My manual on how to install a Mediaportal client on Vista using the tvserverplugin (1 Viewer)

[limpwhizkid]

It's experimental indeed, but recommended for all Vista users.

Thanks for that.

When it says experimental on the button in mediaportal, lots of people wont touch it..
It doesnt say anywhere that it is recommended for Vista.. ?
It just says warning which makes me dont touch ..

But disabling Aero could help some people with less powerfull videocards to still get some decent framerate out of there cheapish card..

I will rewrite the instructions and will include the recommendation to switch on EVR.. so the people have a choice depending on the hardware they own.

advantages from EVR , are tearfree playback ? is there more on the advantages ?

 

[The Doctor]

It's experimental indeed, but recommended for all Vista users.

Thanks for that.

When it says experimental on the button in mediaportal, lots of people wont touch it..
It doesnt say anywhere that it is recommended for Vista.. ?
It just says warning which makes me dont touch ..

But disabling Aero could help some people with less powerfull videocards to still get some decent framerate out of there cheapish card..

I will rewrite the instructions and will include the recommendation to switch on EVR.. so the people have a choice depending on the hardware they own.

advantages from EVR , are tearfree playback ? is there more on the advantages ?

If I disable EVR I can't watch .mpeg movies recorded at 15 fps (canon as85 compact photocam), further on EVR gives terrible GUI flicker when live video is displayed. With or without EVR I never have tearing.
So ....... what's best ?

 

[limpwhizkid]

It's experimental indeed, but recommended for all Vista users.

Thanks for that.

When it says experimental on the button in mediaportal, lots of people wont touch it..
It doesnt say anywhere that it is recommended for Vista.. ?
It just says warning which makes me dont touch ..

But disabling Aero could help some people with less powerfull videocards to still get some decent framerate out of there cheapish card..

I will rewrite the instructions and will include the recommendation to switch on EVR.. so the people have a choice depending on the hardware they own.

advantages from EVR , are tearfree playback ? is there more on the advantages ?

If I disable EVR I can't watch .mpeg movies recorded at 15 fps (canon as85 compact photocam), further on EVR gives terrible GUI flicker when live video is displayed. With or without EVR I never have tearing.
So ....... what's best ?

That sounds more like a disadvantage, or could even be threated as a bug if you would report it in tvsection Bugreports ? Quality Assurance (Bugreports) - MediaPortal Forum

Your choice depends on how important these 15fps movies are for you, if you really need to be able to watch them in MP?, if not you could turn it off, but if you ever tried a new build where your problem might be solved you need to enable it again!

 

[justinteract]

no h.264 playback with ffdshow

Hi limpwhizkid,
thanks for the great instructions.
Just one hint: to get ffdshow to work for liveTv/.ts playback I had to set this ffdshow option mentioned in this post https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/codecs-external-players-55/ffdshow-ts-files-37335/#post249639
when using the latest SVN:

Unfortunately I can not get ffshow to work for h.264 files/live TV !
The filter loads and the graph is builded fine but no outout is rendered and then after about a few secnds MP crashes.

h.264 playback works great in MediaPlayer and Visat Media Center but in MP it just doesn't start rendering.
Normal MPEG2 live TV and .ts files are fine.
EDIT: meanwhile I figured out that the problem seems to be that the MP TsReader sends the h.264 video as MPEG2 to the ffdshow filter. When moving the mouse pointer over the FFv tray icon I can see that it says
"Input: libavcodec h264" when playing with MediaPlayer but
"Input: MPG2 (libavcodec mpeg2video) when using MediaPortal

I am using build 18463

Any idea ??

justinteractive

 

[limpwhizkid]

Hi limpwhizkid,
thanks for the great instructions.
Just one hint: to get ffdshow to work for liveTv/.ts playback I had to set this ffdshow option mentioned in this post https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/codecs-external-players-55/ffdshow-ts-files-37335/#post249639
when using the latest SVN:

Unfortunately I can not get ffshow to work for h.264 files/live TV !
The filter loads and the graph is builded fine but no outout is rendered and then after about a few secnds MP crashes.

h.264 playback works great in MediaPlayer and Visat Media Center but in MP it just doesn't start rendering.
Normal MPEG2 live TV and .ts files are fine.
EDIT: meanwhile I figured out that the problem seems to be that the MP TsReader sends the h.264 video as MPEG2 to the ffdshow filter. When moving the mouse pointer over the FFv tray icon I can see that it says
"Input: libavcodec h264" when playing with MediaPlayer but
"Input: MPG2 (libavcodec mpeg2video) when using MediaPortal

I am using build 18463

Any idea ??

justinteractive

Thanks for your comment!

You are running Vista , it must be, I have tested your findings, and can only reproduce them on Vista OS..
with XP it works perfectly.. (like it should)..

So I guess I let myself on thin ice now with my (optional) codec install on vista..
My guide is not intended to bring out new problems ..

I am removing the codec install from the instruction , untill i am sure it works perfectly (like the same install does on XP ).. Otherwise I could be discussing this codec stuff endlessly

 

[justinteract]

You are running Vista , it must be, I have tested your findings, and can only reproduce them on Vista OS..

yes, I am running Vista 32bit HP.
When you say you can reproduce it, do you mean the double loading of ffdshow and/or ffdshow not being able to render h.264.

If in fact ffdshow can render h.264 with TsReader under XP I would like to know what format the MP TsReader sends to ffdshow. Could you check that ?
If you move your mouse cursor over the ffdshow tray icon you can see the format (Extended info must be on under "tray,dialog & path -> tray icons -> extended info)

I also posted a bug report on this (see https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/bugreports-tv-server-client-85/tsreader-can-not-play-h-264-ffdshow-37729/#post252362)... hoping to get some help from the filter developers. Meanwhile I am trying to debug the filter myself (not easy using VS 2008 and vc9 .. need to port everything first... yes this is codec hell )

justinteractive

 

[limpwhizkid]

You are running Vista , it must be, I have tested your findings, and can only reproduce them on Vista OS..

yes, I am running Vista 32bit HP.
When you say you can reproduce it, do you mean the double loading of ffdshow and/or ffdshow not being able to render h.264.

If in fact ffdshow can render h.264 with TsReader under XP I would like to know what format the MP TsReader sends to ffdshow. Could you check that ?
If you move your mouse cursor over the ffdshow tray icon you can see the format (Extended info must be on under "tray,dialog & path -> tray icons -> extended info)

I also posted a bug report on this (see https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/bugreports-tv-server-client-85/tsreader-can-not-play-h-264-ffdshow-37729/#post252362)... hoping to get some help from the filter developers. Meanwhile I am trying to debug the filter myself (not easy using VS 2008 and vc9 .. need to port everything first... yes this is codec hell )

justinteractive

Yes, I can reproduce the double loading and 99% times not being able to render H 264 channels.. (i did get a picture on a HD channel once , but it crashed soon afterwards..)..

I will check it and see what the extended info says on XP and post it later on ..

To be honest, I think a developer will tell you the FFSHOW tryouts are also experimental, as the bug can also be tryout related , he(or she ) probably wont look at it.. untill its officially released..

But it never hurts to try

 

[apuleus]

I am running VistaBusiness edition, SP1. I have been trying to get my client to work properly with my server. I cannot watch recorded or live tv. I get this error message when trying to register tsreader.ax .. This error message also shows up in mediaportal.log.

[Window Title]
RegSvr32

[Content]
The module "dshowhelper.dll" failed to load.

Make sure the binary is stored at the specified path or debug it to check for problems with the binary or dependent .DLL files.

The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event log for more detail.
.

[OK]

Here is what mediaportal log outputs when I try to watch live tv.

2008-04-30 21:42:27.123000 [Info.][MPMain]: VMR9: added EVR Renderer to graph
2008-04-30 21:42:27.128000 [Info.][MPMain]: TSReaderPlayer:exception while creating DShow graph Unable to load DLL 'dshowhelper.dll': The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event log for more detail. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800736B1) at MediaPortal.Player.VMR9Util.EvrInit(IVMR9PresentCallback callback, UInt32 dwD3DDevice, IBaseFilter vmr9Filter, UInt32 monitor)
at MediaPortal.Player.VMR9Util.AddVMR9(IGraphBuilder graphBuilder)
at MediaPortal.Player.TSReaderPlayer.GetInterfaces(String filename)


Any help would be apprciated

_A

 

[apuleus]

Well, I have been meaning to upgrade to VistaUltimate. After I done so, the client is now speaking to the server with no issues.

_A