Some Issues with MP2 (ex MCE User) (1 Viewer)

[veletron]

Hi

I have finally had to move on from MCE (with a DVB-Link backend) that I had running on Win10 as Microsoft seems to keep finding new ways of fouling it up with each and every update! I have had a mostly happy life with MCE, and have been using it for the past 15+ years. I guess all good things come to an end eventually.

I had MCE running with Ceton My Media for scheduling, and MCEBuddy for Transcoding and overnight syncing to my tablet (for watching on the train), and the DVBLink client for live streaming to mobile.

Moving on...

Plex

I tried Plex, but the Live TV offering rarely worked properly, took eons to tune, and took eons to skip through adverts on recorded content, and still for most supported platforms the EPG is rubbish. This running the client on the server box so should have been near-instant. On a remote client it was so unreliable it was totally unusable.

So... I moved on to possible solution 2 - Media Portal

Cancelled my Plexpass.

Media Portal 2

I was unsure whether to go with MP1 or MP2, and am currently trailing MP2. On my LAN, Live TV and Recorded TV is a whole lot slicker than it was with Plex, but there are still a few things that I cannot get working properly. Maybe someone here can help. I am using the WMC skin.

1) Using the MP2 client on my server box, if I am watching a program and press 'stop' on the MCE remote then I get an hourglass which never, ever goes away! The client/server work fine, I can switch channels, view the channel or a recording fine, but there is a spinning 'hourglass' stuck in the middle of the screen! The only way to clear it is to restart the client. This is my #1 annoyance with the software!

2) If I run the media portal client in a window - as I would do on my main PC as I only have one monitor (albeit a 32" one) - then it blanks out the entire screen (to the extent that the monitor goes to sleep) when switching channels, stopping or starting live TV - before coming back to life and displaying the content in the window! Surely only the window in which Media Portal is running should go blank, not the entire screen?! I also find that starting live TV is way less reliable when the MP2 client is not running full screen.

3) Is there any way to get an MCE style 'Artist' list in the music player. On real MCE, if I view by artist then it picked one/more of the underlying thumbnails for an album and placed it on the artist box. On the MP2 skin, the artist if just a blank blue box with some text.

4) Whats the correct way to get remote EPG access, and remote streaming on MP2? I did read in a post from 2016 that there was going to be a web interface added to MP2 that would offer all of the above natively without add-ons etc. Should I really be using MP1 if I want these features?

5) Is there any way to use a firetv stick as a MP2 (or MP1) client - preferably without Kodi which I have never had much luck with.?

I have some other offerings to try, but need Live TV (with proper EPG), recordings, Music and Video all available from the same interface. I have in mind that Emby might be worth a look as well, and of course MP1. Are there any other solutions I should be evaluating?

Thanks

Nigel

 

[ge2301]

1) Using the MP2 client on my server box, if I am watching a program and press 'stop' on the MCE remote then I get an hourglass which never, ever goes away! The client/server work fine, I can switch channels, view the channel or a recording fine, but there is a spinning 'hourglass' stuck in the middle of the screen! The only way to clear it is to restart the client. This is my #1 annoyance with the software!

Please attach your log files according to description in forum and wiki.

2) If I run the media portal client in a window - as I would do on my main PC as I only have one monitor (albeit a 32" one) - then it blanks out the entire screen (to the extent that the monitor goes to sleep) when switching channels, stopping or starting live TV - before coming back to life and displaying the content in the window! Surely only the window in which Media Portal is running should go blank, not the entire screen?! I also find that starting live TV is way less reliable when the MP2 client is not running full screen.

It's about the adjusted refresh rate according to the content. It's a general problem with HDMI. Try switching off the refreshrate changer in MP2 settings.
I'm not sure how WMC could handle it, but you would have same problem with MP1.

3) Is there any way to get an MCE style 'Artist' list in the music player. On real MCE, if I view by artist then it picked one/more of the underlying thumbnails for an album and placed it on the artist box. On the MP2 skin, the artist if just a blank blue box with some text.

Please see importer settings in Wiki. Images will be only visible, if you activate also the download of artists etc before starting an import. Go to media library settings, modify/check the settings. Remove the audio source and readd it. All images will be downloaded.

4) Whats the correct way to get remote EPG access, and remote streaming on MP2? I did read in a post from 2016 that there was going to be a web interface added to MP2 that would offer all of the above natively without add-ons etc. Should I really be using MP1 if I want these features?

It's in development for MP2, but nothing usable yet.

5) Is there any way to use a firetv stick as a MP2 (or MP1) client - preferably without Kodi which I have never had much luck with.?

No. MP1+2 are windows based and can not run on a Fire Stick.