Germany
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Intro - Who I am
Me, Im DrunkenMaster. I got no professional programming or computerskills. Actually Im just a user. But I want to give it a try. Question is: Can a guy like me setup MediaPortal just like he wants to? Were all here to find it out. Chances are good that the answer will be 'yes' but it will cost some hard lessons for me to go through.
How to read this?
I intend to write this step by step. So I can document what Ive already done and you can maybe learn from my mistakes. I will track open issues and I see foreward to read your comments
Open Issues
Using a TV card in a PC was something completly new for me. So I checked the information given in the wiki for requirements a card must meet to work properly. There is a list of supported cards but at the end of the day the card has to support a so called BDA-Driver. As fas as I understood that that means that the card is able to transmit the tvsource to a thirdparty software wich is in that case MediaPortal of course.
Beside that you have to understand that there a three different types of tv-cards. DVB-T, DVB-S and DVB-C. The last letter indicates the way of transmitting the Tv signal (terrestic, satelite, cable).
The first card I bought was a Technisat Cablestar HD2, a DVB-C card (since I have cable). The card cost about 70€ and had a remote and a slot for a TV Card (that you need to decrypt pay tv). I found it a bit tricky to get that thing running SD. I never made it to run HDt. Later I found out that the card was not able to show multiple channel at one time. So I brought it back.
Note:
If I understootd it right DVB-S cards are able to manage several programms if they provide that feature. DVB-C cards can do that as well but only multiple channels on the same transponder.
Sh**t! So it became obvious that I would need more than one card. That meant I would need a good but not expensive card. I finally took two Technotrend Budget 1501. The installation was easy and I had them up and running wihtin 15 min - no joke! I dont know it by heart but I think they came 50-60€ each. They have no card slot yet but a remote instead. However I had two running cards showing proper TV since then. The remote that came with it.. ya well thats a nother story to tell
The quest for a tv codec
Considering that the tv signal has to be decoded by your tv-card the role of the codec plays a cruicial role. In my case the DVB-C SD-channels produce a decent quality and usually the codec that comes with MP by default is sufficent. However I intended to optimise the picture-quality. Today I am using the LAV-Filter Codec that brings IMHO best possible performance even with SD on a 40" screen. Dont forget, quality is limited by the source. An episode of Star Trek - the next generation will always suffer in quality. If you want to test your codec, watch commercials for they use usually very good quality.
PS I faced some interuptions during normal tv-usage aswell as on recordings. First I assumed the codec or the DVB-EPG to be the reason but then I could identifie a speaker standing to close too my htpc as the error.
Yours
xXDrunkenMaster
Intro - Who I am
Me, Im DrunkenMaster. I got no professional programming or computerskills. Actually Im just a user. But I want to give it a try. Question is: Can a guy like me setup MediaPortal just like he wants to? Were all here to find it out. Chances are good that the answer will be 'yes' but it will cost some hard lessons for me to go through.
How to read this?
I intend to write this step by step. So I can document what Ive already done and you can maybe learn from my mistakes. I will track open issues and I see foreward to read your comments
Open Issues
- WebEPG - For German TV is still a mess since the source changed something in Nov 2011. Im currently trying to setup WebGrap++
- Remote via Android - Im checking out Ampdroid alpha 4 but still got crashes on my tablet. Its an awsome app so its worth waiting for updates
- Setting up MPTVSeries in combination with episodescanner - I still did not managed to setup both tools properly
- Finding the best codec for TV - I found the TV picture quality to be improveable. Im currently checking out several codecs.
- Music serach shows no results
- Install and use Tagthat to organise my MP3 collection
- Find out why MP ignores the order to record tv-series after recording few episodes by "every time on this channel" New*
[*]Setting up a clean Win 7 system
[*]Find and install a good DVB-C Card
[*]Install and configure MP
[*]Configure the TV Server
[*]Setup a powermanagement
[*]Install a new skin
[*]Install Fanarthandler
Using a TV card in a PC was something completly new for me. So I checked the information given in the wiki for requirements a card must meet to work properly. There is a list of supported cards but at the end of the day the card has to support a so called BDA-Driver. As fas as I understood that that means that the card is able to transmit the tvsource to a thirdparty software wich is in that case MediaPortal of course.
Beside that you have to understand that there a three different types of tv-cards. DVB-T, DVB-S and DVB-C. The last letter indicates the way of transmitting the Tv signal (terrestic, satelite, cable).
The first card I bought was a Technisat Cablestar HD2, a DVB-C card (since I have cable). The card cost about 70€ and had a remote and a slot for a TV Card (that you need to decrypt pay tv). I found it a bit tricky to get that thing running SD. I never made it to run HDt. Later I found out that the card was not able to show multiple channel at one time. So I brought it back.
Note:
If I understootd it right DVB-S cards are able to manage several programms if they provide that feature. DVB-C cards can do that as well but only multiple channels on the same transponder.
Sh**t! So it became obvious that I would need more than one card. That meant I would need a good but not expensive card. I finally took two Technotrend Budget 1501. The installation was easy and I had them up and running wihtin 15 min - no joke! I dont know it by heart but I think they came 50-60€ each. They have no card slot yet but a remote instead. However I had two running cards showing proper TV since then. The remote that came with it.. ya well thats a nother story to tell
The quest for a tv codec
Considering that the tv signal has to be decoded by your tv-card the role of the codec plays a cruicial role. In my case the DVB-C SD-channels produce a decent quality and usually the codec that comes with MP by default is sufficent. However I intended to optimise the picture-quality. Today I am using the LAV-Filter Codec that brings IMHO best possible performance even with SD on a 40" screen. Dont forget, quality is limited by the source. An episode of Star Trek - the next generation will always suffer in quality. If you want to test your codec, watch commercials for they use usually very good quality.
PS I faced some interuptions during normal tv-usage aswell as on recordings. First I assumed the codec or the DVB-EPG to be the reason but then I could identifie a speaker standing to close too my htpc as the error.
Yours
xXDrunkenMaster
