HTPC Going Off Line......... (for now) (1 Viewer)

[feriso]

So, its been a while coming but I can't say it's been unexpected. My MP set up will be going off on friday night as I'm having Sky+HD installed.

"WHY?, use both!" you might say.

Well, over the past two years or so I've found MP more and more tedious to maintain due to lack of time with two young children. I wouldn't mind so much if it just stayed working and I just added bit but bit over time. I've tried reinstalling Win7 many times to give it a fresh start, even put in a SSD - but each time it just seems to be a pain to keep working.

I'll clarify that statement; it is almost entirely due to the TV side of it which is quite an important function for me. I can get my Freeview/Sat all working fine then over a period of a few months, it starts losing connection to the TV server (even though it is on the same PC), the EPG doesn't fill, the time taken to start channels can be 10seconds or so - even more on the HD channels. Sometimes it wouldn't even record!?

Then there is the Online Videos - random stops, wishing it would stop asking me about bitrate and just play - a plugin I know and see the sub-forum etc....

Netflix - if this was a working plugin then this might save it but atm I just use my AppleTV (and my daughter can use it)

OK a bit of a gripe/whinge but I'm sure that these could be solved but it takes time and its what I haven't got a lot of at the moment - especially since my enthusiasim for MP is loew because each time I reinstall it then starts going a bit wonky

The GUI, well its all about personal taste at the end of the day but I find the Blue3 too cheesy, Titan too busy and MayaHD just about right

So - its being disconnected and being plonked in my utility/comp room until I decided what to do long term - do I try again? do I change my set-up some how? do I get Sky through it?

When it has been good it was very good and at some point it will be back.... the question is when, what form and will it just work (biggest issue here!!!)

To all the people that have put the work into MP; thanks! I mean it its all you time that make MP so good. This is not to belittle your work; you're brilliant. This is probably more to do with my lack of time/enthusiasim.

What will the future bring.........

 

[Atomic7431]

have you tried djblu custom data grabber plugin which populates the epg and gives series link and does channel grouping and numbering etc....
Scans for channels much faster and auto adds new channels when available, has regular updates and bug fixes (if there are any).

 

[octessence]

I agree that it can be painful to track down problems at times. It took over a year of tinkering to get everything exactly right, but now my system is absolutely rock solid.

The key though is to stop tinkering once it's working and just leave it alone. You would not keep messing with your Sky+ box (because you can't), so why to it with MP? The fact that you have reinstalled windows 7 several times proves my point. Windows 7 is as stable as my Linux system at work which I leave running for up to 6 months at a time. If you have a working installation there is never a valid reason to need to keep reinstalling it unless you've infested it with a load of junkware.

Your complaints about Netflix and Online Videos don't make any sense to me. Since your Sky box does not have these features you could have just not used them to achieve the same results.