Is my setup the most efficent it can be for TV? (1 Viewer)

[Dannyboyni]

Hi I have the latest media portal installed. I have been spending a few weeks just trying to get the tv side of it to work and its only now I have it working. What I want to know is if my method is the most efficent, as its not completely Wife friendly at the moment.

I have installed PowerScheduler++ to allow for the purposes of waking up the pc for scheduled recordings. The problem with PowerScheduler is that to hibernate the pc at night I must turn off the tv within media portal and then go to the main menu, this is much harder than simply pressing the off button on my harmony one remote. Also each morning media portal starts off in the Home screen so there is an extra button to press to get the guide, can it not just start on the guide screen each morning? Is there a better method than having to go to the main menu each time, what if im half way through a movie and I want to sleep, if I pause the movie and go to the main menu will that count has no activity and allow PowerScheduler++ to hibernate the pc?

I also run an external EPG freesat grabber each night at 3am (I gave up on media portals built in one long ago as its useless). I have set Task Scheduler to do the following:

1. Start calculator.exe and make the computer wake to do this (I need a process that I can add to the expection list of PowerScheduler++ so the computer does not idle and shut down after a period of time)

2. Start EPG grabber script.

3. Close calculator.exe task (this is so that when PowerScheduler sees this task as having ended it puts the pc in idle mode and starts the count down for PowerScheduler to hibernate the pc)

What I want in an ideal world is for the wife to be able to press the power off button on the remote each night and hibernate the pc from any menu within media portal, even if the tv is active. At present if I set this up it will mean I wont be able to do scheduled recordings as it breaks PowerScheduler. So is there any way of doing this while not breaking scheduled recordings.

Many thanks.

 

[porky996t]

Hi Danny,

Sorry I can't answer all your questions, but I too use Powerscheduler++ and there is a setting in it where it will go into S3 sleep without being on the main screen. I just press the 'stop' button on the remote when watching live TV and then leave it - after 5 mins it shuts down, and then the TV turns itself off.

In order to increase the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) I have set up the "sleeptimer" plugin on the bedroom client and have it logged to the "*" key on the remote - she just presses "*" whilst watching TV or a film, selects the sleeptimer time interval from the pop up menu and after the pre-set time (5 mins, 10 mins etc) it shuts down.

You don't state your location with Freesat, so are you in the UK?

HTH,


M.

 

[Dannyboyni]

Thanks Porky for that advice. I live in the UK btw.

Your advice has given me the idea to program the off button on the harmony one remote to send the stop keypress. However when you press stop on while watching tv an extra window shows up asking "Do you really want to STOP live TV? (timeshift buffer will be lost) The problem with that message is it means I must press more than just the stop button. (messing up the harmony one power off command) Is there a way to get rid of that message?

BTW if im in tv guide and press stop that message doesnt appear and it would work with the harmony one remote power off button via custom stop command.

Many thanks.

 

[porky996t]

Hi Danny,

I get the timeshift box popping up, but I don't have any difficulty with a couple of key presses. For me, I just wanted the main HTPC in the living room to shut down when it wasn't being watched, but it wouldn't do this as the GF just left the client running in the bedroom and only turned the TV off, and not the MP box too. She is getting used to it now - if only it were handbags and shoes

Don't know about the Harmony remote, just use the RC6 MCE ones.

re the EPG problems you had - have you tried DJBlu's Custom Data Grabber >>> here <<< It is a superb piece of work for getting the EPG populated. It uses the Sky EPG and adds series link etc to the recording menu's. I have both DVB-S and DVB-T cards and it populates pretty much all the channels (I suppose it should really as it uses Sky data)


M

 

[mbuzina]

Just send stop twice (I reprogrammed the button of my MCE in MP to be Stop, Stop, Suspend).

 

[Dannyboyni]

Ok thanks mbuzina that stop stop worked. So now to turn everything off all the wife has to do is press one button on the harmony one, pretty simple if you ask me.

Porky, I had tried that plugin before, what I didnt like about it is that it is only available in SVN form, that meant allot of plugins didnt work for it. I would rather keep my media portal stock so as to work with the most plugins.

 

[porky996t]

I know what you mean... fortunately it is an active plugin so keeps getting improved to suit the more recent releases of MP.

I can fully agree with the maxim - "If it ain't broke, don't fix it", although I should bear it in mind more than I actually do.



M

 

[mm1352000]

Dannyboyni:

I gave up on media portals built in one long ago as its useless

Just for the record, do you mind mentioning what made you think it is so useless. Can't improve without feedback.

 

[Dannyboyni]

@Dannyboyni:

I gave up on media portals built in one long ago as its useless

Just for the record, do you mind mentioning what made you think it is so useless. Can't improve without feedback.

My tv guide would never download that was the problem. The first time it worked fine, but never updated after that. I spent a while pulling my hair out, but in the end I just gave up.

I then read on the forums other people had problems and just used an external grabber. I use EPG Collector now and what I love about it is I can run it when im asleep each night. This means im keeping both tuners free during the day for recording or watching tv. I also love that it has a script which pulls all the channels for FREESAT only. So im not downloading 100s of extra channels to populate the EPG with.

 

[mm1352000]

Thanks for the feedback Dannyboyni
I agree there is definitely a lot of room for improvement. Your perspective is helpful.
PS: check the EPG Collector credits - I'm a fan too.