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[Need feedback] Installation/Setup experience of MP
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<blockquote data-quote="kencl" data-source="post: 136421" data-attributes="member: 47958"><p><strong>First time HTPC Setup</strong></p><p></p><p>First of, a big THANK-YOU to all the developers/contributors - WOW.</p><p></p><p>This is my first TV tuner card and my first time watching TV on a PC. After reviewing various software options, I decided NOT to install software bundled with my new ATI TV Wonder 650 PCI and installed MP as my first choice <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p><span style="color: SeaGreen">frodo: 1. What did you have to do before you got MP up & running?</span></p><p></p><p>- Install MP to non-standard drive/base folder</p><p>- Run setup</p><p> - Crash during channel scan sent crash details to Microsoft</p><p> - Restart Setup, rescan found 24 channels, upper 10 of which were snow. All channels indicated only around 20% signal strength</p><p> - continued setup to completion, intentionally skipping EPG setup</p><p> </p><p>- Ran MP</p><p> - Went straight to My TV (at this point I didn't know if any channels would be unscrambled)</p><p> - lower 14 channels were all viewable, but image quality was medeocre</p><p> - tried switching to fullscreen but that didn't work</p><p> - realized quickly that I had to wait, sometimes 10 seconds, for an input mouse click to take effect (.net sluggishness?). Tried increasing the application priority to "high" in task list with no noticable improvement. Please note my system specs - I've assembled a high-end, tweaked, powerful gaming system. I found that viewing the Windows Task Manager, Performance tab on my secondary monitor and watching CPU usage helped me determine when MP was ready to receive another command input.</p><p> - had trouble with menu scroll speed on default home screen. Unless the cursor is in the middle of the list, the menu choices raced up/down too fast to stop at the one I want. Learned to bring cursor in from the side at the center and use up/down arrow keys/enter key to make desired choice</p><p> - watched with timeshifting enabled a movie on A channel. My first experience with timeshifting - VERY NICE FEATURE <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p> - decided to record the movie and found out the next day that the recording included everything in the timeshift buffer prior to my hitting the record button - EXCELLENT! Increased timeshift buffer to 90 minutes to allow me the luxury of deciding late in the show that I want to keep it.</p><p></p><p>Day 2</p><p> - removed cable signal amplifier from cable input thinking it may be causing "moire like" striations (medeocre video quality).</p><p> - Ran setup and configured to start fullscreen and set start to basic mode to avoid too fast list scrolling mentioned above - good choice on both counts; fullscreen loads great and I can still use my secondary monitor to read online manual and search this forum. heh.</p><p> - figured out that channel changing is a lot faster when timeshift is turned off.</p><p> - changed video and audio CODECs to CyberLinks in an attempt to improve video quality. Picture quality improved slightly.</p><p></p><p>Day 3</p><p> - Used <a href="http://www.htpcdigest.com/miscellaneous/mediaportal-xmltv-setup---north-america.html" target="_blank">Mediaportal XMLTV Setup - North America</a> to walk me through EPG setup. Very useful guide - there is no way I could have figured this out myself.</p><p> - Somewhere during EPG setup I discovered that the default PAL needed to be changed to NTSC, and that 1 physical card is actually 2 cards based on onboard circuitry.</p><p> - Changed to NTSC and rescanned channels. Wow, now I have 75 viewable channels, channel strength has jumped to 100% across the board, and video quality dramatically improved! Up to this point, I thought I'd have to buy a second cable descrambler, but not so <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p> - continued EPG setup. Got confused as to why channels weren't showing up in Television -> TV Channels, TV Channels tab.</p><p> - Tried "Import from TV guide" button to no effect.</p><p> - viewed "TV Cards" tab and assigned first 6 channels to see if that worked. Closed setup, ran MP, saw that assigned channels now had channel abbreviations as supplied by XMLTV. Good. </p><p> - Shutdown MP back to MPSetup. Assigned all channels but TV Channels tab still showed original numbers only, not channel name.</p><p> - Cleared all, rescanned and reassigned. Same problem. Finally realized that imported channels were being added below scanned channels (which I didn't see until I scrolled down the list).</p><p> - Cleared all, did not scan, simply used "Import from TV Guide" then reasigned. This finally worked. I'm still not clear on whether I should have/needed to scan at all, or if just setting up the EPG initially was all that was needed. I don't know where the frequency data now being used originated.</p><p> - Back to MP, played with new TV guide, setup overnight show recording, letting windows screen saver come on as usual to see if that had a detrimental effect. It didn't.</p><p> - Havn't figured out how to sync channel number with list number yet (havn't searched forum on this one yet either). I mention it because it's an odd thing to a first time user to enter channel 45 on the keyboard and end up watching channel 47.</p><p></p><p>Day 4</p><p> - Watched show PVR'd while asleep and played with compression. Everything is working well (but still sluggish while executing a lot of commands) and I'm extremely happy. I can do everything I want with MP except watch one channel while recording a different one. I'm aware that's a TV card llimitation, not a problem with MP.</p><p></p><p>Again, thanks to all of you for this GREAT software <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p><span style="color: SeaGreen">frodo: 2. What could be improved to make install & configuration easier?</span></p><p></p><p></p><p>1) Autodetect or emphasize importance of correct signal choice (PAL/NTSC).</p><p></p><p>2) Add walkthrough EPG setup guides to docs initially and consider automating or wizard driving this process.</p><p></p><p>3) Add "Assign All Available" button to Television -> TV Channels, TV Cards tab.</p><p> - also add windows shortcut key assignment to Available TV Channels list for CTRL-A (select all), CTRL-click (single selection without deselection of previous selections) and SHIFT-click (range selection).</p><p> - thanksfully draging a rectangle allowed vertically scrolling or selection would have been tedious.</p><p></p><p>4) Add "Save Settings" button to bottom of Setup which does not close the setup program. Clicking OK and having it autoclose is unusual and needing to restart is a minor hassle. If needbe, when "Save Settings" is clicked, bring up a window which disables all input while the config files are being rewritten which explains what's going on. Something like "You MUST wait while your configuration is being updated or you may loose changes/create corrupt/incomplete config"... You get the idea.</p><p></p><p>5) Incorporate documentation help details into F1, help cursor and context menu. EG Setup: General -> "Start with basic home screen" would display the details now found in docs.</p><p></p><p>In comparison to what I would consider a high-quality commercial HTPC/PVR application, I'd rate MP 9.5 out of 10. That it's free, and put together by hobbyists for the love of coding and benefit of all brings it to 12 out of 10 <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" />. You have built an extremely useful, user friendly, intuitive, feature rich application here folks! My decision to install MP over other available packages is well justified by my initial experience. Two big thumbs way up!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="kencl, post: 136421, member: 47958"] [b]First time HTPC Setup[/b] First of, a big THANK-YOU to all the developers/contributors - WOW. This is my first TV tuner card and my first time watching TV on a PC. After reviewing various software options, I decided NOT to install software bundled with my new ATI TV Wonder 650 PCI and installed MP as my first choice :) [COLOR="SeaGreen"]frodo: 1. What did you have to do before you got MP up & running?[/COLOR] - Install MP to non-standard drive/base folder - Run setup - Crash during channel scan sent crash details to Microsoft - Restart Setup, rescan found 24 channels, upper 10 of which were snow. All channels indicated only around 20% signal strength - continued setup to completion, intentionally skipping EPG setup - Ran MP - Went straight to My TV (at this point I didn't know if any channels would be unscrambled) - lower 14 channels were all viewable, but image quality was medeocre - tried switching to fullscreen but that didn't work - realized quickly that I had to wait, sometimes 10 seconds, for an input mouse click to take effect (.net sluggishness?). Tried increasing the application priority to "high" in task list with no noticable improvement. Please note my system specs - I've assembled a high-end, tweaked, powerful gaming system. I found that viewing the Windows Task Manager, Performance tab on my secondary monitor and watching CPU usage helped me determine when MP was ready to receive another command input. - had trouble with menu scroll speed on default home screen. Unless the cursor is in the middle of the list, the menu choices raced up/down too fast to stop at the one I want. Learned to bring cursor in from the side at the center and use up/down arrow keys/enter key to make desired choice - watched with timeshifting enabled a movie on A channel. My first experience with timeshifting - VERY NICE FEATURE :) - decided to record the movie and found out the next day that the recording included everything in the timeshift buffer prior to my hitting the record button - EXCELLENT! Increased timeshift buffer to 90 minutes to allow me the luxury of deciding late in the show that I want to keep it. Day 2 - removed cable signal amplifier from cable input thinking it may be causing "moire like" striations (medeocre video quality). - Ran setup and configured to start fullscreen and set start to basic mode to avoid too fast list scrolling mentioned above - good choice on both counts; fullscreen loads great and I can still use my secondary monitor to read online manual and search this forum. heh. - figured out that channel changing is a lot faster when timeshift is turned off. - changed video and audio CODECs to CyberLinks in an attempt to improve video quality. Picture quality improved slightly. Day 3 - Used [URL="http://www.htpcdigest.com/miscellaneous/mediaportal-xmltv-setup---north-america.html"]Mediaportal XMLTV Setup - North America[/URL] to walk me through EPG setup. Very useful guide - there is no way I could have figured this out myself. - Somewhere during EPG setup I discovered that the default PAL needed to be changed to NTSC, and that 1 physical card is actually 2 cards based on onboard circuitry. - Changed to NTSC and rescanned channels. Wow, now I have 75 viewable channels, channel strength has jumped to 100% across the board, and video quality dramatically improved! Up to this point, I thought I'd have to buy a second cable descrambler, but not so :) - continued EPG setup. Got confused as to why channels weren't showing up in Television -> TV Channels, TV Channels tab. - Tried "Import from TV guide" button to no effect. - viewed "TV Cards" tab and assigned first 6 channels to see if that worked. Closed setup, ran MP, saw that assigned channels now had channel abbreviations as supplied by XMLTV. Good. - Shutdown MP back to MPSetup. Assigned all channels but TV Channels tab still showed original numbers only, not channel name. - Cleared all, rescanned and reassigned. Same problem. Finally realized that imported channels were being added below scanned channels (which I didn't see until I scrolled down the list). - Cleared all, did not scan, simply used "Import from TV Guide" then reasigned. This finally worked. I'm still not clear on whether I should have/needed to scan at all, or if just setting up the EPG initially was all that was needed. I don't know where the frequency data now being used originated. - Back to MP, played with new TV guide, setup overnight show recording, letting windows screen saver come on as usual to see if that had a detrimental effect. It didn't. - Havn't figured out how to sync channel number with list number yet (havn't searched forum on this one yet either). I mention it because it's an odd thing to a first time user to enter channel 45 on the keyboard and end up watching channel 47. Day 4 - Watched show PVR'd while asleep and played with compression. Everything is working well (but still sluggish while executing a lot of commands) and I'm extremely happy. I can do everything I want with MP except watch one channel while recording a different one. I'm aware that's a TV card llimitation, not a problem with MP. Again, thanks to all of you for this GREAT software :) [COLOR="SeaGreen"]frodo: 2. What could be improved to make install & configuration easier?[/COLOR] 1) Autodetect or emphasize importance of correct signal choice (PAL/NTSC). 2) Add walkthrough EPG setup guides to docs initially and consider automating or wizard driving this process. 3) Add "Assign All Available" button to Television -> TV Channels, TV Cards tab. - also add windows shortcut key assignment to Available TV Channels list for CTRL-A (select all), CTRL-click (single selection without deselection of previous selections) and SHIFT-click (range selection). - thanksfully draging a rectangle allowed vertically scrolling or selection would have been tedious. 4) Add "Save Settings" button to bottom of Setup which does not close the setup program. Clicking OK and having it autoclose is unusual and needing to restart is a minor hassle. If needbe, when "Save Settings" is clicked, bring up a window which disables all input while the config files are being rewritten which explains what's going on. Something like "You MUST wait while your configuration is being updated or you may loose changes/create corrupt/incomplete config"... You get the idea. 5) Incorporate documentation help details into F1, help cursor and context menu. EG Setup: General -> "Start with basic home screen" would display the details now found in docs. In comparison to what I would consider a high-quality commercial HTPC/PVR application, I'd rate MP 9.5 out of 10. That it's free, and put together by hobbyists for the love of coding and benefit of all brings it to 12 out of 10 :). You have built an extremely useful, user friendly, intuitive, feature rich application here folks! My decision to install MP over other available packages is well justified by my initial experience. Two big thumbs way up! [/QUOTE]
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[Need feedback] Installation/Setup experience of MP
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