Calling all MP New Zealanders (Both of you!!) (7 Viewers)

[waveslam]

Hey Martyn
Yep, thats EXACTLY the problem I am having... ;-)
So yeah, if you could please write something up, that would be awesome
Thanks heaps
Cheers
Brett

 

[snarlyboy]

Chaps,

I havent bothered to read all the previous posts but are people having trouble setting up their MCE remote to control MP and have MP switch channels on their STB's ?

If so Ive done it with HIP, HIPSend and the MPExTunerCmd plugin. One blaster controls the STB the other controls my amp.

If Im reading you all correct, Ill try and write something up, perhaps we can stick it on the kiwi wiki site, which I think was a brilliant idea....who thought that one up ?

Cheers
Martyn

Hi, I was having insane trouble even getting my remote to work until I got the new MS Keyboard and Remote which works perfectly, but yes I too am having massive problems getting this new MS remote and Keyboard to get MP to change channels on the Sky box.

Do you really need HIP? I thought the MP setup program had a check box which said "send channel Change to blaster" and I tried that but it didn't work - so any help you can provide would be great.

I have a Sky Digital Motorola box someone told me I need to ask Sky to replace it for a Pace or Zenith one for this to work?? which one do you have and whenever you are able to put that into the wiki would be great. Thanks!!

 

[martyyn]

So here's what Im doing to get HIP, Hipsend and MPExCMDTuner to work. Im at work and going from memory so bear with me. I wanted to get something in writing relatively quickly cause Im sure you all want to get going with it

Now Im sure there are easier and faster ways to do this but surfice to say it works for me and I aint going to change it now. Since I did this 6-7 months ago Ive had four friends all do it using MyBlaster and all of them have had it work straight from the box !

I spent the best part of a week trying to get MyBlaster to work and almost threw everything out the window so I must have missed something blindingly obvious, but then I want to control my amp through the blaster as I dont have line of sight of my amp which I believe means I have to use Hip.

I should perhaps explain that I have my shuttle, amp and stb all hidden from view. All you see at my place is the lcd sat on a low cabinet with the mce receiver under the bottom of it.

To save myself time Im not going to explain how to install and configure either Hip or Hipsend. The Hip forum has some excellent guides and Hipsend has a good guide on what you need to do to set that up aswell. Hip does have what I would consider a 'non-intuiative' gui, but once you have it nailed you wont forget it in a hurry !

So first download and install both HIP and Hipsend. Basically what you will end up doing is teaching Hip your STB remote buttons (I only have it using the power and number buttons). You will also teach Hip to recognise Hipsend commands using the command line executable in Hipsend. Its all a lot easier than it sounds once you've read the Hipsend instructions.

Open MP config and enable the MPExTunerCmd plugin (I cant remember if thats its exact name) and browse to where you installed the Hipsend executable and leave the delimeter as #

What this does is when you select a channel in MP it will use the plugin to fire a Hipsend command that Hip will convert it to the number you mapped it to from your STB remote and send that converted signal down whichever blaster you set it to go down.

Then you need to set up your tv channels. I suggest you enter only two channels first and once you can change between the two you should have learnt enough to get them all going !

In this part Im talking generically about the MP tabs and commands. Ive just gone from RC2 to 0.2.0.3 and the configuration is slightly different but the buttons should be obvious even though I may not have the correct names. Im also at work and going from memory so I might not have it exact

Open MP config on television and choose the channels button. Click add and on the first tab and enter TV1 for the name. Now go to the last tab ('external') where it allows you to say where you are getting the feed from.

Change the first drop box to be 'external set-top box' and change the second drop-box to be however you have connected your STB to your HTPC. I have it joined by rca cables to the second tuner on my PVR500 so for me its CVBS#2. Now put the channel number in the text box which is 1.

I think you can put 01 at this point and it will save the STB from waiting to see if you are going to enter 11 for example.

Do the same for a second channel probably TV2 and change the external tab as above.

You should now see two channels listed on the tv page. Now click the second tab which is tv-cards and 'assign' both channels to the appropriate card. If you only have one tuner its obvious but I have two

At this point it gets a little hazy in my memory. I think you should be able to just exit from the config (by clicking OK or SAVE or whatever), fire up MP and go to the TV section.

If you go into the guide you should see TV1 and TV2 repeated. If you havent set up xmltvnz at this point you will have no data. If you have done it and have a tvguide.xml file and have configured MP correctly then you should see whats available.

If you select one of the channels you should hopefully start the tv and have it change to that channel. Im assuming here that you tested the blasters when you learnt the STB numbers and that they changed the STB channel.

I have a feeling I may have forgotten something in this last part but cant put my finger on it.

If you need to know how to set up xmltvnz then I can try and write something up for that aswell.

Now for the disclaimer. I was very new to all this when I started and at times I felt like throwing it all out of the window but I got there eventually.

Some parts I found alot of information on whilst for others I found absolutely nothing.

Im sure there are easier ways to do this (my friends are nodding their heads collectively) but like I said it works for me.

I also have to use Hip because I want everything hidden. These guys all have their toys out on show and so can just teach the MCE remote the amp's commands directly.

Let me know how you get on.

 

[Pizbit]

Dang long thread!
Putting my name in as a NZer. Wellington > *
Enough said eh?

 

[TranceManNZ]

I'd just like to says T H A N K S ! ! to you guys. I now my tv card set up and working. Also got the guide working, thanks to the wiki page (thanks kiwi buys).

Cheeeeers ppl

 

[maak]

Trouble with New MP Build

This is Not really NZ related but you local peeps so nicely answer messages here.....
I had MP going pretty sweet on M$ MCE . Finally decided to put the thing in a case [$25 from TradeMe] and thort i should reinstall on XP at same time.

AAAAAAHHHHHGG!
P4 3.0 northwood 1 gig ram 2x 320 gig sata HDD etc etc
I installed the M$ drivers for the remote [MCE remote] and it seemed to work...for a while...

Now the M$ remote doesnt seem to work properly and when stopping any video feed/TV it leaves a large black hole in MP that cannot be got rid of without starting another video feed/TV..It doesnt matter If the video is full screen it just in little square at bottom of screen...same thing....Big black hole in screen...when black is on the creen i can see the rmote [the functions that work] changing thing in the small strips of sceen that still show MP...but not enough to see what is going on.

Anyone got a clue what is going on here?

Cheers
Maak Bow

 

[maak]

Trouble with New MP Build

This is Not really NZ related but you local peeps so nicely answer messages here.....
I had MP going pretty sweet on M$ MCE . Finally decided to put the thing in a case [$25 from TradeMe] and thort i should reinstall on XP at same time.

AAAAAAHHHHHGG!
P4 3.0 northwood 1 gig ram 2x 320 gig sata HDD etc etc
I installed the M$ drivers for the remote [MCE remote] and it seemed to work...for a while...

Now the M$ remote doesnt seem to work properly and when stopping any video feed/TV it leaves a large black hole in MP that cannot be got rid of without starting another video feed/TV..It doesnt matter If the video is full screen it just in little square at bottom of screen...same thing....Big black hole in screen...when black is on the creen i can see the rmote [the functions that work] changing thing in the small strips of sceen that still show MP...but not enough to see what is going on.

Anyone got a clue what is going on here?

Cheers
Maak Bow
nole

 

[zxcvbnm2]

Anyone here using a Skystar2 with a sky dish with the new twin lnb, I need help It used to work with the old dish/lnb at my last house, but this new one refuses to work.
If anyone has it working could you post your settings from the MP setup please.

 

[mdsflyer]

I'm recording just now so cant access the settings, the WAF would plummet!! but i'll post them up when its done. The Skystar2 is great DVB-S card by the way, my TV1 and 2 reception always blows visitors away.

cheers
m

 

[fionandean]

Hello out there!

Just dropping in to say hi! and bring the count of NZ'rs using MP up by one more (or maybe that should be two...) I have only been using MP for a few weeks and due to kids, work and the demands of being the household techie for our home network (9 computers last count...) I still have a long way to go. We seem to be unusual in not having (or wanting) sky - I wanted a single remote controlled interface which would give me access to my music collection (and play it via Winamp), play dvds and video files (preferably by VLC) and control my capture card. I still haven't got the tv and radio sorted out but there was alot of helpful info in this thread about that and I am trying to get HIP sorted so I can control VLC with the remote. (using WinFast TV2000xp card, XP pro, Nvidia 128mb 5700ve card, 512ram, Soltek socket 462 board, Athlon 1.7Gb cpu, hauppauge MCE remote, creative Audigy 7.1 channel soundcard.) I really like what I have been able to do with MP so far - and thanks heaps to everyone who has shared their knowledge and made my setup so much easier.
Fiona