For the Record - is it worth it? (1 Viewer)

[Bond28]

Hi
Do many people here use For the Record? I installed it yesterday and started to set it up but realised that it replicates a lot of what MP already does. It seems a powerful program but the only advantage I see is that you can record TV channels when away from home, which I could find useful. Apart from that, MP does all I need it to on the TV front. Or am I missing something?
Is it worth setting up and using? Thoughts anybody?

 

[Furetto]

I am personally a big fan of 4tR (except that it is closed source) for a few reasons.
First of all, I like the Management Console. I have it installed on several other computers (some of them not MP clients) so I can have a look at the EPG and manage recordings without having to start up MP. See Management Console Screenshots | For The Record
The second thing that convinced me is the additional rules for recording. In Belgium some broadcasts might change time every day, or sometimes be named somewhat different in the EPG, so these extra rules were very welcome. See Features | For The Record

I have never used their own recordin engine (Argus), nor the Web Access, nor the Mobile Client, nor the IM-bot Service.

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

+1

 

[mcrob83]

AW: For the Record - is it worth it?

I have it actually running and it's doing a great job. The stability of Argus is much better here than the one of the mp tvserver. The community is quite small, but the dev's are great and are doing a great job. It's closed source, that's true. But in this case this helps to keep the structure clean. And everyone, who is willing and able to, is welcome to help to develop 4tr further - so my impression.

 

[Bond28]

Thanks for your thoughts. At the moment my recording needs are simply record odd programmes here and there so I don't need the rule based logic. And I've had no stability issues. However, can you search the 4tr EPG for all films over the next 7 days say like you can in MCE? In fact can this be done in MP?

 

[mcrob83]

AW: Re: For the Record - is it worth it?

Thanks for your thoughts. At the moment my recording needs are simply record odd programmes here and there so I don't need the rule based logic. And I've had no stability issues. However, can you search the 4tr EPG for all films over the next 7 days say like you can in MCE? In fact can this be done in MP?

of course it can

 

[mkjustuk]

I've used 4TR with Mediaportal since the first day I used Mediaportal - I replaced an aging Toppy with my HTPC and 4TR was a key addon to replicate MyStuff functionality on the Toppy.

4TR works really well and allows you to create persistent rules that can have as much or little complexity as you like, so you can accurately get things recorded before you even realise the new series has started etc (new episodes flag, time window option, day to record, equals, contains and starts with text matching etc).

I too use the MP tuner still but access 4TR from the web regularly when I am away from home and I see something advertised I want to record. I have also used the IM bot function which worked well but I don't really need it with the web access via ipad, iphone and laptop.

The next release of 4TR will include 'next generation' web control which will redefine the interface and allow things like streaming etc I believe.

As 4TR works so well, so reliably and integrates into MP so seamlessly it's a must have IMHO.

 

[powermarcel10]

I'm using 4TR as well because in my case it's a lot more stable than Mediaportal's tv-server..

I have no error's anymore.. As long as I was using mediaportal's tv server I had strange messages like; "The coonection to the tv-server is lost, channel is scrambled, unknown error, etc.." all those messages are gone with 4TR..

But I think you have to try both, and see what's the best and most stable one for you. It can be different for each system. One thing I have to notice is that you can't use teletext with 4TR..

Good luck

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Just something else do not think anyone has pointed out, there is no analogue\fm support with the FTR Argus tuner management, only DVB, just in case you needed it, that requires MP's TVServer, which of course you can use either one, but not together.

ps. remember this, by default MP uses MySQL database, password is case sensitive "MediaPortal" without quotes.

 

[Bond28]

Thanks. I will continue to set it up but use the MP tuner as that appears stable at the moment. Being able to record tv when away from home makes it attractive.