Media Portal - power scheduler

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KrazyKid

1238 posts

Uber Geek

#31160 7-Mar-2009 00:22

I am testing out the standard power scheduler plugin in mediaportal 1.0 TV server, trying to set this part of mediaportal up.

Is this in-built power scheduler the best to use, or is there a better one?
What is the best state to shut down the PC to?
What other utils are best - I seemed to need a util called MST to help me out getting it to work at all.

I have :
Media portal 1.0
Vista 32bit
Nova 500 T card

Many thanks

Dingbatt

6758 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#199756 7-Mar-2009 13:12

I use Power Scheduler but am still on RC4 as I'm not brave enough to go to 1.0.0 just yet.
It works as advertised most of the time and I hibernate the HTPC rather than standby so I don't have a blinking blue power light to drive me nuts. It takes longer to wake up from hibernation than from standby. It sometimes hangs and has to be hard rebooted but I believe this is a Windows/hardware problem more than anything to do with Power Scheduler.
I have set the PS to hibernate after 15 minutes idle and included TV Server Config, MP Config and MP as processes that prevent standby so the HTPC doesn't go to sleep while I'm watching something recorded.

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

kiwijunglist

2981 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#199909 8-Mar-2009 15:33

Is this in-built power scheduler the best to use, or is there a better one?

Built in powerscheduler works fine for most people.
You must enable it under TV Server Config -> Plugins -> Powersceduler
- This allows TV Server to put the computer to sleep when MP isn't running
- TV Server is smart and wont put the computer to sleep within a few minutes of a scheduled recording
- This also allows TV Server to wake up the computer from sleep for scheduled recording
and MP Config -> Plugins -> Process Plugins -> Powerscheduler
- This allows MP to automatically put the computer to sleep if time out occurs
- MP also prevents computer going to sleep in certain circumstances

You may also wish to disable the power management options in control panel

You may find TV Server puts the computer to sleep when you are doing other things outside MP, eg surfing the net or watching a movie in an external player. To prevent this you can either, disable the put computer to sleep function of TV Server-Powersheduler or you can add iexplore.exe etc. to the "processes that prevent standby" list.

What is the best state to shut down the PC to?

S3 aka STR, which stands for Suspend To Ram.
This shuts everything down except for the ram.
The advantage is it is very very quick to resume from S3
In S3 mode you use hardly any power, and all the fans are turned off.
You can use your USB remote or keyboard or mouse to wake from S3
You may need to enable S3/STR mode in your bios (This usually is enabled by default)

What other utils are best - I seemed to need a util called MST to help me out getting it to work at all.

Only some people need to install MST, try without it first.
I had to use MST because i sometimes got a blank screen after resuming from S3

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

KrazyKid

1238 posts

Uber Geek

#199957 8-Mar-2009 19:43

Thanks guys.
Some good things to try here.

I have been playing this afternoon trying to get it working and have found that if the TV is on Standby I don't have an issue.

Now finding that MP has will not start again if it suspends to either s3 or s4.
Despite the fact I had that working prior. I have made quite a few changes since then and so not sure what I did wrong.

I will crack this bugger yet - am almost there...

kiwijunglist

2981 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#199970 8-Mar-2009 21:14

Try altering these settings;

MP Config -> General -> Restart MP on resume

MP Config -> Turn monitor/tv on when resuming from standby

Taskbar -> MST -> MP -> Stop on suspend, always restart on resume

I have them all turned off, but altering these settings may help.

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.