Is this setup possible? (1 Viewer)

[bmeine]

First off, I used MediaPortal for a while up until I got Satellite + DVR (less than a year ago), at which point I stopped using my MP PC since I had some issues with recording anyway which may or may not have been my fault. I still am relying on the DVR for recording because it gets the job done, but may end up using MP recordings again if I can get the following setup to work. I currently use MP to access my DVD library which I have ripped to a Raid 5 array.

To the point, I was wondering if MediaPortal can support multiple instances? The reason I ask is because while I can build MP clients for each TV for ~$250 w/remote each, I can build a single computer with a video card per TV for less money (combination of PCI and PCI-Express video cards). Then using A/V wall plates, like the ones used with projectors, I could connect each video card output to a corresponding TV all while keeping the MP PC in a central location. By simply dragging the minimized MP window instance onto a specific screen/TV and then maximizing it, it is essentially "assigned" to that video card.

A problem I do foresee is how to assign each remote (RF of course) to a specific instance of MP. This may be solved with a plug-in that starts its own instance of the remote software instead of letting Windows start the remote. I'm not really sure at this point.

Has anyone already tackled something like this? Would it even be possible with the current version? Thanks for any help with this. Great job with MP by the way.

 

[mdbarber]

Sorry found that a bit confusing?, my main box in lounge currently has 3 tuners available, 2 from hauppage 500dt and 1 from ati AIW, with this broadcasting over network i can watch and record separate channels on main machine and watch any of them or a third channel from my office using the MP client, is that what you want?

 

[bmeine]

Sorry for the confusion. Hopefully I can clarify. What I want is to only have one MP computer. Let's assume that I'm not using it to record TV, but to only watch my ripped DVDs (My Video) so we can take the TV Tuner out of the equation. The MP computer will be in a central location (not necessarily near a TV). I want to put multiple video cards in this single MP computer. Each video card would be connected to a different TV via wall plates with connectors (like the wall plates used to connect the output of a computer to a projector mounted on a ceiling). If I could start multiple instances of MP on this single computer then I could start an instance of MP for each video card. This would allow me to have an instance of MP on each TV from a single MP computer. I just don't know if something like this would be possible. If so, I think this may be a cheaper route than building a MP client computer for each TV. I hope this clears up the confusion. Thanks.

 

[tsamb.]

I don't think it is currently possible to open multiple instances of MP. (I may be wrong, I'm not in the dev scene.)

The only solution that comes to mind right now is putting a fairly beefy system in your central location and virtualising multiple OSes each with its own MP client. Your host system could hold the server and one client and each virtualised OS could host a client. With multiple video cards outputting each instance of the client, you could achieve n+1 possible output locations where n is the number of virtual clients you have. I'm not quite sure how you'd deal with remote interface... possibly if you could have each remote grab focus from its respective virtual client?

This isn't the most efficient or the easiest to implement way of doing it, but I'm just throwing around some ideas.

Perhaps ask some devs if it's possible now or in the future to run multiple clients on the same OS.