Media Center patches available

A pair of updates for Media Center just appeared on the Microsoft Download Center.

First up is the prosaic-sounding Update for Windows Vista (KB959485), which says it’s intended “to resolve issues with Media Center for Windows Vista.” (There’s also a 64-bit version of KB959485.)

If you installed TV Pack and have encountered problems (a pretty safe bet), you’ll want to check out the Update for Media Center TVPack for Windows Vista (KB957209), which promises to “resolve issues with Media Center TVPack for Windows Vista.” (Get the 64-bit version of KB957209 if you’re running Vista x64.)

None of the links to the associated KB articles work yet. If you’re an RTFM type, you might want to wait until those little extra bits of information are live.

Update: A Microsoft engineer confirms that the TV Pack fix resolves the “disappearing programs” issue discussed in this Green Button thread.

Update: The KB957209 article is now live:

Issues that this update resolves

The update for Media Center TV Pack for Windows Vista resolves the following issues:

• Media Center crashes after you replace a TV tuner.
• The guide data in Media Center stops downloading.
• Recordings on systems that have in-band schedule data are split into multiple recordings.
• Scheduled recordings disappear from Media Center.

And the KB959485 link is now live as well:

SYMPTOMS

You install the October 2008 Cumulative Update for Windows Media Center for Windows Vista (955519) on a Media Center system that has digital cable card tuners installed. When you perform back-to-back recordings, the first recorded TV show plays back correctly. However, the second recorded TV show plays back only audio.

This one bit me pretty hard, and plenty of other people as well, judging by this Green Button thread. I was able to resolve by hiding that cumulative update, which I will now gladly reinstall.

And one more update: Gack! I just read the entire KB959485 article and then promptly uninstalled this update and the 955519 cumulative update? The reason is buried at the bottom of the article, which says the problems (shows recorded with audio but no video) may continue in a configuration that includes both digital cable (CableCARD) tuners and extenders.

Oh well…