MediaPortal breaking other apps (1 Viewer)

hondo

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April 2, 2006
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I'm actually a GB-PVR user, but thought I should point out a problem I'm seeing lots of users encountering.

Every couple of days on the GB-PVR forums a new user has a problem scanning for DVB channels. The author of GB-PVR looks at the logs and politely points out the Media Portal Stream Analyzer filter that has caused the problem.

I think the author of GB-PVR is starting to get pissed off with the situation though, since he has started commented that he is about to begin deleting the offending MediaPortal DLL each time GB-PVR starts.

Here are some of the recent links.
http://forums.gbpvr.com/showthread.php?t=17709&highlight=MediaPortal+stream+analyzer
http://forums.gbpvr.com/showthread.php?t=17544&highlight=MediaPortal+stream+analyzer
http://forums.gbpvr.com/showthread.php?t=16958&highlight=MediaPortal+stream+analyzer
http://forums.gbpvr.com/showthread.php?t=17208&highlight=MediaPortal+stream+analyzer

...and there are tons more exactly the same.

Is there anything you can do to stop this problem occuring? I'm sure a lot of users like to use both GB-PVR and MediaPortal. You should make sure MediaPortal does not cause this problem.
 

ASiDiE

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  • January 14, 2005
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    I will read the posts.. but why would I need to run GB-PVR AND MP on the same PC. What does GB do so much greater than MP?
     

    hondo

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    April 2, 2006
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    I think it has lots of things that make it a better app, but thats not the point of this post.

    Lots of users regularly try all the PVR apps out. Soon MediaPortal will be non-functional after a user runs GB-PVR.
     

    Frodo

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  • April 22, 2004
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    In my opinion GBPVR is the problem here.

    A HTPC application can expect that on any given windows pc 1 or more directshow filters are installed.
    These can be
    - audio codecs
    - video codecs
    - demultiplexer
    - multiplexers
    - streaming filters
    - analyzers etc etc.

    The htpc application should take this in account and use only those filters it needs
    It seems to me that GBPVR is not doing this, instead it asks windows
    to choose which direct show filters to use. This can lead to unwanted behaviour if windows decides to use some filters which the application does not really want.

    You cannot simply assume that only the filters YOU want are on the system and that windows will choose YOUR filters when building a graph.

    Offcourse there will always be people blaming mediaportal for installing a directshow filter. But... the real problem here is simply that GBPVR should be more resistant and choose filters itself instead of letting windows decide


    Frodo

    (
    this message has been posted on the GBPVR forum here http://forums.gbpvr.com/showthread.php?t=17711
    )
     

    jabnet

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    December 16, 2005
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    ASiDiE said:
    I will read the posts.. but why would I need to run GB-PVR AND MP on the same PC. What does GB do so much greater than MP?

    hi, ASiDiE... you ask why someone need QBPVR and MP on same PC... I would 'need' this, due to I love mediaportal as Mediacenter, but I have some problems using My TV, while in GBPVR the TV function works fine for me... I would like use MP with a direct link to GBPVR TV function, but as you know both softwares cannot coexist.
     

    Frodo

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  • April 22, 2004
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    Small update here:

    GBPVR uses intelligent routing to construct its directshow graphs.
    This means that it lets windows/directshow decides which codecs/filters it thinks are the best ones to use. However directshow is not that smart, it may choose a filter that GBPVR does not like which causes problems
    This is exactly what happens when the MediaPortal filter is installed.
    Windows thinks thats the best one to use and that causes problems since GBPVR expects (but does not specify) another filter.

    Now on the GBPVR forums its mentioned that our filter 'aggressivly' installs itself on the system. This is simply not true and you can veryify it yourself. Simply start up the radlight filter manager ( http://www.free-codecs.com/download/RadLight_Filter_Manager.htm ) and you will see that the MediaPortal Stream Analyzer filter is registered on with a MERIT_NORMAL. Normal means normal and nothing aggresive about it.

    To solve this issue for good GBPVR should be more carefull when it builds direct show graphs. It :
    - should expect that other filters are present on a windows pc then just the ones GBPVR installs itself
    - cannot expect that windows will always use the GBPVR filters. windows chooses those filters it thinks are best
    - should specify which filters it precisly needs

    To help our fellow GBPVR users here, i changed the MediaPortal filter.
    In fact it now tells windows to never use this filter (weird huh?)
    We did this by changing the merit value of our filter to MERIT_DONT_USE
    This way windows will not use it and choose another one and GBPVR will work again (i hope).

    As you see this is strange hack and not an ideal solution. Besides the MediaPortal filter, there could be dozen of other filters on the system as well, and windows might decide to use another filter GBPVR does not like.
    You cannot simply ask all directshow filter developers in the world to set their filters to MERIT_DONT_USE because otherwise GBPVR will stop working

    I contacted GBPVR about it and
    - told them what was happening and how it could be fixed
    - told them that we helped GBPVR by changing the merit of our filter.
    - told them this was not a fool-proof solution and that things easy can go bad again with other filters. To really solve it, they have to change their own GBPVR source code a bit

    The reply i got was simply rude, inpolite, blaming me and MediaPortal etc. etc.
    They also removed the thread on their forums !

    Seems to me they simply want to blame MediaPortal and wont look at the facts and solve the real problem here.


    Regards


    Frodo
     

    ASiDiE

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  • January 14, 2005
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    WOW.... What is the world coming to these days. You bust your ass to try to solve the problem or find a work around, and that’s the response you get. Sometimes I just don't get it.

    P.S. I think they are just mad because of the announcement of the new TV Engine. Soon nobody will need to use GB-PVR just for TV. :)
     

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