MP users 10 - 0 stupid people with no patience or any technical ability, competence, knowledge! (exceptionally small genitalia, no friends, socials lepers etc... 
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A resounding VICTORY!!!
MP ROCKS
)A resounding VICTORY!!!
MP ROCKS
Goodbye MediaPortal (3 Viewers)
- Thread starter nvrusemp
- Start date
well i just startet with HTPC about 5-6 weeks ago.
And what should i say - the first time i saw MP, it was over at joysticks house, i loved the look and his huge amount of settings.
Its for sure that you cant have a "personalized" System out of the box. Impossible. This should be clear - also for a newbie.
So it starts with the hardware - like already mentioned here before. When your Motherboard likes the TV card you have plugged .... then you have half of the rent (german adage).
After finding the "right" Hardware it took me another 3-4 weeks of installing, custimizing and "bug" fixing.
And this was only possible with the big help of "joystick" (user within this board). Thx dude.
The starting is not easy but the results just rock.
thx team and thxs community for this great product
And what should i say - the first time i saw MP, it was over at joysticks house, i loved the look and his huge amount of settings.
Its for sure that you cant have a "personalized" System out of the box. Impossible. This should be clear - also for a newbie.
So it starts with the hardware - like already mentioned here before. When your Motherboard likes the TV card you have plugged .... then you have half of the rent (german adage).
After finding the "right" Hardware it took me another 3-4 weeks of installing, custimizing and "bug" fixing.
And this was only possible with the big help of "joystick" (user within this board). Thx dude.
The starting is not easy but the results just rock.
thx team and thxs community for this great product
- May 22, 2009
- 8
- 0
- Home Country
-
United States of America
A complete newbie's installation
My expereince with MP? About 2 hours. I found this software last night and installed it. Pretty pianless. So was configuring both the TV server and Media Portal. The only headache was getting the TV Guide to work. Even with the Wiki docs, I could not get WebEPG to do a thing. Did some more research and found ms2xml. Took a bit of tinkering but I got it to work grabbing data of Microsoft and the TV Guide is now up and running. I'm still scratching my head on how to make ms2xml work with titantv. If just brings up a nonsensical error and exits.
On the whole I am pretty impressed with this package. Granted, the Win7 RC1 MCE setup took only 10 minutes but I don't believe that has all the expanadility that MediaPortal seems to have.
Using mouse and keyboard does not seem the best way to operate either MC app so I have an MCE remote on order.
I doubt very much I'll be switching to a Tivo or DVR any time soon. Unless the cable co gives me one for free.
Thanks for an impressive package guys
My expereince with MP? About 2 hours. I found this software last night and installed it. Pretty pianless. So was configuring both the TV server and Media Portal. The only headache was getting the TV Guide to work. Even with the Wiki docs, I could not get WebEPG to do a thing. Did some more research and found ms2xml. Took a bit of tinkering but I got it to work grabbing data of Microsoft and the TV Guide is now up and running. I'm still scratching my head on how to make ms2xml work with titantv. If just brings up a nonsensical error and exits.
On the whole I am pretty impressed with this package. Granted, the Win7 RC1 MCE setup took only 10 minutes but I don't believe that has all the expanadility that MediaPortal seems to have.
Using mouse and keyboard does not seem the best way to operate either MC app so I have an MCE remote on order.
I doubt very much I'll be switching to a Tivo or DVR any time soon. Unless the cable co gives me one for free.
Thanks for an impressive package guys
Thought it might be useful to clear up some of the issues re MP vs W7
Windows 7:
use external codecs to upscale
Yes with hacks.
use DVB and DVBS and record multiple cannels from the same mux
No, even if it's on the same mux, each channel will need a tuner.
support multiple tuner cards
Up to 4 of each type (i.e 4 x DVB-T, Analogue, DVB-S, DVB-C would give you 16 tuners)
act as tv server to multiple attached devices in multi-seat config
No, but sharing recorded TV is very simple, no hacks like in Vista - just set it to watch a folder on another machine and it just appears.
play h.264
Yes, the internal codecs will play h.264
Windows 7:
use external codecs to upscale
Yes with hacks.
use DVB and DVBS and record multiple cannels from the same mux
No, even if it's on the same mux, each channel will need a tuner.
support multiple tuner cards
Up to 4 of each type (i.e 4 x DVB-T, Analogue, DVB-S, DVB-C would give you 16 tuners)
act as tv server to multiple attached devices in multi-seat config
No, but sharing recorded TV is very simple, no hacks like in Vista - just set it to watch a folder on another machine and it just appears.
play h.264
Yes, the internal codecs will play h.264
My first post on these forums - just like the author of this thread. Only difference is a working Mediaportal HTPC in my livingroom including TV.
It hasnt been easy though, a lot of initial problems (damn you Hauppauge HVR-4000!), a lot of tweaking and so on. These forums have been an immense help - I havent posted before now but reading through posts have almost always given me an idea of a solution or at least where to start looking for one.
If you expect an open source media center application with as many features and opportunities as Mediaportal to be a walk in the park to set up, perhaps MCE is a better choice!
Thank you for an excellent program.
Thanks for a positive first post
I agree with Infinityloop. Constructive criticisism is always welcome, but in most cases it's just not constructive, it's the typical "MP sucks, I couldn't get it to work so therefore no one can and I'm never coming back" type messages from a user who has never posted before.
We occasionally get posts from people who say they had no luck and they are leaving but in the rare cases, they leave information on what they had trouble with and this is very valuable and very welcome. It would be even better if the person who posted was able to check back and see suggestions to their issues so they could get everything working correctly and this also has happened in the pastand is the ideal result for such a situation.
US users still have a hard time when it comes to EPG.
The main reason for this is that we do not have any developer in the team who is from the US.Because of this, our developers are always working "in the dark" when they do some USA specific changes. They can not test them, because they are located in europe.
WebEPG is another topic.
It was created as an alternative before the TV-Server was develeoped.
This means that it was never meant to work with the TV-Server at all. But a quick "hack" was added to get it working more or less.
We have planed to port WebEPG to the TV-Server, so that it will become available there as a plugin.
Then it will be very, very easy to use.
But i am not sure if there are many (if any) grabbers for onlinesources to get EPG from for US-channels.
MrBOFH
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...mexico-epg-plugin-updated-10-01-2007-a-26951/
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/electronic-program-guide-67/working-free-us-epg-56712/
Have a look at the above, hopefully one of these will assist you in getting epg setup.
Regards
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...mexico-epg-plugin-updated-10-01-2007-a-26951/
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/electronic-program-guide-67/working-free-us-epg-56712/
Have a look at the above, hopefully one of these will assist you in getting epg setup.
Regards
- May 22, 2009
- 8
- 0
- Home Country
-
United States of America
I've got EPG working now using the mc2xml program to connect to the microsoft service. Which aftre a few hiccups now seesm to be working just fine. I looked at the Schedules Direct route. $20 a year for it doesn't seem to bad. I may go that route if MS starts being problematic
If I wasn't on a 1.5Mbps DSL line, I'd set up a Unix box with a TVcard for remote access in a dmz. Perhaps in a while when I get that speed issue (or lack thereof) resolved and it would be beneficial to the MP dev team.
If I wasn't on a 1.5Mbps DSL line, I'd set up a Unix box with a TVcard for remote access in a dmz. Perhaps in a while when I get that speed issue (or lack thereof) resolved and it would be beneficial to the MP dev team.
Hey there,
I've read through the whole thread and can understand that one may reach a point where it can get frustrating. What I've learned (and I consider myself as an advanced user, having built and set up many systems / mods incl. bizzare hardware / software errors which had to be fixed during and after that) is: If you want a flexible system you WILL run more or less into problems and have to react with flexibility to solve them. Or to "give up" which isn't really an option imo, as having spent money and lots of time in the project.
The main "problem" simply is, a software like MediaPortal with almost unlimited abilties (think of all the different plug-ins and formats it is able to handle for example) and high flexibility (which other "Out of the box" products don't have) + the option to totally personalize it to your needs / taste can't be coded to match every OS configuration / hardware setup.
I wouldn't say people who gave up at one point are technically incompetent or stupid (that's just my opinion and yes I can sense the sarcasm in other comments, so don't worry ) but maybe had too high expectations regarding the difficulty in building and setting up a system which "can basically do everything". I had a discussion with a colleauge at work who couldn't believe that it can be a difficult task to "pop in a BluRay, press the Play button and it works" on a custom HTPC with only one nice GUI and no "visible Windows XP / Vista".
Using a nice stand alone player with some additional media storage devices and a DVB-S2 Receiver is an option for the consumer market in this case but can't be compared to one device which can handle all this tasks. I'm pretty sure there will be nice and cheap All-In-One devices but I'm also sure that they will never reach the flexibility of a HTPC in terms of configurating the system to your needs. But: You really have to get into it and put up with maybe spending hours until reaching your goal (just like in real life ).
To sum this up: I installed MediaPortal with default settings on five different machines now and never had big problems (most of them related to the OS and / or hardware / drivers etc), but adding other things to the system can make the (big) difference. Even a little script to call another app may ruin your dreams of the 100% stable multimedia machine, but I can't blame MP for that.
I've read through the whole thread and can understand that one may reach a point where it can get frustrating. What I've learned (and I consider myself as an advanced user, having built and set up many systems / mods incl. bizzare hardware / software errors which had to be fixed during and after that) is: If you want a flexible system you WILL run more or less into problems and have to react with flexibility to solve them. Or to "give up" which isn't really an option imo, as having spent money and lots of time in the project.
The main "problem" simply is, a software like MediaPortal with almost unlimited abilties (think of all the different plug-ins and formats it is able to handle for example) and high flexibility (which other "Out of the box" products don't have) + the option to totally personalize it to your needs / taste can't be coded to match every OS configuration / hardware setup.
I wouldn't say people who gave up at one point are technically incompetent or stupid (that's just my opinion and yes I can sense the sarcasm in other comments, so don't worry
) but maybe had too high expectations regarding the difficulty in building and setting up a system which "can basically do everything". I had a discussion with a colleauge at work who couldn't believe that it can be a difficult task to "pop in a BluRay, press the Play button and it works" on a custom HTPC with only one nice GUI and no "visible Windows XP / Vista".Using a nice stand alone player with some additional media storage devices and a DVB-S2 Receiver is an option for the consumer market in this case but can't be compared to one device which can handle all this tasks. I'm pretty sure there will be nice and cheap All-In-One devices but I'm also sure that they will never reach the flexibility of a HTPC in terms of configurating the system to your needs. But: You really have to get into it and put up with maybe spending hours until reaching your goal (just like in real life
).To sum this up: I installed MediaPortal with default settings on five different machines now and never had big problems (most of them related to the OS and / or hardware / drivers etc), but adding other things to the system can make the (big) difference. Even a little script to call another app may ruin your dreams of the 100% stable multimedia machine, but I can't blame MP for that.
To get back to the original post, I do think there is some valuable feedback, hidden amongst the angst, to be considered. This user's main point was with TV Server Setup. I do think it can be the most difficult and frustrating part of setting up MP and it could be improved.
There are many posts in the forums of users who cannot get TVServer to work, especially in singleseat setups.
The best post I found was Ray's https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...ack-device-singleseat-users-51028/#post348973 I think it should be a sticky post in the new Television Forum! It's kinda buried in the Useful Posts sticky in the Newcomer's Forum. There is a mention in the Wiki TVServer FAQ, but it does not give the same instructions as Ray's post.
Based on Ray's post, for singleseat users who can't get TVServer to work, the recommended method is:
1. Download and install SQL Server Express (which is done as part of TVServer install)
2. Install and configure the loopback adapator (instructions are on an external webpage not part of MP)
3. Download and install SQL Server Management Studio (which does not install as part of the MP TVServer install)
4. Edit the SQL database.
5. Configure the Channels and options in TVServer Configuration
6. Configure the TV Client in MP Configuration
7. Setup WebEPG (though that should be a lot easier in MP 1.1)
I think it is just too many places to go and not centralized in MP. Then, if it doesn't work, and they have to do it over and over, I can understand users getting fed up. I don't think they are being lazy or stupid, just human and frustrated.
I think there are two issues here:
1. Why do so many people (and not all new users) have trouble getting TVServer working? (the only way it will work on my system is to add my computer name to my hosts file after 127.0.0.1 localhost and it took me days of research to find that workaround)
2. Perhaps the Wizard setup for TV could be expanded or improved to make this process easier for users. Personally I would rather see the wizards put into a separate Conifguration Wizard that is part of MP/TVServer Configuration. I think they would be much more useful and used there.
There are many posts in the forums of users who cannot get TVServer to work, especially in singleseat setups.
The best post I found was Ray's https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...ack-device-singleseat-users-51028/#post348973 I think it should be a sticky post in the new Television Forum! It's kinda buried in the Useful Posts sticky in the Newcomer's Forum. There is a mention in the Wiki TVServer FAQ, but it does not give the same instructions as Ray's post.
Based on Ray's post, for singleseat users who can't get TVServer to work, the recommended method is:
1. Download and install SQL Server Express (which is done as part of TVServer install)
2. Install and configure the loopback adapator (instructions are on an external webpage not part of MP)
3. Download and install SQL Server Management Studio (which does not install as part of the MP TVServer install)
4. Edit the SQL database.
5. Configure the Channels and options in TVServer Configuration
6. Configure the TV Client in MP Configuration
7. Setup WebEPG (though that should be a lot easier in MP 1.1)
I think it is just too many places to go and not centralized in MP. Then, if it doesn't work, and they have to do it over and over, I can understand users getting fed up. I don't think they are being lazy or stupid, just human and frustrated.
I think there are two issues here:
1. Why do so many people (and not all new users) have trouble getting TVServer working? (the only way it will work on my system is to add my computer name to my hosts file after 127.0.0.1 localhost and it took me days of research to find that workaround)
2. Perhaps the Wizard setup for TV could be expanded or improved to make this process easier for users. Personally I would rather see the wizards put into a separate Conifguration Wizard that is part of MP/TVServer Configuration. I think they would be much more useful and used there.