Help needed! My HTPC dream is turning into a nightmare! (1 Viewer)

[robbo100]

I cannot get mediaportal working correctly with my Speedlink Sl-6399-SBK meda remote. Does the software actually support this remote or do i need to buy a different one?

Looking at Amazon, the spec says it should be MCE compatible, so it should be as simple as putting a tick in "Use Microsoft Media Center Remote" option on this screen: MCE Remote - MediaPortal Wiki

There is mention on Amazon of it being detected as a keyboard, so if the MCE remote method doesn't work, you might be able to get it working using the HID remote option and mapping the remote keys to MP functions: General HID - MediaPortal Wiki

I cannot get the EPG working for the satellite channels I have picked up, it's just always showing no information available. I tried some EPG plugin but it's doing nothing!

Sometimes it can take some time to download the data. I am assuming that you have configured this menu within the TV Server Setup: DVB EPG - MediaPortal Wiki . My advice would be to leave the words and numbers as default on this page, but to ONLY tick the following options: "Always try to fill holes" and "Enable" for both grabbing at idle and whilst timeshifting/recording. If you have any TV service issues (especially if they occur when you recover from Standby) then disable the option for grabbing whilst at idle.

Personally, I prefer to download my EPG data using the internet from RadioTimes (the data is more detailed). To do this, you can use a 3rd party EPG Grabber such as XMLTVGUI. Configure this to download the data and then store the .xml file in c:\programdata\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal TV Server\XMLTV\ (making sure you call the .xml file "tvguide.xml"). Make sure you run a grab to create your first tvguide.xml.

Then go the the MP TV Server Config and select plugins and put a tick in XMLTV and then expand the list of plugins to reveal XMLTV plugin in the list below. Then use this instruction in the wiki XmlTv - MediaPortal Wiki to map your TV channels to the channels in your downloaded EPG data.

I downloaded a skin called StreamedMP which seemed to include an awful lot of plugins. No idea what I'm doing with that tho!

OK, the skin setup doesn't include the actual plugins, all it is is a way of building your on-screen menus for calling-up plugins. If you have the plugin "Moving Pictures" installed, then you need your skin home screen to have the link to run that plugin. For now, don't bother configuring the skin, when you run MediaPortal client you will see a menu item in the StreamedMP default setup called "Plugin". If you use the keyboard (or remote when you get it working) to select that menu item it will show you all the plugins that you have got installed on your MediaPortal system (and you can then run them from that list). When you know your way round MP a bit better, you can then try to personalise your skin layout (once you know what plugins you like the most).

I am mainly after enhancements to my files in terms of cover art, organising tv and movies and getting movie info and sorting my tv shows. Have I got the correct skin pack for these features?

OK, for organising Films, download Moving Pictures - make sure you download moving pictures 1.2.3 to be compatible with your version of MP.

For organising your TV shows you need TV Series

The best source of plugins is to run the MP Extension Installed (MPEI) which you can find under the Windows START>MediaPortal area. Run it and it will give you a list of a huge number of plugins (aka extensions) and let you download them. So if you want to get all the UK TV Channel Logos, you will find a UK TV Logo pack (for example).

My advice is to install 1 plugin at a time and test each one as you go. Just in case you have any compatibility issues (which in fairness are pretty rare).

I also completely removed the Shark Codec pack. I have installed all the suggested codecs in the Mediaportal Wiki and picked up suggested settings.

Does it work with this setup now?

I wonder if you could do me a favour. We get quite a lot of people who post about "problems" with MediaPortal on AVForums, but then get them resolved on this forum, but leave the AVForum thread looking unsolved. If you could let everyone know on AVForums how good you think MP is and how good the support is (when you get it all working of course), then that would go a long way to give new users the confidence to try MP.

Thanks

Robbo100

EDIT: ---------------------

RE: EPG. You can use Web EPG as suggested by JBravo.

I prefer XMLTV because it only populates data for the channels that YOU want, whereas the WEBEPG will populate data for every channel that it can. This means that if you have 10 ITV1 channels (which you will have with FreeSat) then when you select to record something on ITV1, it will ask you which of the 10 channels you wish to record from (which looks a little messy). However, if you have only assigned the EPG to one of the 10, then only that 1 channel will appear in the list.

The other way is to delete all the channels that you are not using, but they will then get re-added if you do a re-scan, so that just causes repeated effort in my view.

Also, for the DVB-EPG, if you look under "RADIO EPG" you will find a radio channel listed called something like "Freesat EPG Radio" (I can't quite remember what it is called, but it will have EPG in the title). If you put a tick in that channel it will make the system tune to this channel which will give you DVB-EPG data.

Robbo100

 

[wishywashy]

robbo100

The StreamedMP installer will install the plugins you choose. You'll be able to get the compatible "Moving Pictures" and "My TV Series" from the skin installer.

 

[robbo100]

@Robbo100

The StreamedMP installer will install the plugins you choose. You'll be able to get the compatible "Moving Pictures" and "My TV Series" from the skin installer.

Are you sure this is true? This isn't the case from my experiance.

 

[aidbish]

@Robbo100

The StreamedMP installer will install the plugins you choose. You'll be able to get the compatible "Moving Pictures" and "My TV Series" from the skin installer.

Are you sure this is true? This isn't the case from my experiance.

yep, streamedMP allows you select certain plugins that are included in the installer to be installed

see features on the installation page - Installation - streamedmp - Installation Guide for Skin. - StreamedMP Skin for MediaPortal - Google Project Hosting

 

[bcummins]

Will have to look into that when I get my replacement case and PSU back..

Robbo, thanks for your reply. I haven't had a chance to do much more given that I had to send some bits back due to a PSU fault, I'll get straight on it when they come back though!

 

[bcummins]

Hello and thank you again for the help so far.

I'm completely stuck on setting up my remote to work with MediaPortal, it's starting to get to the point where I'm wondering if I should even be using this software!
I have a speedlink 6399 SBK. I have already posted on the remotes forum with no reply and I've already checked out a few threads regarding this remote. I managed to replicate the instructions given by someone else on the forums, installing the generic keyboard plugin and something called eventghost. I still can't get my remote to work with mediaportal. I think I'm missing something fundamental and basic, like what my remote type setting should be in the MP configuration (like general HID device or what?)

Can someone help before I resort to WMC!

 

[robbo100]

I did a forum search for 6399 and it came up with a number of results. This thread specifically mentions the people have used this plugin successfully with your remote: https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...7/generic-keyboard-remote-input-plugin-25755/

It might be worth downloading the plugin linked in the first post, or trying your own search and seeing if you can find other people who have used the same remote.

There are a number of remotes that say they are MCE remotes, but aren't. It may be that your remote falls into this category and you need some 3rd party software to help map the button presses to simulate keyboard key presses. If this is the case, then it may not work with MCE in any case (have you tried MCE to see if the navigation keys work at all?). Try downloading intelliremote to try mapping keys if the above free plugin doesn't work, you can try intelliremote for free for 30 days.

Robbo100

 

[bcummins]

I did a forum search for 6399 and it came up with a number of results. This thread specifically mentions the people have used this plugin successfully with your remote: https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...7/generic-keyboard-remote-input-plugin-25755/

It might be worth downloading the plugin linked in the first post, or trying your own search and seeing if you can find other people who have used the same remote.

There are a number of remotes that say they are MCE remotes, but aren't. It may be that your remote falls into this category and you need some 3rd party software to help map the button presses to simulate keyboard key presses. If this is the case, then it may not work with MCE in any case (have you tried MCE to see if the navigation keys work at all?). Try downloading intelliremote to try mapping keys if the above free plugin doesn't work, you can try intelliremote for free for 30 days.

Robbo100

Ok, in either case, am I setting up the device in MediaPortal as a "General HID Device" or is there a different category it needs to be ticked under?

 

[robbo100]

From what I can tell, the link I provided is for a completely different plugin (so you will setup the remote using that plugin rather than use the native MediaPortal configuration.

However, I don't know anything about this plugin, so I suggest you post a question on that thread, asking for help.

Like I said, I don't think this is a mediaportal problem, but hopefully you will be able to work around it and get it to work with MediaPortal using support on this forum.

Robbo100

 

[porky996t]

Hi bcummins,

Although this don't really help with your current problem, I had similar difficulties with a remote that should have worked with MP - although not the one you have. In the end I just had enough of messing about for countless hours and bought a 'proper' MCE remote of eBay (I now have three and all work well) and it just worked out of the box.

For me, spending £15 saved so much hassle and more importantly it improved the WAF immeasurably.



M