New user to Media Portal.. (1 Viewer)

[yuppicide]

First off, really nice software. I don't really need any features except recording TV and schedueling recording, but the other stuff will come in handy when I complete my media PC next week and hook it up to my TV.

Right now I've purchased a WinTV PVR-150 and stuck it in my main PC. Here's all the specs from the troubleshooting program.

Area: Media Portal Program
MediaPortal Version: 0.1.3.0 (2005-07-16)
MediaPortal Skin: MetalMedia
Windows Version: Windows XP (SP2)
.NET CLR Version: 2.0.50727
DirectX Version: 4.09.00.0904 (9.0c)
Audio Codec: MPEG/AC3/DTS/LPCM Audio Decoder
Video Codec: Mpeg2Dec Filter
CPU Type: Intel Pentium 4 - 3.00GHz
Memory: 1 GB
Motherboard: D865GBF (Intel Corporation)
TV Card Model: Hauppauge PVR150
TV Card Type: Hardware
TV Card Driver: -
Video Card Model: Nvidia Geforce 6800 GT (256 MB)
Video Card Driver: -
Video Card Resolution: 1280x1024
Video Render Type: VMR9
Audio Card Model: Creative X-Fi Audio Processor (WDM)
Audio Card Driver: -
Synopsis::

I had no idea what audio and video codecs to use. As for drivers (NVIDIA, WinTV, and Creative Labs) I've got the latest installed whatever versions they are.

1 - So far I've installed the Hauppauge software and Media Portal. So far I haven't been able to get it to record with Media Portal. I get some error message that tells me to select VMR9 mode. I tried that and it says "VMR9 - Windowless" or "VMR9 - Renderless". I selected Windowless but was unable to record so far. I had no ideas if I should choose windowless or renderless and had no idea if I even picked a good audio/video codec. Sometimes it's hard to read the error message because it shows up behind the window that has TV playing and I can't figure out how to get it to pop in front or move out of the way.

2 - What post processing should I turn on in FFDSHOW and what settings?!

3 - What decoders should I select for audio and video?!

4 - When watching tv sometimes the audio breaks up and on rare occasion the video as well. What would be the reason for that?! I'm not sure if the audio/video breaks up on recording because as I've said above I haven't been able to record anything with Media Portal yet.

When I tried a sample recording with the WinTV software I had it set to record to my backup 120 gig drive. My main hard drive is the faster one (10,000RPM, 16MB cache) which runs my O/S. My backup drive is only used for storage and right now would be used to record. It's only 7200rpm and 8MB cache. Would you suggest using the main or backup drive to record on?!

 

[yuppicide]

Went in to try a different decoder and now I get no video and when I goto MyTV next to the setting TV ON it is red and I can't get picture to come back.

 

[Callifo]

Since you have an nvidia video card, the nvidia codecs are probably best.

Use VMR9 Renderless.

What tv card driver are you using?

FFDShow can cause problems so leave it off for best measure for now.

Assuming the 7200rpm drive is bigger (raptors dont come very large) then just use that, its plenty fast.

 

[tkortell]

Hi, yuppicide

Your setup is basicaly the same as mine exept my computer is not nerly as powerful as yours, anyway I will try to help you. btw, what version of MP do you use?

To aswere your questions

1. I use VMR9 Renderless this was recomended by some expert and it sems to work fine for me.

2. I don't think you need to turne on anything in ffdshow after insalling it the default settings should be fine.

3. I use: Video -> InterVideo NonCSS Video Decoder for Hauppauge
Audio -> MPEG/AC3/DTS/LPCM Audio Decoder
please try them

4. I dont know, this has not hapened to me, maby someone with more experiens can answere this question?

5. I dont thik there should be a problem recording to your backup drive but you can experiment with this when you get your system up and runing

btw, have you tryed timeshifting? Does it work?

Regards // Tomas

 

[yuppicide]

Thanks for the help so far guys. I change my settings to what you suggested.

Timeshifting works. When I go into MyTV it's on by default. I am watching TV on TV and on my computer right now and I can hear the delay.

One more question - what deinterlace mode should I select?! Bob, Weave, or Best or None?!

I'm thinking the "stuttering" is only on certain channels... might only be two channels and shame it's two channels I watch most often. I notice I watched Channel 11 and Southpark is on right now (I hate that show) and it behaved fine. I then switched over to Channel 29 and FoodTV is on. It behaved fine. I put in Channel 55 (MTV2) or Channel 56 (Fuse - another music channel) and it's all stuttering with the sound. Any suggestions there?!

 

[yuppicide]

Alright, I just found I was using 0.1.3.0 which I shouldn't. The reason I didn't get the 0.2 RC2 was because it was named TestBeta or some crap like that. I didn't think it was a normal release.

I'll get that version tommorow after I get out of work. Right now It's 2am and I need sleep. I gotta be up at 7:30am!

One last thing, I did see during my errors it did record some stuff. How do I delete those?!

Ooh, sorry one more last thing.. don't know if this was caused by Media Portal or me installing a brand new Logitech G7 Laser Cordless Mouse. Normally when I open a program, like now for example I am typing this, but let's say I goto START, INTERNET EXPLORER. It normally opens fine. Now all the windows are opening and flashing orange on the task bar. Normally I click once to switch to that program, now I must click THREE times! Two times to minimize, then one to restore it. How annoying! Also, before when I right click something in the task bar I could pop up the menu for instance to select close. It no longer pops up that menu.

It's probably something with the mouse and I did shoot Logitech an email, but figured I'd ask here too since the mouse wasn't the only thing I did tonight.

 

[yuppicide]

I've installed RC2 now and when changing channels it locks up and I have to press CTRL-ALT-DEL to END TASK.

The sound problem still happens on channels 55 and 56.

 

[Callifo]

RC2 is still only a release candidate so it may not be good enough to use.

What drivers are you using for your tv card. There is a sound problem with earlier driver versions.

 

[wishywashy]

Did you uninstall 1.3 and delete the Team media portal directory? If not there are some "left overs" from the uninstall that will cause some problems.

 

[yuppicide]

Did that and the error still happens. I switch channels and sometimes I get a message (which I can't read because 90% of it is behind the video window) and sometimes it freezes up with no message.

I also can't view full screen now like I could in the old version.

Did you uninstall 1.3 and delete the Team media
portal directory? If not there are some "left overs" from the uninstall that will cause some problems.