My HTPC project

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › My HTPC project

Pock

156 posts

Master Geek

#31348 13-Mar-2009 21:20

So strange, I created a topic and now I can't find it!? So I'm creating it again. I think I must be going nuts. Mods, if you 'find' my other topic, please delete one! Thanks.

Anyway, I joined geekzone after doing some research into TV cards and Mediaportal.

We currently have a 29" Sony CRT in our lounge connected to a DSE-7500 freeview decoder. I wanted to put a TV in our bedroom and another freeview decoder with PVR function, but I priced it all up and it was going to cost too much.

So I researched TV cards. Now my plan is to attach a swing bracket to my 17" PC monitor and add a TV card and Mediaportal to my current PC (Sempron 2600+, 512mb ram, GeForce FX5200 128mb, approx 200gb free HDD space).

I plan to use the monitor for the PC and swing it around to face the bed to watch TV.

I had a look at TV cards that Mediaportal supports and the only one I can find for sale in NZ is the Hauppauge Nove S Plus.

Any comments / suggestions?

hamisht

389 posts

Ultimate Geek

#201113 13-Mar-2009 21:29

Hi. Media Portal will support other cards, you will have to go to the Media Portal help forums and ask them about it, I know for my notebook I just gave them all the details of my in-built tuner, and they sent me a file to add into the media portal system, and then it picked up the tuner no probs, freeview HD worked no probs (in hamilton).

My Blu-Ray Collection

CYaBro

4590 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#201115 13-Mar-2009 21:33

Hauppauge Nova S Plus works great with MediaPortal.
I have two machines both running two of them (not in the location)
Of course they are for satellite Freeview only.
If you want Freeview|HD via UHF (if you can receive it in your area) then you need a DVB-T tuner but your PC wouldn't work with that.

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

Pock

156 posts

Master Geek

#201120 13-Mar-2009 21:56

Yeah no Freeview|HD here (Wairarapa). Thanks for the replies.

Pock

156 posts

Master Geek

#201232 14-Mar-2009 19:42

The remote that comes with the nova s plus, can that be used to control the menus in mediaportal?

Pock

156 posts

Master Geek

#202649 22-Mar-2009 19:51

Ok, downloaded Media Portal and got it running. I don't have a TV card yet, but I thought I'd have a play. It seems very slow to start anything. I had a couple of movies on my HDD that I had used DVD shrink to extract. It played them fine, but it took 3-4 minutes to start once I had selected each one.

It also starts up very slowly.

Once it starts It runs fine. Is there anything I can change to improve performance, or do I need to upgrade my PC?

1gkar

722 posts

Ultimate Geek

#202715 23-Mar-2009 08:12

I have a Sempron AM2 3000+ client machine networked to my main lounge HTPC. & that requires some time to boot & load Mediaportal. But once I'm in the MP frontend, the loading of my media files, across the network, is pretty much instant.

MP does have a resonable learning curve. If you installed MP & don't have a tuner card at present, did you install both MP & its associated TVServer?

I suggest some reading may assist:

MP WIKI Manual
MP WIKI Home
MP Tutorial Vids Excellent source, even though the vids are for an older version of MP: Many aspects are still relevant.
MP Forums

Is your machine connected to the net? Or going to be used solely for HTPC? I would recommend the latter, given the CPU's limitation. If you are after faster boot times, you could disable certain services to make it load faster. Here is a site I've used to work out what to disable.

Silverstone LC14 HTPC Case/Intel E4600 CPU/GA-EP35-DS3 MOBO/Asus EN9500GT graphics/2GB RAM/total 2TB HDD space/HVR-2200 & 2X 150MCE tuner cards/LG GGC-H20L BD Drive/MCE2005/Mediaportal/TVServer 1.1.0Final/LG 55"3D LED-TV/Denon AVR-1803 receiver/X1 projector

Pock

156 posts

Master Geek

#203076 24-Mar-2009 18:01

1gkar: I have a Sempron AM2 3000+ client machine networked to my main lounge HTPC. & that requires some time to boot & load Mediaportal. But once I'm in the MP frontend, the loading of my media files, across the network, is pretty much instant.

MP does have a resonable learning curve. If you installed MP & don't have a tuner card at present, did you install both MP & its associated TVServer?

Yup both of them.

1gkar:
I suggest some reading may assist:

MP WIKI Manual
MP WIKI Home
MP Tutorial Vids Excellent source, even though the vids are for an older version of MP: Many aspects are still relevant.
MP Forums

Cool, I'll have a look.

1gkar:
Is your machine connected to the net? Or going to be used solely for HTPC? I would recommend the latter, given the CPU's limitation. If you are after faster boot times, you could disable certain services to make it load faster. Here is a site I've used to work out what to disable.

It's the only PC we have at the moment. So its going to be used for both. I went through that list and disabled a lot of services, Media Portal runs a lot smoother now! Thanks.

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

Pock

156 posts

Master Geek

#207368 16-Apr-2009 19:45

Brought a nova s plus through trademe, $45 - score! Hope it all runs ok. It was someone from here I think - the user recommended geekzone to someone asking about windows 7. I'll post updates (or ask tricky questios) once I get it.

Pock

156 posts

Master Geek

#210960 30-Apr-2009 17:54

Ok. Got the Sat card up and running in GBPVR, but no luck in MediaPortal. In MediaPortal the signal strength says 100% and the quality 0%.

Here's some screenshots of both setups. I used this: http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1114/1372342482_496ebd2481.jpg?v=0 for mediaportal.

Media Portal (not picking up any channels) http://www.imagef1.net.nz/files/MP_SAT.JPG

GBPVR (working fine) http://www.imagef1.net.nz/files/GBPVR_SAT.JPG

Can anyone see what I'm doing wrong?

WaffleMakerMan

138 posts

Master Geek

#211050 30-Apr-2009 21:30

Try selecting the optus D1 preset in tvserver config and I guess double check you LNB settings. The D1 preset will go through all the sky and aus channels but you can just delete what you don't require

Atleast you know its working anyhow with GBPVR picking up channels

EDIT Is that Mediaportals config? I've never seen that screen before, are you using the internal tuner instead of TVserver?

EDIT 2 Try setting both LNBs to either 10750 or 11300 you LNB will be one or the other but not both and set the switch fq to 20000

Pock

156 posts

Master Geek

#211301 1-May-2009 17:24

Found the problem!

It seems the difference between a lower case 'e' and an upper case 'E' was all it was in the .tpl file.

kiwijunglist

2981 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#211879 3-May-2009 15:00

another good mediaportal guide (maybe a little out of date) i used it when i first used mediaportal.

Use google and search "cranz mediaportal guide"

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.