Calling all MP New Zealanders (Both of you!!)

[Bewildered]

Hi,

OK, so dumb question then, can you publish exactly how you did it? On my HVR3000 I have disabled the DVB-T tuner (though there is not reason why I can't undo that). So you did what? Sleect analog tv tuner, set country to NZ, set sensitivity to high, set connection to aerial, then click on????

I presume I simply need to find out what channels/frequencies Prime is on for my area then?

Cheers,
B.

[1gkar]

Originally Posted by DrMopar

Is there any way in MP to see what the tranmission resolution is for DVB-T? (e.g. 720p, 1080i, etc.) The "Official Freeview" boxes bring this info up on the screen for 5 seconds when you tune to a channel.

The way I've been doing it is with ffDShow. Because the PowerDVD8 codec causes video looping/hanging on my system (mainly on TV3 & especially their news) I am forced to use software decoding at present. I just check OSD with input resolution & it displays. Works good: 1280x720 on TV1 & 2, 1980x1088 (?) on TV3 & 720-576 on Prime.

Originally Posted by Bewildered

Hi,

OK, so dumb question then, can you publish exactly how you did it? On my HVR3000 I have disabled the DVB-T tuner (though there is not reason why I can't undo that). So you did what? Sleect analog tv tuner, set country to NZ, set sensitivity to high, set connection to aerial, then click on????

I presume I simply need to find out what channels/frequencies Prime is on for my area then?

Cheers,
B.

I had similar issues where I COULD NOT tune ANY channels, either via my HVR-2200 or 150MCE cards. It would complete its scanning cycle but not recognise any channel frequencies. Manually tuning DID NOT work, either. I had to revert to an earlier Ghost image & totally reinstall my Mediaportal setup & it worked, but only on an earlier version with an SVN built: RC1 would not function for me. I am currently using MP 2.3.0 with SVN build 18080 -BOTH TV3 & MP

The glorious idiosynchrocies of Microsoft at work again.

No Channels Tuned with RC1: Worked Before As you can see, this issue is obviously not common from the response it generated.

[Datagrafx]

Is there any way to get MediaPortal to play a .ts file that was not recorded in MediaPortal? I have some samples here but they do not show up in Recorded TV listing.

The samples are from Fossie: Because Your Opinion Doesn't Matter
Nothing I have seems to play any of them properly.

[ArnoldGoat]

I currently use a 10 year old SONY 41" rear projection TV. At some time I want to upgrade to LCD of similar size. Using an MP on HTPC, I only need a monitor, not speakers or TV tuning. I can't find any monitors this size. Above about 26", I can only find TVs. It seems a waste to be buying the TV stuff that isn't needed/wanted. But perhaps the value of these bits is low enough to ignore. I only use DVB-S Freeview for TV. So no prospect of HDTV, as there is no good terrestrial broadcast to Lyttelton (can't see Chch Sugarloaf Tx). Any views anyone?

[djbutnot]

Originally Posted by ArnoldGoat

I currently use a 10 year old SONY 41" rear projection TV. At some time I want to upgrade to LCD of similar size. Using an MP on HTPC, I only need a monitor, not speakers or TV tuning. I can't find any monitors this size. Above about 26", I can only find TVs. It seems a waste to be buying the TV stuff that isn't needed/wanted. But perhaps the value of these bits is low enough to ignore. I only use DVB-S Freeview for TV. So no prospect of HDTV, as there is no good terrestrial broadcast to Lyttelton (can't see Chch Sugarloaf Tx). Any views anyone?

Dell sell 30" LCD monitors, at their website. They are excellent monitors and include ports for everything (HDMI, DVI, RCA, etc etc). They're $2200, and 2560 x 1600 (greater than 1080p). So, to be honest, it's probably just worth buying a TV (that's what I ended up doing).

ViewSonic and BenQ also sell 30"+ monitors, thought the ViewSonic ones are really crap.

[ArnoldGoat]

Thanks djbutnot. I would probably not get a display smaller than the existing TV, so it looks as if a TV is going to be the best bet. I will probably wait until the old TV deteriorates a bit more. Incidentally, yesterday, I got a Viewsonic 22" monitor for my desktop. It looks OK to me! But in comparison to my 17" out-of-focus CRT, it probably is OK!

[1gkar]

Originally Posted by Datagrafx

Is there any way to get MediaPortal to play a .ts file that was not recorded in MediaPortal? I have some samples here but they do not show up in Recorded TV listing.
The samples are from Fossie: Because Your Opinion Doesn't Matter
Nothing I have seems to play any of them properly.

Probably the simplest way is to load the samle.ts files into you're recordedTV folder, then inside MP click 'my videos', then 'recordedTV' (if its not the default folder in MP config) & if they will play you should be go to go.

[Bewildered]

Well, still no joy on the analog front -I tried adding Prime manually (both by channel and frequency) and got nothing for my efforts (assuming I entered the right data of course). Latest problem now is that I've noticed that TV3 keeps 'breaking up' on camera angle changes or during med/fast motion shots - other channels all appear to be OK, but not TV3. Seen some other posts regarding their HD broadcast and how some people have had trouble with it. Are they doing something weird? Has anyone else got this problem or am I on my own (again)? What codec are you guys telling MP to use for normal MPEG decoding? Do you record in mpeg2 or ts?

At present I'm using ts with ffdshow doing decoding. If it makes any difference I have that Haali media-splitter thingy running to so that I can decode Handbrake's m4v files....

Sometimes I wish it were all simpler..... seriously running low on wife approval points....

B.

[1gkar]

Originally Posted by Bewildered

Well, still no joy on the analog front -I tried adding Prime manually (both by channel and frequency) and got nothing for my efforts (assuming I entered the right data of course).

I was afraid that would be the case: I had the same concern. See post above.

Latest problem now is that I've noticed that TV3 keeps 'breaking up' on camera angle changes or during med/fast motion shots - other channels all appear to be OK, but not TV3. Seen some other posts regarding their HD broadcast and how some people have had trouble with it. Are they doing something weird? Has anyone else got this problem or am I on my own (again)?

No, you aren't alone. Not sure if it has anything to do with tV3 broadcasting in 1080i as opposed to 720p which the other channels are using? Try unchecking 'use exclusive mode' in VMR area of DirectShow Filters in Mediaportal configuration (that's assuming you aren't using Vista & EVR) . It has improved the situation for me but the issue is still there.

What codec are you guys telling MP to use for normal MPEG decoding? Do you record in mpeg2 or ts

I don't believe you can record Freeview HD in mpeg format. I tried & only got a blank screen. For normal MPEG I use Nvidia's Purevideo codec. Dscaler 5 or the supplied MPV codec should be okay.

At present I'm using ts with ffdshow doing decoding. If it makes any difference I have that Haali media-splitter thingy running to so that I can decode Handbrake's m4v files...

Are you sure you're only using ffDShow for HD programmes? Of course, this is only relevant if you don't have PowerDVD* HD codec installed. I thought I was using ffDShow exclusively for software decoding only to find using Graphedit that both were being linked in the video stream.

Sometimes I wish it were all simpler..... seriously running low on wife approval points....

[ArnoldGoat]

Datagrafx, 1gcar: I think the 'Fossie' .ts file downloads are HDTV. That may be relevant. I couldn't get VLC to play them, and that normally plays anything.