Brazil
Well,
After playing with some releases last year, I've spent quite some time with MP last week since my deadline to put MP in production is approaching (MCE already retired, now on a hiatus waiting for MP).
First, want to thank the developers. I first saw MP about a year ago and it's really amazing how it's changed and how fast it's evolving.
First, my setup:
I have a server with a PVR500, Microsoft Blaster and 2 STBs. The server has 512MB of RAM and a Semprom 2600. The server stores all our media (photos and etc) and it's a print server. Timeshifting 2 channels and streaming to 3 clients uses about 50% of the CPU. The server controls both STBs with Blasters, connected with composite to the Hauppage card (old STBs
)
The clients have almost no disc (2.5'' old notebook drives) to generate less heat and noise. They are connected to the server trough a 100mbits Ethernet. 2 clients have GeForce 6 cards, and 2 have Intel cards, all DX9. The main HTPC, in th e living room is a AMD 3000+ with 512MB of RAM and GeForce 6150. It's working very well (except for some nasty problems with the Montego sound card, not MP related.
MP+Tvserver 12599.
Now, my impressions related to the TV part, always used in a client-server environment:
- Picture quality is much better than the one I've had in MCE. I think thats not only merit of the engine, but I also think the fact that you can choose the decoder has a great deal of importance in this. MP allows you to control almost everything, so tweaking it to achieve better results that, lets say MCE, it's a very nice experience.
- Timeshifting is working great. I was having problems before (2006), but now it's great.
- Really like the flexibility of the Server. Being able to monitor, control and configure almost everything from a single app. It has some glitches, but it's improving fast and working very well for a beta.
Cons and same glitches:
It's beta (not even beta2) so some problems are expected. I will probably open a thread for almost every issue I found, unless the devs can repro without the need of a thread.
- The TV data it's not updated when you change a channel in the client. The Channel changes, but all the OSD, Guide and TVHome information is not updated. So if you are watching HBO and changes to Fox, the channel changes, the image is the one from FOX, but all the guide/osd is still showing HBO data. No matter how many times you change the channel, the info displayed is always from the first channel tunned (in this example, HBO).
- I assume that since the channel change is not being updated, when you go back from full screen TV to TVHome it changes the channel to the first one tunned (the one that it thinks is the one you are viewing).
- Channel change still takes a long time, varying from 10 seconds to 5 seconds, depending if it has to start timeshifting or if already timeshifting.
- Plug-in uses the Decoder defined for Movies, not TV.
- If you are playing a DVD, you can't get the TV to work unless you stop the DVD. Actually, if you are watching a movie and goes to the MyTv, the TV screen at the right of the screen shows the DVD video.
I think that even tough some feature prohibits the use of TVEngine in production right now (like the channel not being updated), most of them apparently are easy fix. Performance will probably improve until a released version, and the core functionality (tuning, streaming and controlling) it's working nicely and that's what i thing it's the most difficult and delicated area. So, great job, you guys already did the tough part.
To sum up, I'am very pleased with the TVEngine. Even with the bugs I mentioned, I thing it's a very good piece of SW that will be amazing when released.
Well, I thing thats all, sorry about the long post, but thought about describing a positive view over the engine and MP.
So congratulations to all involved, great work.
Julio
After playing with some releases last year, I've spent quite some time with MP last week since my deadline to put MP in production is approaching (MCE already retired, now on a hiatus waiting for MP).
First, want to thank the developers. I first saw MP about a year ago and it's really amazing how it's changed and how fast it's evolving.
First, my setup:
I have a server with a PVR500, Microsoft Blaster and 2 STBs. The server has 512MB of RAM and a Semprom 2600. The server stores all our media (photos and etc) and it's a print server. Timeshifting 2 channels and streaming to 3 clients uses about 50% of the CPU. The server controls both STBs with Blasters, connected with composite to the Hauppage card (old STBs
)The clients have almost no disc (2.5'' old notebook drives) to generate less heat and noise. They are connected to the server trough a 100mbits Ethernet. 2 clients have GeForce 6 cards, and 2 have Intel cards, all DX9. The main HTPC, in th e living room is a AMD 3000+ with 512MB of RAM and GeForce 6150. It's working very well (except for some nasty problems with the Montego sound card, not MP related.
MP+Tvserver 12599.
Now, my impressions related to the TV part, always used in a client-server environment:
- Picture quality is much better than the one I've had in MCE. I think thats not only merit of the engine, but I also think the fact that you can choose the decoder has a great deal of importance in this. MP allows you to control almost everything, so tweaking it to achieve better results that, lets say MCE, it's a very nice experience.
- Timeshifting is working great. I was having problems before (2006), but now it's great.
- Really like the flexibility of the Server. Being able to monitor, control and configure almost everything from a single app. It has some glitches, but it's improving fast and working very well for a beta.
Cons and same glitches:
It's beta (not even beta2) so some problems are expected. I will probably open a thread for almost every issue I found, unless the devs can repro without the need of a thread.
- The TV data it's not updated when you change a channel in the client. The Channel changes, but all the OSD, Guide and TVHome information is not updated. So if you are watching HBO and changes to Fox, the channel changes, the image is the one from FOX, but all the guide/osd is still showing HBO data. No matter how many times you change the channel, the info displayed is always from the first channel tunned (in this example, HBO).
- I assume that since the channel change is not being updated, when you go back from full screen TV to TVHome it changes the channel to the first one tunned (the one that it thinks is the one you are viewing).
- Channel change still takes a long time, varying from 10 seconds to 5 seconds, depending if it has to start timeshifting or if already timeshifting.
- Plug-in uses the Decoder defined for Movies, not TV.
- If you are playing a DVD, you can't get the TV to work unless you stop the DVD. Actually, if you are watching a movie and goes to the MyTv, the TV screen at the right of the screen shows the DVD video.
I think that even tough some feature prohibits the use of TVEngine in production right now (like the channel not being updated), most of them apparently are easy fix. Performance will probably improve until a released version, and the core functionality (tuning, streaming and controlling) it's working nicely and that's what i thing it's the most difficult and delicated area. So, great job, you guys already did the tough part.
To sum up, I'am very pleased with the TVEngine. Even with the bugs I mentioned, I thing it's a very good piece of SW that will be amazing when released.
Well, I thing thats all, sorry about the long post, but thought about describing a positive view over the engine and MP.
So congratulations to all involved, great work.
Julio
