USB-UIRT Zones (1 Viewer)

[Caree]

I'm a new user, wanting to move from SageTV to MediaPortal.

In the process of configuration, I can't see a way to set up zones for the USB-UIRT. I have 2 Hauppauge HD-PVR's with separate STB's. So I would need MP to be able to change channels on each individually. There was a work around with separate STB config files with SageTV to make this work. Is there a way to do this with MP?

The USB-UIRT drivers are available in MP, and the device by default has the ability to have 3 zones. Am I missing how to set up zones for separate tuners?

I have searched the forum and Google, and only found some only inquiries with no solutions.

If I can't use both of my Hauppauge HD-PVR's and STB's then I can't switch to MP. Can anyone offer a new user some constructive advice for this, or is multiple STB control not possible with MP?

Thanks.

 

[gtfreymann]

I'm not sure what you mean by "zones"?

I came from SageTV too. I have two external satellite receivers that need to be controlled separately and I'm doing this with MP.

I'm using a Microsoft MCE IR Transceiver. It has two jacks on the beanbag. I ran a separate IR Blaster from each port to the two receivers.

In the IR Server Software, when I setup my tuner cards and such, I would use Port 1 on the first card, and Port 2 on the second card (for external channel changing).

Perhaps this wiki page may help with that part of things?

Set Top Box Blasting - MediaPortal Wiki

Perhaps the USB UIRT calls those jacks "zones"?

 

[Caree]

Thanks for the reply gtfreymann.

That's exactly the type of info I was looking for. Here they appear to be calling zones ports. I believe the manufacturer of the USB-UIRT calls the ports zones, as well the codes in the IR streams are Z1, Z2, Z3, as I had to set them up manually for SageTV.

I moved to SageTV less than a year ago from BeyondTV, after SnapStream quietly discontinued it, or at the very least have no intentions of updating it. Now I am considering doing the same with SageTV after the Google purchase. Any suggestions or comments you can offer a person moving from SageTV to MP to make things easier, or what the biggest hurdles you had were when switching?

Thanks.

 

[gtfreymann]

The biggest difference for me was no longer having one central database of your pics/music/videos. Your TV is handled properly with client/server relationships but each client builds and maintains its own db of pics/music/videos. I set up 5 to 6 clients and it takes a long time to catalog your media having to do it on each client.

I referred to this web page:

MediaPortal Setup Guide

when I was doing my initial build. Being in Canada there are a few items that don't work here (Pandora for instance) but it was a great help to get me going.

You will want to install Moving Pictures and MP TV Series for sure. Both are awesome. I also install:

SAF
Amped Skin
Fan Art Handler
OnlineVideos
track-it
Info Service
Extensions

For my logos with Bell Satellite, I copied over the logo set from SageTV and renamed them as needed.

After installing MP and my plugins, the first thing I do is jump into MP Config and set up the Fan Art Handler before importing my media.

I never used last.fm or follow-it before MP and I really like those features/programs too.

We really liked SageTV but not being to expand due to the store being closed down did me in. I wanted to add more HD300's and now you can't get them so I went looking for alternatives. I started using SageTV just as it was rolling out version 7 and funny enough I started with MP during the end of 1.2.0 Beta and am now running MP 1.2.1 -- looks like I came around at the right time again!

I really enjoy the way MP and the skins use the Fan Art. SageTV was doing a pretty good job but I think MP wins there hands down.

The only negative I have with MP vs. SageTV is the TV Scheduler. SageTV had plenty of useful options when we wanted to record a series. Sadly, the wealth of recording options in SageTV don't exist in MP and I have to babysit the scheduled shows to ensure it's recording the right thing.

I just convinced a friend of mine to try MP 1.2.1 and am heading over there this afternoon to fine tune his settings and show him around. He will have two clients and no TV server so his setup is going to be much easier... other than having to spend time cataloging all his media on both machines.

I highly recommend you spend some time checking out MP. I don't think you'll be disappointed at all.

 

[Caree]

That's all great information and advice, thanks for takingthe time to pass that along. I'm also in Canada - Winnipeg.

I have been reading some of the docs, and have installed the server/client on one PC so far, and been messing with the configs on both server and client. One thing I am still a little confused on or missing, or maybe it simply isn't intuitive on MP, but where do I get/download the TV Guide info from?

I see the manual channel setups for each tuner device, but I seem to be missing where the global TV guides/EPG info is, and where it downloads it from. The TV scheduling isn't all manual is it, by selecting the date and time? I was hoping for a self scheduling TV guide for TV shows much like SageTV, where you simply select the show and it looks after finding the date, times, and what's already been watched. Or is that what you mean by MP needs to be babysat?

Thanks again for the help.

 

[gtfreymann]

On that MP Setup Guide link I gave you is a section on Schedules Direct.

MediaPortal Setup Guide

I think it costs $20 US a year. Install the plugin, give it your Schedules Direct username and password and you go.

You can search for a show and then set it up to be recorded quite easily... or when you're flipping through the guide you can set up a program to be recorded. I just find the options for recording a show aren't very good or I'm just not understanding the options.

Schedule Recordings - MediaPortal Wiki

 

[Caree]

Thanks for that tip. I did sign up for the Schedules Direct service, and spent a fair bit of time working with MP.

My experience so far is that I'm impressed and fairly happy with everything MP has to offer except for TV setup, scheduling and channels. MP appears to be incredibly time consuming, complex and awkward when setting up channels and tuners. Far more work involved in getting my system going than BeyondTV and SageTV when it comes to the TV section. Everything else is no better or worse than any other DVR type software I've used when it comes to setup.

I have 2 Hauppauge HD-PVR's, and I can't get them to work with MP, which for me is more important than the SD tuners. There are claims and rumors in the MP forum of a few people that apparently got the HD-PVR working with MP, but the only docs appear to be a forum thread that is well over 100 pages long and I can't find a single one of these people having created a how-to. After spending many hours in research and experimenting, I gave up.

I currently use 2 channel line ups for tuners in SageTV, one for SD and one for HD/SD channels, I can't figure out how to group the channels for 2 lineups and make it easy to simply add a complete lineup to a tuner. It appears that you have to manually move channels basically one at a time to each tuner. I grouped my lineups thinking that "groups" could be used this way, only to discover that I think groups are for selecting channels for watching, not for program guides for tuners at setup. Unless I'm missing something of course.

I now see what you mean about the recording selections being something to be desired in MP. SageTV recording options are far superior. In fact in MP they seem to be similar to BeyondTV. Rather disappointing when you are used to SageTV. Does the recording scheduler actually search out new unwatched episodes, or does it only record the same time slot each week or each day?

MP looks great for playing and listing videos and movies, I see what you mean about the media handling features for videos/movies being better than in SageTV. And I see what you mean about each PC running MP having it's own setup and DB and setting each one up. One advantage to this is that even if your media server application goes down, you can still watch the media on the "clients" since they don't require the server app to be running. I guess there are trade offs each way, client/server and with stand alone setups.

In my opinion, good DVR software revolves around a good user friendly EPG and recording options. So I have to say I'm really disappointed so far with the TV setup and recording features in MP. But from what I've seen and read, so are they in NextPVR and MythTV, so I guess after SageTV stops working, we have no options left for good non-commercial/non-DRM DVR scheduling software left out there. Good media players are out there already, and MP is definitely one of them at the top end. But a "great" DVR it is not, based on my experience so far.

Thanks again gtfreymann for the help and advice. I appreciate your time!

 

[gtfreymann]

My experience so far is that I'm impressed and fairly happy with everything MP has to offer except for TV setup, scheduling and channels. MP appears to be incredibly time consuming, complex and awkward when setting up channels and tuners. Far more work involved in getting my system going than BeyondTV and SageTV when it comes to the TV section. Everything else is no better or worse than any other DVR type software I've used when it comes to setup.

Remember, like anything "new" there's a learning curve. I was just as lost initially with SageTV as I was with Media Portal (and MythBuntu, LinuxMCE, etc).

I thought I would have to add every channel individually, but I just set some options and the TV Server added all the channels I receive automatically. From there it was a simple matter of highlighting the first, scrolling to the bottom and ctrl-click to highlight the entire roster, and then hitting the right arrow to add them to tuner 1, then doing the same thing to add the same channels to tuner 2.

It took me a while to figure that out, but really, it took only minutes in the end. I spent more time renaming all my tv icons than I did setting up my channels.

I have 2 Hauppauge HD-PVR's, and I can't get them to work with MP, which for me is more important than the SD tuners.

I'm still stuck in the stone ages when it comes to the TV so I haven't had to struggle with any of the HD tunes. However the forums here are helpful. Feel free to start a new thread that deals with this specific issue and I'm sure somebody will be able to help you.

I now see what you mean about the recording selections being something to be desired in MP. SageTV recording options are far superior. In fact in MP they seem to be similar to BeyondTV. Rather disappointing when you are used to SageTV. Does the recording scheduler actually search out new unwatched episodes, or does it only record the same time slot each week or each day?

My best advice is to read over that wiki page I listed and try to understand what the 8 or so options are for.

I've been settling on record each week on this channel lately. The old "record every week on this channel at this time" thing is not very reliable when your show is moved. But again, it's a learning curve I guess.

MP looks great for playing and listing videos and movies, I see what you mean about the media handling features for videos/movies being better than in SageTV. And I see what you mean about each PC running MP having it's own setup and DB and setting each one up. One advantage to this is that even if your media server application goes down, you can still watch the media on the "clients" since they don't require the server app to be running. I guess there are trade offs each way, client/server and with stand alone setups.

I'm happy to say that my friend got MP setup at his place and all I did Sunday was fine tune it for him. On his big 50 inch screen both Amped and StreamedMP skins looked awesome.

In my opinion, good DVR software revolves around a good user friendly EPG and recording options. So I have to say I'm really disappointed so far with the TV setup and recording features in MP. But from what I've seen and read, so are they in NextPVR and MythTV, so I guess after SageTV stops working, we have no options left for good non-commercial/non-DRM DVR scheduling software left out there. Good media players are out there already, and MP is definitely one of them at the top end. But a "great" DVR it is not, based on my experience so far.

Well, there is another alternative if you're willing to muck with your system even more.

For the Record is a TV Server replacement. It will give you all the nice scheduling options we enjoyed with SageTV. I have not tried this as I don't think we really need it and I didn't want to maintain yet another program. But have a look, you may not be firghtened by it:

https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/mediaportal-plugins-47/record-1-6-a-60390/

For The Record

Now that I've used MP for a couple months, and experimented and reinstalled from scratch a couple times, I can find my way around pretty good. The new extension manager is much like what we had in Sage and the Forums here are a great resource and seem to be quite friendly.

Keep tinkering! Hopefully you can get your HD-PVR's working.