Does not work (1 Viewer)

[GeorgeVC]

Craig, that's much too rough! I'm sure all of us have been driven close to desperation by computers and all that goes with them, all too often and at 3..0am it all gets too much. Lodsgbugen has my entire sympathy - if he can't sound off in this forum, to his MP-using peers, where does he go?
However, let's be constructive and get lodsbugen to tell us what his problems actually are - they could be as simple as User Acount Control blocking him, or a firewall, or it could be something quiter serious.
But there's really serious long-term aspect to this. I'm not a programmer or an IT expert, and I think I would be in the top 90% of user computer literacy but I find I can't understand 90% of the postings.
I know MediaPortal is a voluntary effort and continuously under review by very dedicated people and they don't want to be continually going back to help those stumbling behind, but that's what Open Source is all about isn't it? We are all to eager to criticize Microsoft and the industry for precisely the same sort of problems that MP presents to so many people.
I think The decision has to be made as to whether the Team is going to take the time to care for real beginners. At the moment it's fine for experts who have learnt the ropes through experience with Windows Media Centre and oher ad-hoc Home Theatre Applications. I suppose the problem is that the application bridges across a huge range of different technologies and there just aren't enough experts.
There is an urgent need for a decent instruction manual, a good FAQ section and a Help-desk, and until we have these, we won't get the feedback that a proper QA system needs.
Real feedback of Information is the essence of QA. I don't think I have anywhere near enough knowledge for such a project but, as a beginning, I would volunteer to start an hour or two per day gleaning process to see if I could sort out a range of Tyro-type FAQ topics if somebody with a good knowledge and overview of the project could spare some time to manage me and guide me.
This is probably not the best place to discuss this - somebody with more knowledge may be able to move it to a better thread location - but it's right on topic as far as lodsgbugen is concerned.

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

There is an urgent need for a decent instruction manual, a good FAQ section and a Help-desk, and until we have these, we won't get the feedback that a proper QA system needs.

I think we have quite a good manual, for example have a look at xbmc's documentation, which is atrocious for such a highly rated program.

Biggest problem we have, is people expect plug'n'play software, which MP is not, but we are always looking for ways of making using it simpler, but not at the cost of functionality, so there's a fine balance there to be met.

Again, asking anyone who has a problem, post 1 question totally specific to that only, and we need system specs and Logs of when the problem occured, also search is your friend to see if others may have seen the same issue.

https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...2/how-do-i-make-internetradio-work-bbc-47146/

Was the only post of any value that I could find by lodsbugen, hardly a showstopper to create such feedback.

Anyone know how to fix my car, its the red one in the car park, YOU do know how to fix a car don't you

 

[etheesdad]

I agree with George about the manual (also in the case of MP, wiki).

Ive been using MP for about 3 months, and one of the most annoying aspects in getting MP set up and working was the lack of decent documentation. It took a good couple of weeks to get the machine up and running properly - time that could have been considerably shortened with better documentation.

At this stage users need to rely as much on the Forum as on the wiki/manual.

The issue forum posts/support requests being such an important aspect of getting a machine set up with MP is that, as you point out, Ray, it requires people posting to have the know-how to make useful support requests - a quick perusal of the Forum shows that a good deal of the requests for support (initially, at least), lack the information required to get the help they need. This is inherent in a Forum format, and a problem that wont go away - but it is a real issue for new users and one that adds time and effort to the process of getting information which could be better resourced in another format.

Im not knocking the Forum which is a great resource. It just seems to me that there is a body of information here that should be contained in the manual/wiki.

Doing screeds of searching through the forum posts is an inferior, incomplete and time-consuming method compared to having adequate documentation in the first place. At this stage thats exactly what new users are forced to do.

The docs also need updating in a number of sections. Out-of-date documentation with software like MP is about as useful as a bowling ball with no holes.

It also lacks specificity relating to hardware, OS choices, and Codecs. Its the diversity of these combinations of variables that makes getting MP set up properly such a crap-shoot. Some sound information at the outset would save people a lot of headaches down the track.

I had come from Mythtv in Linux before using MP, and although the wiki for it is also a work in progress, its at least possible to get specific information about particular remote setups, TV-card models, cases, etc. This or a similar model of documentation, adequately resourced, would save people a lot of time searching and posting Here.

For an indication of the comparison Im making, see: Main Page - MythTV

 

[poppabk]

I think MP has come on leaps and bounds since I first started using it back with 0.2.3. The current automation of the installation makes it easier than ever to get MP up and running, and if you read the documentation, have the right hardware, and the right level of technical competency, getting the basic MP experience up and running should be no more than a couple of hours work.

I started out with no experience of using HTPC software and managed to get 0.2.3 working on an old HP desktop pretty easily (2GHz celeron, 256Mb, GeForce FX5300 PCI, PVR-150, ATI RF remote, S-Video to SDTV). There were issues, the hardware always struggled, and I went through several different methods of getting a TV guide, as this was around the time that Zap2it closed and I was trying to avoid spending any money. I eventually caved and subscribed to Schedules Direct which has worked flawlessly.

Having bought a new LCD TV, I have built a dedicated HTPC (my first ground up build of a PC), which is providing DVR services for both SD and HD content with very few issues. The initial installation of MP 1.0 was very easy (especially considering I switched to Vista for the first time) and SD content was working as soon as I tuned in the channels. HD content proved a little trickier, but my problems (major stuttering of HD content including in windows media player) were solved by hooking up the HTPC through HDMI. I have very few problems left to fix but none of them make the HTPC unusable, just a few niggling issues that I would like to solve.

The bottom line is that I came in a novice with sub standard hardware, prior to the recent stability and usability improvements that MP has seen, and MP worked well enough to be my family's dedicated solution and to make it worthwhile for me to invest in improving my hardware to handle HD content.

MP usability, simplicity and stability has improved significantly in less than a year. It still requires a certain level of technical proficiency - but it definitely does work, and offers some amazing features - comskip being my personal favorite.

 

[frenzy]

I think the most basic problem with the forums and these posts is that people refuse to post specs and logs. It maybe an extreme measure but I would suggest that the mods started locking support threads started without these. I mean they went to the trouble of having it there, available for us at the push of a button in the start menu. If I can't push a button then why should anybody else help me? These threads are usually a waste of bandwidth and rarely end up resolved without the provision of logs. Go to any support forum here and open the first 10 threads. You'll find that 70-80% are without logs. So I think it's time for "tough love".

Another thing I have seen is that MP IS ready for beginners. Skins and plugins aren't. I think people should have that in mind. Take for example the refresh rate changer plugin. 24p in Hi-Def is very trendy and I'm sure many will try and fail and then blame it on MP. But the problem is not MP or the plugin but their inability to follow through.

 

[Shadowless]

I think you've hit the nail on the coffin with this. I'm pretty much finding my own solutions to my problems with MP before I post here. I gave up with the HD because if it refuses to work in Media properly then it's a hardware issue, which is bizzare because HD works fine in ProgDVB and DVB Dream, but since Media Portal also uses timeshifting and bigger resources, HD is one feature I am happy to do without in Media Portal. I love it, and I use it for Music and dvd watching as well standard digital advanced tv recordings.

I will eventually upgrade my hard ware so I can utilize Media Portal, but to say it doesn't work off the hat without posting system specs without giving us some indication of what system you have is a pretty big call to make. Alot of people (including myself) expect things to work, same with Media Portal, but at the end of the day if one measily feature on my end does not work, then I can't exactly go "oh this software sucks because one feature does not work", it's just my hardware definetly needs an upgrade, and it's certain I won't do that now since High Definition content and Channels work on my other software.

I think it's a great multimedia package, it's handy and does the trick! I love it.