It appears that many people are experiencing a problem of late with Netflix inside of Windows Media Center. If you let a streaming video complete it will leave you stuck on an empty black screen. It used to return the user to the Netflix UI displaying the details of the video that was just watched. Being left with a black screen has left many to think that it has crashed, or maybe that their HDMI connection has dropped. Most of the work-arounds that I’ve seen have involved trying to exit Media Center, but I’ve found a much more simple solution: press the stop button on your remote control.
Josh has been writing software since his parents brought home their first computer. His love for gadgets and technology eventually spurred a passion for home theater technology. After starting the DMZ, he received Microsoft’s MVP award for Windows Media Center. Even though the beloved home theater PC platform is all but dead he continues to tinker with consumer entertainment technology. He’s a life-long gamer and DIY smart home enthusiast. He co-hosts the Entertainment 2.0 podcast with Richard Gunther and the DMZ’s gaming podcast, Story Players, with Joe DeStazio.
Josh has been writing software since his parents brought home their first computer. His love for gadgets and technology eventually spurred a passion for home theater technology. After starting the DMZ, he received Microsoft’s MVP award for Windows Media Center. Even though the beloved home theater PC platform is all but dead he continues to tinker with consumer entertainment technology. He’s a life-long gamer and DIY smart home enthusiast. He co-hosts the Entertainment 2.0 podcast with Richard Gunther and the DMZ’s gaming podcast, Story Players, with Joe DeStazio.
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Mine does not go to a black screen and the stop button does not work.
Mine sticks on the last frame of the video (or what I assume is the last
frame). I can’t get anything to fix it except for getting into the
task manager and killing ehshell.exe
Same here, the supposed fix in this blog is not working on my system (Win 7 x86). The Netflix show ends and the last image gets stuck and nothing will return to WMC. The only solution is to invoke CTRL-ALT-DEL and shut down WMC via task manager.
If I hit the stop button before we get to the end then it works, but if I wait until the video stops on its own then the stop button does nothing and WMC locks up.
[…] Netflix Black Screen Fix […]
Mine is black only in fullscreen. If i hit the Window key, I can get the taskbar to pop up and right-click to close MCE. Or I can hit the restore icon at the top left and watch whatever I want in window mode. (both of these are only visible while the start menu is up and you may have to hit the win key a few times before it pops up) A logoff or reboot fixes it, so my guess is that it is a DirectX overlay issue
Stop button does not work.
Nope doesn’t work for me.
Its a Silverlight Version 5 issue..
Go to filehippo or cnet and download Silverlight Version 4, and when installing untick the “update automatically” box.
Should work fine!
Silverlight is the issue
1) close Windows Media Center
2) Control Panel – Programs and Features – remove Silverlight
3) Start Windows Media Center
4) navigate to Netflix
5) Select any program material
6) this will invoke Silverlight to re-install
after install, issues appear to be resolved
–Good Luck–
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Mine does not go to a black screen and the stop button does not work.
Mine sticks on the last frame of the video (or what I assume is the last
frame). I can’t get anything to fix it except for getting into the
task manager and killing ehshell.exe
Same here, the supposed fix in this blog is not working on my system (Win 7 x86). The Netflix show ends and the last image gets stuck and nothing will return to WMC. The only solution is to invoke CTRL-ALT-DEL and shut down WMC via task manager.
If I hit the stop button before we get to the end then it works, but if I wait until the video stops on its own then the stop button does nothing and WMC locks up.
[…] Netflix Black Screen Fix […]
Mine is black only in fullscreen. If i hit the Window key, I can get the taskbar to pop up and right-click to close MCE. Or I can hit the restore icon at the top left and watch whatever I want in window mode. (both of these are only visible while the start menu is up and you may have to hit the win key a few times before it pops up) A logoff or reboot fixes it, so my guess is that it is a DirectX overlay issue
Stop button does not work.
Nope doesn’t work for me.
Its a Silverlight Version 5 issue..
Go to filehippo or cnet and download Silverlight Version 4, and when installing untick the “update automatically” box.
Should work fine!
Silverlight is the issue
1) close Windows Media Center
2) Control Panel – Programs and Features – remove Silverlight
3) Start Windows Media Center
4) navigate to Netflix
5) Select any program material
6) this will invoke Silverlight to re-install
after install, issues appear to be resolved
–Good Luck–