United States of America
do current instructions for setting up the epg and mapping to channels for clear qam channels exist?
it is hard to try new software and frustrating as all *&^%(** when each version seems to work so differently that the forums are actually more frustrating to use than guessing. This seems like something that should be here but alas I seem stuck with mce in Vista 64 for better or worse mostly worse because none of the alternatives can supply even an outline of how to get from install - to epg guide to mapping channels to a usable tv guide for us cable users and clear qam.
this is my second attempt at media portal - and things started out better this time as at least the TV server installed in this current release (I never got that far before). When I go TV server configuration - it has my server listed and it lists my tv capture cards (or at least the correct chip sets and expected tv signal capture sources).
Then via google searches I got mc2xml to supply the epg and I believe the correct files for mediaportal to work. However, this is where it all breaks down. Getting the cards signals - in TV server searches find nothing no matter what type of cable input i select (both mce and gb-pvr find the correct signals) So how do I get media portal to do so - searches here just frustrate as nothing matches what I see in TV server and frankly trying to use them just frustrates. So is there someplace that outlines how to set up TV server for this step? (fot the guy who likes to tell everybody to supply logs see my post on setting up Saber da 1N1e in the installation section they are all there but I was mistaken when I said it worked for the hauppauge as this one under mapping has a list but scans for channels fail to find any for it either, I have no idea how that listing got there).
Next question - are there instructions for the channel mapping section? here i'm faced with a list of several hundred stations with a series of numbers that have no relation to anything. This may be intuitive if you're dealing with an over the air listing that includes channel identification but for those of us looking at a list of a hundred or so clear qam channels and even more scrambled listings it is anything but so instructions are imperative. And again searching and reading your forums is not helpful as it seems the versions handle this so differently that frustration again becomes the order of the day.
I don't know if this program is worth the effort as I can't get to seeing and hearing anything - but it does seem to enable me to do what i can't in Vista mce that is make it look and act the way I want - but alas Vista mce web searches on how to get it up and running at least resulted in a working guide, a decent picture (not always with my preferred setting) and sound. With all the criticism Vista MCE gets this is still more than I can get with anything else and unlike Vista where the things I don't like the answer is you just have to live with it here the problem seems to be not that you have to live with it but more good luck figuring out how to get our program to set up to work with it.
Maybe I should just learn to live with Vista MCE but I'm stubborn that way - and I understand that unpaid voluntary supported programs aren't always perfect - but at a minimum if the install and setup have changed then an outline of how to do a basic install and setup should be available for newbies like me or there won't be too many newbies. If all of this is going to change in version 2.0 in a few weeks great maybe I'll try again then but unless I'm just not creating the correct search to find how to scan and map channels in this current release of TVserver this has been a very frustrating experience.
it is hard to try new software and frustrating as all *&^%(** when each version seems to work so differently that the forums are actually more frustrating to use than guessing. This seems like something that should be here but alas I seem stuck with mce in Vista 64 for better or worse mostly worse because none of the alternatives can supply even an outline of how to get from install - to epg guide to mapping channels to a usable tv guide for us cable users and clear qam.
this is my second attempt at media portal - and things started out better this time as at least the TV server installed in this current release (I never got that far before). When I go TV server configuration - it has my server listed and it lists my tv capture cards (or at least the correct chip sets and expected tv signal capture sources).
Then via google searches I got mc2xml to supply the epg and I believe the correct files for mediaportal to work. However, this is where it all breaks down. Getting the cards signals - in TV server searches find nothing no matter what type of cable input i select (both mce and gb-pvr find the correct signals) So how do I get media portal to do so - searches here just frustrate as nothing matches what I see in TV server and frankly trying to use them just frustrates. So is there someplace that outlines how to set up TV server for this step? (fot the guy who likes to tell everybody to supply logs see my post on setting up Saber da 1N1e in the installation section they are all there but I was mistaken when I said it worked for the hauppauge as this one under mapping has a list but scans for channels fail to find any for it either, I have no idea how that listing got there).
Next question - are there instructions for the channel mapping section? here i'm faced with a list of several hundred stations with a series of numbers that have no relation to anything. This may be intuitive if you're dealing with an over the air listing that includes channel identification but for those of us looking at a list of a hundred or so clear qam channels and even more scrambled listings it is anything but so instructions are imperative. And again searching and reading your forums is not helpful as it seems the versions handle this so differently that frustration again becomes the order of the day.
I don't know if this program is worth the effort as I can't get to seeing and hearing anything - but it does seem to enable me to do what i can't in Vista mce that is make it look and act the way I want - but alas Vista mce web searches on how to get it up and running at least resulted in a working guide, a decent picture (not always with my preferred setting) and sound. With all the criticism Vista MCE gets this is still more than I can get with anything else and unlike Vista where the things I don't like the answer is you just have to live with it here the problem seems to be not that you have to live with it but more good luck figuring out how to get our program to set up to work with it.
Maybe I should just learn to live with Vista MCE but I'm stubborn that way - and I understand that unpaid voluntary supported programs aren't always perfect - but at a minimum if the install and setup have changed then an outline of how to do a basic install and setup should be available for newbies like me or there won't be too many newbies. If all of this is going to change in version 2.0 in a few weeks great maybe I'll try again then but unless I'm just not creating the correct search to find how to scan and map channels in this current release of TVserver this has been a very frustrating experience.