OK, I'm going in: Windows Vista, Hauppauge WinTV and more...

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › OK, I'm going in: Windows Vista, Hauppauge WinTV and more...

trig42

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#17855 14-Dec-2007 20:33

So, the build is on.

I have a Hauppauge WinTV Nova S (for Freeview), a Hauppauge WinTV PVR150MCE (for the Sky decoder to go through) and an MCE remote.

I have a PC I have built out of Parts - P4 3.0Ghz, 1.5Gb DDR, 1x160Gb and an 80Gb (for now) and DVD Writer. Media slots blah blah blah.

I have to transfer a vista license from a laptop I have to this new box because apparently the MCE remote I have only plays nice with Vista (Hauppauge MCE remote and blaster), which isn't what I had planned, but will have to do.

I'm doing the MediaPortal install tomorrow - does anyone have any tips/tricks to make the process smoother for me? I'm not anticipating too many horrid issues (fingers crossed), just got to set up the DVB-S card correctly.

Will post progress/issues. Hopefully some of you gurus will be there in case of emergency :)

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#100055 15-Dec-2007 00:30

Strongly recommend MediaPortal TVServer. The inbuilt TV Support in MediaPortal is being phased out. See my TV Server and MediaPortal Setup pages (links below). You can get MP help from the NZ thread on the MP forum. It can be a challenge to get it all setup but it's well worth it once you do. :)

Cheers,
mcraenz

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trig42

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#100057 15-Dec-2007 00:36

Thanks,

I've spent the last couple of hours trawling through that massive forum topic.

I'm pretty confident my hardware will be OK. The tricky things I can see coming are

1. The IR Blaster - How do you do it? do I need a plug-in? or does MP work it out for me?

2. EPG. Looks like combining channels is the go as fro mwhat I read there, I can grab the EPG for all channels (incl. Sky) off the satellite (but use the analog tuner to watch Sky)? Have I got this right?

Help much appreciated.

Cheers.

mcraenz

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#100059 15-Dec-2007 00:48

Yeah sounds like you're pretty much on track, I've not set up blasters my self (don't have sky) but should be straight forward and again NZ forum members should be able to help you out.

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trig42

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#100130 15-Dec-2007 14:41

Update - Pretty gutted - the Box I have cobbled together may have issues. I am getting BSODs in Vista after installing drivers for Nova-S. They are random BSODs - not always the same. I have a feeling that (hopefully) the motherboard I pilfered is a bit dodgy. I so don't want there to be a problem with Vista and these cards (the PVR-150 installed automatically, the vista drivers for the Nova-S seemed to install fine, then Random BSODs).

Trying a new Mobo this afternoon.

Can't get it going during the weekend anyhow as DSE (who told me they had a Sat cable splitter) only has Diplexors, which run terrestrial and Sat down the same cable - not what I need.

trig42

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#100168 15-Dec-2007 21:19

I have hardware up and running.

A question for those who hav installed MP - the order which I now install the program is;

Mediaportal
MP Server
Mp Client Plugin

Is that correct?

Do I do the configuration/scanning for channels etc. after installing all of those?

Thanks in Advance.

mcraenz

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#100178 15-Dec-2007 22:19

Yep you got. TVServer handles all the tv/recording and this is where you scan in/configure your channels. You then install MediaPortal+Latest SVN Patch+TVserverPlugin on any PCs you want to get TV on. (This will probably just be the same PC as where the TVServer is installed; until you start adding other clients, maybe in the bedroom?)

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trig42

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#100179 15-Dec-2007 22:24

OK, thanks heaps.

Just to clarify though - do I have to install TVServer (MP Server) first, or Mediaportal itself? Or does it not really matter??

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mcraenz

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#100188 15-Dec-2007 23:57

Makes no difference, they are separate programs.

TVServer is the windows service that controls all the TV cards, does the Live TV/scheduling/recording etc
MediaPortal is the HTPC App (The actual GUI you see on your TV)
TVPlugin (Bundled with TVServer) is the plug-in for MediaPortal that allows you to connect to the TV Server and view TV/Recordings

If you don't install the TV-Plugin (or the server) then MediaPortal (the HTPC app) does have in-built TV support but this in-built support is being phased out which is why I recommend using the TVServer. Also if you use the TVserver it just runs in the background so if you close mediaportal all your recordings continue. Basically it's fontend/backend separation.

I hope this clears things up, I know I was confused about what did what when I first stated out!

Cheers,
mcraenz

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trig42

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#100194 16-Dec-2007 08:29

I'm getting there.

To get the EPG from the sat, for both Sky channels and Freeview, what do I need to put in my tuning parramter ini file etc. And where do I need to put these files?

A little confusing - but I will get there.

mcraenz

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#100589 18-Dec-2007 08:47

How are you going? I've had quite a few problems with the latest builds of tvserver, hanging and slugish picture. I've rolled back to an earlier version. How it going for you?

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gehenna

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#100615 18-Dec-2007 10:27

anyone heard of any plans for mediaportal to undergo some ui changes? i'm not a fan of the design, its very mce2005 to my eye. i'd be much happier to give it a whirl if i knew it was going to be looking a bit slicker...

trig42

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#100704 18-Dec-2007 17:54

It is installed.

Now for the configuration...

I have scanned for channels on the DVB-S card, and put in all the frequencies. It has picked up all the Freeview Channels, and they work fine (EPG and all). I have also got the EPG for the Sky channels, which is good.

Now I have a couple more questions which I hope you can help me with (and thanks for all help so far!)

1) How do I set up the Sky channels via STB?
I have the Sky STB connected to my Analogue card via S-Video, and it quite happily picks this up (ie, whichever channel my Sky box is set to, I can see via the SVHS channel on MP). How do I let MP know that If I want (say) Sky Movies, to change to SVHS channel and send a command to my Sky decoder to change to Channel 20? In the tuning details for the Digital Sky Channels it has picked up, it wont let me go to the Analog tuning tab. Do I have to create the Channels manually? If so, how?

2) How do I change the order of the channels in the guide and put Logos etc in?
Truth be told, I haven't looked too hard for the logos thing, but I though I had arranged the channels how I wanted, but it didn't come up that way. I need the channel order to be as close as possible to the channel order on the Sky box (for WAF). After I have the channels all sorted and MP knows where to find the Sky channels, I will then do the Remote Blaster thing (not looking forward to this, but will cross the bridge when I get to it!)

That's it for now....

Thanks in advance.

Edit - I have just plugged it into my TV, and only the sound from the Analog card works - The picture from both is fine (it needs some resolution adjustments), but no sound from the Digital Channels. Any ideas???

burtz

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#100952 20-Dec-2007 06:08

I know you are going the Mediaportal route, and I initially went that way myself until I ran into issues with getting the sky box to change channels, but I thought you might be interested to know my recent experience setting up two htpcs with similar hardware to yours. I have a freeview box (for me) with a nova-s plus card running GB-PVR PVRX2 1.1.5 and another with a hauppage 150 card and sky (for the kids) also running GB-PVR PVRX2 with an MCE remote and an IR blaster for changing channnels.

I have not tried running both freeview and sky from the same box. One thing you might want to consider is checking out the thread here Tivo epg slices versus xmltv as I use this method for the sky epg and I didn't need to get the freeview epg, I found this method more reliable than the current XMLTVNZ pre-release candidate 2.

Another interesting thing I have done is plug the sky htpc directly into a 47" rear projection tv via component from a silent 7600gs card and with some older nvidia drivers 84.xx (the new ones have the hdtv resize ability removed!) I have a great 576i picture without needing a separate monitor, keyboard, mouse etc, this makes it very easy for the kids as all they do is switch on the TV - with the HTPC always running and available for live tv or watching recordings.

I also discovered that the older black sky digital box didn't work well with IR blaster, I changed to the smaller silver sky digital box (pace 2000??) and even though the remote was unchanged, I could then get the IR blaster to work.

mcraenz

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#101078 20-Dec-2007 17:13

I've also posted this in the NZ MP forum thread:

I don't have sky so I've not set up blasters before but I'm sure there must be some others here who have?? Come on guys pipe up!

This is what I know of it:

1:Use the MCE learn tool on the startmenu under MediaProtal to learn the commands of your remote.
2.Make sure the plug-in is enabled by selecting the Plugins node and ticking the ServerBlaster plug-in
3.Select your analog for one or both of the blasters.
4.Add analog channels with a source of svhs and with a channel numbers the same as their channel number on the sky box.

In the learn tool you might have to play with the speed setting?

Re: missing audio on digital channels. upgrade to the latest TVServer+TVPlugin+MPSVNSnapshot; there were some issues that have been fixed. ( I had the same problem)

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trig42

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#101100 20-Dec-2007 19:37

Thanks mcraenz.

I sorted the audio thing - my bad - had the volume right down /gives himself uppercut

I have the blaster plugin setup, and via the plugin setup thing, it changes channels on the Sky decoder fine (using the test function).

So, If I manually add the channels with the right channel numbers, it will automatically blast them?? If so, then that's very cool. Will this also work if the channel is chosen via EPG?

I feel I'm getting close to going live!

This brings me to my next question ("stop with the questions already!" I hear you say!!)

How do I organise the Program Guide? - I have changed the order under channels in TVServer, but doesn't seem to make much difference - I would like it to be as close as possible to SKY's EPG (Wife may not even notice when I change over :))

And, once that is done, can I also select a channel by typing in it's channel number on my remote - and is this the same channel number as in the Channel setup? (this is important for WAF - that's how she does it now with Sky - she only watches about 5 channels).

I will also post this in MP NZ forum - maybe more people read that.

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