Hauppauge HD-PVR & Colossus Support (13 Viewers)

[pipette]

Hi everyone,

I have recently built a new HTPC, including a Colossus card. I am trying to interface it with a user-friendly program, but this does not seem to be easy.... Am I understanding right that Media Portal does not support it now, but will in the 1.2 beta version coming out soon? Or is it possible now to use one of the patches you have posted here, and how?

I am SOOOO new to this, did not understand half of what you guys were saying...

Thanks for clarifying the situation for me!

 

[mm1352000]

Hi pipette

First of all, *welcome* to the forum!

Am I understanding right that Media Portal does not support it now, but will in the 1.2 beta version coming out soon? Or is it possible now to use one of the patches you have posted here, and how?

Currently released versions (1.1.x, 1.2.0 alpha etc.) of MediaPortal do not yet support the Colossus. Support has been added to the code very recently, so you could build the code if you wanted to. The alternative would be to use one of the patches that we've posted.

To be quite frank though, since you are so new to MP and since the release of 1.2.0b (which will natively support the Colossus) is so close, I ***highly*** recommend that you wait for that release. Support will be way better and you'll save yourself a lot of potential headaches.

 

[RunningBlind]

Hi everyone,

I have recently built a new HTPC, including a Colossus card. I am trying to interface it with a user-friendly program, but this does not seem to be easy.... Am I understanding right that Media Portal does not support it now, but will in the 1.2 beta version coming out soon? Or is it possible now to use one of the patches you have posted here, and how?

I am SOOOO new to this, did not understand half of what you guys were saying...

Thanks for clarifying the situation for me!

MP itself is a great program, but initial setup for beginners is a lot to take in with the Colossus because most people use tuners and not capture devices like ours. None of the release versions have support so you'll need to compile MP from the SVN, if you're unsure of how to do this it might not be for you but you can always give it a try.

Compiling - MediaPortal Wiki

I've finally got the internal blaster working with ServerBlaster, from what I can tell everything is in working order other than getting settings how I'd like. I'll be working on a rudimentary walkthrough once I've tested everything, the process itself mostly just time consuming after you have all of the information you need, hopefully this will cut out most of your searching through the wiki and forums.

 

[WileECoyote]

I'll be working on a rudimentary walkthrough once I've tested everything, the process itself mostly just time consuming after you have all of the information you need, hopefully this will cut out most of your searching through the wiki and forums.

I'm also working on documentation for the 1.2 Beta, I can merge all the information you can provide and I will attach to the first post for new/all users.

 

[WileECoyote]

Hi everyone,

I have recently built a new HTPC, including a Colossus card. I am trying to interface it with a user-friendly program, but this does not seem to be easy.... Am I understanding right that Media Portal does not support it now, but will in the 1.2 beta version coming out soon? Or is it possible now to use one of the patches you have posted here, and how?

I am SOOOO new to this, did not understand half of what you guys were saying...

Thanks for clarifying the situation for me!

Hello Pipette,
I also want to welcome you to MediaPortal! I agree with mm, for new users it would be easiest to wait for the 1.2 Beta comming soon. I will be posting links to all the plugins that will work with MediaPortal, such as links to EPG plugins as well as IRSS that will do the 'blasting' to your STB's.

Stay tuned, 1.2 Beta will be worth the wait!

Wile E.

 

[pipette]

Re : Hauppauge HD-PVR & Colossus Support

Thanks, guys. I'll wait. Although I am not computer illiterate, I am media portal illeterate at this point....

Just hope it comes out soon! Never thought this Colossus card would be so much problems... THen again, I would probably nver have tried mp, and the more I read, the more I like...

 

[RunningBlind]

I'll be working on a rudimentary walkthrough once I've tested everything, the process itself mostly just time consuming after you have all of the information you need, hopefully this will cut out most of your searching through the wiki and forums.

I'm also working on documentation for the 1.2 Beta, I can merge all the information you can provide and I will attach to the first post for new/all users.

That would be great, two heads are always better than one, I'll shoot you a PM when I feel I have enough information to pass along.

Thanks, guys. I'll wait. Although I am not computer illiterate, I am media portal illeterate at this point....

Just hope it comes out soon! Never thought this Colossus card would be so much problems... THen again, I would probably nver have tried mp, and the more I read, the more I like...

The card and MP itself aren't a problem, it's just that documentation is lacking for capture devices like the Colossus and HD PVR. It's not an issue for those who have a little experience with MP, however it can be confusing for new users considering most information on the wiki was written for tuners and other parts are outdated.

As a new user I don't feel anything that I have done was hard, just more time consuming trying to find related information that also still applied. Hopefully WileECoyote and I will be able to come up with something by release, I'm sure there are quite a few Colossus owners wanting to give MP a try.

 

[Blue Energy]

I am very encouraged by the continuously good news coming out of this forum thread. First a version of MP that will work with HDPVR and Colossus - and now accurate documentation too! I must admit that I was concerned as well after going through the Wiki.

I'm surprised that most users use tuner cards rather than converters. I would think that almost anyone using MP with HD cable or satellite would be forced to use a converter - and one presumes that would include the majority of MP-using Americans at least. Maybe they haven't jumped on because setting it up seemed to require a large investment followed by trial and error with no assurance of eventual success. It would seem that this may no longer be the case very soon.

Doing this certainly isn't cheap, or anyway, not something one would do to avoid buying a Tivo I wouldn't think. For me, at least, the advantage is in the control and centralization it will give me. As I write to you from my recliner, on the 47 inch TV in my living room, I'm listening to a Hearts of Space internet radio broadcast via the same computer routed out through my stereo. My bluray disks play back via the same machine (or, anyway, they did before I experimented with XBMC...). Someday soon, all of my recorded music will reside on the same computer, and I'll be able to watch my current and recorded shows via the same hardware (with essentially infinite recording space) and the same software that I listen to my recorded music with and during commercials (if I even keep the commercials) I'll be able to Google player statistics or pause the program to check the weather forecast - all without leaving my seat. And if there's a snow day from work I'll be able to code from the same chair. I've been looking forward to that day for over ten years!

By the way - I don't know if you all have noticed, but the folks over at XBMC have honored one of it's founders (Frodo) who went on to found Media Portal by naming a version of their software after him. Pretty cool that the 'industry' is so tightly knit and communal and that the folks involved are stand-up enough to honor their competition! You have to respect both sides of that relationship: the one for being worthy of the praise, and the other for being honorable enough to do it. In the world we live in they are both rare commodities.

 

[texaschangas]

With all the testing going on is there a consensus on which device is better (HD-PVR or Colossus).
I am getting ready to purchase one of them, but before I do I thought I would ask.

 

[WileECoyote]

With all the testing going on is there a consensus on which device is better (HD-PVR or Colossus).
I am getting ready to purchase one of them, but before I do I thought I would ask.

Hey texaschnagas,
I had two HD-PVRs that worked great with DirectTV, TWC and AT&T Uverse. I recently switched to Dish Network and it didnt work well with the HD-PVRs, but works great with the Colossus. I have recently sold both my HD-PVR's and replaced them with two Colossus cards. I replaced them mainly because they are internal....

The Colossus is internal and starts and stops faster than the HD-PVR (at least playing directly with the graphs it is much quicker.) After 3-4 weeks of use, the Colossus cards have not failed on a recording and have been working great.

The HD-PVR is external, so if you dont have many (or any) PCIe slots this would be the choice. Be aware though, many people have had to reboot the HD-PVR occasionally due to lockups (this very rarely happened to me.) One other thing to keep in mind is mm has recently refactored the HD-PVR code which may assist with the stability.

Overall it may still be too early to declare a 'winner' as to which is better. Hopefully with the changes mm has made both will be good choices, it just a preference of internal vs external. Time will tell...

Just my 2 cents

Wile E.