Theydons HTPC and PC upgrade Project

[Theydon Bois]

Cheers Mickwall, I am happy enough at the moment with it, and will look deeper into things later - I love mucking about with things and can get away with it for a period of time while the missus is about, but then spend the evenings when everyone is asleep to fine tune things.

My missus likes it even more that I was looking at infra red dimmer switches..

[Theydon Bois]

I had a small brainwave on the way home on the tube (I am normally the one asleep, dribbling on myself) regarding KMPlayer and Media Portal.

Normally, exiting from an avi (or mkv), pressing stop on my remote causes KMPlayer to 'break' - I get a small KMPlayer box, part of a black screen, and the windows desktop in the background, and it looks a mess. To return to Media Portals front end, I then press the exit app button on my remote, which sends a ALT+F4 command, kills KMPlayer, and I get returned to Media Portal.

However, if at the 'broken screen', I press any of the other buttons, it removes KMPlayer from the foremost app, and the remote control loses which app its in and no commands work, exept Power off or Exit App. Messy, and you have to return to the keyboard to get back control (by bringing KMPlayer to the foreground and killing it.)

So, I just mapped ALT+F4 to the stop button instead. Now when done with a avi, it just returns to Media Portal without the messy screen. Job done

[Janusian]

How do you map buttons to a remote. I have a Logitech Harmony 555 remote, and the software doesn't seem to allow me to map to individual key functions.

[Theydon Bois]

I am using the iMon software and Zalman Remote that came with my case.

Within iMon software, you can customise the remote based on the app currently being used, and map keys as you see fit. So I added the KMPlayer app to the list of programs the remote can use, which defaultly brought over commands such as stop, pause etc, and then I just remapped the stop button to ALT+F4 (to completely exit the app) instead of spacebar (or whatever it was) which would normally just stop the avi that was playing.

Although I have a Harmony 525, I have not yet replaced it, prefering to get all my kit up and running with the original remote first, as otherwise, I am one of those that would end up chucking the Harmony into a wall if it did something that should have worked

[davidegee]

Hi,

Your tvseries set up looks very nice. i can't seem to get any images/banners to show, in the setup or media portal itself. Any tips?

Thanks

[Theydon Bois]

You have the TVSeries plugin installed and activated? And most importantly, internet access to your HTPC?

Open the Media Portal configuration, and at the boton of the options, go to the plug-in section. There on the right, you will see the TVSeries icon. Right click on that and select properties.

This will open the TVSeries plugin.

On the first tab, based on what you have said, your list will be empty. You need to go the the second? (sorry, doing this from memory, will add pics later if this does not help) which is called Parsing.

You need to make sure the configuration is pointed at the folder in which your TV series is kept, and then hit the parse button. A series of boxes will pop up asking to either confirm the show name, or the order in which the show aired (for some reasons DVD releases can alter from Aired releases in some shows, though obviously not 24 )

To confirm everything has been picked up, check the front page, and your list of programs should now have appeared.

[davidegee]

Hi,

Thanks for your response.

I have the plugin working, just not the graphics. I'm using project mayhem skin and still have no luck. Guess i'll have to keep trying things!

Thanks

[Alister Willis]

Just wanted to chime in here with my thanks for this thread.

I've been following it carefully as I'm going to be embarking on my on HTPC build shortly and have been experimenting with Meda Portal and the TVSeries plug in along with the monochrome skin (which I think I prefer to the default).

It's looking good so far. No doubt I'll have some questions once I finally embark on the build

[davidegee]

i think my banners problem may be related to Kapersky. I'm not at home to test now but fingers crossed!

[Theydon Bois]

Yes, yes, still tinkering...... Its not my fault if the Monochrome skin gets an upgrade, and the TVseries plug-in goes up a notch!

Monochrome 1.7

Not sure if it was me (and it probably was) but if you go back a few pages, my text did not line up properly - I kept reading that the orignal designer had made this skin for 1368x720, and so my 1080p screen was throwing things out slightly.

The text after the colon now does not bunch up and overwrite the text prefixing the colon.

TV Series Plug-in v2.00

I had seen the fan art on some of the people showing off their TVSeries screenshots, but hadn't realised how stunning it looks until its on the big screen. Makes a world of difference from previous shots on earlier pages in my thread.

It did however take me nigh on 2hrs? to work out where to put the fan art (C:\ProgramData\Team Media Portal\MediaPortal\thumbs\fan art\) and make sure you dont rename the jpg's, just leave them as the number, as this relates to its tvdb reference.

You can get the fan art for the shows here: (and thats where the pics below come from) www.thetvdb.com

As if we need an excuse to show lovely ladies.....

Hurly in 1080p....

More ladies, although likely to rip your arm off and batter you to death with the soggy end.

[chalkywhyte]

Loving this set up Theydon.

Why cant Media Centre look this good LOL

[Theydon Bois]

Working on this now, hopefully will get to a point when I can list my specs and config without going through all my random thoughts

[chalkywhyte]

Quick Question Theydon.
Can you play a video_ts folder in media portal? Or do you have to delve deeper and click on the individual vob?


Thanks

Chalky.

[Theydon Bois]

I personally dont, no. Not sure if PowerDVD 7.3730 can, or if it was removed.

If you have the video_ts foldor structure though, you should be able to make an ISO from that, and I know PD plays Deamon tool mounted ISOs.

[dunks517]

Originally Posted by chalkywhyte

Quick Question Theydon.
Can you play a video_ts folder in media portal? Or do you have to delve deeper and click on the individual vob?


Thanks

Chalky.

Chalky, Yes you can - you just click on the file from within 'My Videos'.

Duncs