected programs from WMC to a remote HDTV? That can't be done without the use of a media center extender. What channel and program are you trying to watch? Does it also happen when trying to watch the same program when it's recorded rather than "live"?

What is your cable company and where do you live?

Please describe more completely exactly what is the whole story is when you get this error. Is it while trying to watch on the monitor of your HTPC, or only on a remote HDTV? And how are you delivering WMC content to that remote HDTV?

 

[149047]

Hi!
Let me got through your questions:
1) trying to watch plain non copy protected dvb-c television on my xbox360 extender
2) the problem occurs with any channel digital/analog
3) i live in Austria and use Kabelsignal kabelplus Ihr Multimedia-Anbieter - kabelplus

The error ocurrs under the following circumstances:
i have a cinergy htc (dvb-c) tuner on my win7 64bit pc to enable digital cable tv. on the pc all works fine. to watch tv on my video projector screen i transfer the signal from my pc (via router) to the xbox360 which takes over the signal and feeds it into windows media center. whenever i open media center (on the xbox) i can see the entire epg list but when trying to watch a channel (any) i get the above mentioned error. i found that turning off my windows firewall on the win7 pc resolves the problem. however i d not really want to turn the FW on and off all the time.

thanks for reading
Markus

 

[dsperber]

If you're getting WMDRM-ND errors, I would have to conclude that WMC believes the digital content IS copy-protected, whether that is what you expect or not.

Now the fact that you can overcome that through disabling of Windows Firewall clearly points to an incomplete set of definitions in Windows Firewall for the exceptions required to support connection to an extender (i.e. your xBox) for delivery of copy-protected content.

You can read about WMC and extenders and Windows Firewall, and problems related to this subject, on this Microsoft web page. Specifically you should be concerned with the EHSHELL.EXE settings with UDP, which is the "PLAY" part of WMC involved with WMDRM-ND.

For your own reference, here is a screenshot of my complete set of Windows Firewall "advanced settings" showing all of the WMC-related exceptions. These were apparently all set up automatically by Win7 when I added my two Linksys DMA2100 extenders. I have no problem whatsoever delivering copy-protected content from WMC to both of these.

Look specifically at the final three EHSHELL.EXE entries for UDP, which pertain to WMDRM-ND.

 

[dsperber]

i have a cinergy htc (dvb-c) tuner on my win7 64bit pc to enable digital cable tv. on the pc all works fine.

That's because watching copy-protected TV on your PC's monitor is a different story than delivering copy-protected content to an extender.

The PC monitor is covered by the HTPC-enabled digital connection (via DVI or HDMI, from your video card). As part of the "DCA (digital cable advisor)" setup or other TV-related setup checking when WMC is first initialized, the HTPC-enabled display is one of the things checked in order to deliver copy-protected digital content to that locally connected digital display device.

Delivering copy-protected digital content to an external digital display device (e.g. your extender and its HDMI-attached HDTV) is a separate matter. And that's where this Windows Firewall and WMDRM-ND issue comes into play.

 

[149047]

ok - in fact i did not know that dvb-c signals are copy protected. my solution so far is turning off windows forewall and substitute it by 3rd party (panda).
thank you all for helping!
markus