When I was configuring my new PC a few years back, I knew I wanted a Digital and Analogue TV Tuner built in so I could watch Live TV straight from my PC without the need for a separate TV set in my room. It’s great feature and is really useful, especially the fact that I can pause, rewind and record live TV.
With the TV shows I’ve recorded I can play them back both in Media Centre or in Windows Media Player 11, as they are in the ‘Microsoft Recorded TV Show’ Format, which is obviously going to be native to windows programs. As You might have seen, WMP has a feature set where you can specify what type of media you want to show up in the main window (Music, Photo’s, Video and TV). On the Windows Mobile version of WMP, there is also a similar feature, but just for Music, Video and ‘Recorded TV’. You’d think then, that because it has a ‘recorded TV’ menu, that you’d be able to simply sync your recorded TV shows from your PC onto your device. Apparently not. 
It doesn’t say anything when you drag and drop the shows into the sync bar in WMP and press ‘sync’, but when it tries to actual sync them, it flags them up and says it can’t convert them for use on the device. I don’t understand why that if WMP Mobile has a ‘recorded TV’ feature, that it cannot play recorded TV. I have plenty of space on my storage card, as you can see from the screen shot above- each of my recorded shows is about 230mb’s. As far as I know, their isn’t even any TV shows sold on a Microsoft service such as MSN Music. I don’t even want to have to download shows which I’ve already got a copy of.
Clicking on ‘Web Help’ brings up a typically unhelpful (sorry, but it is) page:
If recorded TV shows can only be synced to the likes of the Portable Media Centre type device, then why have the feature on the non-media centre orientated WMP mobile?
Doing a bit of digging on the ‘Trouble Shooting Windows Media Player page’, I came across this
I.
Why can’t I sync some of my TV shows to my device?A.
Television broadcasters can prevent you from synchronizing a show to a device by setting a "broadcast protection flag" for the show. Currently, HBO sets the flag for some programming, and other broadcasters might begin using the flag in the future. If you cannot sync a certain show to your device, check the program information for the show on your computer. If the broadcaster has set the broadcast protection flag, the listing will indicate that the show is copy-protected.
As far as I’m aware, the BBC (or “Dave” where I recorded the show from) doesn’t do this and checking the file properties, it isn’t copy protected: 
Then, going back the the FAQ’s, I see another 'question’:
Q.
Why do I get an error message when I try to sync my MPEG-2, DVR-MS, or AVI file to my device?A.
It is possible that an older or unsupported decoder is installed on your computer. For more information about resolving this issue, see the questions…
Which then takes me to this ‘solution’:
MPEG-2 video or DVR-MS TV show files may not synchronize successfully
The Player can automatically convert copies of your MPEG-2 or DVR-MS files to a quality level and format supported by your device before synchronizing the files to the device. For conversion to succeed, a supported MPEG-2 decoder (also called a DVD decoder) must be installed on your computer. If your computer has an older or unsupported decoder installed, you may receive one of the following error messages when you try to synchronize: "The remote procedure call failed", "Memory could not be allocated because no size has been set", or "The server threw an exception".
If you are trying to synchronize either MPEG-2 or DVR-MS files, and encounter either of these issues, do the following:
- Install the most recent version of one of the following supported DVD decoders on your computer:
Sonic CinePlayer DVD Decoder Pack for Windows XP
If you are not sure which decoder is installed on your computer, see the note about the Windows XP DVD Decoder Checkup Utility below.
- Remove the copies of the converted files from the temporary location on your computer.
In Windows Media Player, on the Tools menu, click Options, click the Devices tab, click the Advanced button, and then click the Delete Files button.
- Delete the affected files from your device's TV folder or Video folder.
Click Sync. In the list of items on the device (the right pane), right-click the affected files, and then click Delete from device.
-or-
Open the device in My Computer, and then delete the affected files.
- Reset the synchronization logic in the Player.
Delete at least one other synchronized file from the device that is greater than 500 kilobytes (KB). This file will be put back on your device, if it belongs to a playlist that is part of the synchronization partnership, in the next step.
Synchronize the files to your device again.
Again, this is unhelpful. I can already play MPEG-2’s fine (heck, I create them all the time when making DVD’s), and yes I can already play DVR-MS TV Shows fine (I created them by recording them).
So I’m still non- the wiser as to why I can’t sync the files, or why there is even a feature to play them back on a device which apparently doesn’t support them.
I’d love to be able to watch the hilarious antics on the Top Gear team in amazing 600x400 resolution, and fully exploit the stunning viewing offered by my HTC Touch HD, but so far I’m unable to. I also want to show the iPod and iPhone users out there that it’s not just them who can watch recorded TV on their devices and that Windows Mobile can do that too. But alas, it seems we can’t.
