Newb with some Q's (3 Viewers)

[noremacyug]

New to mediaportal. i have been using MC7 for a while now. i've tried boxee and xbmc as well. i stumbled upon mediaportal a couple days back and now see that i'll be removing MC7 from my pc.

I'm pondering doing a complete reinstall because i've installed, fooled with, uninstalled etc, etc. I'm anal about my pc and thought that since i'll be switching to MP a fresh install might be a good idea to make sure only the necessities are present. So i have a few questions out of the gate.

- what codec pack, if any, is best suited for MP. currently have sharks for MC7.
- i've noticed after the switch that i'm no longer getting 5.1 or dts...... only 2 channel is showing on my receiver. how do i remedy this.
- can i launch my pc games directly from within mediaportal as well as other apps such as IE9, email app, file explorer, etc. if so, how?
- i've notice a few of my movies have IMDB in front of the titles now...... why?
- can the menu be browsed with a xbox 360 controller?
- how does mediaportal store fanart/albumart, etc. in the folders containg the media or in a seperate location? in the event it doesn't automagically pull artwork i want to know where i need to put it.
- how well does silicondust's tuners work with MP? i want to look into dropping directv, going with cable and having the pc be the "cablebox". any reason this isn't doable?
- in my start menu i see the tv server for media portal. what exactly is this?

i guess that's it for now. i'm sure more questions will pour out once i get involved with it more. i'm just looking to be able to do everything with my one remote. music, game, movies, tv, photos, rip media, launch web browser, email....... whatever. so any suggestions on how to best set this up or what plugins i need is greatly appreciated.

looking forward to your suggestions/guidance.

guy

 

[mbuzina]

Some As:
1. No Codec Pack, add Codecs as you go. Just install LAV Splitter and you should be able to go. If truely needed use SAF (5 or 6) in Unlock. Send a PM to Hoborg for Details
2. With no information on set Audio Codecs, connection info, logs it is hard to guess. The LAV Audio Codec seems (no personal experiance) be good at passthrough
3. Yes, there are plugins for that (e.g. Multi-Shortcut or my Emulator)
4. Not enough info. Please tell us where (Video, Moving Pictures), where the images come from (how did you scan) etc.
5. No personal know-how but I think it can be done. Search is your friend.
6. Open Config and select the drop down for File Location, then select thumbs and it will open the location
7. no idea
8. MP is a client server app, so the TV server can record TV while the client program is not running. The TV Server runs as a service in the background to provide TV for your local client, for networked clients (e.g. have a laptop, install MP as a client and you can whatch TV & recordings on that one too) and to record your programs.

For Web Browsing: There are plugins for that. Check the wiki for a lot of the information you need.

 

[mm1352000]

Welcome noremacyug

Regarding Silicondust: we support their HDHomeRun device - it should work fine with MP 1.2.0b. Prime is not supported at this time.

mm

 

[noremacyug]

Thanks for the prompt replies. As for the imdb thing. Its in moving pictures and I was under the impression that moving pictures downloaded fanart on its own. It doesn't seem to have changed the actual file names, but it adds imdb in front of the title in my movie list.

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Hi noremacyug

Regarding codecs, windows natively supports Dolby Digital, only problem occurs is when you choose this as audio codec in any non M$ component, so LAV audio will allow DD or DD+ playback in MP.

Plus SAF6 supports flv plus quite a lot of other major formats that are down loadable from the internet, ie MOv etc, just takes a bit of the pain away

 

[noremacyug]

What version of mp should I be using. I currently have the latest stable version installed. I see many people recommending the beta version. Are the betas as or more stable than the stable release?

 

[mm1352000]

Hi again noremacyug

I'd usually recommend the beta without hesitation, but there are a few crinkles in the clear QAM support that I don't want you to have to come up against. For that reason, I'd advise 1.1.3 for the moment, but you may want to consider upgrading to 1.2.0 as soon as it is released as it does have some really nice improvements.

mm

 

[Mew]

Hi noremacyug

- i've notice a few of my movies have IMDB in front of the titles now...... why?

Asuming this is in Moving Pictures, I have noticed the same issue in the last couple of days. Looking in the Moving Pictures issues log (http://code.google.com/p/moving-pictures/issues/list?can=2&q=&sort=-id&colspec=ID Type Status Priority Stars Milestone Owner Summary) issue 1040 indicates that it is an issue with the IMDb scrapper which RoChess has submited a fix for (it looks like the fixed IMDb scaper xml file is attached to the issue report).

Mew

 

[noremacyug]

Thanks for the info on the imdb thing!

I've uninstalled everything pertaining to mp, and gave the beta a go. Don't like it because pretty much all of the plugins and the skin I like are not yet supported. So I've uninstalled the beta and am starting over again. However whilst running the beta, I tried out the lav splitter. It worked fine to play the mkv file I threw at it, but still just 2 channel audio. I have not yet tried the saf 5 or 6, which I assume is a codec pack? I wanted to know ifi use the saf in conjunction with the lav splitter or if I uninstall lav. I've tried fooling around with the settings in mp, obviously to no avail. So, to get this problem solved i figured i should probably give a bit more info on my setup and type of connections used. Starting at the pc i come out of two crossfired hd6950s with a HDMI cable that is set to carry the audio as well. It runs into my receiver and then a HDMI cable out of my receiver into my tv strictly carrying video. I have some ripped DVDs in my collection which are .vobs. And the i also have some 1080p/720p mkvs and i think maybe a few hd wma files. The various files/formats contain dd5.1, dts and then whatever it is that bluray uses for its audio format..... I can't keep track of all this containers/codecs crap. i just want the all to be played in their original, unaltered format. As i said, i haven't fooled with the saf thing yet, i just wanted to see if i could gather a bit more info before i tried so that maybe my next attempt would work.

Thanks again for all the responses. Definitely one of the better forums I've been in.

Guy

 

[Mew]

I use SAF6 (unlocked) and this uses the LAV splitter. At the moment I am using ffdshow for video and video, but the LAV Audio Decoder is included.

I have an HMDI connection from my AMD HD5450 card to my Sony receiver, then HDMI from the receiver to the TV (as with yourself, for video only). In ffdshow audio I have passthrough ticked for all formats, so the HTPC passes the audio data straight to the receiver and the receiver decodes it. As the Sony receiver is less than a year old it happily receives and decodes most formats from MediaPortal, such as DTS-MA, DTS-HRA, Dolby True HD, as well as DTS (and ES), Dolby Digital etc.

As a sidenote, it looks like the issue with the IMDb name was due to a change IMDb made to their website.

Mew