MediaPortal 1.1.0 RC6 RELEASED!

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34 posts

Geek
Inactive user

#349630 9-Jul-2010 18:59

Dale77: I'm on XP, so may not of much help to you. But I vaguely remember reading on a forum that advised making sure that the player was in Windowed mode, with "non-exclusive screen access" (not always-on-top?).

And MP needs to actually be playing a video at the time, before firing up GraphStudio, of course.

As for me, I've uninstalled RC6, reloaded RC4... = still no luck.

dale77

294 posts

Ultimate Geek

#349700 10-Jul-2010 00:07

Used the proppage.dll trick to get graphstudio working, and MP is using the correct codec.

Still, weird stutters at random times, without the shift-1 info recording any dropped frames, and yet FPS is down at 43-46 for a second or two...

HTPC: Antec Fusion 430, Intel i3, Gigabyte 1050, Corsair 4x1Gb, Hauppauge WinTv, Logitech z-5500, Logitech Harmony 525, Yamaha Rx-v6a, Samsung KS8000 4k, Windows 10, Mediaportal 1.30, BLU-RAY: Panasonic UB820

geekPete

34 posts

Geek
Inactive user

#349702 10-Jul-2010 03:09

I know this is most likely not the issue here, but just general advice for anyone reading and if you're having stuttering problems is to also make sure that:
a) You've added the timeshifting and recording folders to the exclusion list for your anti-virus on-access scanner.
b) If these folders are on a non-system drive, maybe also turn off System Restore for the drive(s) {via Control Panel > System > System Restore}

dale77

294 posts

Ultimate Geek

#349997 11-Jul-2010 18:57

MP 1.1 RC6 seems fine now.

working MP1.1RC6 system for me:

Vista SP2 plus all patches
latest directx
Cat 10.6
powercinema6 (PCM H264/AVC & monogram AAC codecs for mediaportal)
mediaportal
ac3filter
haali

elkano

160 posts

Master Geek

#350240 12-Jul-2010 13:37

dale77: MP 1.1 RC6 seems fine now.

working MP1.1RC6 system for me:

Vista SP2 plus all patches
latest directx
Cat 10.6
powercinema6 (PCM H264/AVC & monogram AAC codecs for mediaportal)
mediaportal
ac3filter
haali

What codecs were you using in Mediaportal before?

dale77

294 posts

Ultimate Geek

#350405 12-Jul-2010 21:01

elkano: What codecs were you using in Mediaportal before?

Same ones as above, less haali. The problem evaporated after I

1. Installed Haali (default install)
2. Had an windows time sync occur correcting system clock by about 8 sec
3. Opened up CCC a few times in the hope some "magic" would happen

This is all very smoke and mirrors...

The only extra codecs I use are PCM H264/AVC, AC3 Filter, Monogram AAC and haali.

Dale

geekPete

34 posts

Geek
Inactive user

#350601 13-Jul-2010 12:39

That's kinda funny - I came to pretty much the same conclusion aswell with lots of mucking around yesterday with trying out codecs (again!).

Finally got a (seemingly) reliable solution - after my preferred Arcsoft decoder failed to connect in the graph after installing RC6. And no amount of uninstalling and reinstalling made a difference.

I've settled on: latest nVidia 8600 series drivers (257.21) + haali + Monogram AAC + PCM H.264/AVC.

I tried the coreAVC 2.0, but it crashed too often when navigating the timeline, particularly with CUDA acceleration on.

Cyberlink's PowerCinema6's PCM H.264/AVC codec offers hardware acceleration under XP, and my not-so-flash AMD dual 4000+ processor uses around 10% when playing full screen full HD.

I've tried many h.264 decoders, and they nearly all have problems in a number of players, just playing .TS files straight from my Hauppauge card. Hence, I wouldn't be surprised if there's something odd or non-standard in the Freeview encoding of the video that causes so many of them to fail.

All this mucking around and hoping nothing breaks is like getting hardware to work in Windows 95, all over again!

Anyone setting up an HTPC, even now, is someone I'd regard as an "early adopter" - i.e. will look back in a few years and try to forget all the time that we wasted!

-----------
WinXP pro sp3 (32-bit), MediaPortal 1.1.0 rc6, GBPVR 1.4.7
Hauppauge HVR-4000+HVR-1700, nvidia 8600GT, AMD x2 4000+, Gigabyte mb

Lenovo

Shop now for Lenovo laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

dale77

294 posts

Ultimate Geek

#350992 13-Jul-2010 18:16

Anyone setting up an HTPC, even now, is someone I'd regard as an "early adopter" - i.e. will look back in a few years and try to forget all the time that we wasted!

I have been very surprized at how 'immature"/"finely balanced" the HTPC scene is. I assumed (a year ago) all the kinks would have been ironed out and I'd have few problems. My first surprize was that Vista MC couldn't even playback HD digital TV...

I suppose PC->Full-HD TV over HDMI playing blu-ray and HD-Audio is actually quite bleeding edge?

And anyway it is much more DIY "fun" than getting a bloke to build you that PS3.

martyyn

1961 posts

Uber Geek

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#351055 13-Jul-2010 20:00

What annoys me the most is Ive been using mediaportal now for over four years, probably closer to five and yet it still has major problems with the basics.

Dont get me wrong I wouldnt be without it and some of the plugins are superb, but everytime there is a new release it seems to bring back issues which have previously been fixed.

Sorting out your codecs from anything other than a clean install is a nightmare too.

I hear there is a thread on the forums where its revealed all the testers for the recent RC's are on W7, none of them are on XP. My understanding was W7 wasnt supported yet (although I may have that wrong) and only XP was to be supported 'officially'.

I hope they sort it out before releasing 1.1.0 because I really like the features my skin and plugins have with the later versions and really dont want to have to do a fresh install and go back to 1.0.2

smac

333 posts

Ultimate Geek

#351077 13-Jul-2010 20:36

I have taken the latest release as an opportunity to give mediaportal another go. I tried it about a year ago but at the time Win7 MC seemed just so much easier.

Anyway, after a bit of tweaking (less than I expected) and the installation of Indigo I am very pleased. So far it has WAF too, she basically sees no difference in usability to 7MC, with one exception (below).

Having fiddled for a couple of days, I do have a couple of questions:

1. Am I right in thinking that if I run MP in fullscreen mode (this is a dedicated HTPC) that I can not minimise MP to get to other apps (ie when I'm fiddling). It has to be closed?

2. In 7MC I could highlight something in the EPG, hit record on the remote twice and it would record the series. Am I right in thinking MP has no equivalent? The closest it has is "record this time every week" etc? This is the one thing wifie thinks is missing/odd.

3. I do find the navigation of music a bit clunky. eg Lots of key presses to switch between album and artist view. I understand that with an add-on I can get MP to launch a 3rd party app for music - anyone know a good one that is easily controlled by the Philips version of the MCE remote?

Other than these points I'm VERY happy. Any trade-offs are worth it to get rid of the .WTV format.

I don't have a lot of use for it, but being able to stream TV to my linux PC in another room just with VLC is awesome for geekiness cred ;)

dale77

294 posts

Ultimate Geek

#351119 13-Jul-2010 21:53

smac:
Having fiddled for a couple of days, I do have a couple of questions:

1. Am I right in thinking that if I run MP in fullscreen mode (this is a dedicated HTPC) that I can not minimise MP to get to other apps (ie when I'm fiddling). It has to be closed?
...

I don't have a lot of use for it, but being able to stream TV to my linux PC in another room just with VLC is awesome for geekiness cred ;)

Alt-enter or ctrl-enter (I forget which) will return to windowed mode.

Very cool with the linux streaming... I really would prefer a linux HTPC, but blu-ray has me in its clutches.

elkano

160 posts

Master Geek

#351231 14-Jul-2010 09:01

2. In 7MC I could highlight something in the EPG, hit record on the remote twice and it would record the series. Am I right in thinking MP has no equivalent? The closest it has is "record this time every week" etc? This is the one thing wifie thinks is missing/odd.

Other than these points I'm VERY happy. Any trade-offs are worth it to get rid of the .WTV format.

There is a plugin currently in development called TVWishList which should hopefully get to this point eventually. Not sure of it's current status as I haven't looked in a few months.

Mediaportal is a great product, but it is hampered by bugs depending on the build. I think part of this is that developers on the project move on or different ones get assigned and reintroduce some bugs with their fixes.
People put up with it because Mediaportal offers them features other options don't. I guess its the price we pay for being on the 'bleeding edge' of HTPC systems. There are reasonably stable builds of Mediaportal out there (lots of people still run 1.02 final with good reason), but I have to admit I have been enticed into the RC builds by the promise of handy new features :-)

I too would love a linux option, but currently I need my Bluray/games more than a 99.99% uptime.

smac

333 posts

Ultimate Geek

#351272 14-Jul-2010 10:10

Thanks for the key suggestion dale77, that works, and thanks elkano for the heads up on TV Wishlist, looks promising. I'll do some reading to compare this with 4therecord. Trouble with 4therecord is that I keep seeing posts saying "don't go there, you'll shag MP".....I don't want to spend my WAF brownie points just yet ;)

However the downside of Wishlist is that it's a separate GUI from MP. I don't normally have a keyboard attached and canning out of MP to add a recording seems like a pain, even if it's only occasional. I guess I could do it via VNC.....

kiwijunglist

2981 posts

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#351518 14-Jul-2010 18:37

@Dale - powercinema codec doesn't do dxva, so you will get choppy picture with any cpu useage from other services. I would recommend use an h264 codec from hdpack2.4

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

dale77

294 posts

Ultimate Geek

#351576 14-Jul-2010 21:11

kiwijunglist: @Dale - powercinema codec doesn't do dxva, so you will get choppy picture with any cpu useage from other services. I would recommend use an h264 codec from hdpack2.4

Powercinema 6 codec does support dxva on my setup. CPU is ~10% playing back TV3 1080i h264... I have noticed that some apps using the PCM codec fail to use DXVA, sometimes. I've seen MPC-HC use DXVA with one install, and not with another.

Mediaportal seems to use DXVA with PCM H264/AVC codec consistently.

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