I am trying to run Windows Media Center (Windows 7) in VMware Workstation 12 with a HDHomeRun tuner. I get an error "the graphics card or driver doesn't support content protection". The host computer also Windows 7 has no problems. Any way to correct this issue?
The virtual graphics adapter running inside the VM is VMware SVGA 3D; which does not have content protection/copy protection capabilities such as HDCP. Typically HDCP and other similar technology relies on the hardware graphics adapter and its driver.
So there would be no way to run HDHomeRun inside the VM if it is looking for copy protection feature that the VM virtual graphics adapter does not have.
The virtual graphics adapter running inside the VM is VMware SVGA 3D; which does not have content protection/copy protection capabilities such as HDCP. Typically HDCP and other similar technology relies on the hardware graphics adapter and its driver.
So there would be no way to run HDHomeRun inside the VM if it is looking for copy protection feature that the VM virtual graphics adapter does not have.
I can use VLC and stream from my HDHomeRun tuner with no issues so I would think that WMC could do the same.
"I can use VLC and stream from my HDHomeRun tuner with no issues..."
Just to be clear, are you saying that you can do this in the guest OS?
Yes you are correct it is the guest OS (Windows 7) that will stream VLC but not WMC or HDHomeRun viewer. In addition I created a Windows 10 VM on the same host and also found VLC to work in addition to the Windows 10 HDHomeRun app. If it was a copy protection issue then it would not work on any VM.
AFAIK, Windows Media Center is not a supported Guest OS, due to WMC's hardware requirements of specific kinds of video cards.