How-To: Setup MediaPortal & TV Server on Windows Server 2008 (x64) (1 Viewer)

[mmesh]

Hello All!

I found this tutorial and installed W2K8 standard on my HTPC (singleseat) machine but I have some additional questions...

5. Create a new user “MediaPortal” and set a password. Keep the user standard.

6. Make sure that all drivers are installed and download MediaPortal (if not already done).

If no drivers for your hardware is available for Windows Server 2008, then just find the same drivers in their Vista-version, since the two systems use the same core and therefore this little trick will work in most cases. Just remember to never mix x86 and x64 versions unless you really, really know what you're messing with. Otherwise ask on the forum or Google.

7. Install MediaPortal and TV Server (Follow the respective guides).

8. Make sure that the MediaPortal user has access to the Mediaportal program files and application data (should be by default).

Update: Auto-logon for automatically starting MediaPortal
To ensure that MediaPortal starts up automatically after a reboot (eg. after windows update or power failure), please follow this guide.

1. Follow the steps in the following article using your created MediaPortal user: How to turn on automatic logon in Windows

2. Once logged in as your MediaPortal user open the MediaPortal Configuration and set MediaPortal to start up when windows starts up.

Note: The Autostart setting in MediaPortal is defined in the registry using the current user registry section. So this will not affect a remote login by eg. the administrator account.

@Maedhros:

Could You please elaborate this part with Mediaportal (standard) user?
I Created Mediaportal user and tried installing Mediaportal in singleseat configuration and the installation stopped informing me that there are no such directories (C:\Program...\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal and ...\MediaPortal TVserver).
I didn't have permission to create these directories I believe.

So the question is: Do I install all needed software as Administrator and only set up Mediaportal to start with login of Mediaportal user? Or do I need to install all Mediaportal related software as Mediaportal user? How do I go about that?

Where exactlly and how do I set permissions for Mediaportal user so it can access MP program and data?


What about setting remote desktop services? After installing needed features how do I set it up so I can logon as Administrator on that machine to make administrative tasks - copy files, install additional software etc.?

Thank You in advance!

 

[Maedhros]

I think what wima was asking, was the reason behind installing the MP front end as well as the TV Server on the Windows Server. Surely you would only install the TV Server on the Windows Server and the MP front end on your client PC's... Or is there a reason why MP front end is also installed on your server?

I started out this thread as a guide for both MediaPortal and TV-Server on Server 2008 (x64, what I'm running). I am using my server as a back-end as well as front-end. Meaning everything on this server. The reasons for this are that I have limited resources and that I would like my MediaPortal available at all times due to the nature of my future development to enhance the setup to be a full-blown home server with Multimedia, A/V-hub, Voice control, Backup, Development, Torrent-slave for subscribed TV-series (when I get that system finished).

My hopes are that the Movie and Entertainment business will get their eyes up for the wonders of P2P. Think if having eg. a flatrate subscription for favourite series for a certain amount of money per year. Using this to get RSS-feeds, that will have your torrent client automatically download new episodes, which in turn will show up directly in your Mediacenter. It is my vision and I have already engaged in debate about the design of such a framework. It would allow TV-distributors to have eg. 20 datacenters around the world to provide base-bandwidth on BitTorrent for their content. More popular and available series on the Internet will have less priority on the server, so that more rare or brand-new series are allowed more bandwidth. No, it doesn't allow for direct streaming just like that, but who cares if your episode is still ready to fire in your mediacenter within a few hours? In 720p or 1080p .... or even SD/PAL/NTSC for the ones who still use that. It will cost a moderate initial fee from the companies to get the system up in the first place, but after that it will just be a money-machine. Until then, it is still "the alternatives" for the newest episodes. But I do have wet dreams of the business to get their eyes up and stop treating the P2P community as bad guys and instead treat eg. TPB as competition.... it's simple.... make something that is better.... and I have the recipe

These are only part of the integrated home system I am trying to make. A Windows Server 2008 only seems logical to be able to use Hyper-V to virtualize a Development Server and Test-Machines for software development.

@Maedhros:

Could You please elaborate this part with Mediaportal (standard) user?
I Created Mediaportal user and tried installing Mediaportal in singleseat configuration and the installation stopped informing me that there are no such directories (C:\Program...\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal and ...\MediaPortal TVserver).
I didn't have permission to create these directories I believe.

So the question is: Do I install all needed software as Administrator and only set up Mediaportal to start with login of Mediaportal user? Or do I need to install all Mediaportal related software as Mediaportal user? How do I go about that?

Where exactlly and how do I set permissions for Mediaportal user so it can access MP program and data?


What about setting remote desktop services? After installing needed features how do I set it up so I can logon as Administrator on that machine to make administrative tasks - copy files, install additional software etc.?

Thank You in advance!

I have installed all software using the Administrator account. After everything is installed and my MediaPortal user has been set up, I then set permissions on:
MediaPortal program files folder
TV Server program files folder

and
C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal

... and remember to set permissions on your media-folders. In general, any folder that MediaPortal may need to write to.

The MediaPortal user is only used for actually running MediaPortal. This way if something fucks up somehow with MediaPortal I am sure that it can't affect the whole system including my backups and development SubVersion server. Just a safety thing ;-)

FYI..... I am currently setting up my old mediacenter PC with Vista SP1 AND Server 2008 to register ANY differences ind BDA and TV-cards. BDAForServer hack does NOT work with analogue TV-cards for sure and in general is not complete. I intend to create a complete script/installer to provide complete TV-card support for Server 2008. Maybe that will get the MP-team to take away tha nag-box on Configuration startup ;-)

 

[firetux]

Hi @all!

I had to reinstall my htpc and want to test setup Mediaportal on a W2k8 Server Std. Edition 32 Bit.

I've followed this How-To and I've finished the installations.

- All Drivers
- All requiered Windows "features"
- All Windows Updates installed
- Mediaportal Server and Client installed (singe-seat)

But now I've the following issue:

When I try to configure TVServer (start TV-Server Configuration) it wants to start the tvservice but it is already started. After the starttimeout is over the TV-Server-Configuration says "Tv Service is not started". But when I look into the Windowsservices console I can see "started" and "automatic".

Is there a security property which has to be changed to use mediaportal on W2k8?
What do I wrong?

Windows Firewall is inactive!

I have the same error when I use the administrator account, too!

Thank you for your support!

bye

firetux

 

[pnyberg]

firetux,

I rembered seeing this as well, I'm also running w2K8 32bit... But I think I got it before installing the BDA drivers. Have you installed those (see earlier in the thread how to install them).

 

[indianahoosier]

Now that Windows Server 2008 R2 is out (only ships in a 64-bit version), I was wondering if anyone had been successful in installing MediaPortal 1.1 beta. I followed the instructions laid out in this guide, but I seem to have hit one snag--MediaPortal indicates that it can't find DirectX and that it will install DirectX 9c. Windows Server 2008 R2 ships with DirectX 11, and dxdiag indicates that my DirectX11 is working fine (both 32- and 64-bit versions). Has anyone else had this problem, and does anyone have ideas about what to do?

 

[romuz]

Just install dx 9c its different version of software an will work with dx11 in parallel. dx11 useless for mp