MediaPortal Setup / Information

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › MediaPortal Setup / Information

kiwijunglist

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#114999 9-Mar-2013 19:39

MediaPortal turns your computer into a very advanced media center, or Home Theater PC (HTPC)

Watch, schedule and record live TV - like a TiVo, but more, and for free!
Play videos, movies, DVDs and Blu-ray discs
Listen to music and radio
Enjoy pictures, home videos or create a slideshow
Stream media, radio and TV to any HTPC / PC connected to your network
Use a remote to control your HTPC from your couch
Check the weather, news, and more
Access MediaPortal from the web or mobile device

All in the comfort of your living room, on your big screen LCD or Plasma TV or projector.

Useful Links

Mediaportal Homepage

Download MediaPortal

MediaPortal Forum

MediaPortal Forum - New Zealand Mega-Thread

Generic MediaPortal Setup Guide

MediaPortal Wiki Quick Setup Guide

New Zealand Section of the MediaPortal Wiki

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#777500 9-Mar-2013 21:26

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kiwijunglist

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#777506 9-Mar-2013 22:00

.

TV

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MUSIC

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MOVIES

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TV SHOWS

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TRAKT / ONLINE VIDEOS / SETTINGS

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sidefx

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#777627 10-Mar-2013 14:02

Looks very slick, but the big disclaimer around centralized database means it couldn't replace xbmc in our house:

http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_MEDIAPORTAL_1/20_Reference/Databases/Central_Database

"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there." | Octopus Energy | Sharesies
- Richard Feynman

turb

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#777676 10-Mar-2013 17:16

Mediaportal vs WMC?

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kiwijunglist

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#777679 10-Mar-2013 17:38

centralised database

With trakt plugin I find there is no longer a need for a centralised database, as watched status + ratings are stored online and synced between the clients.

Mediaportal vs WMC?

The main differences are;

MediaPortal
- Complicated setup
- More Features/customisation
- Stream Live TV to other PC/Devices
- More plugins
- Better GUI

WMC
- WAY Easier setup
- Can't stream Live TV
- Less customisation
- Less plugins

Other than that they are similar.

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martyyn

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#777851 11-Mar-2013 10:37

kiwijunglist:

The main differences are;

MediaPortal
- Complicated setup
....

Ain't that the truth !

Six months ago I gave up on Mediaportal after having used it for 6 or 7 years. Frustration finally got the better of me as there was always something I wasn't quite happy with.

When my RaspberryPI arrived I tried XBMC and was just astonished with how simple it was to set up and have running. Less than 30 mins after opening the box I was watching movies from my server and that included setting the sd card up etc.

But, there is always a but, having to organise my media to the n-th degree was becoming a pain. I found Ember Media Manager with a few tutorials but whilst I could get everything I wanted if I did it manually an auto scrape found bugger all.

So this thread made me install Mediaportal again thinking 'surely I can get it sorted'.

After two hours of setting it all up, doing the initial scraping for my movies and tv, setting up StreamedMP as I always liked it, I hit play on the first movie to get the error 'cant play AVC'. The same with the second, and third, and fourth!

Now I've been here before with MP and it was days before I came out the other side and I just don't know if I can be bothered with it all again. There was CoreAVC, ffdshow, ac3filter and I aged several years in the space of a couple of weeks.

It's a complete fresh install of W7 with no codecs, no add-on packs, no nothing. So how can XBMC get everything right straight from the box and yet MP has me staring into the codec abyss yet again ?

So here I am at a crossroads. Spend the time on getting my media correct for XBMC or in codec hell with MediaPortal ?

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kiwijunglist

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#777880 11-Mar-2013 11:17

Just install Clean version of windows 7 + SAF + mediaportal. don't install anything else. MP 1.3 Final will be out in a couple of days.

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martyyn

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#777885 11-Mar-2013 11:27

Hmmm, the last time I tried SAF there was still a fair amount of tweeking needed.

To be fair it was a while ago now that I last tried it.

I see from the installation instructions on the MP forum there is still the need to set up ffdshow etc. It's not filling me with much confidence !

mm1352000

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#777886 11-Mar-2013 11:27

martyyn: After two hours of setting it all up, doing the initial scraping for my movies and tv, setting up StreamedMP as I always liked it, I hit play on the first movie to get the error 'cant play AVC'. The same with the second, and third, and fourth!

When people install MP they always seem to focus on getting the looks right - MovingPictures, Skins etc. etc. That's fine, but at the end of the day it is all just pretty fluff. My advice: do the basics right first.

The first (and almost only) thing I do when setting up an MP installation is the codec configuration. If you don't do this, most media will refuse to play. I strongly suspect from the error message that this is something you have not done.

Now I've been here before with MP and it was days before I came out the other side and I just don't know if I can be bothered with it all again. There was CoreAVC, ffdshow, ac3filter and I aged several years in the space of a couple of weeks.

It's a complete fresh install of W7 with no codecs, no add-on packs, no nothing. So how can XBMC get everything right straight from the box and yet MP has me staring into the codec abyss yet again ?

I don't think XBMC gets everything right. They've made a design decision to build in the codecs (like VLC). This has its advantages for the people such as yourself that expect to do nothing to get playback to work, but when the built in decoder library won't decode a particular file for whatever reason you're kinda out of options (except maybe re-encoding or changing container, if you consider that to be a solution).

MP also made design decisions. They intend it to be more configurable than XBMC and WMC. If you encountered the situation mentioned above with MP then you simply try a different codec. Not a bigee.

If you like the XBMC approach then use XBMC; if you like the MP approach then use MP. Simple.

If you look at the quick install guide for MP you'd see one of the steps is to select the codecs that you want to use. There are no defaults due to the fact that every system has different codecs available. On a bare W7 system I'd suggest using the Microsoft DTV codecs for all options. Off the top of my head, I think XBMC uses the libffdshow codecs internally so if you like XBMC's media compatibility but want to use MP then install FFDShow and select the FFDShow *** selections for all options.

The MP team has tried to placate the people such as yourself who complain that codecs are confusing and frustrating by giving you the option to download and install the LAV codecs as part of the MP installation. Those codecs are tested by the team and generally result in very good media compatibility. If you missed that option you can always install them later using the MP extension installer.

So here I am at a crossroads. Spend the time on getting my media correct for XBMC or in codec hell with MediaPortal ?

I think codec hell is a bit of an exaggeration. Configure them for a start - in particular, the h.264 video codec which is the cause of the error message you quoted. If you still have problems then try the FFDShow or LAV routes described above. This should take no more than 5 minutes. Then if things still don't work I'd consider that reasonable grounds for saying you're having problems.

kiwijunglist

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#777904 11-Mar-2013 12:01

^ Above post is really good advice

Codec hell is akin to people who have internet explorer + 100 addons and tool bars and malware. If you understand what you are doing there is no such thing as codec hell.

You have 3 options

1. Install MP without selecting LAV and use the internal W7 codecs
2. Install MP with the included LAV pack and use that
3. Install MP without LAV then install SAF

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martyyn

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#777935 11-Mar-2013 12:49

Yep, excellent advice and I owe you two an apology :)

I made it pretty first simply because that's what I knew how to do without thinking about it.

Anyway, default codecs did not allow me to play anything other than simple mpeg stuff. The Microsoft DTV codecs didnt help either. I installed LAV and switched to LAV for the h.264 section, changed the MPC settings to SPDIF for DTS and AC3 and presto its all going :)

Clearly big steps have been taken to make it a little more user-friendly and its worked. The only question is whether I stick with 1.2.3 or move to 1.3 whenever it comes out. I saw some of the help pages were already showing 1.3 screen shots.

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geekiegeek

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#777987 11-Mar-2013 14:01

kiwijunglist: ^ Above post is really good advice

Codec hell is akin to people who have internet explorer + 100 addons and tool bars and malware. If you understand what you are doing there is no such thing as codec hell.

You have 3 options

1. Install MP without selecting LAV and use the internal W7 codecs
2. Install MP with the included LAV pack and use that
3. Install MP without LAV then install SAF

+1 for option 2

I use LAV for all decoding and haven't had a single video not play - this is the only codec I have installed apart from the Windows 7 inbuilt. Another piece of advice I would give to newer MP users - forget the fancy skins until you are comfortable with the rest of the configuration.

CYaBro

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#777990 11-Mar-2013 14:05

How do you play Blu-ray discs in MP?

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reven

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#777993 11-Mar-2013 14:14

looks really nice. wont make me switch from xbmc, but looks very nice.

they need to try and work on getting mepo on different clients/hardware. this is hard being in c#, but they have moved most logic into a client/server setup (more so with mepo 2 i believe, centralized database.), so they could write a gui that runs on more hardware (linux, android, windows etc) then they might get more users.

requiring a windows server is fine IMO, but requiring a windows client is a killer for me.

mm1352000

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#778044 11-Mar-2013 15:09

CYaBro: How do you play Blu-ray discs in MP?

There are plugins like Bluray handler for MP 1.2.x down, and native support from MP 1.3.x up. Note that the native support does not include BD-J and will not circumvent copy protection mechanisms that otherwise prevent the BD from playing.

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