Calling all MP New Zealanders (Both of you!!) (3 Viewers)

[andrewNZ]

Hi Ross.

It is absolutely possible to combine signals, I don't think combining them at the antenna is the best idea though. I'm am an electrician, but don't claim to be an expert on TV areals, I'd definately run seperate cables into the house and combine them there. Check out something like this. just bung it in a cupboard and forget it.

I have one installed in my house, it appears to work well, although I dont have a satelite reciver in the house so really can't be sure. I did purchace it through my electrical wholesaler though, I'd like to think they wouldn't sell it if it didn't work.
It has inputs to combine a satelite dish & terrestrial areal signals, and 8 outputs. This particular module is usually powered by a satalite decoder box, because I don't have one I've had to add a power injector to it. I got my injector from Jaycar for @ $20
The whole setup is a bit ridiculous really, I only use one output. Although it did make moving the server location stupidly easy.

Here's my home network panel if anyone's interested Picture. It now has a windows home server sitting in front of it too, all hidden away in the top of a wardrobe.

 

[mm1352000]

Mmmm, nice setup.
Don't get me wrong - I also use a 9x8 multiswitch that combines terrestrial and satellite. It is just that signal from the weaker of my 3 satellites suffers a little bit. Part of that could be the 8 way splitting, but part of it is also the fact that the signal is getting degraded by being combined and crosstalk interference introduced by the multiswitch. With a "simple" setup (one satellite polarity and a terrestrial aerial) it is comparatively cheaper to run separate cables than if you have 8 satellite feeds to run. Running separates in the "simple" situation can save potential issues and isn't prohibitively expensive or impractical which is why I recommended it.

mm

 

[rlevis]

Thanks the feedback. I've decided to run 2 RG8 feeds into my office which is where I'll locate a MP server which has a TV card with satellite and terestrial antenna connections. The lounge will just need a computer with a LAN connection with MP TV client. I don't have Sky at this stage so this will work. But if we sell the house, this configuration will be no good for the next owners, so I'll also run coax from the office to the lounge so a combiner can be installed in the office.

If I do get Sky though one day, the ideal solution would be to have MP TV Server in the office access it off the satellite directly via the TV card with a card reader. I know that's controversial but no one is losing out, and it would be so much nice and tidier than trying to use IR blasters and so forth.

If I was to use a Sky decoder in the above configuration, I assume I could connect the Sky decoder to the Video-in socket on the TV card and play that in the lounge with MP TV client, but there wouldn't be any simple way to change channels manually. Or is a there a simple solution?

 

[captcol]

I have returned from the vista and win7 MCE wilderness and I am looking at coming back to Mediaportal. Last time I was here there was a post saying that active work on mp1 had stopped and mp2 was the next big thing, what happened to that?

Also has anyone seen any information about integration with xbox360's as this is the only thing that is keeping me with mce at the moment. From reading the last couple of pages I like the idea of running sky with a card reader rather than a settop box which I will struggle to fit where the server is going to live. I am also looking at running Amahi - home digital assistant in a VM on the same machine - maybe windows home server if I can find the software. So its going to be a busy change over if I come back to MP

 

[mm1352000]

I have returned from the vista and win7 MCE wilderness and I am looking at coming back to Mediaportal. Last time I was here there was a post saying that active work on mp1 had stopped and mp2 was the next big thing, what happened to that?

With all respect, I think the poster must have been misinformed. MP 2 is still the next big thing - it is approaching alpha status at this point. However it is not ready for "prime time" so until then MP 1 is still being developed. We're focussing mostly on features that can be easily "ported" to MP 2 when MP 2 is ready.

Also has anyone seen any information about integration with xbox360's as this is the only thing that is keeping me with mce at the moment.

MediaPortal is and probably always will be Windows-exclusive software. We don't actively port MP to other OSes like the XBMC project does as we don't have the resources to properly maintain multiple ports. There are various "plugins" like iPiMP and aMPdroid that allow you to use/access MP on smartphones of various descriptions, but as of this point I'm not aware of any such "plugin" for the XBOX.

From reading the last couple of pages I like the idea of running sky with a card reader rather than a settop box which I will struggle to fit where the server is going to live.

No discussion of that on this forum please - we have strict rules about such topics. Try Geekzone. They already have several "walkthrough" type sticky threads and presently also a couple of active discussions in the HTPC section.

I am also looking at running Amahi - home digital assistant in a VM on the same machine - maybe windows home server if I can find the software. So its going to be a busy change over if I come back to MP

We're here to help if we can.

 

[captcol]

*comment removed as an over reaction due to undereating and overworking

The comment regarding sky was meant to convey doing this with an actual sky card and paying a subscription to them.

When I left 1.10 was to be the last stable release with all active work to be done on mp2 so I had expected to see some news of it but there is no mention on the home page and the forum area for mp2 is no longer visible to me, hence the question where had it gone.

 

[mm1352000]

The comment regarding sky was meant to convey doing this with an actual sky card and paying a subscription to them.

Sure, fully understood... but I think you missed the point. We don't allow discussions about "card-reader" methods for decrypting content on this forum simply because they can and are used by some people to get access to content that they haven't paid for. This is explained in detail in the link that I pointed you to -->here<--. I'm sure you do pay for your subscription, but we can't reasonably verify that for everyone that might want to discuss such topics here. In the interests of not having legal action taken against our forum (we have had this threatened in the past for reasons related to this topic) we have made the rules that I linked above. Our policy is no discussion of any "card-reader" related topics allowed, and no support for such setups. We allow discussions about the use of CAMs. I'm sure that you know that in the case of Sky it is not exactly easy to find a reasonably priced CAM that supports decrypting NDS Videoguard protected content (which is why most people use card readers to decrypt NDS Videoguard).

I don't think I've jumped to conclusions here and I *fully* apologise if I have. You did say "card-reader" so that is what I based my comment on. If you have any comments please read our policy carefully before responding.

When I left 1.10 was to be the last stable release with all active work to be done on mp2 so I had expected to see some news of it but there is no mention on the home page and the forum area for mp2 is no longer visible to me, hence the question where had it gone.

There are still forum sections accessible from the "development" section. The forum has had a reshuffle to try and make it less confusing for new users, so I guess things got moved a little.

mm

 

[Bleazle]

*comment removed as an over reaction due to undereating and overworking

The comment regarding sky was meant to convey doing this with an actual sky card and paying a subscription to them.

When I left 1.10 was to be the last stable release with all active work to be done on mp2 so I had expected to see some news of it but there is no mention on the home page and the forum area for mp2 is no longer visible to me, hence the question where had it gone.

Your post (before you edited it) was pretty much on the button - based on the "press release" made when MP1 "final" was released I thought we would be hearing a lot more about MP2 by now too but it has been pushed back (while still being worked on) indefinitely - OK it sounds like there's going to be an Alpha release soon but no one seems to have a clear idea as to when MP2 will be released.

Having said all of that I'm not complaining MP 1.2 is a huge step up from MP 1.1 (the ability to combine all of your photos & videos from your camera and watch them all from MyPics for example is great) plus MP is very stable now. When I first switched to MP ( V 0.2.3 or something I think it was..) I was afraid to turn my HTPC off just in case MP wasn't as stable when I turned it back on (as a result of that often being the case!) - now I use the SleepControl Plugin to turn MP off if it's still recording when I go to bed and I know it'll be sweet the next day

When I built my new HTPC last year I had a look at MCE (W7) to make sure I wasn't missing out on anything and I didn't see anything that made me think "I wish MP could do that" and with all of the plugins and skins continually being developed I can't see myself changing in the future either.... Looking forward to MP2 though

 

[captcol]

Cheers and apoligies,

The stability was the reason I moved away to win7, unfortunately that with xbox360 extender is incredibly stable but the limitations that a satelite tuner can only be tuned to 1 channel at a time not just the mux is a pain in the proverbial so with 2 tuners I can only watch or record 2 channels at once and of course the minister of internal affairs wants to record 3 programs at once. The other problem is that with back to back recordings it will cut the end off the first to start the 2nd one ... very annoying.

I am in the process of simplifying our network and building in some redundancy hence looking at amahi or home server, There is talk of using home server in a virtual machine over the top of win7 to allow media programs to have access to tuners, has anyone tried this? Will MP run on top of home server anyway? This all depends on me being able to buy home server without the hardware. Thats why I was looking at Amahi as an alternative but as you said MP is windows only so I would have to run as a linux vm on top of windows, also possible apparently.

There is a question in there somewhere

and hey bleazle I remember your username from one of my previous return visits

 

[mm1352000]

There is talk of using home server in a virtual machine over the top of win7 to allow media programs to have access to tuners, has anyone tried this? Will MP run on top of home server anyway? This all depends on me being able to buy home server without the hardware. Thats why I was looking at Amahi as an alternative but as you said MP is windows only so I would have to run as a linux vm on top of windows, also possible apparently.

Hmm, a little complicated...
We don't support the server OSes because traditionally they haven't supported the BDA framework which is required for supporting TV cards. I believe that may have changed with Home Server however I can't be sure. I'm a little out of my depth answering this but you might find some deeper wisdom in one of the server OS threads like this one.

Good luck, and do let us know how you get on...
mm