Newbie will take the plunge with TV Server (1 Viewer)

[CrazyDiamond]

Hi Guys, hope I'm posting in the correct forum. I learnt about media portal when asking questions about HTPCs on the DigitalSpy forum. I'm planning on building an HTPC and your application looks excellent.

However, reading about TV Server, I would like to have a go at this first and install Media Portal on my Son's PC.

I currently have a server running as a NAS box. It stores all my videos, music and pictures for access by (currently) 3 PC clients. The box is a Compaq Proliant ML310 Xeon 2.53GHz, 1.5GB memory and running a SATA RAID5 on 3 disks. Server 2003 as an Operating system.

My questions:

• Firstly, would this box be suitable for TV Server?
• Would I be able to use as a NAS box as well as running TV server?
• Best OS? 2003 or XP? I'm not fussy.
• I have 2 Compro Videomate T100 DVB-T cards not seeing them mention under Hardware Specs. Can they be used?

That's for starters. I'd like to see this system work as it sounds like the best option rather than having TV cards in all the separate PCs (kid's PCs double as their entertainment systems as well).

Regards

Gary

 

[level20peon]

Hello CrazyDiamond,

Firstly, would this box be suitable for TV Server?

Yes

Would I be able to use as a NAS box as well as running TV server?

Yes

Best OS? 2003 or XP? I'm not fussy.

Windows 2003 is not supported by MediaPortal officially. However I am running MediaPortal & TV-Server on Windows 2003 flawlessly. The only flaw would be that Windows 2003 does not have StreamBuffer engine integrated but you can either do a workaround do install XP's SBE on 2003 or just use direct-MPEG recording instead of TS recording (there is no difference in quality).

I have 2 Compro Videomate T100 DVB-T cards not seeing them mention under Hardware Specs. Can they be used?

If you use TV-Server it should work -> source.


-level20peon

 

[arves]

"Windows 2003 is not supported by MediaPortal officially. However I am running MediaPortal & TV-Server on Windows 2003 flawlessly. The only flaw would be that Windows 2003 does not have StreamBuffer engine integrated but you can either do a workaround do install XP's SBE on 2003 or just use direct-MPEG recording instead of TS recording (there is no difference in quality)."


Hi,

Intresting readering. I have the TV3-server running on W2K3, everything is working beautiful, except that tv stutters after 5-15 minutes. I`ve eliminated the client as the same symptomes also applies to scheduled recordings (with no connected clients).

Do you have any for details on the xp-streambuffer-patch and how to adapt it for Windows 2003 ?

Thanks,
arve

(and to original poster, sorry to break into your thread )

 

[level20peon]

Using SBE is only relevant when you record something. The format used in timeshifting is always the same so I doubt your problems would be fixed by using SBE.

However you can integrate SBE:

1. take these files from (you legal) Windows XP installation

sbe.dll
sbeio.dll
wmvcore2.dll

2. copy them to your windows 2003 "c:\windows\system32" folder

3. regsrv32 the sbe.dll & wmvcore2.dll ("regsrv32 c:\windows\system32\sbe.dll" / "regsrv32 c:\windows\system32\wmvcore2.dll")


-level20peon

 

[arves]

Thanks,

Did a test recording 30 minutes (scheduled) in Mpg. No problems with playback Nice.. will also test your tip !

Thanks for the feedback !

.arve

Using SBE is only relevant when you record something. The format used in timeshifting is always the same so I doubt your problems would be fixed by using SBE.

However you can integrate SBE:

1. take these files from (you legal) Windows XP installation

sbe.dll
sbeio.dll
wmvcore2.dll

2. copy them to your windows 2003 "c:\windows\system32" folder

3. regsrv32 the sbe.dll & wmvcore2.dll ("regsrv32 c:\windows\system32\sbe.dll" / "regsrv32 c:\windows\system32\wmvcore2.dll")


-level20peon

 

[level20peon]

You formerly did this using the .ts format ?? If so I wonder why this worked (even partially) at all.


-level20peon

 

[arves]

Yes I used the .TS format previously, never thougt of trying MPG format.

Cant really tell why it did work, plaing vanilla installation. W2K3 R2 with all patches. Ati X300 GFX card, onboard sound. SQL server.

I`ve just tried 3 different builds (currently build 16600) of the server side, as I just got the TV card. It`s a FloppyDTV S2.

Also tried 3 more scheduled recordings today, all worked perfect using MPG.

.arve

You formerly did this using the .ts format ?? If so I wonder why this worked (even partially) at all.


-level20peon

 

[tourettes]

Using SBE is only relevant when you record something. The format used in timeshifting is always the same so I doubt your problems would be fixed by using SBE.

However you can integrate SBE:

1. take these files from (you legal) Windows XP installation

sbe.dll
sbeio.dll
wmvcore2.dll

2. copy them to your windows 2003 "c:\windows\system32" folder

3. regsrv32 the sbe.dll & wmvcore2.dll ("regsrv32 c:\windows\system32\sbe.dll" / "regsrv32 c:\windows\system32\wmvcore2.dll")

TVE3 is not using the MS SBE for anything. It's only using our own directshow filters.

 

[level20peon]

Right... integration of new TSWriter.ax / TSReader.ax ? I haven't used this SBE "patch" for a year so I haven't thought about this. However if MPEG recordings work for arves rather than ts recordings there might either be something wrong with the new filter or Windows 2003 tries to utilize SBE anyway


-level20peon

 

[CrazyDiamond]

Sorry for a late reply, I've been away (arves, no problem for hijacking thread. It's given some good advice!). Thanks for answering my questions. I shall take the plunge and install TV-Server shortly. I'll report back on progress!