Trying to move from Media Center looking for good guide to setup live TV/Recording with MP2 (1 Viewer)

[DG0129]

I've been a media center/Plex user for about 3 years and have been pretty happy with that setup. I haven't upgraded to windows 10 for the sole reason of being able to continue using media center, but I'm now at a point where I really want to upgrade. I can't seem to figure out how to setup MediaPortal 2 to do live TV. The guide on the wiki seems fairly limited and mentions something about installed MPExtended and using media portal 1 for live TV, but it isn't really clear to me if I need to have MP1 installed to use MP2 in this manner. I was able to go into TV server configuration and scan for channels of which it detects 130. But loading the client I don't see anything about live TV or any way to access those channels or scheduling. On the server side I see a "schedules" button but nothing is in there and I don't see any options to do anything. I'm always pretty big on using the latest software and I don't mind having to deal with a few bugs, but so far I simply can't figure out how to use the software and most of the google searches I do for Media portal 2 setup/config seem to come up with MP1 instructions. What am I missing?

 

[HTPCSourcer]

Hello DG0129,

Hope you have not given up MP2 completely.

but it isn't really clear to me if I need to have MP1 installed to use MP2 in this manner.

In case that you want to use MP2 please make sure that you did not install MP1 on the same machine. If you did, then you need to deactivate its associated Windows service "TV Server service". The reason is that both MP1 and MP2 come with their own TV part, which is then causing conflicts.

I was able to go into TV server configuration and scan for channels of which it detects 130. But loading the client I don't see anything about live TV or any way to access those channels

You might have been communicating with the wrong TV service. For being sure you may want to uninstall the MP1 elements (both client and server part) and restart the PC. If MP2 is correctly installed you should see a couple of orange-colored MP2 icons on your desktop. Make sure that you are using the Update1 version. Launch the MP2 TV configuration and verify that your 130 channels are still visible. If not run a new search.

In the client side check out the settings section and look for TV. Make sure that your server is automatically recognized (it should be), if not you should be able to select it from a dropdown menu. Furtehr settings would include the definitino of shares for music, movies, series, etc. Note that AFAIK MediCenter recordings are not directly playable in MediaPortal, but I may be wrong here. In any case there are ways of making them available.

On the server side I see a "schedules" button but nothing is in there and I don't see any options to do anything.

EPG data needs to be configured first. Now there is no informaiton provided through SAT providers like in Europe. For the US the easiest and probably best solution would be a Direct Schedules subscription. There are plenty of threads about this and user mm1352000 has frequently given detailed step-by-step instruction how to set this up. A quick forum search should give you plenty of hits.

Good luck and keep us posted about your progress,

 

[Lehmden]

Hi

Note that AFAIK MediCenter recordings are not directly playable in MediaPortal,

Since some versions of MP2 WMC recordings (.WTV) are recognised the same way as MP recordings (.TS / .XML). Only exception is if the videos are encrypted. Not very common, but possible with WTV files... You need to add your WMC recordings folder(s) as media sources in MP2 to be able to play them. This is valid for MP2 only. MP1 did not recognise the WMC recordings as TV recordings. MP1 only can use them as "normal" videos but the stored metadata get lost.

Media portal 2 setup/config seem to come up with MP1 instructions.

As since the beginning of this year MP2 and MP1 are using the same TV engine the setup is at 99% identical, no matter if you use MP1 or MP2... So normally an MP1 Guide is working the same way for MP2 too... The greatest difference is you don't need a SQL server running (MySQL or SQLEXpress) for MP2 that is needed for MP1 TV. Older MP2 guides with references to MPExtended are outdated and obsolete...