Some Potential Adopter Questions (1 Viewer)

[Unregistered]

Hi Guys, apologies for any stupid questions. I've done the rounds of the features screens and had some additional questions before I move away from Vista MC.

1 - Movie Guide - Is there a facility similar to the MC Movie Guide. I love being able to view the movies that are on TV over the 14 days in the EPG, especially when they are presented with the cover art.

2 - Recording Clashes - Can MP handles recording clashes and allow you to resolve them before committing?

3 - What format are TV recordings saved in - The big downside to recording using MC is the wtv format and converting away from it. I'd like to be able to record in a more general format like mkv / avi so that I can make the recordings available to extenders / media streaming devices.

4 - HD Trailers App - Is there a plugin / extension that will let me watch HD trailers.

5 - HD Camcorder video - Can MP playback m2t video with thumbnails displayed?

6 - Series options - Can you specify the number of episodes to keep of a series, and is MP clever enough to only record one new episode of a series and ignore the repeats?

7 - Speed on an Acer Revo 3610 (Intel Atom 330, 1.6 GHz, RAM4096MB, HD500GB, LAN WLAN, Windows 7 Home Premium) - Is MP fast? Are there any areas that lag a bit? I have the majority of my videos on a network share (held on a synology NAS) over a powerline network connection.

Thanks very much for helping me out. I don't have a spare machine to plug in and try out, so I got to approach it cautiously.

Alex

 

[gtfreymann]

1 - Movie Guide - Is there a facility similar to the MC Movie Guide. I love being able to view the movies that are on TV over the 14 days in the EPG, especially when they are presented with the cover art.

I remember that feature of VMC. I don't believe there is such a thing with MePo out of the box. But you can search and of course move about the EPG.

2 - Recording Clashes - Can MP handles recording clashes and allow you to resolve them before committing?

I think it does.

3 - What format are TV recordings saved in

*.ts

4 - HD Trailers App - Is there a plugin / extension that will let me watch HD trailers.

Install OnlineVideos plugin. You can go into Trailers and view what you want and it allows you to call up a trailer on a movie you happen to be looking at the moment. This plugin does much more too -- but will handle your trailer needs quite nicely.

5 - HD Camcorder video - Can MP playback m2t video with thumbnails displayed?

With the correct codecs, yes. Suggest you install the LAV Filter plugin and configure.

6 - Series options - Can you specify the number of episodes to keep of a series, and is MP clever enough to only record one new episode of a series and ignore the repeats?

Yes, use the advanced record options. You can specify the number of episodes to keep. To have it *not* record repeats, you have to ensure you have a good EPG source and tick something in the TV Server config. Check out this wiki page for more info:

TV-Server Configuration - MediaPortal Wiki

7 - Speed on an Acer Revo 3610 (Intel Atom 330, 1.6 GHz, RAM4096MB, HD500GB, LAN WLAN, Windows 7 Home Premium) - Is MP fast? Are there any areas that lag a bit? I have the majority of my videos on a network share (held on a synology NAS) over a powerline network connection.

I have 3 of these units in my house and I love them! Mind you they are clients only. Speed will vary depending on the skin you choose. Response time is acceptable, sometimes it's slow to jump to the next screen, but it is quite passable and will do you fine!

Out of the box, the blue 4x3 and blue wide give you terrific speed. I also install Moving Pictures, TV Series, FanArt, Online Videos, World Weather. The media is all stored on the main MePo Server over the wired network. I can play anything. I get excellent picture quality and 5.1 sound. I use Free AVG for anti virus as these machines only work as HTPC's and rarely get used for anything else.

I also have two Zotac HD-ND01 units. They are much the same as the Acer Revo's but only have 2GB Ram. I bought those brand new and paid more for them than I did my three used Acer Revo's and I prefer the Acer Revo's. I should change the RAM in the Zotac to 4GB someday but they are in bedrooms and used less.

From the sounds of your TV questions, you should have a good look through the wiki here:

Record TV - MediaPortal Wiki

Also a read through the Atom ION Users Thread may help, but I don't think I had to do anything special with my boxes to get them to work (other than install a codec package -- I used SAF 5.0 but I see now that the LAV Filter plugin is likely a better choice):

https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/general-support-51/atom-ion-users-thread-86594/

Welcome to Media Portal. I think you'll enjoy it much more than VMC. We went from VMC with extenders to SageTV with one HD300 extender and various computer clients, to Media Portal. I enjoy playing with the various HTPC solutions. It's fun! Ran a couple Linux based systems before VMC. They all have had their pluses and minuses. Right now of course, my favourite is Media Porta 1.2.*