Is Media Portal going to work for me? Do I need MCE? (1 Viewer)

[HT Slider]

Hello, I'm new here.

I've searched the forums and haven't been able to confirm that MP can operate as a Recorded TV client...

A little history: For 3+ years I struggled to get a stable HTPC working and I tried many different HTPC software packages (Sage TV, Beyond TV, Meedio, etc. - I also briefly tried a very early version of MP). I had working HTPC systems, but was never happy with the stability, capability nor the WAF. About a year ago I broke down and bought MCE 2005 (my wife kept pushing and I eventually gave in). Within about 5 hours MCE was up and running smoothly and we didn't look back.

Without any significant problems, our network of MCE boxes has grown to 5, with old PC's from the basement storage room being fired back up to perform MCE extender duty. Everything works very well and each PC can watch recorded TV, all of the 50+ online DVD's (the MCE server has over 1 terabyte of storage), check the weather, access program and movie databases with full descriptions of what you're about to watch, play all of our 3000 titles from our CD collection, etc. We don't even suffer through commercials anymore because all of the MCE boxes are configured to skip commercials. The only thing missing is the client boxes can't access live TV nor make changes remotely to the scheduling (not a big problem for us).

So now my 4 year old is jealous that everyone else can watch TV on their PC so she asked me (many, many times) if hers could do it to. So I thought... I'll give XP and MediaPortal a try on her 600 MHz Pentium III box (BTW, MCE is already working on other 600 MHZ Pentium III's in the house and with a cheap update to the video card to support VMR9 hers would too - of course I'd have to buy another MCE license so the price adds up).

I updated her PC today, installing Windows XP (had a spare copy since MCE replaced several XP licenses) and all the updates and it can now watch TV perfectly using Media Player. Media Player also reads the meta-data from the DVR_MS files so the show name, series, episode name, time, channel, etc. is displayed. The only issue is the interface is borderline too difficult for a 4 year old (she has no problem with MCE to watch on Recorded episodes of Dora, etc. or watching any of the kids movies available - a password is required for everything, including TV, that isn't suitable for her).

So I downloaded and installed Media Portal. Now after about 3 hours messing around trying to get it to work as a client it still doesn't do anything except crash when I click on any of the Recorded TV programs.

Since her PC doesn't have a capture card in it I can't get into the card settings to point to the network shared Recorded TV folder (for MCE to work as an extender you do also need to install a capture card - at least temporarily; unless you want to play with tons of registry settings). The only way I've managed to access the Recorded TV so far is through the My Video menu. Unfortunately it only displays the file name, no meta-data, series name, episode, etc.

To make matters worse, every time I click on a recorded TV show the PC immediately crashes and reboots in a very strange way. There are no blue screens, no delays, software crashes, etc. The hard drive immediately turns off and the box instantly reboots. XP doesn't seem to know there was a crash (nothing in the log or recovery information), but each time the hard drive gets slightly corrupted, needing to be checked and repaired with chkdsk.

The DVD decoder I'm trying to use is nvidia's DVD decoder.

So I turn to you. Can Media Portal be set up to work as a client to access dvr_ms files, presenting series and episode information from the dvr_ms files, as well as access networked DVD folders, providing movie information on all of them, and provide a similar interface to MCE, including parental controls? I have the music and pictures working fine over the network.

The second part of the question is can the built in Intel video (the PC is a Dell Optiquest GX110) work with Media Portal or do I need to upgrade to a VMR9 capable card (like a PCI nvidia 5500)?

 

[Callifo]

Since her PC doesn't have a capture card in it I can't get into the card settings to point to the network shared Recorded TV folder

By the looks of it you wont be able to use the MyTV module at all because without a tv card you cant set the recording directory (logically thats correct). Ive looked through my various configuration files and non list a default recording's directory. MP will import metadata from the recorded tv directory but without it thinking theres a card in there I cant see a way to do it.

The only way I've managed to access the Recorded TV so far is through the My Video menu. Unfortunately it only displays the file name, no meta-data, series name, episode, etc.

As far as I can tell thats about as good as it gets unless you want to use the movie database. The folder view of myvideos will allow passwords and such, but Im not sure if thats carried over to the movie database.

The second part of the question is can the built in Intel video (the PC is a Dell Optiquest GX110) work with Media Portal or do I need to upgrade to a VMR9 capable card (like a PCI nvidia 5500)?

Ill just take a guess and say no the video card probably wont work because its ancient. I dont think it would even have any directx acceleration at all so you will need a DX9 video card. Not sure how how a 600mhz would take playing back high birate mpeg2s either.

 

[HT Slider]

By the looks of it you wont be able to use the MyTV module at all because without a tv card you cant set the recording directory (logically thats correct). Ive looked through my various configuration files and non list a default recording's directory. MP will import metadata from the recorded tv directory but without it thinking theres a card in there I cant see a way to do it.

With MCE to enable and configure the TV module you need to temporarily install a tuner card, set everything up, and then remove the tuner card (if desired). At that point everything works except if you attempt to watch Live TV an innocent tuner missing error message pops up. Watching Recorded TV works fine and a remote folder can be added to the list of watched folders. Will something like this work with Media Portal?

As far as I can tell thats about as good as it gets unless you want to use the movie database. The folder view of myvideos will allow passwords and such, but Im not sure if thats carried over to the movie database.

Does the movie database download information based on the file or folder name? This is how the MCE "My Movies" works, but it wouldn't work well for Recorded TV (too much work creating folders and moving dvrms files). Is this similar to Media Portal?

Ill just take a guess and say no the video card probably wont work because its ancient. I dont think it would even have any directx acceleration at all so you will need a DX9 video card. Not sure how how a 600mhz would take playing back high birate mpeg2s either.

I guess that's the question. Does Media Portal force you to use VMR9 and a fully DX9 compliant video card? MCE does require this and the best solution (IMO) for MCE is an nvidia 5500 pci card for systems without AGP slots. If it has an AGP slot or PCI-E a 6200, 6600 or 6800 is a better option (my daughters PC doesn't have AGP so a PCI 5500 is the solution). BTW, the built in video does show it supports everything when running dxdiag.exe (I'm not sure why. I haven't looked at this closely though). DX9c is installed.

 

[Callifo]

With MCE to enable and configure the TV module you need to temporarily install a tuner card, set everything up, and then remove the tuner card (if desired). At that point everything works except if you attempt to watch Live TV an innocent tuner missing error message pops up. Watching Recorded TV works fine and a remote folder can be added to the list of watched folders. Will something like this work with Media Portal?

Youd have to try it because I know the next time you go into configuration it would so no card and remove it. Whether or not that would take the recording directory with it I cant say.

Does the movie database download information based on the file or folder name?

Yes but since I havent used it Im not sure whether if you added a new file to a directory whether it would automatically add it or not.

Does Media Portal force you to use VMR9 and a fully DX9 compliant video card?

Yes, as of 0200, VMR9 is the only render option so if the card does support it (apart from running very bad), you wont be able to see any video.

Sounds like the best plan would probably be getting a PCI card. I know that a 5200 comes in a PCI version and that would be even cheaper.

For some of your other queries your probably best off installing MP onto another PC and see if it can do everything you want it to do. It goes on and off without effecting MCE2005 in anyway so theres nothing to loose.