Fix NS_E_PROFILE_MISMATCH (0XC00D1B7B) When Importing Windows Media Center TV

1. Corrupted eHome Registry Key (Most Common)

Last month I had a client in a panic—his recorded TV library vanished. He'd upgraded from a Windows Vista machine to a Windows 7 box, copied over the .wtv files, and got hit with NS_E_PROFILE_MISMATCH. The real culprit? A leftover registry key from the old TV Pack installation.

When Media Center tries to import a recorded TV profile that references a different version of the TV Pack—like the 2008 update for Vista—it throws error 0XC00D1B7B. The fix is surgical: delete the old profile key so Media Center rebuilds it from scratch.

What to Do

1. Press Win + R, type regedit, hit Enter.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Service\Recording\Profile
3. Right-click the Profile folder and choose Export to back it up. Save it somewhere safe.
4. Delete the entire Profile subkey. Right-click, Delete.
5. Close Registry Editor. Reboot the machine.
6. Open Media Center again. It'll rebuild the profile automatically.

That's it. 9 times out of 10 this kills the error. If it doesn't, move to cause #2.

2. TV Pack Version Mismatch Between Source and Destination

Here's the scenario: you recorded TV on a machine running the Windows Vista TV Pack (the 2008 update that added H.264 support and better cable card tuning). You try to import those recordings into a standard Windows 7 Media Center or an unpatched Vista machine. Boom—profile mismatch.

The TV Pack changed the internal recording format and metadata structure. Recordings created under it carry a profile identifier that older or different Media Center versions don't recognize. You can't just copy the files and expect them to work.

The Workaround (Not Perfect, but Works)

You have two options:

• Option A: Install the same TV Pack version on the target machine. For Vista, that means applying KB948079. For Windows 7, you can't—the TV Pack was never released for it. So this only works if you're moving between two Vista TV Pack machines.
• Option B: Re-record the content on the destination machine. Painful, I know. But trying to convert or patch the metadata is a rabbit hole that usually ends with corrupted timestamps or no audio.

I've tried third-party converters that claim to handle this. None work reliably. The profile data is locked into Media Center's own binary format.

3. Corrupted WTV File Header

Every once in a while, the recorded TV file itself gets a scrambled header. This happens after a partial copy—if you yanked a USB drive mid-transfer or the file came from a dying hard drive. Media Center reads the header, sees garbage that doesn't match any known profile, and throws 0XC00D1B7B.

Quick Check

Open the file in a hex editor (I use HxD—free and tiny). Look at the first 32 bytes. You should see something like WTV at offset 8. If you see random noise or zeros, the file is toast.

Offset 0:  bytes 0-7 are a GUID
Offset 8:  "WTV" (3 bytes, not null-terminated)

If the header is corrupt, there's no practical repair. Record it again. But before you do, check the source drive with chkdsk to prevent a repeat.

chkdsk X: /f /r

Replace X: with the drive letter. This scans for bad sectors and filesystem errors.

Quick-Reference Summary Table

Start with the registry fix. It's the fastest and it works in most cases. If you're still stuck after trying all three, you're probably dealing with a combination—like a corrupted registry and a bad file. In that case, back up anything you can, then remove and reinstall the TV Pack (or Media Center) completely.