First of all let me start by saying a BIG thanks to everyone involved in the development of MediaPortal it is easily the best HTPC software around. The community involvement in the project is huge and thats what makes it so good keep up the good work everyone!
Now I was looking through the forums and failed to find a start to finish setup guide for Vista (which i have just now decided to use rather than XP) So for everyone thinking of setting up with Vista I though i would right quick guide to hopefully make the process a bit less painful.
First of all here are my HW specs for the build:
Samsung 46" LCD
46" full high definition 100Hz LCD TV Series 6 46inch (LA46A650) - LCD TV - television | SAMSUNG
Onkyo AV Reciver
A/V Receivers : TX-SR606 | ONKYO Asia and Oceania Website
Jamo 5.1 Speakers
Antec Fusion Case (has VDF but not the remote)
Antec - Fusion Remote
Mainboard - GA-EG45M-UD2H
GIGABYTE - Product - Motherboard - Overview - GA-EG45M-UD2H (rev. 1.0)
CPU E7500 Core 2 @ 2.93GHz
RAM Corsair TWIN2X4096F
http://www.corsairmemory.com/products/go.aspx?pn=TWIN2X4096-8500C5DF
HDD
1 x 500GB WD
1 x 1TB SAMSUNG
Optical Drive
Pioneer Blu-Ray (cant remember the model)
I have the MCE remote keyboard and receiver, however to control the system i use my Harmony 785
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/remotes/universal_remotes/devices/370&cl=au,en
The software I used was:
Vista SP1
MediaPortal (no TV Server)
Moving Pictures
MP-TV Series
StreamedMP
UltraVNC
IR Server Suite
MCE Replacement Plugin
Kaspersky Internet Security
PowerDVD9 Ultra
TreaCopy
DirSyncPro
OK onto the setup....
This was my second attempt at installing vista on this system so this will include some of the problems I found and how i fixed them.
Install OS but DO NOT RUN WINDOWS UPDATE
I found that some of the latest security updates messed up some of my plug ins particularly IR Server Suite.
Next Install all the latest drivers configure as appropriate, only issue i had with this was that i found the Intel TV Wizard didnt pickup my display so I had to manually adjust the screen res.
Next customise the OS, here is a list of the things i tweaked, and yes im sure there was a lot more things i could turn off however on my first attempt i turned a lot more things off like theme support help ect ect but i had no end of issues getting things working so i left them on this time and things went much smoother.
- System Restore
- UAC
- Windows Sidebar
- HID Service
- Automatic Updates
- All Windows Media center Services
- Wireless
I also changed the power scheme to high performance to allow it to use the full power of the hardware.
I also enabled automatic log in (Windows + R then type netplwiz)
The next thing I did was configure all my windows shares and start to install my software. Now normal I would install my AV software first however I found that this was interfering with my installs such as UltraVNC and StreamedMP.
Now I installed the latest JAVA, Flash and .NET.
Next was UltraVNC, TreaCopy DirSyncPro and IR Server Suite.
Now for MediaPortal itself as mentioned I dont use the TV Server as I have the FoxtelIQ2 for my TV Recording, It trys to download and old version of Direct X, but just let it go and it should install fine.
Then I installed my Skins and plug ins and configured as appropriate.
The codec's I used was SAF for MediaPortal
Next was PowerDVD9 and finally kaspersky AV, Some tips for Kaspersky users (however im sure others would have ran into similar issues)
- I only installed File and Application Firewall component as i dont intend to do and surfing on the machine
- Do NOT enable Self Defense during install, this will prevent you remote control software from changing settings in Kaspersky
- You will need to add some programs into the exclusions to get things working I had to add IR Server application and translator as well as UltraVNC (I found I had issue with IR server constantly crashing if I didnt do this)
Next I ran msconfig and disabled all the pesky little things that ran on boot that i didnt need.
Ok the next bit was getting all my remote working and the BluRay integration.
Im using PowerDVD for both my BluRay and DVD's as i found all the regular MCE buttons (ie Play Pause skip ect) all worked fine with my remote without having to change a thing.
Im using the MultiShortcut plugin to launch PowerDVD from the Basic Home Menu in StreamedMP (https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/tips-tricks-133/screensaver-home-basichome-51175/)
As far as setting up my remote goes, I used the Logitech Application to setup the remote with my devices with all the default options except for the following.
- created 4 custom buttons and mapped them to the green red blue and yellow MCE remote buttons
- StartMP this starts media portal or returns focus if its lost
- Watch Disc this starts PowerDVD with the following switches /fullscreen e: (the letter of my BluRay Drive)
- Fullscreen this just toggles between gui and fullscreen (mapped using MCE Replacement Plugin)
- FixIT! this launches a batch file that force quits Media Portal and Power DVD then restarts Media portal
Here is the batch file.
taskkill /im mediaportal.exe /f
taskkill /im powerdvd9.exe /f
ping localhost
start medaiportal.exe
Make sure you have a ping in there or MP will not launch as it will try to lunch as taskkill is still trying to close it.
With this if my GF or room mate cant get it to work all they need to do is press this button and 9/10 it will fix the issue but restarting media portal.
The buttons mentioned above are all launched using the IR Server translator app.
thats it! My HTPC is now running PERFECT it simple and easy to use (if my GF can use it anyone can) plus it full of features to keep me happy.
I next week im going to look at installing MyTrailers, which i did have working on XP so i dont think it will be an issue.
Anyway that was a very long post but im hoping it will save some of you the time and effort of troubleshooting the issue I had when building my HTPC
Now I was looking through the forums and failed to find a start to finish setup guide for Vista (which i have just now decided to use rather than XP) So for everyone thinking of setting up with Vista I though i would right quick guide to hopefully make the process a bit less painful.
First of all here are my HW specs for the build:
Samsung 46" LCD
46" full high definition 100Hz LCD TV Series 6 46inch (LA46A650) - LCD TV - television | SAMSUNG
Onkyo AV Reciver
A/V Receivers : TX-SR606 | ONKYO Asia and Oceania Website
Jamo 5.1 Speakers
Antec Fusion Case (has VDF but not the remote)
Antec - Fusion Remote
Mainboard - GA-EG45M-UD2H
GIGABYTE - Product - Motherboard - Overview - GA-EG45M-UD2H (rev. 1.0)
CPU E7500 Core 2 @ 2.93GHz
RAM Corsair TWIN2X4096F
http://www.corsairmemory.com/products/go.aspx?pn=TWIN2X4096-8500C5DF
HDD
1 x 500GB WD
1 x 1TB SAMSUNG
Optical Drive
Pioneer Blu-Ray (cant remember the model)
I have the MCE remote keyboard and receiver, however to control the system i use my Harmony 785
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/remotes/universal_remotes/devices/370&cl=au,en
The software I used was:
Vista SP1
MediaPortal (no TV Server)
Moving Pictures
MP-TV Series
StreamedMP
UltraVNC
IR Server Suite
MCE Replacement Plugin
Kaspersky Internet Security
PowerDVD9 Ultra
TreaCopy
DirSyncPro
OK onto the setup....
This was my second attempt at installing vista on this system so this will include some of the problems I found and how i fixed them.
Install OS but DO NOT RUN WINDOWS UPDATE
I found that some of the latest security updates messed up some of my plug ins particularly IR Server Suite.
Next Install all the latest drivers configure as appropriate, only issue i had with this was that i found the Intel TV Wizard didnt pickup my display so I had to manually adjust the screen res.
Next customise the OS, here is a list of the things i tweaked, and yes im sure there was a lot more things i could turn off however on my first attempt i turned a lot more things off like theme support help ect ect but i had no end of issues getting things working so i left them on this time and things went much smoother.
- System Restore
- UAC
- Windows Sidebar
- HID Service
- Automatic Updates
- All Windows Media center Services
- Wireless
I also changed the power scheme to high performance to allow it to use the full power of the hardware.
I also enabled automatic log in (Windows + R then type netplwiz)
The next thing I did was configure all my windows shares and start to install my software. Now normal I would install my AV software first however I found that this was interfering with my installs such as UltraVNC and StreamedMP.
Now I installed the latest JAVA, Flash and .NET.
Next was UltraVNC, TreaCopy DirSyncPro and IR Server Suite.
Now for MediaPortal itself as mentioned I dont use the TV Server as I have the FoxtelIQ2 for my TV Recording, It trys to download and old version of Direct X, but just let it go and it should install fine.
Then I installed my Skins and plug ins and configured as appropriate.
The codec's I used was SAF for MediaPortal
Next was PowerDVD9 and finally kaspersky AV, Some tips for Kaspersky users (however im sure others would have ran into similar issues)
- I only installed File and Application Firewall component as i dont intend to do and surfing on the machine
- Do NOT enable Self Defense during install, this will prevent you remote control software from changing settings in Kaspersky
- You will need to add some programs into the exclusions to get things working I had to add IR Server application and translator as well as UltraVNC (I found I had issue with IR server constantly crashing if I didnt do this)
Next I ran msconfig and disabled all the pesky little things that ran on boot that i didnt need.
Ok the next bit was getting all my remote working and the BluRay integration.
Im using PowerDVD for both my BluRay and DVD's as i found all the regular MCE buttons (ie Play Pause skip ect) all worked fine with my remote without having to change a thing.
Im using the MultiShortcut plugin to launch PowerDVD from the Basic Home Menu in StreamedMP (https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/tips-tricks-133/screensaver-home-basichome-51175/)
As far as setting up my remote goes, I used the Logitech Application to setup the remote with my devices with all the default options except for the following.
- created 4 custom buttons and mapped them to the green red blue and yellow MCE remote buttons
- StartMP this starts media portal or returns focus if its lost
- Watch Disc this starts PowerDVD with the following switches /fullscreen e: (the letter of my BluRay Drive)
- Fullscreen this just toggles between gui and fullscreen (mapped using MCE Replacement Plugin)
- FixIT! this launches a batch file that force quits Media Portal and Power DVD then restarts Media portal
Here is the batch file.
taskkill /im mediaportal.exe /f
taskkill /im powerdvd9.exe /f
ping localhost
start medaiportal.exe
Make sure you have a ping in there or MP will not launch as it will try to lunch as taskkill is still trying to close it.
With this if my GF or room mate cant get it to work all they need to do is press this button and 9/10 it will fix the issue but restarting media portal.
The buttons mentioned above are all launched using the IR Server translator app.
thats it! My HTPC is now running PERFECT it simple and easy to use (if my GF can use it anyone can) plus it full of features to keep me happy.
I next week im going to look at installing MyTrailers, which i did have working on XP so i dont think it will be an issue.
Anyway that was a very long post but im hoping it will save some of you the time and effort of troubleshooting the issue I had when building my HTPC