[Success] Complex Multi-seat install - Love you guys & (gals?) of Team MediaPortal (1 Viewer)

[dvgeek]

Well, I consider my install complex - others may differ
Had to research quite a bit - but I got it all working.
Basically, I like to select and use the best software for each task, and my list was driven by the hardware I already had.

For the TV Server, I wanted to use an old AMD5000+ based system.
For the Living Room HTPS, I wanted to use an existing Intel i3-540 based system (built-in Intel Graphics)
For the Bedroom TV I wanted to use an old Atom 330 ION system (may replace with Raspberry Pi shortly)

Wanted the best Multimedia solution - hands down it was Media Portal - played with latest versions and settled on 1.6Final
Wanted the best TV Scheduler - Argus TV Scheduler is pretty hard to beat
The Atom 330 ION was the weak link as it did not have the power for HDTV with a windows solution.

This is what I installed:

TV Tuners - HD HomeRun Plus ATSC only Tuners - 2 (giving me 4 tuners), connected to a Winegard FlatWave antenna with a splitter to feed the 2 Tuner boxes - I could tune into 83 broadcast channels, but selected only 23.

TV Server - AMD 5000+, 2GB RAM, 1TB HDD, Win7-64bit
MediaPortal 1.6 Server only with Argus TV Scheduler 2.2.2 (Server and Client GUI - no Argus TV Recorder) and WebGrab Plus for EPG. ArgusTV PlugIn configured and enabled.

Living Room intel i3-540, 2GB RAM, 100GB Laptop Drive, Win7-64bit
MediaPortal 1.6 Client only with Argus TV Client PlugIn. I needed ATSC Closed Captions, so I have CoreCC installed and enabled in Video Post Processing

Bedroom ATOM 330 ION, 2GB RAM, 1GB USB, OpenELEC x86_64 build
OpenELEC Gotham 4.01 Beta with Argus PVR enabled
The MediaPortal PVR backend with the XBMC MediaPortal Server plugin, gave me LiveTV - but no EPG Schedule, no list of RecordedTV, etc. Removing MediaPortal PVR backend and enabling only ArgusTV PVR in XBMC worked (removed XBMC MediaPortal Server PlugIn also). I get LiveTV, EPG Schedules and list of RecordedTV programs.

Both clients are wireless connected (Livingroom 5GHz, Bedroom 2.4GHz)

Just wanted to share this with the group and say thanks to everyone who helped me with my configuration. Every bit/every suggestion helped.

Thanks ALL!!! [DOUBLEPOST=1394808432][/DOUBLEPOST]I can share detailed configs if anyone is interested.

 

[HeloDog76]

This request is a bit dated but I am attempting a similar configuration as what you have described. Right now I am running Mediaportal backend server with Argus TV scheduler and Mediaportal client on another box. I am looking to add another client using openelec but cannot seem to figure out how to get it to actually stream TV and grab EPG data with only argus tv pvr client enabled on the openelec box. If you can share the details of your config it may help. Thanks.

 

[dvgeek]

@HeloDog76 - Yes, it's been a log time and unfortunately my configuration is no longer the same. But let me see if I can help you.

ARGUS TV is a bit particular about windows share permissions. Because you were till now running MePo in both server and client - they talked to each other fine and you had no issues. Introducing a third component - OpenElec - without MePo and only the ARGUS PVR plug in would require that OpenElec ARGUS PVR plug in talk only to the ARGUS on the backend. This brings the whole windows share authorizations into picture. Here is what I suggest:

1. On you backend:-

a. Give the user 'Everyone' all permissions on both your 'TV Recordings' and 'TimeShift' folders.
b. If you do not have a password set on your backend, please set one. If you want to be automatically logged into your backend when it boots (run 'netplwiz' from a command prompt, and uncheck the box that says users must enter a password to log into this computer)
c. Do this from Control Panel -> Power Options for waking up from standby.​

2. On your OpenElec machine for the ARGUS PVR plugIn

a. Give the IP address of your backend
b. Give the username and password for the windows logon - do not use the guest setting
c. Install the PlugIn 'Advanced Wake-On-LAN' and set it up to wake up the backend when OpenElec starts​

You should be good to go. Let me know how this goes.

As an FYI my current updated configuration:- (You'll notice that I have gone full ARGUS on the backend with 3 different clients)

TV Tuners - HD HomeRun Plus ATSC only Tuners - 2 (giving me 4 tuners), one connected to a Winegard FlatWave antenna and another connected to a TERK HDTVA antenna. I have added an other HD HomeRun Extend (ATSC Tuner) and this is connected to yet another Winegard FlatWave antenna.

TV Server - Intel Q8400, 60GB SSD boot, 2 x 1.5TB in RAID0 (Giving a total of 3TB) with Win 8.1 64bit
ARGUS 2.3 Scheduler and Recorder with WebGrab Plus for EPG

Living Room - AMD 5350, 2GB RAM, 100GB Laptop Drive, Win 8.1 64bit
MediaPortal 1.10 Client only with Argus TV Client PlugIn. I needed ATSC Closed Captions, so I have CoreCC installed and enabled in Video Post Processing

Bedroom - ATOM 330 ION, 2GB RAM, 1GB USB, OpenELEC x86_64 Kodi 15 isengard alpha build (for Closed Caption support) with Argus PVR enabled

Office - Raspberry Pi B+, OpenElec Pi Kodi 15 isengard alpha build (for Closed Caption support) with Argus PVR enabled

All clients are wireless connected (Livingroom @5GHz, Bedroom & Office @2.4GHz)

 

[HeloDog76]

@dvgeek Thanks for the quick reply. I have already configured the Openelec client with the settings in your reply. Permissions for the shares were already set to everyone and autologin was already configured with a password. The Openelec client is pointing at the MP back end and the authentication credentials configured. The one thing that may be an issue is using the Argus Tv pvr client and the port it specifies which is different than the port Mediaportal uses. I am able to get the epg data from Argus to load but no streams work (infinite buffer.) Please let me know if you have any ideas.

My setup in detail is as follows

TV Tuners - 3 HD HomeRun Duals (used for ATSC only)

TV Server - Intel Core i5-4430 (Quad 3.0 GHz), 120 GB SSD for OS boot and timeshift partition, 2 TB storage for recordings running on Win 8.1 x64
Mediaportal TV Server backend and client, with Argus TV Scheduler and Argus TV Mediaportal client plugin

Client 1 - Intel G3220 (Dual Core 3.0 GHz). 120 GB SSD, runnign Win 7 x64
Mediaportal Client and Argus TV Client plugin

Client 2 - Atom 585 ION, 4 GB RAM, 120 GB SSD, Openelec x86_64 5.0.5

Everything hardwired gig through house.
Cheers!

 

[dvgeek]

@HeloDog76 - Ok, so you are getting the EPG to display in OpenElec. That means that OpenElec is talking to Argus and Argus is sending the info back to OpenElec from its database where the EPG and other details are stored.

The reason the streams are not playing is because the Kodi player is not able to open the MPEG file - purely an authorization issue. Please try to play a recorded MPEG stream NOT through the TV --> RecordedTV submenu selection - but thru the Videos menu. You will have to add your backend Recordings folder as a Video folder in OpenElec. You fill find that you may have to provide your windows credentials. Once you do, and are able to play through the Videos menu, you will also be able to play from the TV --> RecorderdTV submenu.

Hope I've not been too confusing, and you can get the gist of what I'm am trying to explain..

Later on, after you got all working - I'd suggest you move your timeshift partition to the same storage as your RecordedTV drive. This is because of something I read in the ARGUS TV forums. I believe the MPEG stream is first written to the TimeShift directory - whether it's LiveTV or recording a program. If it's a recording, then once the file reaches a certain size, it switches to another file and moves the previous file to the RecordedTV directory. If both of these are on the same drive - then it's far more quicker, as it's only a pointer change rather than physically moving a file from one drive to another.

I envy you for getting hardwired gig through the house. I would have to make holes and pull cable through the walls to get it done - so I have to make do with wireless and wireless extenders. I still get dedicated 50 to 60GB throughput, compared to 80GB on GigE.

 

[HeloDog76]

@dvgeek. Thanks for the reply. Adding the recordings folder allowed for the live tv streams and previously recorded shows to be played. Now encountering an issue of repeated buffering every 10 seconds or so. The vq in video diagnostics is showing the vq dropping to 0 and then a rebuffer. This is only occurring on the openelec client. Attempting to correct with the advancesettings.xml. You by chance run into this?

 

[dvgeek]

@HeloDog76 - This happens when the buffer empties faster than it is filled. Two things are responsible for this - buffer side is small or network speed incoming data to fill the buffer (I'm going to ignore the third reason because nowadays we can read much faster from a disk than the previous two conditions)

Before bumping up the buffer size (I think the default buffer size is fine), as you could run into the same issue even if you bumped up the buffer size, please check your network throughput between the openelec client and your backend server. The best way to do this would be from the OpenElec side - but that would mean opening a Unix session and transferring a file from your backend to the OpenElec machine and measuring time. But another way, which is close enough is to enable SMB file sharing in OpenElec and use a utility like WinSCP (google it if you do not have it - it will execute from it's own directory without installing) to transfer a good size (> 4GB) file to the OpenElec machine from your backend server. Check how fast the file can be transferred - if it does an average or more than 1.5GB per minute - your are in good shape on the network side. If the average is less than 1GB per minute - you have network issues. If your network is fine then you could follow the instructions here -->http://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Modify_the_video_cache to see if it helps.

 

[HeloDog76]

@dvgeek
Using pscp from the windows 8 tv server I was able to transfer a 1.8 GB file at sustained ~11000kB/s -> 88 mbits/s. Weird thing is the other windows MePo client has no issues. The AdvancedSettings.xml made no difference. Also tried a different network cable thinking that it may be the culprit. Will try a direct run without going through the second switch in my office. May just be the combo of OpenELEC connected using the Argus TV PVR plugin when in fact it is MePo on the backend. Thanks again for your time. I'll see about getting it sorted out and if I do post the final outcome. If it comes down to it I'll have to eat another M$ windows license. Maybe I'll give Argus Backend another look but before I do I need to test Wife Acceptance Factor (WAF is high to very high with current setup). Thanks again.

 

[dvgeek]

@HeloDog76 - Sorry to hear it didn't help. WAF is all very important to us HTPC enthusiasts...

Couple of questions though
1. Is this only for LiveTV or even for Recordings?
2. If only for Recordings - can you play Recordings through Video's instead of TV->Recordings ?
3. If it's for both LiveTV and Recordings, then it could be RTSP issues / Windows firewall issues on the backend. Control Panel --> Windows Firewall --> Allow Applications --> Check that all ARGUS services have both private and public boxes checked. If not add them from the c:\Program Files

Compare it with my Firewall settings (You might not have the ARGUS Recorder or CardHost settings)

 

[thekiwi]

TV Server - AMD 5000+, 2GB RAM, 1TB HDD, Win7-64bit
MediaPortal 1.6 Server only with Argus TV Scheduler 2.2.2 (Server and Client GUI - no Argus TV Recorder) and WebGrab Plus for EPG. ArgusTV PlugIn configured and enabled.

I note you didn't use the Argus TV Recorder ... but do the Scheduler. Can you outline how you achieved that.... as when I tried a few years back it wasn't really possible?

Ive used Argus and before that 4TR, but wanted to also use AmpDroid so ended up ditching Argus .... but of course that means losing the awesome scheduling which compared to MP is lightyears ahead. With a stable system in terms of recording playback, live TV etc Id really like to be able to keep MP as it is, but integrate the Argus Scheduler if it is possible.

Im also on a Multiseat setup.

Cheers