New MediaPortal questions... (1 Viewer)

[CUE]

This weekend I installed Media Portal and all I can say is "WOW"!!!! Nice program!

I do have three questions about the software and my setup....

1. From the features listing of the program, it says you can run external programs within Media Portal. Where can I find documentation on how to do that? I don't see it within the user guide. Is it possible then to create a new menu choice as well for this external program?

2. I currently have 3 TV's and each TV has a dedicated HTPC. I currently don't have a TV card, I am using Pinnacle's TV2Go HD which is linked to my wired network and works great. Each HTPC uses Pinnacles TV2GO client to watch TV. One of those PC's has Microsoft Media Center and Windows does recognize the Pinnacle client as a TVcard (software base TVcard within device manager) and I can use Media Center to watch and control TV. By any chance would the PCTV2Go software work with Media Portal or should I just go out and replace it with a TV card?

3. Currently I'm using the TV2GO client and Media Portal together. I have the system startup both systems. When I watch TV, I minimize Media Portal. When I want to use Media Portal, I either Pause the TV2GO or close it (because the sound from the TV2GO will interfere with Media Portal) then Maximize Media Portal. Are there key commands or command-line options that would allow me to Mimimize and/or Maximize Media Portal without having to select it from the TaskBar or use Task Manager?

Thanks!!!!!!!

 

[globaldonkey]

If your TV Tuner's drivers are Microsoft BDA compatible, then it will work with MediaPortal TV Server. TV Server should automatically detect your tuner device.

Sounds like you're doing a lot of messing around there trying to switch between software components. I don't know if the TV2GO product is Microsoft BDA complaint, but if not, you would be better of getting a device that is to get a fully integrated experience. The good news with MP is that you don't have to put the tuner cards in each machine. You can centralise them if you like.

 

[CUE]

Thanks for the response!

Your correct in that TV2GO is not BDA compliant... it's WDM compliant... whatever all that means.

Your also correct that I should replace it with a MP compliant TV card but I think I should learn more about this before I just jump into it. I'm not 100% sure how that will work with my cable and the smart-card issue for my paid channels.

That's why I wanted to know how for now can I use my TV2GO client program within MP for now. I read in the forums how you can replace the music player for external programs such as WinAMP so I would like to know how can I launch my TV2GO player within MP? What would be Ideal is to replace MY TV with my TV2GO player... or take out MY TV icon (menu) and just add a new menu choice which would then run my TV2GO player... is that possible?

 

[globaldonkey]

You can easily replace the inbuilt movie and music players through the configuration options in MP config, but as far as I'm aware, there isn't a easy way to launch a 3rd party TV Client. You'd probably need to build a plugin for it, similar to the My Mplayer plugin. You could try launching TV2GO through the movie player configuration, but that would nobble My Videos for you. If you did get that working , then you could use something like My MPlayer plugin to replace My Videos. Worth having a mess around with.

 

[CUE]

globaldonkey... that's an interesting idea and worth a try. Thank you!

globaldonkey... It just occurred to me... I don't use the DVD function at all because I rip everything into DivX. I think I might try replacing the DVD with my TV2GO player executable. I'll have to try these ideas over the weekend. Wondering though what will happen when I close the player... will MP be the focus program? Anyway... I really appreciate the ideas you presented me. Thanks again!

 

[CUE]

GlobalDonkey... changing the player on Movies did work. But looking at the plug-ins I did see another plug-in called "multi-shortcut". This allows you to start Executables within MP but not on the baisc menu. But it did work for me and I have my PCTV2GO listed on the main menu and it worked!!!! There is the issue that PCTV2GO doesn't have the capablity to store configuration issues... such as starting in full-screen but I also learned that the Pinnacle TV2GO is actually a older version of the Hava system. And that the Hava system does have this ability. I ordered that unit over the weekend... can't wait.

To me... implementing Hava and MP is a easier and better solution for Americans then it is to try and get a TV card and the TV server to work properly and still have all your premium channels. It's a give and take thing... you lose the ability to record scheduled channels with MP but that feature is included with the HAVA unit so it's not a problem. Also, not having to load the TV server for MP... the system loads so much quicker.

But I wanted to thank you again because without your suggestion I probably wouldn't have located this plug-in!!!

 

[globaldonkey]

Glad to hear it worked out for you cue - I learnt something here too. There's usually always a way to do pretty much what you want with MP - that's one of the great things about the product. I think that was a fairly new plugin multishortcut. Haven't had a chance to try it out myself, but now that I know what it does, I think I have just the thing in mind for my own HTPC. Thanks for posting back.