MP with TV Server RC2 FloppyDTV-C and Unitymedia Cable up & running

[mars]

The concept I have implemented was intended to have the TV Server (always running on a machine that also manages all my music and video files) serving one HTPC in my living room connected to a LCD TV screen. I wanted to have one user Interface for all media files, including TV. The results are fine to me, but the HTPCl still has to proove its useability, when family starts to use it ;-)

I will concentrate on a few topics that I could resolve for me (I've seen them in the forum as issues):

1. "The signal": I am using a FloppyDTV-C on the German Unitymedia Cable Network.
Smartcard is an UM01 that works perfectly with the Alphacrypt Classic. After some testing and having applied all the recommended fixes and files from the wiki I could successfully scan the Unitymedia Network and found 262 Channels. The CI Tool that comes with the FloppyDTV allows one to access the UM01 and to change the FSK settings. Done that, I had no errors with some of the subscribed channels that require a FSK ID anymore.
Bottom Line: FloppyDTV-C works fine with UnityMedia Smartcard UM01

2. The Server: TV Server RC2 runs on XP SP3 with all fixes. For DVBFIX to be installed without any error messages I had to install newest mediaplyer11. Database is MySQL, although I had to use this workaround. The machine itself runs also a vmware server with 2 vms (a firewall and a webserver) and acts as a file server. So its pretty much loaded, but no ressource or performance problems so far.
Bottom Line: TV Server RC2 runs fine on XP SP3 with lots of other processes

3. The Client: Mediaportal RC2 runs on XP3 with all fixes (see above). I yet use the BlueWide skin. TV streaming works perfectly over a 100M LAN for all channels. Standby and resume is fast, EPG grabbing works.
Bottom Line: Mediaportal RC2 runs fine on a dedicated machine with XP3 SP3

4. Yet to do:

• TV picture needs some tuning (maybe the graphicscard). It does not yet reach the quality of the Unitymedia receiver (that does not provide HDMI, but only Scart). I hope, this can be improved by far.
• I haven't touched remote yet. Since there is no TV card in the MP machine with inbuild remote, I probably have to build a workaround to get my harmony 555 to control MP.
• Windows might need some tuning (switch off unused processes). MP is sometimes not reacting as fast, as I expect.

Bottom Line: For the first time after a week of installating clean systems, setting it all up, searching the forums for hints and solutions I was able to use my HTPC last evening for watching TV, programming some recordings, listening to my music nad searching the wikipedia plugin.

Best compliments to the developers of MP and all the folks that are feeding the forum with their answers to questions. You do a great work and helped me a lot. Now, with the skills I have I will join the group of those who feed the forum with answers

[pvb]

Yes i agree this is an excellent product!

My question is: Can i watch the same channel on two or more different client pc's of TV-SERVER with one tv-card?

I have successfully installed TV-SERVER so that i can watch tv on one client pc. However when i try to watch the same channel on two different pc's attached to my network, with one of the pc's already playing and connected, it says no available card in MY TV on the second machine.
If you know the answer please point me in the right direction. Thankyou for your time...

rc2
dell inspiron 1501
amd turion X2 1.6ghz
1gb ram
wintv-hvr 1400 - i'm using the analog only
256mb ati 1150
xp pro sp3
msql
dvbfix, etc