How to get started with MediaPortal 2 to do TV recording? (1 Viewer)

Mobidic

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My background is software development. I have been using Windows Media Center for ages.

I did take a look at Media Portal years ago and after looking at the steps to install, well... I thought it's not worth my time.

Now, I'm kind of stuck to take a second look, I want to to access recorded TV from more than one TV, and all extender of WMC are dead, or it's noisy, and take too much energy like XBOX 360.

Plex is everywhere, even on my cheap Vizio TV. But it seems that Plex doesn't play live TV recording or TV recording that are not yet fully recorded. Which, is often my use case when watching news.

So, I started on January 2016 at the home page at: https://www.team-mediaportal.com/

First thing noticed, it seems the latest release is on the 1.x version, so first assumption is that MediaPortal 2 is still an Alpha release.

After, reading a lot more, everywhere, and trying to discard old post, and other years old deprecated information, I came to the conclusion that MediaPortal 2 is actually the 'right' version to use, mainly due to this page: https://www.team-mediaportal.com/mediaportal-download

It has more checkmarks on MediaPortal 2 but maybe it's just a roadmap and it's actually not real. Who knows?

I downloaded MediaPortal 2, and finished to install it.

The installation put strange icon on my taskbar that seems useless, like one called "MediaPortal Tray Launcher", I don't know if this represent server, client, or whatever, and doesn't have much action on it, except Add/remove from autostart.

I try to find the installed software and I don't see it, I'm double checking my alphabet ordering ;-)

It doesn't show under MediaPortal, in the Windows menu but instead with "Team MediaPortal".

I found the software "MediaPortal 2 TV Configuration", that's must be a good first step!

The UI didn't walk me through any installation steps, no wizard, it has lot of links on the root of the contents, the default screen, one is to the documentation but I didn't notice it.

My first big mistake, I went to Google, and it gave me a link to what seems to be the official documentation: http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/Us...Step_By_Step_Setup/1_Installing_MediaPortal_2

I didn't notice this is a link to some kind of old version of the wiki. Then started to follow the steps...

I should have click the help icon in the top right of the software, at least I would have the right documentation.

Best link is: http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/2_MEDIAPORTAL_2/1_Getting_Started/2_Installing_MediaPortal_2

I start to read this, first thing you see under 'MediaPortal 2 - What's New' are Alpha 1, and Alpha 2, so it seems MediaPortal 2 is Alpha 2 after all.

The first steps of installation is about requirements, like installing .Net Framework 4.5.1 full, the link provided is dead.

But anyway, it said that the latest installation was taking care of it automatically, great!

Then I read all the documentation, and no mention of TV recording.... what's the next step to get TV recording to work?
 

morpheus_xx

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    Most of your issue seems caused by our wiki, which is not up-to-date in some parts. We are aware of this and working on a complete new wiki already.

    Regarding to your TV related questions: the "tv core" in MP2 is the same as of MP1. Therefor the related guides from MP1 wiki also apply to MP2. This might be a good start: http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_MEDIAPORTAL_1/13_Setup_Guides/2_TV_Setup.
     

    Mobidic

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    I figured out that I had to install locally the HomeRun software to get it to shows-up in the TV Config software.

    After I tried for over 45 minutes to configure the EPG, but without success. The change I did to the xml file used by WebEPG doesn't shows up.

    I kind of give up and try without EPG, and then it's worst! It seems that even if I configure EPG the experience will be awful.

    Below is a picture of what I get. There is no record button! And I cannot click on a progress bar, it's always empty and shows nothing. And the back button doesn't do anything, time-shifting is not working.

    The image is way worst that what I saw online at this web page: http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_MEDIAPORTAL_1/14_Using_MediaPortal/3_TV/1_Watch_Live_TV

    Is this the 'normal' state of things on MediaPortal 2? Do I need some extra plug-in to have 'User Friendly' controls on the screen and more plug-ins for the timeshift features?
    upload_2016-1-6_18-38-9.png
     

    morpheus_xx

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    The look and feel of MP2 can be changed by skins. Some examples from my dev system, using the "BlueVision" skin. EPG data is filled via XmlTV grabber, including series information.
    04_OSD.jpg 03_extended_record.jpg 02_record_dialog.jpg 01_epg.jpg

    In fullscreen TV it's also possible to start a immediate record: on your MCE remote the "record" button, or "R" (shift-r) on keyboard. It's currently not an OSD button, I put this on the list of further developments.

    During playback you can skip inside the timeshifted buffer ("left"/"right" keys in steps, "up"/"down" percentual).

    Do I need some extra plug-in to have 'User Friendly' controls on the screen and more plug-ins for the timeshift features?
    What else you are missing exactly?
     

    Lehmden

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    Hi.
    The installation put strange icon on my taskbar that seems useless, like one called "MediaPortal Tray Launcher", I don't know if this represent server, client, or whatever, and doesn't have much action on it, except Add/remove from autostart.
    The "Tray Launcher" is a tool that starts MediaPortal2 Client if you press the "Green Button" on a MCE- (compatible) remote. For WMC there is a windows service running doing the same thing, if WMC is part of the OS... The other "strange" icon is for the "MP2-ServiceMonitor". This shows the status of the MP2- Server and here you can start and stop the server, even if it is not running on the same machine... So both are not "useless". OK, if you don't use any remote the tray launcher can be useless and for this it can be removed from autostart...

    without EPG
    As you are living in US you are not that lucky regarding EPG data. For US there are not so many good EPG data sources available. In Europe the EPG data is broadcast on the same channel than the TV program, so you don't need to do much at all to get EPG data. It's called "DVB-EPG" bud sadly this did not work for ATSC...
    In opposite to Microsoft we are a non profit Open Source project and so we are not able to pay lots of $$$ every month to provide the users a good EPG. The costs of the EPG data used in WMC are the primary reason why WMC was dropped in Win10...
    You can use Schedules Direct or Zap2It as US- EPG source. For both you can find guides here in the forum...
    https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...igure-for-atsc-ota-u-s-a.133048/#post-1166099
     

    Mobidic

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    I got something working!

    It seems that if EPG is not present, the UI is ugly/destroyed and time-shifting doesn't work.

    I came to the conclusion that WebEPG is deprecated and badly designed anyway. It doesn't show any error if the xml is not well constructed, just ignoring and moving forward... silently not working.

    I got EPG working by using xmltv from instruction: https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/t...igure-for-atsc-ota-u-s-a.133048/#post-1166099

    The entire steps of xmltv could be automated, login seems to be optional, and more importantly I have always thought that EPG mapping need human analysis but no, the server log channels are exact match to channel provided by zap2it, so someone could finish automating the full workflow.

    The UI looks relatively fine now, but it's obvious that using a mouse is not welcome, and it's super frustrating. The back button doesn't do anything, but with the keyboard shortcut timeshifting is working. Also if I'm watching something then bring up the guide, it's hard with the mouse to get rid of it, there is no close button, I can click outside the guide, on my tv show and it doesn't go away, it's ridiculous. It's not like using a mouse is a new concept, on a software that works only on Windows...maybe if that was a client running on Linux developed by people using vi that would make more sense.

    When I click on the timeshifting progressbar it doesn't move to where I have clicked. I wonder if the client from MediaPortal 1 is working better.

    If I would be redesigning the UI, I will start by copying what Microsoft Media Center is doing.

    Any known other UI that works well with the rest of the MediaPortal stack?
     
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    Lehmden

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    Hi.
    In general this type of Software is designed mainly for usage with a remote.
    but it's obvious that using a mouse is not welcome
    You can use the mouse ofc. But most likely you also need a keyboard then for some functionality. How the mouse buttons are working depends on the skin you are using. Maybe a different skin fits better to your needs.

    The back button doesn't do anything,
    Try "ESC" button on keyboard... It should do the same than the back button on remote.

    to get rid of it,
    Be patient! The guide (as any other OSD) disappears automatically after a few seconds, but it did not if you continue to move the mouse and/or press tons of buttons...

    When I click on the timeshifting progressbar it doesn't move to where I have clicked.
    The bar is an indicator how far you have gone into the video. It is not a navigation button and never was meant for this... You can use skip steps and/or ff/rw to navigate in the video. As told, mouse is not the primary input device on any HTPC software, even WMC did not work this way...

    I wonder if the client from MediaPortal 1 is working better
    With mouse only? No way...

    It's not like using a mouse is a new concept, on a software that works only on Windows
    Not a new concept but there is tons of software out there that did not use a mouse at all. Being designed for Windows did not automatically mean designed for mouse...

    To me it looks as if you are looking for a simple media player more than for a full blown HTPC solution.
     

    Mobidic

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    Now that I have EPG, I have some basic EPG use case I'm trying to figure out.

    How do I record only new episode of series knowing that zap2it has very clear information about what is new or not?

    Does the software provide any way to resolve scheduling conflicts?
     

    Mobidic

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    It's often more useful to know the features that are missing in a software that the features that exist.

    I moved to Kodi with ServerWMC (on top of Microsoft Windows Media Center). Now, I can use the mouse using Kodi, on both Windows and Android (Amazon FireTV). With the mouse we can even click on the progress bar to move forward or backward at an exact location.

    I can record series that are only "new" and edit them.

    I have free EPG that are configured automatically. ServerWMC doesn't need to do trans-coding of the WMC recording.
     

    itauditor

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    The directions for installing MP2 are absolutely impossible.

    I found your thread and it seems to be the only hope. Yet it still does not explain MP2 install in enough detail to figure it out.

    I installed MySQL and yet I still need the schema - no where does the site explain where to find and install the DB schema.

    The only thing I think might help is to install MP1 and hope that the TV server installs the schema (if it in fact installs My SQL successfully).

    This wiki site is really screwed up...
     

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