United States of America
I'm new to MP, coming from SageTV. I have a few questions:
1) What is the accepted best practice for controlling STB boxes provided by my cable company? Assuming some sort of IR blaster (I've used a USB-UIRT in the past), I've seen references to IRSS (IR Server Suite), TV3 Blaster, and ServerBlaster. It appears that ServerBlaster is dated (does not work with Windows 7) and is targeted at Hauppauge IR blasters. I'm a bit confused by IRSS and TV3 Blaster. Are they different plugins? Or are these different names for the same plugin? Which is preferred, or are they used together?
2) How do plugins get installed? After installing MP, I have a program called MediaPortal Extensions Manager, but it doesn't list either IRSS or TV3 Blaster. I can find some things at the "Plugins & Skins" section of team-mediaportal.com. They seem to be .exes. Is that the standard method for distibuting a plugin, or is there something I'm missing?
3) Does anyone know if the SHEF plugin, which looks like a good alternative to IR blasting, working on STB boxes other than DirectTV? For example, will the Motorola DCX700 boxes, with Ethernet ports, that are supplied by my cable company, work with SHEF?
1) What is the accepted best practice for controlling STB boxes provided by my cable company? Assuming some sort of IR blaster (I've used a USB-UIRT in the past), I've seen references to IRSS (IR Server Suite), TV3 Blaster, and ServerBlaster. It appears that ServerBlaster is dated (does not work with Windows 7) and is targeted at Hauppauge IR blasters. I'm a bit confused by IRSS and TV3 Blaster. Are they different plugins? Or are these different names for the same plugin? Which is preferred, or are they used together?
2) How do plugins get installed? After installing MP, I have a program called MediaPortal Extensions Manager, but it doesn't list either IRSS or TV3 Blaster. I can find some things at the "Plugins & Skins" section of team-mediaportal.com. They seem to be .exes. Is that the standard method for distibuting a plugin, or is there something I'm missing?
3) Does anyone know if the SHEF plugin, which looks like a good alternative to IR blasting, working on STB boxes other than DirectTV? For example, will the Motorola DCX700 boxes, with Ethernet ports, that are supplied by my cable company, work with SHEF?