Thinking of ditching Windows Media Centre for MediaPortal

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Thinking of ditching Windows Media Centre for MediaPortal

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silver565

170 posts

Master Geek

#604266 3-Apr-2012 07:13

Thanks for the input. I'll give it all a crack over the long weekend

I'll report back then

Dingbatt

6754 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#604709 3-Apr-2012 19:26

Sorry I am a little late to the party. I have components very similar to the the OP. A Win7HP computer running an AMDx2 5200 with a Nvidia 9600 GPU. I have 1 x HVR3000 and 1 x HVR2200 giving 1 DVB-S and 3 DVB-T tuners (S and T tuners on HVR3000 can't be used at the same time).
I use MediaPortal in preference to WMC mainly because it allows me to record multiple channels off one mux. I use the DVB-S tuner in the HVR3000 only for EPG. MP gives you the option of doing this in the TV-Server setup (much simpler than WMC in combining Channels IMO). While the MP setup was pretty tortuous in its early days, it is currently straight forward.
As long as your machine has enough grunt the only codecs you need are the ones that come with Windows7HP.
The EPG from satellite is the 7-day one, no XML strippers or any of that carry on!
My setup started as a single seat one, but because the TV-Server is separate from the TV Client (on the same machine) I have been able to use MP TV Clients on other networked computers in the house to watch recorded OR live TV from them.
MP also has the ability to use a MCE remote by overriding the 'Green Button' command that starts WMC.

Don't give up on MP without giving it a crack.

Edit: One thing to watch is that the satellite tuning file for Optus D1 is useless as it pretty much just gives you useless Sky encrypted channels. The file needs to be manually modified to set the correct parameters.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

password1

64 posts

Master Geek

#604750 3-Apr-2012 20:37

Dingbatt:

Edit: One thing to watch is that the satellite tuning file for Optus D1 is useless as it pretty much just gives you useless Sky encrypted channels. The file needs to be manually modified to set the correct parameters.

Ahmm, you can just delete those channels by clicking 'delete encrypted channels' or something like that after the scan. No need to manually modify at all.

Dingbatt

6754 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#604876 4-Apr-2012 07:59

password1:
Dingbatt:

Edit: One thing to watch is that the satellite tuning file for Optus D1 is useless as it pretty much just gives you useless Sky encrypted channels. The file needs to be manually modified to set the correct parameters.

Ahmm, you can just delete those channels by clicking 'delete encrypted channels' or something like that after the scan. No need to manually modify at all.

Yes, maybe so, but the tuning file doesn't contain the 2 sets of parameters required for freeview channels. So all I do is edit the Optus D1 XML file, removing all the extraneous parameters so all I get is the freeview channels. Works a treat, cuts down scanning time and the need to then delete all the encrypted channels. It's possibly just because earlier versions needed some comprehensive fiddling 'under the hood' to work properly and I can't break the habit.

The main thing however for me is still the multi recording from muxes, and the ability to access the tuners from other networked computers. Just be aware it still isn't completely bug free (much better than earlier versions though).

I use StreamedMP as a skin as well.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

mm1352000

1149 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#604959 4-Apr-2012 10:44

Dingbatt:
password1:
Dingbatt:

Edit: One thing to watch is that the satellite tuning file for Optus D1 is useless as it pretty much just gives you useless Sky encrypted channels. The file needs to be manually modified to set the correct parameters.

Ahmm, you can just delete those channels by clicking 'delete encrypted channels' or something like that after the scan. No need to manually modify at all.

Yes, maybe so, but the tuning file doesn't contain the 2 sets of parameters required for freeview channels. So all I do is edit the Optus D1 XML file, removing all the extraneous parameters so all I get is the freeview channels. Works a treat, cuts down scanning time and the need to then delete all the encrypted channels. It's possibly just because earlier versions needed some comprehensive fiddling 'under the hood' to work properly and I can't break the habit.

The main thing however for me is still the multi recording from muxes, and the ability to access the tuners from other networked computers. Just be aware it still isn't completely bug free (much better than earlier versions though).

I use StreamedMP as a skin as well.

The file *does* have the tuning details for the two Freeview transponders (this is the file we distributed with MP 1.2.x) - they're mixed in with a fair few transponders that can only be received in Australia, but they are there. Even if they weren't, you can update the transponder list automatically from the internet by clicking "update satellite list" in the scanning screen. In addition, you can do an advanced "scan for transponder list" NIT scan, which would pick up all the transponders on the satellite (as long as you know the tuning details for one of them).

Having all the extra tuning details can be a pain if you don't receive Sky, but as Dingbatt said, you can edit the file (which lives in C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal TV Server\TuningParameters\dvbs\160.0°E Optus D1.xml manually (any text editor will do) in conjunction with the details here (lyngsat). The "delete encrypted channels" button clears the channel list of encrypted channels, but it doesn't touch the list of transponders.

mm

silver565

170 posts

Master Geek

#605513 5-Apr-2012 09:14

Half way through, i've generated my INI file with the EPG collector. I can now run a bat file that uses that INI file to update the channels. However, what next? I've been reading this:

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=126&topicid=61903

It's telling me to update an XML file. The trouble is I'm not seeing where the EPG Collector dumped it?

silver565

170 posts

Master Geek

#605548 5-Apr-2012 09:59

Never mind... derp moment. Have it all sorted.

Thanks guys

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