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If Windows Media Player 9 or 10 is already installed in your computer, then we highly recommend using this new version of MsDVR 2005.  MsDVR 2000 may not work well with Windows Media Player 9 or above. See below

Possible Issue for MsDVR 2000:

Windows Media Encoder 7.1 (WME7.1) may not work correctly or behave unpredictably when WMP9 is installed. WMP9 should work well with Windows Media Encoder 9 (WME9), but we can't use WME9 because of this problem, click here...

Note the difference between Encoder and Player when reading this page.

Why installing Windows Media Player 9 affects encoding/recording?

Installing Windows Media Player 9 updates components that are used for both playing and encoding/recording.

There is a possible option for WME7.1 and WMP9 to co-exists without problems.

After installing WMP9 and from testing of two TV tuner cards, namely Hauppauge WinTV-GO and AVerMedia AVerTV Stereo,  when using the Generic or Universal WDM driver it appears to work just fine. The problems, WME7.1 crashing or unstable, occurs when the WDM driver used are those that came from the TV tuner manufacturers.

A note of caution for Windows 98 and Windows 2000 users. Installing WM9 under these OS and un-installing them may not remove all the components that are causing compatibility  problems between WME7.1 and WMP9. Apparently, the un-installer for WMP9 does not completely un-install. Your option at this point is to use the Generic/Universal WDM driver in order to continue using Windows Media Encoder 7.1 and therefore MsDVR 2000.

As for Windows XP, System Restore appears to work well. The previous WMP for Windows XP version does not have this compatibility problem.  System Restore may also work for Windows Me.

The drawback for using the Generic/Universal WDM driver is that the application that came with the TV tuner card may not work.

We recommend trying MsDVR 2000 without Windows Media Player 9 first, then proceed to installing WMP9 with above information taken into consideration. If installing WMP9 does not work for your environment, Window Media 9 format can still be viewed or watched using WMP7.1 or the WMP for Windows XP (actually version 8) or other Players by installing the Windows Media 9 Codecs.

To download Windows Media 9 Codecs, go to Windows Media download site, then select "Windows Media 9 Codecs Installation Package"

Specific WDM driver versions and OS used for testing:

1. Hauppauge - WinTV-PCI WDM drivers version version 3.31 21082 WHQLed for Windows XP (released March 23, 2003) under Windows XP

2. AVerMedia - AVerTV Stereo WDM driver version 5.3.7 under Windows 2000

3. Generic/Universal WDM driver version 3.5.6 under Windows 2000/XP

Recording or Encoding with Windows Media 9 codecs (Format) without installing Windows Media Encoder 9!

Based on our testing, recording with WM9 codecs (format) using Windows Media Encoder 7.1 requires at least Windows Media Player for Windows XP (8.x) or Windows Media Player 9 to be present in the system. If the operating system is not Windows XP, then you will need to have WMP9 to be working with WME7.1 along with your TV-Tuner's WDM driver. All you have to do is to create a profile using Windows Media Encoder 7.1 UI or just download these zipped custom WM9 profiles we have created, then extract and copy or move them to:

C:\Program Files\Windows Media Components\Encoder\Profiles\

You may also need to download the Windows Media 9 codecs then install.

These profiles should show up in MsDVR 2000 -> Tuner/Encoder -> Advance  dialog, page down to WM9...

Note that using Windows Media 9 codecs produces smaller file sizes or better quality, but requires higher processing. We recommend 1.2GHz CPU and above.

Windows Media Player 7.1 download site

Windows Media Player 9 Series download site