Screen Brightness Set-up and recording (1 Viewer)

[robbo100]

Hi there.

I have just started using MP after about a year of using DVB Viewer. I have to say, that considering that MP is free I am absolutely blown away by the features and quality of the interface. My experience so far has been very positive indeed. I have 2 questions that will hopefully turn MP from a great programme into the most amazing programme I have ever used

1) I have my TV set up using the NVIDIA screen configuration wizard, but when I play any video using MP (either live TV, file play back or DVD playback the screen is very dark and the colours seem too highly set. I have manually increased the gamma correction to 10% in the NVIDIA settings, but it isn't quite enough and I am not sure I am adjusting the correct setting. Is there a setting or filter within MP that I should be using to set up the video correctly?

2) Is there a way that the MP TV Server can turn the PC on from hibernate, record a programme and then set the PC back to hibernate (or just close MP so that my PC goes into hibernate itself). Otherwise my PC has to be on all the time and I don't want to waste the electricity!

Thanks all for such an amazing programme

Robbo100.

P.S. the Moving Pictures plugin is the coolest thing I have ever seen!

 

[Cuitlahac]

...
...2) Is there a way that the MP TV Server can turn the PC on from hibernate, record a programme and then set the PC back to hibernate (or just close MP so that my PC goes into hibernate itself). Otherwise my PC has to be on all the time and I don't want to waste the electricity!

The included standard plugin PowerScheduler can do this. Look here for how to set it up. Very important is, that from then on you only let the powerscheduler set the PC to standby/hibernate and not windows! Only if that's the case, it wakes up automatically for recordings.

If you experience any problems after your PC resumes from standby/hibernate, you should have a look at the MPStandbyHandler (see link in my signature). This little program helps to solve some wakeup problems. This combination works perfect here.


ps. With your first problem it is quite difficult to help from here, because picture quality depends on so many variables. Maybe with some more information from your side anyone else can help you.
Which Windows do you use? XP? Vista? V7?
Which graphics card? Which driver version?
How is your PC connected to your TV?
What TV do you have? Plasma? LCD? CRT?
Which codecs are installed and used in MP?
...
I think, best would be to fill out the system specs in your user profile and set the "display system specs to members" setting to "yes"

 

[robbo100]

Cuitlahac

Thanks for your quick reply. I have added the detail into my User CP but I can not find the option that allows me to "display system specs to members". Can you help? Sorry I am pretty useless!

In answer to your questions:
Which Windows do you use? XP SP3
Which graphics card? NVIDIA 9400GT
Which driver version? Not sure of the exact number, but is is less than 4 months since I did the last update.

How is your PC connected to your TV? What TV do you have? Plasma? LCD? CRT? LCD Toshiba TV via HDMI cable.

Which codecs are installed and used in MP? I am using FFDSHOW for the SD content and Cybelink8 for the H.264 content.

When I am using DVB Viewer (using same codecs) all of the sources (TV stream or file playback) are fine, it is only with MP that things seem far too dark.

I will have a look at the advice you gave on the TV server tonight and try to fill the gaps in my profile tonight too,

Thanks for your help

Robbo100

Sorry,

Another quick question.

The guide to powersaving that you posted the link for states "If a tvserver enters standby, any remote MediaPortal client connected to it will freeze. This is because the Remoting interface cannot restore the connection to the server and MediaPortal will indefinitely wait for this. This is why a client/server setup is not supported currently."

Does this mean that if I am running the server and client on the same PC then it will not work?

Thanks again

Robbo100

 

[Cuitlahac]

Thanks for your quick reply. I have added the detail into my User CP but I can not find the option that allows me to "display system specs to members". Can you help?

You can find it down on the "Edit Profile" page where you can fill in your birthday, home country etc. in your profile. There is a "YES/NO" choice for showing system specs nearly at the end of the page...

Another quick question.

The guide to powersaving that you posted the link for states "If a tvserver enters standby, any remote MediaPortal client connected to it will freeze. This is because the Remoting interface cannot restore the connection to the server and MediaPortal will indefinitely wait for this. This is why a client/server setup is not supported currently."

Does this mean that if I am running the server and client on the same PC then it will not work?

Thanks again

Robbo100

No, this means it only works ok, if you have a so called single seat installation, which is TV-Server and MP running on the same machine. So it should work for you.

BTW: Maybe this Wiki can be helpful for your display configuration. I haven't read it completely, but i think there's a lot of info for you
Maybe I can give you more info when I'm at home this evening...

 

[rekenaar]

I have added the detail into my User CP but I can not find the option that allows me to "display system specs to members". Can you help?

see here:
Forum/How_to_system_specs - MediaPortal Manual Documentation

 

[Cuitlahac]

In answer to your questions:
Which Windows do you use? XP SP3
Which graphics card? NVIDIA 9400GT
Which driver version? Not sure of the exact number, but is is less than 4 months since I did the last update.

How is your PC connected to your TV? What TV do you have? Plasma? LCD? CRT? LCD Toshiba TV via HDMI cable.

Which codecs are installed and used in MP? I am using FFDSHOW for the SD content and Cybelink8 for the H.264 content.

When I am using DVB Viewer (using same codecs) all of the sources (TV stream or file playback) are fine, it is only with MP that things seem far too dark.

Robbo100

I don't know if I can really help you with your dark picture issue, but I try

I prefer the Cyberlink PowerDVD Decoder for SD and HD content for Video, DVD and TV, because it makes use of the hardware acceleration of the graphics card and gives me the best picture quality here.

In Nvidia driver you can adjust picture quality and color space. As standard the color space is set to "16-235". If you set that to "0-255" the driver uses the full color range, which can improve picture quality (black becomes really black and not just dark grey, for example).

Sorry, that I can't help you more but I think you'll have to play around with the settings a little to find the one that satisfies you.

 

[robbo100]

Thanks to Cuitlahac & rekenaar, and sorry about the silly question about the display system specs, I was accessing the site from work and for some reason the stupid web protection software that my work use was blocking access to that section of my user CP, hence why I couldn't see the option. Now fixed!:sorry:

I have played around with the settings on my NVIDIA control panel and I think it is improving. I think I will continue to fiddle and see where it gets me.

I have set up the powersave plugins but I am yet to get time to try it out.

I presume that in order for the system to hibernate I have to turn the TV OFF within the My TV menu on the client and then not touch my remote for the specified time and then it will powersave, or if I have set a recording then I presume that it will wake for the recording using the server software only and when the recording is complete it will then turn off again after the specified time? If this is not the case then let me know as I will need to train the wife how to use it!

I do have four other (hopefully simple) questions - sorry to be a pain .

1) If I combine channels (eg. BBC ONE from my DVB-T and BBC ONE from my DVB-S), then I presume that I just select the programme to record from the EPG and the server will work out which card to use depending upon what I am using at the time for other tasks?

2) How can I un-combine channels? Currently I am deleting the combined channel and adding two new channels using the previous settings (this is for where I have combined a channel but the reception is bad on one and the system doesn't like it).

3) Can the software record using just the one card but from multiple channels on the same frequency? i.e. can I in theory record more than 2 channels at the same time using just 2 cards (or record from 2 and watch another albeit from a reduced list of available channels)?

4) Is there a short cut key which will take the screen back to the playing video / TV channel from any layer in the menu. Currently if I select the menu whilst watching something I have to navigate back down to get it to display full screen again.

Many thanks for your help

I am so very impressed with MP so far!

And sorry for the noob questions! :sorry:

 

[Cuitlahac]

I have set up the powersave plugins but I am yet to get time to try it out.

I presume that in order for the system to hibernate I have to turn the TV OFF within the My TV menu on the client and then not touch my remote for the specified time and then it will powersave, or if I have set a recording then I presume that it will wake for the recording using the server software only and when the recording is complete it will then turn off again after the specified time? If this is not the case then let me know as I will need to train the wife how to use it!

If you have set it up as described in the Wiki , then it should work as follows:
When you want the System to go into standby/hibernate just stop all playing media (including the TV) and go to the main menu. Then just wait and your system will go down (and wake up again for a recording). And after that it will go to sleep again and so on...
But as said before, some PCs may have problems after resuming. Then you should also have a look at the MPStandbyhandler which can help solve such problems.

 

[robbo100]

Excellent, I will try it tonight and use the handler if I get any problems!

Does anyone have any answers to my other questions?

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

1) If I combine channels (eg. BBC ONE from my DVB-T and BBC ONE from my DVB-S), then I presume that I just select the programme to record from the EPG and the server will work out which card to use depending upon what I am using at the time for other tasks?

Yes, but currently there is no priority as to which card is used, the plugin ForTheRecord does have this, ie you can specify that BBC1 will use the dvb-t, rather than dvb-s, this keeps the card with more channels free.

2) How can I un-combine channels? Currently I am deleting the combined channel and adding two new channels using the previous settings (this is for where I have combined a channel but the reception is bad on one and the system doesn't like it).

Just delete them TVServer config\tvchannels\tvmapping, select the card you do not want to use for that channels and just remove, using the arrow keys.

3) Can the software record using just the one card but from multiple channels on the same frequency? i.e. can I in theory record more than 2 channels at the same time using just 2 cards (or record from 2 and watch another albeit from a reduced list of available channels)?

You have access to all channels on a transponder, watch one, record five , the limit is the bandwidth of the pci bus to hdd, channels available are listed in now\next, this gives you a visual display of what channels you can tune too, if none of your cards are free.

4) Is there a short cut key which will take the screen back to the playing video / TV channel from any layer in the menu. Currently if I select the menu whilst watching something I have to navigate back down to get it to display full screen again.

x or red button on remote.

A word of advice, change your pre record time to 2 minutes, otherwise anything recorded on shared channels ie, BBC3\Cbeebies will be empty ts file