streaming, tv-server and manuals (1 Viewer)

[GoMad]

Berns - thanks again for that. Installed XP SP2 (my old licensed copy before nayone asks) etc, last night along with Media Player, and the Win 3.1 installer. Media Portal server then installed ok. Note you point on Win 7 - thanks, not going to buy Vista if XP works.

Most of the tools for compat need Windows installed to start with, I had recently installed Ubuntu 9.10 to test some linux media products before testing MP on the laptop and liking it. 1.5TB drive went in last night, all being well i'll add a 2nd to mirror them for backup.

On MP, I have seen references to better skins that the blue widescreen one, however it seems these may not be supported in all plugins, inc Moving Pictures. More digging to do.

 

[Spragleknas]

Most (all?) skins support MovingPictures, and poular skins typically support just about every plugin. In fact, B3 does not "support" 3. party plugins by default, but the plugins (normaly) adds this support by including XML's and gfx.

I'd say that mature skins, like StreamedMP, BGS, xFactor +++ is "safe" to use with just about every plugin. StreamedMP even installes MPTVseries and MovingPictures. Aside from making installation easier, this way there is no version conflict between skin and plugin.

 

[Berns]

GoMad,
Awaiting the purchase of my full HD TV, I'm using standard blue 3 skin (not even the wide one). I've got no intention to change skin because the default one is enough fit for purpose. As the kids are quite young, my spouce is the most important user, and after about a month of usage she has most appreciated timeshifting. (Pause and look with slight delay)

I try to use the KIS principle (Keep it Simple).

On server side I use TVXB and MC2XML to capture schedules that I load on the guide screen using XLMTV plugin. (XMLTV Default installed together with the server, no additional install needed).
On client side I only use multishortcut (both to start corel windvd and "Squeezecenter web interface using IE7". This plugin is simple and enormously versatile.
First I did not have sound on some Dutch channels, and I've solved that with FFDSHOW.
HD is in experimental phase on my system. I'm using CoreAVC coded. It was absolutely worth spending the few dollars.


Maybe nice to know:
I've been playing around with tools to load animated GIF graphics into myweather as well. The only thing you have to do is tell myweather what city you want weather for and then point it to animated GIFs on the net.
In Belgium, unfortunately, there are no animated gifs available. So I - well, my server, not me manually - create my own every night. For that, I have the server run a scheduled old school DOS .BAT script based on ImageMagick

I seriously considered mythTV (bundle version Mythbuntu) before starting my MP project, but early in the software selection process I dropped it, because I found someting on the inernet that gave me the possibility to not have to teach my main user how to use a linux interface.

By now, I've discovered that each HTPC project is so unique that tweaking around until it is perfect can last forever. As I'm much more familiar with Win-based systems I'm glad I did not go for Linux.

 

[Berns]

Update. For if anyone s.tumbles upon this older conversation.

Meanwhile MP became very stable on W7.
I've been running MP 1.1.2 and 1.1.3 on 2 W7 machines (one server, one client) with splendid results.

Over the week-end I've moved to the newest release (just a week old) of MediaPortal : 1.2.
Upgrading took under 30 minutes.

Keep up the good work MP-fellows!