How to do (what should be) Simple Operations?

[sugaraspa]

Hi all,

First off, and of course: MP is a seriously good package – free or not…

To get to the point though, there are some operations which I feel are so fundamentally important in a PVR system, that I'm surprised they aren't already implemented, or if they are, they’re not quite as intuitive as I believe they should be, and humbly request assistance.

I would basically like to know how, or even if, it's possible to do any of the following:

1. When playing a recording, how to I get to a specific time in the recording, say for example 14:37? When I enter the numbers, I get as far as entering 143, with the numbers at the bar at the top reading 14:3, but when I press 7, the bar just disappears, and the recording doesn't move at all. I've tried numerous things, but nothing I've found seems to do the trick - what am I missing? (PS. I know when one exits a show, and comes back into it, MP asks if I’d like to resume at the last place. This is not enough – most times I’ll keep something, to show o my wife, friends, whatever – and want a way to get there _immediately_).

2. Time-shift recording is always nice to have, but on my LG hard-drive recorder, there's a nice feature: I can record fragments (or chunks) or timeshifted TV quite easily. I can't surmise how to do it at all with MP - though I've found it to be an _incredibly_ useful feature. Am I missing something obvious, or is this not implemented yet?

3. Another thing which I've become totally dependant on: a place holder. When playing DVD’s, sometime they’re referred to as bookmarks? Basically when I’m watching a recorded show, a DVD, or even time-shifted TV, I can press a button to bookmark that scene (bookmark only good whilst watching that show, DVD, or timeshift). Is there a way to bookmark a program to come back to it later on?

4. Finally, and this is really a small thing – the My Weather plugin – it’s never heard of my city (I live in South Africa, and above that, I live in a small coastal town – really outta the way – but Cape Town and Johannesburg – most people have heard of those, right? Aren’t even listed!). Is there another plugin that I can use which might be more “3rd world friendly”, a hack that I can use, etc? It really would be a lot easier than looking out the window

Small as they appear, these points (with 4 as the exception) are all that really are keeping me from using this as a dedicated Media Center – so clarification on if I’m doing something wrong would be GREATLY appreciated. Also, if such features don’t yet exist, can we pretend I’m asking for them as feature requests?

Either way, I am seriously impressed with the quality of work with Media Portal thus far, and I truly applaud _all_ the developers who have helped make it what it is today.

That being said, please, any help on my questions above, I’d really appreciate it!

Many thanks,
Paul

[samuel337]

I don't understand point 2, can you explain further? What do you mean by chunks?

With your weather question, does it appear on the weather channel website (www.weather.com)? I think MP gets the info from there.

Sam

[sugaraspa]

Hi there,

sorry for the vagueness:

What I mean to say is that when I enter timeshift mode on my HDD recorder, and come back to it 2 hours later say, if I fast forward through the first 20 minutes, see a show on which I think my wife might like, I simply move to the beginning of the show, press the record button, then fastforward to the end of the show, and hit the record button again.

Everything in between the two pressings of the record button is saved to HDD for me to enjoy again and again...

I hope this elucidates my question a little better...

thanks,
Paul

[samuel337]

At the moment, if you're timeshifting, and see a show you like, you should be able to press the record button and it'll save the show you're currently watching as per the time frame given by the EPG.

I don't think it can do exactly what you're saying however yet.

Take what I say with a pinch of salt as my TV part of MP has been dead for a while (computer issues) so I haven't used that part in a while.

Sam

[donaldkennedy]

Originally Posted by sugaraspa

Hi all,

1. When playing a recording, how to I get to a specific time in the recording, say for example 14:37? When I enter the numbers, I get as far as entering 143, with the numbers at the bar at the top reading 14:3, but when I press 7, the bar just disappears, and the recording doesn't move at all. I've tried numerous things, but nothing I've found seems to do the trick - what am I missing? (PS. I know when one exits a show, and comes back into it, MP asks if I’d like to resume at the last place. This is not enough – most times I’ll keep something, to show o my wife, friends, whatever – and want a way to get there _immediately_).

Paul - I haven't tried doing this for a while, but IIRC for getting to specific times, MP likes you to use hours first. So 14:37 should be entered as 01437, not 1437. Not the most intuitive the first time you do it, but after that you kind of just do it!

Originally Posted by sugaraspa

4. Finally, and this is really a small thing – the My Weather plugin – it’s never heard of my city (I live in South Africa, and above that, I live in a small coastal town – really outta the way – but Cape Town and Johannesburg – most people have heard of those, right? Aren’t even listed!). Is there another plugin that I can use which might be more “3rd world friendly”, a hack that I can use, etc? It really would be a lot easier than looking out the window

This one should be no problem too - as samuel337 said, just go to http://www.weather.com. As long as your search is successful, then MP Setup should be able to get hold of the weather for you. I've just searched on Cape Town, Durban, PE and Kimberley without any problem, so unless your PC is having trouble contacting the weather.com...? Oh, and if you're looking for images to go with the weather plugin, well the ones on the weather.com are OK if all you're after is generic satellite images of Africa, but I've yet to find decent close scale images for SA (I use several SA cities in weather plugin, as I have family there).

HTH

Donald