TV Server and WHS ( Windows Home Server ) (3 Viewers)

[joit]

keefb,

maybe you misunderstood me. I did not assign one disk to the pool and put mp program files, recordings and timeshift on it.

there is one thing about whs I don't understand. If you look in the taskmanager, there is a process crss.exe which is on high priority. I guess it handles system related stuff of backing up and drive balancing. Why is it on high prio??? This is what makes all other apps slow. I tried to set it on normal prio but it has system rights so you can't change it. (Anyone knows how to?) So what I did is put mp tvserver and mp on high prio, too.

 

[Sh4nn0w]

Been working on my WHS since Jan great too. I also have a drive outside the storage pool for MP TV Server and other apps.

May be of interest Drashna who has written a lot of the guides on http://www.wegotserved.com/ has done his own version of WHS called X:\Files Edition. Think its still got a few bugs to be worked out, but basically it integrates drivers, patches, WMP11 etc; so you don't have to do it post install. Still need a valid licence key obviously.

I may give it a go when I next do an re-install.

 

[logicali]

Can TVServer be used as a stand-alone application solely for the purpose of scheduling/recording TV shows without using the client software for streaming/playing recorded TV? I apologize if this is a really dumb question. I've never used Media Portal before and wasn't clear on this after reading through the TVServer documentation.

Specifically, what I'm trying to do is find something that will allow me to only schedule and record TV shows. Once recorded, I'd convert those shows to a compatible format and store them in a shared folder on my WHS. The reason for this is because I use several different media devices throughout my house for accessing/playing video stored on my WHS (two xbox XBMCs, a networked xbox360 using the dashboard video browser, Boxee on an Ubuntu system, and a laptop with XBMC for Windows).

Previously I had accomplished this with my Windows 7 HTPC and a Haupauge PVR-350 tuner. I'd schedule/record shows, convert them to a format all of my networked media players could play and then put them in the shared media folder of my WHS. However, after upgrading that HTPC to Windows 7 RC x64 and realizing the PVR-350 has no 64-bit drivers available...I can no longer use that box for recording TV.

So instead of buying a new x64 compatible tuner card, I was thinking of installing the PVR-350 in my WHS (since it's always on anyways) and finding a program that would allow me to schedule and record TV from there. As mentioned above, I only need the actual recordings themselves and wouldn't require any streaming functionality for playing those recordings or watching live TV throughout the house.

I've read through these WHS-related threads and understand that this OS isn't officially supported. However, I'd still like to try but want to make sure I'm not confused about how TVServer actually works (ie: can it be used independently of a client for the actual scheduling & recording process). I've read through the various WHS-related installation quirks (.net package requirements, WMP11, recording TV to a drive outside of WHS storage pool, etc) - so I think I'm good to go there.

Thanks in advance for any feedback or advice!

 

[clintebb]

sure will work. i would suggest installing tvserver and then installing mp web interface, and use the web interface from any pc networked in the house or in the world via the internet to set recordings

 

[joit]

clintebb,

is this the web interface you're talking about?
MEDIAPORTAL - free media center - MP Web Interface

does it still work with 1.0.1.0.?

 

[clintebb]

yep thats it.. and to my knowledge it works.. i used it with version 1.0 reinstalled windows and put on the latest MP now but havent got around to configuring the mp web interface.. but i assume it works

 

[logicali]

sure will work. i would suggest installing tvserver and then installing mp web interface, and use the web interface from any pc networked in the house or in the world via the internet to set recordings

Terrific! Thanks for the info & tip about the web interface. A tool like that would be incredibly useful. I'm going to make this my weekend project. Admittedly, I'm still a little nervous about utlizing my WHS this way (as it is my main file/media server for the whole house) - but I'm excited to try it out.

Thanks again to everyone for all of the terrific WHS-related info in this thread. I suspect all of the tips/advice in these posts will save me several hours of additional troubleshooting than if I had just gone in blind.

 

[matis1]

problems with tv card on whs

i got a similar setup with tv server on whs, my problem is that my tv card doesn´t seem to work right under that circumstances. i got a skystar s2hd, which installs without a problem and in the tv server setup finds many channels but not all. Trying to view them gives me a no-signal error.

can anybody confirm that he/she is using this card and comment on the drivers used under whs?
thanks in advance...

 

[Imokles]

Yes, web interface works.
One additional tip: If you are using the fantastic "Lights Out"-WHS-Addin to manage power consumption on your home server, I'd recommend to include "TVService" into the list of services to be closed on hibernate and restarted on wakeup (can be done via the "Lights out"-Tab in the WHS mangement console). This solved all my problems with unresponsiveness of TVService. I haven't needed a single manual restart ever since.

 

[TommySharp]

Has anyone had any problems with the tvservice.exe at about 40% cpu when it's just recording 1 TV show? If a client starts watching live TV then the tvservice.exe jumps to about 80% cpu...?

Hmmm the recoding just ended and tvservice is still between 15% and 30% when doing nothing?

Any thoughts guys?

Can you guys give me an idea of the CPU in your WHS boxes? I went for the ultra low power celeron CPU... Maybe it's not powerful enough?