Back for another try. (1 Viewer)

[dobyken]

I ran MediaPortal for a while and strayed the path to XBMC. Although it's great for TV Series and Movies the TV service has a number of issues that don't seem to get fixed such as timeshifting which kills the tuners as soon as you get close to live tv. I basically have MP1 setup on a dual boot system with 7 running Kodi and 10 running MP1. All 700 movies and 200 or so TV series have been imported but I still need to get all the watched statuses set to where they are in Kodi. I've wanted a HD PVR for a few years but recently got an Ebay bargain for $20 and couldn't resist and hooked it up to a DirecTV genie which is why I'm back here.

There a couple of questions I have that aren't clearly answered in any of the wiki guides which help but are plagued with obsolete information. I have 4 systems in my house and don't really care if they all use the same thumbs but I do want the watched status synced on all the computers. What's the best way to accomplish that in MP1 and is it a built in feature of MP2? Another question is can multiple PC's share a single tuner at the same time (Multicast) like the HD PVR? I read where you can dual stream a DB2 card but it's not clear about a single stream tuner. I have a HDHomerun tuner for OTA but only the one HD PVR for Directv. It's just Grandma and me in the house but yesterday she wanted to watch Fox News in the kitchen on Kodi while I was watching it in the bedroom in MP1.

I'm unsure at this point whether I'll use MP1 or MP2 but is there any kind of upgrade utilities such as importing the MPTVSeries or MyMovies data? I read where MP1 and MP2 use the same TV Service but then again not really the same and read posts that say you can run both on the same machine and others saying you have to disable the MP1 server to use the MP2 server. And...lastly...MP2 has been released for quite a while. Where are all the plugins? Is it that much harder to update the code for MP2?

 

[HTPCSourcer]

the TV service has a number of issues that don't seem to get fixed such as timeshifting which kills the tuners as soon as you get close to live tv.

I don't think this is acurate. Timeshifting is running flawlessly for thousands of users.

running Kodi and 10 running MP1.

Please don't hold MP1 responsible for issues generating from using 3rd party software. If you experience problems when using Kodi you may want to ask for support in their forums. No timeshift issues will ocur when using MP1 as front-end.

I do want the watched status synced on all the computers. What's the best way to accomplish that in MP1

Get yourself an account on trakt.tv and install Trakt plugin on each MP1 client.

and is it a built in feature of MP2?

Yes. (or at least Trakt can be installed)

can multiple PC's share a single tuner at the same time (Multicast) like the HD PVR?

Multiple PCs can connect to the same stream. So in your case four PCs can watch the same show simultaneously. If you want to watch different stations then you need multiple tuners in the server (which applies to cable and SAT TV but not necessarily to IP streams)

is there any kind of upgrade utilities such as importing the MPTVSeries or MyMovies data?

MP2 will reimport all your media files automatically, recognize them and downlaod fanart, movies and series informaiton etc.

read posts that say you can run both on the same machine and others saying you have to disable the MP1 server to use the MP2 server.

MP1 and MP2 can be installed in parallel - but one of the respective TV services needs to be deactivated. They must not be active at the same time, or one will block the other.

And...lastly...MP2 has been released for quite a while. Where are all the plugins?

It comes with a series of plugins already installed. See here. The out-of-the box functionality includes TV, music, series, movie, fanart, onlinevideos.

Is it that much harder to update the code for MP2?

Not necessarily. But at this time there are less developers working on MP2 than on MP1, but their number is steadily increasing.

 

[dobyken]

I don't think this is acurate. Timeshifting is running flawlessly for thousands of users.

Sorry.. Did you think I was referring to MediaPortal? It's KODI using ANY backend server I tried that has trouble with timeshifting. That's why I'm going back to MediaPortal. I had issues with Kodi and WMC and NextPVR as backends. Others had problems with TVHeadend and Myth. I haven't tried Kodi with MediaPortal since figured if I'm going to load MP TV I might as well use MP clients.



Multiple PCs can connect to the same stream. So in your case four PCs can watch the same show simultaneously. If you want to watch different stations then you need multiple tuners in the server (which applies to cable and SAT TV but not necessarily to IP streams)

MP2 will reimport all your media files automatically, recognize them and downlaod fanart, movies and series informaiton etc.

That's basically a full install from scratch which isn't a problem. I wasn't sure if any of the devs had written a migration tool for themselves to make it easier to test new installations. I could write a program in Python or VB6 to pull the data from KODI and import into MP but it would be a lot of work to save myself 4 or 5 hours of downloading metadata.

MP1 and MP2 can be installed in parallel - but one of the respective TV services needs to be deactivated. They must not be active at the same time, or one will block the other.

So I have to go into window's services and set it to not autostart? I would assume that if I just turned off the server in the manual settings it would restart on a reboot.

Edit 12:09 EST
I took a quick look at Trakt and it looks like I might be able to install the Kodi plugin to setup my TV series watched list the install the MP Plugin to update the new installation. It's not entirely clear if Trakt just list things you've watched since installing it or it will copy everything you've watched previously. I'm not concerned too much with movies but I have over 200 TV Series sitting on my server.

Thanks for the info.