Why didn't my TV show get recorded in Windows Media Center?

You always need to have an available TV tuner on your PC for each scheduled recording. If you have more scheduled recordings than available TV tuners, one or more of your shows won’t get recorded.

If this happens, Media Center will let you know that there’s a conflict and help you to resolve it. If you’re not at your PC, Media Center will try to resolve the conflict by looking for alternate dates and times and adjusting the schedule.

If this isn't possible, Media Center will select which show to record, based on the following checks (in this order):

1. Is it a one-time recording or part of a series?

2. What's the priority ranking for the series?

3. Which show was scheduled first?

You'll want to keep your priority settings of the series up-to-date, because Media Center uses these settings to determine what to record when there's a conflict between two episodes from different series. To check your program's priority settings:

Tip

• If you have frequent recording conflicts, consider adding an additional TV tuner to your PC so you can record two TV programs on different channels at the same time.

You need to have enough space on your PC's hard drive to store your recorded programs. If there isn't enough space, you won't be able to record everything you want.

To create more space:

• Try deleting some previously recorded shows.

• If you have multiple hard drives, you can change the drive that Media Center uses to save your recorded TV shows when one gets full.

• Increase the limit for recorded TV. To do this:

Notes

• Media Center can monitor multiple drives for recorded TV shows, but it can only save recorded TV shows to the drive specified in Recorder Storage.

• HDTV shows take up much more space than standard-definition recordings and will fill up your drive faster.

If you're not getting a TV signal in Media Center, first make sure that the cable for your TV signal is properly connected to your TV tuner. If everything is connected properly, but you still can't get a signal, it might be because of one of the following:

• The TV signal from your service provider isn't working correctly. You can contact your TV service provider, but you'll likely need to cancel or reschedule the recording until the signal is working again.

• Your TV tuner isn't working correctly. Make sure that you have the most up-to-date driver for your TV tuner installed on your PC.

• There are problems with Media Center. If Media Center can't find a TV signal to record but everything else is working properly, try restarting your PC.

Media Center can record a show when your PC is in sleep or hibernate mode, but it won’t record anything if your PC is turned off during the time of a scheduled recording.

If you're recording a TV show on a laptop, the show won't be recorded if the battery power runs out.

You might get an error when Media Center changes the channel to record a show, or Media Center might not record the right channel. Problems are more common if your TV signal comes through a set-top box. A channel-changing error on a set-top box could occur for the following reasons:

• The IR (infrared) control cable on your set-top box is positioned incorrectly, so Media Center can't send a signal to the set-top box to change a channel.

• The channel-changing speed of the set-top box is too fast or too slow, which can cause the set-top box to get the signal for only two out of three channel numbers transmitted by Media Center.

  • On the Windows Media Center start screen, scroll to Tasks, tap or click Settings, tap or click TV, tap or click Set Up TV Signal, and then follow the instructions.

• Media Center tries to change to a channel that's not part of your TV service package. If you're using a set-top box, it can get out of sync with Media Center, so that Media Center records the wrong channel. You can hide unwanted channels in Media Center to prevent Media Center from trying to record channels that you don't receive. You can also show hidden channels that you receive so that Media Center can access them.

  1. On the Windows Media Center start screen, scroll to Tasks, tap or click Settings, tap or click TV, tap or click Guide, and then tap or click Edit Channels.

  2. Scroll through the list and locate the channels that you want to show or hide.

  3. Select the check box next to each channel to change its setting, and then tap or click Save.

     When a check box is selected, the channel appears in the Guide; when a check box is cleared, the channel doesn't appear.

Note

• If you're using a set-top box and you get an on-screen message, you'll need to use your set-top box remote control to take action before you can change channels in Media Center.

• The Guide is out of date. Media Center automatically updates the Guide, but you can also download the latest Guide info manually.

  • On the Windows Media Center start screen, scroll to Tasks, tap or click Settings, tap or click TV, tap or click Guide, tap or click Get Latest Guide Listings, and then tap or click OK.

    You'll be notified when the Guide listings are up to date.

• There are restrictions for a specific show. If a broadcaster sets restrictions that prohibit a show from being recorded, Media Center can't record the show.

• You've reached the limit for how many shows in a series are kept. By default, Media Center will keep as many shows as possible for a TV series that's being recorded. However, if shows from a specific series are failing to record, try checking your settings for this series.

  1. On the Windows Media Center start screen, scroll to TV, tap or click Recorded TV, tap or click View scheduled, and then tap or click Series.

  2. Tap or click the name of the series, and then tap or click Series settings to view and adjust the settings for a specific series.

If you're still not sure why a show didn't get recorded, you can check the recording history.