Hi Ted, to clear up one part, titles in the format of WMV ( video) WMA ( audio) are the proprietary formats ( default-belongs to)  for Microsoft's audio and video codecs but over the years MS bought the rights to use other formats such as avi ( divx) MPEG -motion pictures experts Group ( DVD)
/MP4 Quicktime  with MS software and no need to install a dedicated decoder to play DVD or play in windows media player windows media center.
That was how MS got the metadata for WMA WMV and Album Art, once the files were added to windows media player, it still does.
CDA is the format audio files on a commercial audio CD when you play this in WMP it looks it up CDDB Gracenotes.
CDDB,  is short for Compact Disc Database,  a database for software applications to look up audio CD (compact disc) information over the Internet

In order for these proprietary files to get the metadata the software ( DRM) looks it up from a place called GraceNote.
Gracenote, Inc. provides music, video and sports metadata and automatic content recognition (ACR) technologies to entertainment services and brands in the United States and internationally.
Gracenote provides music recognition technologies that compare digital music files to a worldwide database of music information, enabling digital audio devices to identify the songs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gracenote

Load your files into windows media player and you should be good to get all the file info again
Which windows are you using now?
Windows 10?
Itunes will also do this for DRM files with property formats.
There are now open source tools and commercial for personal use that can lookup mp3 mp4 and any type of files metadata for you if you would like go outside of Microsoft/
For video
Movie Metadata:
https://www.aimersoft.com/convert-mov/movie-metadata.html
here's a couple
for audio mp3 id3tag
http://id3.org/
http://www.mp3tag.de/en/
http://www.shadesofsolveig.com/2014/02/20/how-to-edit-your-mp3-music-metadata/
MetaX
MetaX is a freeware video tagging application that automatically searches online databases for meta-data, and encodes it into your video files
http://www.tested.com/tech/236-how-to-automatically-tag-your-movies-with-useful-metadata/
Let me know after you have looked at these is this satisfying what you needed?
I feel like an old school and all this new technology changes too many times,, if it ain't broke dont fix it ,
so all my video are in mp4 or divx avi-audio in mp,  with the video metadata I dont worry about that as I use free open source media player MPC-be personal use.
I only need to the name of the song I know who sings it.

Merete,

I just thought I would let you know that I am reading your comment and clicking on the links reading what I find there to learn as much as I possibly can from what you have given me. The information that you have provided is a LOT. So there is a lot for me to review and discover from. Thank you for providing me with so much useful knowledge. I am now digesting it to see what knowledge I can get that I can use on Windows Media Center metadata.

I should have mentioned in my question that Windows Media Center (WMC) stores the video that it captures from the television signal that I receive from an antenna affixed to the roof of my house in files of type WTV. I have recently acquired a video conversion software product called Wondershare Video Converter Ultimate. Cost $49. Wondershare  is a Chinese company. So I am still wondering if they are using the software that I acquired from them for nefarious purposes on my PC. So far it doesn't handle WTV files as their website advertising says that it does. I have been exchanging e-mails with them every day for a week now. Their tech support is very slow; them being on the other side of the world.

I'll get back to you as soon as I finish following all these leads that you have provided to me. Thank you.

Ted Palmer

I followed every link except the ones about audio. My Primary focus is obtaining metadata for Windows Media Center. Some of the websites your links led me to had references to EPGs (Electronic Program Guide). I found those helpful also because I need EPG information. The websites you linked me to were very informative and enlightening . I now understand better what the pieces of the puzzle are and how they fit and work together. I feel like my level of ignorance on this topic has been diminished by a lot. Your input advanced me along the way, but I still not there yet. Thank you.

Ted Palmer

Merete, you keep me reading and that is a good thing. I should have refreshed my web-page before posting the comment above. I didn't realize that you had already replied to my last message. I haven't been using my Experts-Exchange (EE) account lately near as much as I used to. I expect that to change in the near future. EE used to send me an e-mail alert when anybody commented on one of my posted questions.  They still do. I have a comment on a different question from somebody else in the folder where I save all my EE e-mails. That e-mail message is dated 2017-03-17. I can't find another EE e-mail alert in my inbox for your comment. I don't know what is going on here. EE comments don't have date and time on them now? That is very disappointing. I hope that is not a user setup option that I haven't discovered yet.

I may be the cause of the no e-mail alert issue. I recently (last 6 months) reorganized my e-mail to a newer laptop computer. My older laptop I used for my primary e-mail processing was showing signs of "end of life". I have nine e-mail accounts and tons of different folders to save e-mail to in MS-Outlook. Everything was just fine till I had to recreate it on a different laptop (built in battery backup) machine. It had evolved for years. That is why it is was such a challenging mess. I had created a ton of Outlook Rules.

Most of above is "off topic". Getting back on topic. The Wondershare tech support person asked me to rename my file I was testing with from WTV to MP4. The Wondershare Video Converter Ultimate program would still not process it, but Windows Media Player and VLC would play it. I may be wrong about this, but I recall that I read in Microsoft product documentation for WMC that it recorded the WTV files using MP4 file format and H.264 Codec.

Well I have more links from you to follow and read. Thank you. I better get on the ball and read them before I mark one of your comments as best solution. You have been very helpful and I really appreciate it.

Ted Palmer

Oh! I didn't know about the DVR-MS format and that WMC was considered a "container". I have been seeing DVR-MS in my reading without knowing about what it really is.

You're welcome Ted,
Ok with EE yes I can appreciate your confusion, they constantly make changes to the interface.
If you dont see an email reply just keep one email with an EE reply and open that, now on EE page look over to the top right, there is 4 symbols
An envelope, a bell, a suitcase and your avatar.
Any comments /replies will show as a number over the bell. ( notifications)

There is a new feature and even I have to be careful when opening any emails that are a response to a question,
There is 2 links now in the body, the top is for the URL for the question that is active, the one below is to opt out of notification emails , if you accidently clicked on this you have changed it to no, just click on it again to re-enable.
If you dont then you only see notifications in the browser.

Merete, I forgot to respond to one of your 1st questions -- What version of Windows am I using. It is Windows-7 Professional. When I right click a WTV file in Windows (File) Explorer I don't get the opportunity to convert to dvr-ms file format that your screen shot shows that you get. Please see attached screen shot that shows my WMC-About screen with my software version of my WMC. You must have a later version of WMC than I have. I'm returning to my reading of the information your links point to. Thank you.

As of 2017-04-02 17:13 CDT I have found how to deal with the fact that I don't get the "...  opportunity to convert to dvr-ms file format that your screen shot shows that you get." On the dDealshare website How to fix not being able to convert file type WTV to DVR-MS in right click filename submenu in Windows (File) Explorer. You have to scroll down to the subtitle "How to Convert WTV to DVR-MS?" Do a ctrl-F and search on the subtitle. You will get there quicker.

Oh! I verified my e-mail notifications. They were as they should be "On".  Thanks for the image of what to look for. It just took me longer than it should have for me to navigate to it. I guess I am just going to have to spend more time on Experts-Exchange so that I will remain familiar  with it.
WindowsMediaCenterSoftwareVersionInf.jpg

Very Good, well our specs are identical aside for my ram is slightly higher and my intel i5 is a bit faster. I also have windows 7 prof x64

Merete, Sorry  for the long delay. I have been sick lately which has really slowed my down. You do good work. I  like that iDealshare product. I believe I'll use that one.

Thankyou Ted I'm happy to have helped, glad you like the software from iDealshare.
I wish you well. it's awful being sick especially if it is cold.