MediaPortal Setup Guide

Will poss listen to your advice and go with mp1 just hope the upgrade route to mo2 is simple

There will not be an "upgrade" route, consider it as a completely different piece of software (it's architecure is completely different). MP2 Alpha currently still uses the MP1.2.2 Server-Side system in anycase (and probably will do for more than a year - and even when the Server-Side MP2 is released it will be an alpha release and very buggy). It is also likely that sucessive versions of MP2 will require the user to uninstall and re-install rather than "upgrade", so using MP2 does not help you from that side of thinga ar the moment. MP2 is currently released to the community for testing and development, not for use on "production systems".

Still a little confused on tv cards despite reading everything

I hear mp can record multiple channels at once from a single tuner, I thought that would mean I can watch channels independently on clients but it doesn't appear so

My question is then if I get a dual tuner s2 (recommendations?) then will it only allow me to have two independent clients, any other client would have to watch same as one of the two clients basically same as my sky multiroom and an additional room using magic eye

You can watch/record more than one channel using a single tuner, but the channels being used simultaneously must all be on the same "Mux" (frequency). You need to look at Kingofsat (DVB-S/S2) or UKFree.tv (DVB-T/T2) to work out what channels cohabit the same muxes and try again.

Assuming you currently only have one tuner installed, then one easy way to tell, is to start watching TV with client 1 and then try to watch the same channel on client 2 (which should work). Now, using client 2, bring up the mini-guide OSD (press "enter" on the keyboard or "OK" on your remote). On the right hand side of the mini-guide will be red and green icons corresponding to each channel. The red icons means that there are no free cards to watch this channel, and the green will mean that there is an available card to watch that channel. Basically, the available channels will only be the channels that are on the same mux as the channel that is being watched on client 1.

However, if you want two clients to have completely un-hampered use of any channel at the same time, you have to have two tuners (or three tuners if you also want to be able to record from any channel at the same time as too).

Please let me know where I need to tweak my guide to make it clearer for people.

Thanks

Robbo100
 
OK everyone, sorry for not having completed the guide. I know I said I thought I would manage it by today, but it has taken slightly more effort than I expected.

Anyway, the guide is sufficiently complete that anyone can get to a completely working system, and the plugins are easy to find and install so completing some of those bits are not urgent at the moment.

If anyone actually tries using the guide (I hope someone does) then please give me some feedback if there are any areas that are unclear or confusing.

Thanks

Robbo100
 
I'd say continue at your own pace, doesn't have to be quick. Just complete! Really good so far!
 
Hi Robbo ,

Great guide :smashin:

I've been using MediaPortal since I first set up my HTPC , and for all my TV viewing in my living room since I cancelled Sky ,and thanks to constant fiddling (and practice ), I can be up and running in an hour or so from scratch if need be , but wouldn't be able to do such a good writeup / guide as you have done :smashin:


The best piece of advice I can give for MediaPortal is make regular/monthly backups of the installation folders -
C/Program Data/Team Mediaportal , and
C/Program Files (x86)/Team MediaPortal .

That way , it's easy to recover from any mishaps , corrupted files / databases etc.



Quick question for you -
What's the difference between using "IEPG data 1" for DVB-S2 EPG data and "Freesat Info" ?

I've been using "Freesat Info" since I started , and still do .
Would I gain anything by switching ?

Thanks.
 
Quick question for you -
What's the difference between using "IEPG data 1" for DVB-S2 EPG data and "Freesat Info" ?

I've been using "Freesat Info" since I started , and still do .
Would I gain anything by switching ?

Hmmmm, I have always just ticked both, but I was under the impression that it was the IEPG data 1 was the item that pulled the data off - I might just Freesat Info to the guide (to be sure).

I will add a section on backing up, thanks for the prompt.
 
I've just used it tonight and it's a bible mate, if you ever find time to finish it would be immense but to be fair you've done a lot of work

I'm sure this will be used by many and you'll have helped of us to move over to mediaportal

I am delighted to hear that someone has actually used it and it worked for them. Please let me have any feedback where I might make corrections or improvements.

I will definitely finish it.
 
Hi,

I am delighted to hear that someone has actually used it and it worked for them. Please let me have any feedback where I might make corrections or improvements.

I'm in the middle of re-working my HTPC with a new SSD and have used your guide to install MediaPortal rather than 7MC. It has worked really well, there is no way I would have got this far without your help.

I'm just starting to experiment with Plug-ins and Skins so any expansion of the guide in these areas would be great.

Thanks

David
 
Hi David.

I will definitely have a good bit of time on Monday night to develop the skin and plugin section.

Thanks for the feedback.

Robbo100
 
OK.

"Moving Pictures", and a fair bit of "skins" done tonight, plus I have added the list of plugins that I am likely to talk about.

Robbo100
 
ok moved onto TV last night, could not of got anywhere near without this guide, the TV side is a beast.

Couple of things re this guide

- Music is there a moving pictures type databse management, i hear about mptagthat is that the the kind of thing?

- For TV in your guide it states that using two tuners identically i wouldn't have to group channels (mine both s2 tuned to astra), i still get four or five versions of BBC for instance, is that normal? If so how do i syfer through what is junk and what is the channel i need? I may of missed this part in the guide was it favourates??

The wiki is good for mediaportal but for new comers this is perfect! You can learn once you up and running but without that you can easily be scared off mediaportal
 
I am delighted that it helped so much!

- Music is there a moving pictures type databse management, i hear about mptagthat is that the the kind of thing?

The music database itself does this for you. It will automatically grab your pre-stored album artwork and display this within the client. When you use the client there are a number of "Views" you can select using the context menu. the "Shares" view is simply a list of files as it appears in your music folder, but the other views are database views (e.g. "Album Artist" which will group your music by this category). If you install the Fanart Handler plugin, this will download and fill gaps with your music pictures and also add fanart backdrops (when coupled with the correct skin). I suggest you install StreamedMP skin and it will put Fanart Handler on your system by default.

For TV in your guide it states that using two tuners identically i wouldn't have to group channels (mine both s2 tuned to astra), i still get four or five versions of BBC for instance, is that normal? If so how do i syfer through what is junk and what is the channel i need? I may of missed this part in the guide was it favourates??

Are you referring to the different regional variations of BBC channels. With DVB-S/S2 you will get all those regions sent to you because it doesn't know where in the country you are. If there are 4-5 copies of each regional variation, then this is not right. Let me know which case it is and I can help more.
 
Yes it's the regional variations, is favourites the way to streamline your channel guide, basically I want to be able to hide many channels including regional variations,

Actually think I've done one of the steps incorrectly, will go back through the guide as I remember I selected all channels at some point

Also music will have a look at that and streamed mp tonight, currently using Avalon but desperate for the new Titan skin
 
You should only Copy the channels you want included within a streamlined list in to the favourites group.

The music views will work with any skin and you can install Fanart Handler independently using MPEI.
 
Great write up Robbo... certainly far better than anything I could have achieved.
 
ok got TV working epg is going to be a lot of work, couple of things regarding TV:

Do you use TV server or 4TR? Appearrs a lot of poeple prefer 4TR and Argus

If i was to go with 4TR + Argus will your sky subscription guide still work (i pay for the channels) or am i safer sticking with MP TV server
 
My sky guide will be similar to that needed for 4TR, but will not work in its current form because the directory structure and sequence will be wrong.

I don't like 4TR because I find it doesn't work as well in client server mode very well, but I know others like it and it has some advantages (like a better web interface).

I won't be providing a 4TR guide or support because I am not an expert (not that I am a particular MP expert).

You say that EPG is a big job, but it is easily a 30 min job (and 15 mins of that are from the first .xml import!!!). It really isn't difficult.
 
Following the guide now - thanks for making it so comprehensive. I think the path to save XMLTV data may actually be "C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal TV Server\xmltv" rather than the one you have.

Thanks.
 
steford

now changed.

thanks for the correction, much appreciated.

Robbo100
 
Hi all.

Just to let you know, I have now added the following information to the guide:

  • Online Videos
  • Browse the Web
  • InfoService
  • iPhone Remote (CouchPotato)
  • Show Times
  • My Lyrics
  • Music Info Handler
  • Fanart Handler
  • Extensions Plugin Updater
  • World Weather

Have fun!
 
Another minor path issue. Path to XMLTV is "C:\Program Files\XMLTV GUI\XmltvConsole.exe" (note the space)

Thanks.
 
Just to say thanks for this excellent guide. I set up an install of mediaportal over the last few days as a total newcomer and this walkthrough was really useful.
 
Finally got round to installing mediaportal last night, followed the guide (which was great by the way) which included for me installing SAF codec pack, moving pictures and the avalon skin. I'm having some problems with mp freezing whenever i try and play a film, I have to use ctrl alt del and close it using the task manager. All my media is stored on a nas and are accessed from a mapped drive, my htpc has a wired connection to the network. All films play when accessed using the file browser.

The only other thing I changed during the installation was to disable wmc in the 'turn windows features on and off' as I could not stop it from starting on boot up, probably nothing but thought i'd mention it.

Cheers for any help.

Jon
 

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