Operating System Vista Media Portal Setup Guide (1 Viewer)

[kyleh0000]

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

 

[DiscoDvergen]

Any easy and user friendly way of getting rid of Vista MCE? I got it away before I did a full clean and started over, but it was a mess. I've done some searching and can't find a smooth way to get completely rid of it, from green button startup, DVD startup etc etc

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/155147-post2.html
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/196060-post12.html

Above will show you how to disable Vista MCE, first is Ultimate, second is home Premium.

MPTray is used to start MP with the windows button.

 

[OnkelChris]

ok... i think i can add a little bit. my vista MP is running since monday.

my hardware:
Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H
AMD Athlon X2 3800+
1GB RAM
500GB WD Green HDD
Nova-T 500 DVB-T
Antec Fusion Micro 350
Philips SRM5100 Remote

this is how i configured the Vista Business SP1 x86:

- installed vista
- installed drivers
- run windows update
- uninstalled some useles windows-built-in features e.g. printer, tablet-pc...
- deactivated some services e.g. firewall, defender, security center...
- energy options on maximum, so there is no screensaver or standby
- registered MPC-HC video codec
- installed MP
- installed eventghost and messageplugin (the srm5100 has no "repeat" in MP... with eventghost there is no need for the replacement driver and for the basic functions of the remote it's more than enough)
- added some features e.g. comskip, mencoder...
- configured the soundcard for exclusive mode (seems to be important in vista using digital out)

that's all for using MP... if u want to use BluRay you have to do some more installation/configuration.


hope this will help some people out there

btw:
i think, winXP is the better choice for a HTPC. hope i can try win7 next week. will give some response, when i am finished with that

 

[bryansj]

I'm running a similar setup:

Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H Mobo, Intel E8400, 4GB RAM, 1TB WD Green Int. HDD, 1.5TB of WD MyBook Ext. HDD, Antec Fusion v2 running only one 120mm fan, Vista Ultimate x86 running Media Portal using a Harmony 890 and Onkyo 805.

For your IR Server Suite did you first install the iMon software and then disable it in msconfig.exe? This is what I did to an existing install and everything now works. I'm afraid to uninstall the iMon software since I assumed IRSS needs the drivers and .dll files to run. I am considering a format reinstall in the next week or so now that I've nailed down my software requirements. My current install has been through hell and I assume a reinstall would knock out a couple little bugs I'm having. Just wondering about the iMon software since it is something that I would love to leave off during a reinstall.