Multiple records on Media Portal vs Media Center

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Acrux

56 posts

Master Geek

#39276 11-Aug-2009 16:44

Interested to see that with Media Portal with one tuner you can watch or record any or all of the channels that are on that stream (freeview DTT) so for the TVNZ mux this is TV1, 2, 6, 7 all at the same time. ie it can pick up the PID's and store any channel you ask as it is already tuned to that stream.

However in Win7 Media Center it is a bit more brain dead. It only lets you watch/ record one channel per tuner which is a bit lame. So you need a freeview tuner for each channel you wish to record/ watch at any point in time. Can anyone with the release version of Win7 tell me if this limitation has been sorted?

I have got around it by having a dual freeview DTT tuner card and a seperate card with S-Video I/P so I can record Sky SD off my Sky box.

rhysb

435 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#245278 11-Aug-2009 17:06

No, the limitation is still there in RTM. The reasoning is that it might be confusing for the average Joe if he can record multiple channels of one combination, but not another.

Personally, I would love to see this feature in MC.

Acrux

56 posts

Master Geek

#245292 11-Aug-2009 17:50

That is a pity, being able to do this is a real plus. Problem with Mircosoft is that being such a large company our chance of changing their mind is zero

mcraenz

1140 posts

Uber Geek

#245366 11-Aug-2009 20:57

Yeah that's a show stopper for me. It's such a cool feature.

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Dingbatt

6755 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#245367 11-Aug-2009 20:58

I believe it may be a limitation of Win7MC because it converts the stream to its proprietary codec (so one per tuner) whereas MP just records the TS for each channel requested (which is decoded when you watch it).

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

mruane

420 posts

Ultimate Geek

#245424 11-Aug-2009 23:23

I suspect you are correct Dingbatt - however I think that they are using a proprietary file container rather than a codec. However, one of the advantages of that file container is that they can store all of the program related details i.e. channel, epg synopsis etc in the meta data of that container, which means that they do not need a database for recordings - the database appears to be the collection of recordings themselves!!!

Wish Meda Portal would do that!

Cheers Mike

Regs

4066 posts

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Snowflake

#245443 12-Aug-2009 00:26

before suggesting that microsoft are doing all sorts of proprietry things that are the reasons for this not being implemented..... how about naming all the other products that have this built in?

Its one very nice feature of media portal, but for me its not really on the top 10 list. i have a hard time finding enough on tv to record one channel at a time... let alone two or more channels :P

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mcraenz

1140 posts

Uber Geek

#245471 12-Aug-2009 07:58

Proprietry or not it's their software they could do what they like with it. I beleive GBPVR and MythTV also have this feature now.

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Asmodeus

1015 posts

Uber Geek

#245525 12-Aug-2009 11:26

Kinda irrelevant but Ive never wanted to record more than 2 freeview channels at once, there's never enough good stuff on!

Occasionally I record 2 channels while watching a 3rd but VERY rarely.

That said it would be nice to have the option! (in 7MC)

RustyGonad

495 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#245537 12-Aug-2009 11:49

Its one of those features that sounds good on paper, but the pratical realities aren't there.

The only real upside for most people is that they can record TV1 and TV2 with a single tuner. If you want 1/2 and TV3 you still need dual tuners. If your recording 1,2,6 & 7 at the same time you really need to get out more...

It doesn't work with Sky (to the best of my knowledge) due to the inability of MediaPortal (or any of the others) to present the individual channels to any of the known decoding s/w.

Even if it did, you then need to manage what is on each Transponder in order to figure out what you can and can't record.

Multi tuners may cost more, but they offer a simpler solution to the end user. Simplicity is where Microsoft's solution excels. Rather than trying to be everything to everyone (as MediaPortal does), it does what it does, and does it very very well.

MediaPortal on the other hand tries to do everything, except only some of it works, some of the time - it looks pig ugly in comparison. And it uses SQL server to do it - which kinda says it all...

meesham

973 posts

Ultimate Geek

#245547 12-Aug-2009 12:28

RustyGonad: Its one of those features that sounds good on paper, but the pratical realities aren't there.

The only real upside for most people is that they can record TV1 and TV2 with a single tuner. If you want 1/2 and TV3 you still need dual tuners. If your recording 1,2,6 & 7 at the same time you really need to get out more...

It doesn't work with Sky (to the best of my knowledge) due to the inability of MediaPortal (or any of the others) to present the individual channels to any of the known decoding s/w.

Even if it did, you then need to manage what is on each Transponder in order to figure out what you can and can't record.

Multi tuners may cost more, but they offer a simpler solution to the end user. Simplicity is where Microsoft's solution excels. Rather than trying to be everything to everyone (as MediaPortal does), it does what it does, and does it very very well.

MediaPortal on the other hand tries to do everything, except only some of it works, some of the time - it looks pig ugly in comparison. And it uses SQL server to do it - which kinda says it all...

I record 3 shows at once on my HTPC about 2-3 times a week (I only have 2 tuners and my partner has very different viewing tastes to me), so for me this is a useful feature and it's something that just works.

Some of the 3rd party plugins are definitely problematic but the core of MediaPortal works very well, combined with the TV-Series (of which I have 160) plugin, the MovingPictures plugin, the StreamedMP skin and ForTheRecord doing the scheduling, for me MP blows away all the other HTPC apps out there.

They've also switched to MySQL for the latest version of MediaPortal (the upcoming 1.10 release), but personally I don't see the problem with using SQL server for an application like this.

mcraenz

1140 posts

Uber Geek

#245548 12-Aug-2009 12:31

To be honest, and perhaps I watch too much crap TV but I find the feature very useful. I have 1 Single DVB-T + a Dual DVB-T/Dual Analog. I can happily schedule any Freeview or prime program and never get a conflict.

So for me it's more than just a feature that sounds good on paper it would annoy me if the feature wasn't there. I've considered trying out 7MC but MediaPortal works so flawlessly for me that I haven't been bothered yet. I can understand why some people might find it a bit challenging to get up and running though.

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Dingbatt

6755 posts

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#246047 13-Aug-2009 15:03

mcraenz: To be honest, and perhaps I watch too much crap TV but I find the feature very useful. I have 1 Single DVB-T + a Dual DVB-T/Dual Analog. I can happily schedule any Freeview or prime program and never get a conflict.

So for me it's more than just a feature that sounds good on paper it would annoy me if the feature wasn't there. I've considered trying out 7MC but MediaPortal works so flawlessly for me that I haven't been bothered yet. I can understand why some people might find it a bit challenging to get up and running though.

Gotta agree with this.
And if you are recording several programs in a row 7MC seems to honour the post-record time and puts the start of the next program only on the current recording and not on both. It's a PITA if you want to delete the first recording because the start of the next is on it.

MP runs reliably, it is mainly problems with hauppauge drivers and standby mode that frustrate me (Vista) and I think the same things still trip up Win7.

Having said that, Win7 appears to be a fine OS and I am running a second PC with it (as well as dual booting the HTPC) because of the slick and superior way it handles all media.

Edit: And I concede that calling the .wtv a proprietary codec was incorrect, I should have just said it doesn't save it as the raw .ts.

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

mcraenz

1140 posts

Uber Geek

#246091 13-Aug-2009 15:50

7MC can't even do the pre/post record properly? Lame! But yeah I do agree that (so far) 7 is great running it full time at work.

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WaffleMakerMan

138 posts

Master Geek

#246152 13-Aug-2009 17:25

RustyGonad:It doesn't work with Sky (to the best of my knowledge) due to the inability of MediaPortal (or any of the others) to present the individual channels to any of the known decoding s/w.

Ive done multimuxing (is that even the correct term?) with sky, it works ok.

Mediaportals been quite stable for me since 1.02 no complaints. MCE does look nicer and ild probably give it a go but I can't use ForTheRecord with it so im more then happy to stick with Mediaportal.

Maybe in the future I might even switch to MeedOS as a front end, still using tvserver with ForTheRecord (theres already a 4TR client in to works) as it looks like its going to be a nice looking mediaplayer.