I have created a transponderlist for DVB-C in The Netherlands. It is for the cable provider Ziggo on the Cogas cable network in Oldenzaal (Ziggo ID 9004). Please find the XML file attached to this post.
Good question Rik. Probably because it's the way I'm used to work with. I assume it's also much quicker compared to scanning the whole frequency spectrum. And I know exactly what channels to expect in what defined transponders. Not really powerful reasons, but the only ones I can think of.
I'll give it a try next time I scan for channels For now I moved away from Media Portal on my main media center machine in the living room since it kept giving me too much trouble. Freezes, crashes or a slow response experience. I'm currently in the evaluation period of DVBLink TVSource so I can use Windows Media Center 7 to watch digital TV and still use Acamd/NewCS. Works great so far. I still have one instance of MediaPortal running on my server. I use it in combination with ForTheRecord to record TV and watch it back later using VLC Player. I'm hoping the soon to be released MediaPortal 2 will improve stability and that the Acamd/NewCS solution will still work on it, although I have my doubts since the team never supported it.
MP2 has nothing to do with the technologies you mention. That is because MP2 is not the same as the TV engine.
And yes those technologies have always been unstable (and also a forbidden topic). But my fortune teller told me that it might just get a lot more stable in one of the next versions of TVE