Update Available for Windows Vista Media Center

The April 2007 Cumulative Update for Windows Media Center for Windows Vista is now available for download from Microsoft. The 32-bit and 64-bit updates concern exclusively users of Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate as these two are the only editions of the operating system that deliver Windows Media Center. The cumulative update is designed to resolve a variety of issues affecting Media Center in Vista.

According to Nick White, Microsoft Product Manager, the April 2007 Windows Vista Media center cumulative update will resolve the following issues:

• The video may appear to freeze when the movie begins in some DVDs.
• When you rotate a picture during a slide show in Windows Media Center, the wrong photo may be rotated.
• The cover art for recorded TV movies may not appear in the DVD library view.
• When you delete a picture in Windows Media Center, you may receive an error message that resembles the following: AUDIO ERROR - The Url contains one or more invalid characters.
• When you try to play a DVD by using Autoplay, you may receive an error message that resembles the following: Tuner not installed

The update will also replace a hotfix previously issued by Microsoft addressing the way Windows Media Center manages the configuration of a combo TV tuner with ATSC and NTSC support in Vista, and functionally issues that involved stopping the playback on Media Center windows resize.

Aside from the problems that it resolves, the April Media Center cumulative update also brings to the table added functionality. Windows Media Center running on 64-bit versions of Vista Home Premium and Ultimate now support Online Media, with improved caching capabilities. Support is the key when it comes to Windows Media Center Extenders enhancement.

"There's also another change that affects those of you using Windows Media Center Extenders. Windows Media Center Extenders, such as the Microsoft Xbox 360, use network ports to communicate over the network to computers that are running Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate. This cumulative update contains updates to Media Center programs that may have been previously configured as "approved" or "allowed" by a third-party firewall. If you use a third-party firewall, you may have to manually update your firewall to let the new versions of these programs access the ports. If you do not perform these firewall updates, you may experience failures when you try to connect the Windows Media Center Extender to the Media Center computer," White added.

Cumulative Update for Windows Media Center for Windows Vista (KB932818)
Cumulative Update for Windows Media Center for Windows Vista for x64-based Systems (KB932818)

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