Media Center alternatives

Before Christmas I jumped into a project to build a HTPC using Windows 7 Media Center as the frontend. My intentions were to be able to play Blu-ray discs, watch and record DVB-S/S2 and DVB-T channels and watch video files. I originally set up Blu-ray and Saorview as I didn't have access to a satellite dish, everything was working flawlessly once I updated the BIOS and added a dedicated video card.

When I hooked up the dish, that was when the real problems started. I tried to set up MC to receive from satellite - it downloaded a Freesat channel list that is easily 2-3 years out of date. The BBC channels do not work due to the reshuffle recently and even Bubble Hits is in the list, despite it being gone for a long time now. A little research showed I need to use DVBLink to bypass MC's internal database. While it works, I have no EPG listings and the channels will now require manual tuning should they change in future. It seems that to get the EPG listings to work I have to use EPG Collector but I couldn't get my head around it at all - I could get it to download the listings from 11778 V or 11428 H but couldn't go any further. When I tried to import them from the DVB Source web UI I just got "Error getting scan staus: Unknown"

It seems to be too much hassle and I'm almost considering abandoning the project, flogging the hardware and just getting a separate Blu-ray player and STB (maybe even Sky, depending on the funds). As a result I'm reluctant to spend any more money on it for now. Is there any other alternative that will do what I want? I know of XBMC and Media Portal but am unsure whether they will do everything from one interface, especially Blu-ray. I don't want to be controlling the PC with a keyboard and mouse for regular usage as I have a remote.

Any suggestions?

BionicRasher

Have not tried this but it looks interesting
http://www.team-mediaportal.com/

would be interested to hear if anyone here has used it.

Wheeker

I'm surprised you're having so much trouble with this. I set-up Freesat on WMC this time last year with no issues. I'm not sure why a full scan isn't picking-up some channels for you . Anyhow, when the BBC channels reshuffled I simply went to: TV Signal Set-up-> Single transponder scan & input the details I found on the website http://en.kingofsat.net/ e.g. for BBC 3:

Frequency: 10773
Symbol Rate: 22000
Polarization: H

Once you put this in WMC picks up all the channels on that transponder. I then used Guide Tool (http://1geek1tool.com/guidetool) to renumber channels & get guide listings for them. I have a couple of channels I can't get guide listings for (e.g. ITV4 + 1), but I do have listings for 98% of them I reckon. I never bothered going down the EPG Collector route.

Thanks for the response. It doesn't even seem to scan for me during the initial setup, it's as if it uses an old channel database. If I manually retune a channel from the Single transponder scan, it will add any new channel to the end of the EPG, but it ignores any channels which already exist, despite the fact that the frequency has changed. For example, if I retune Bliss (which doesn't work), it adds everything else on that transponder but ignores Bliss. Also, if I try to add the new BBC HD transponder, the scan picks up BBC One HD and adds it to the EPG (ignoring BBC HD in the process). However I then get a No Signal message when trying to select it.

These were the reasons why it seems I had to go down the DVBLink + EPG Collector route. With this, all of the channels lock and I can import them into the EPG, but with no listings. I could probably use Guide Tool to get as many listings as I could from the standard database.

Alun

MCE doesn't do a transponder scan by default when you run the initial setup, but relies on a database. If you have internet connectivity at the time it supposedly downloads an up to date version, but certainly if you choose Ireland when doing the initial setup you get a transponder / channel list that bears little relation to reality, and it takes a lot of work with Guide Tool and/or Guide Editor to get it into any kind of shape, been there done that, got the T-shirt! If you don't have internet connectivity it uses an internal default table that is even worse.

I've heard of people having more success choosing UK as the country during setup, maybe it downloads a more up to date Freesat transponder list I don't know, and having finally got my setup just right I'm not going to go messing with it right now!

I tried DVBLink but I got the impression it was a bit too CPU hungry for my AMD E350 based HTPC setup, so abandoned it, but certainly managing changing transponders and new channels with it was a whole lot easier than with MCE.

I tried Mediaportal too, and it seemed quite good, and a few things bugged me that prevented me going further with it, but there's a brand new version 2 in the pipeline which I may well try when it comes out.

Alun

Alun wrote: »

MCE doesn't do a transponder scan by default when you run the initial setup, but relies on a database. If you have internet connectivity at the time it supposedly downloads an up to date version, but certainly if you choose Ireland when doing the initial setup you get a transponder / channel list that bears little relation to reality, and it takes a lot of work with Guide Tool and/or Guide Editor to get it into any kind of shape, been there done that, got the T-shirt! If you don't have internet connectivity it uses an internal default table that is even worse.

I've heard of people having more success choosing UK as the country during setup, maybe it downloads a more up to date Freesat transponder list I don't know, and having finally got my setup just right I'm not going to go messing with it right now!

I tried DVBLink but I got the impression it was a bit too CPU hungry for my AMD E350 based HTPC setup, so abandoned it, but certainly managing changing transponders and new channels with it was a whole lot easier than with MCE.

I tried Mediaportal too, and it seemed quite good, and a few things bugged me that prevented me going further with it, but there's a brand new version 2 in the pipeline which I may well try when it comes out.

I was choosing Ireland, I'll give UK a try with different post codes.

Do you have the HD channels?

Alun

Karsini wrote: »

Do you have the HD channels?

Yes, BBC 1 HD, BBC HD, ITV 1 HD and CH4 HD.

What satellite card do you have?

Ok I just tried using a London postcode. The list doesn't seem to be any newer, Men & Motors and Bubble Hits are still in it. 101 and 102 at least work, as they're using the London version rather than NI. Channel 5 and BBC HD don't work either.

I'm using a DVB-S2 card which I had lying about for a while, a TerraTec Cinergy S2 PCI, based on the AzureWave Mantis chipset. It's not a particularly good card.

I gave it another try over the last two days using DVBLink TVSource again. I used Guide Tool for the listings and now have listings for most of the channels. Now I have another problem. Some of my channel numbers won't stick. I'm trying to put ITV 1 HD on 178 and it keeps changing back to 51, which was the number it was on when originally scanned.

I'm fit to throw this out the window at this stage.

Conar

Karsini wrote: »

I gave it another try over the last two days using DVBLink TVSource again. I used Guide Tool for the listings and now have listings for most of the channels. Now I have another problem. Some of my channel numbers won't stick. I'm trying to put ITV 1 HD on 178 and it keeps changing back to 51, which was the number it was on when originally scanned.

I'm fit to throw this out the window at this stage.

I'm using media center to view freesat and saorview and it's working fine using Ireland as a location. The fact that you're having so much trouble and can't even change channel numbers sounds like its all a bit messed up. Maybe try removing and then reinstalling the media center software by removing it as below:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/15530/uninstall-disable-or-remove-windows-7-media-center/
I would assume this would start it all again from scratch.

Btw, I assume that you can't see the channels in the options with the Show Preview ( or whatever that Show bit is sorry not at my machine) section. I found on initial scan it would sometimes pick the wrong channel an I'd need to change it in there.

Psygnosis

Have a look at DJBLUS thread for mediaportal. This is what Im using its superb. Exact same listings as what Sky gives you, you can select to remove encrypted channels as well.
Just make sure you follow DJBLUS instructions to the letter.
http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/general-development-no-feature-request-here-48/custom-data-grabber-plugins-96767/


Mediaportal version 2 has been in the pipline for years now. I'm skeptical if we will ever see it

Psygnosis

Psygnosis wrote: »

Have a look at DJBLUS thread for mediaportal. This is what Im using its superb. Exact same listings as what Sky gives you, you can select to remove encrypted channels as well.
Just make sure you follow DJBLUS instructions to the letter.
http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/general-development-no-feature-request-here-48/custom-data-grabber-plugins-96767/


Mediaportal version 2 has been in the pipline for years now. I'm skeptical if we will ever see it

This really isn't working for me. When I scan for channels in Media Portal's TV Server config, it immediately says No Signal on every satellite transponder and even on my DVB-T card (which is a separate card that I've had no issues with). I choose Dublin - Three Rock and it finds nothing on 738000.

I made an image of the system before Christmas, before I did anything satellite-related with MC. I even restored my system back to this image and still the same problem.

Tea 1000

It all sounds very odd. I've never had any hassle with the EPG or Guide Tool like you describe. Have you checked in Guide Tool that you don't have multiple instances of ITV1 HD and maybe the check box is ticked on both number 51 and number 178? That might explain that.
But if not, then what Media Centre plug-in are you using for playing blu-rays back? Cause I'd start checking the plug-in's for being the possible root cause at this stage. I've set up a few Media Centre's at this stage, for a few people and for myself a few times, and never have seen anything like you describe.

Tea 1000

Tea 1000 wrote: »

It all sounds very odd. I've never had any hassle with the EPG or Guide Tool like you describe. Have you checked in Guide Tool that you don't have multiple instances of ITV1 HD and maybe the check box is ticked on both number 51 and number 178? That might explain that.

Nope, just have the one. Another, more serious, problem is that UTV and TV3 are both on channel 3. If I change UTV to 103 (or ITV 1 HD to 178) it stays there for about an hour or so, then changes back to 3 or 51 respectively. 3 and 51 are the Freeview channel numbers so I doubt it's coincidental.

Tea 1000 wrote: »

But if not, then what Media Centre plug-in are you using for playing blu-rays back? Cause I'd start checking the plug-in's for being the possible root cause at this stage. I've set up a few Media Centre's at this stage, for a few people and for myself a few times, and never have seen anything like you describe.

I'm just using PowerDVD 11's MC plugin.

subway

If you have the channels coming in from dvblink, you HAVE to make the changes in dvblink.
Guide tool changes won't stick as dv blink keeps sending the info out and o verwriti your changes. What you can do with guide tool is assign listings and disable channels

subway

subway wrote: »

If you have the channels coming in from dvblink, you HAVE to make the changes in dvblink.
Guide tool changes won't stick as dv blink keeps sending the info out and o verwriti your changes. What you can do with guide tool is assign listings and disable channels

Yeah that's where I went wrong. I assigned the listings in DVBLink, which had the side effect of allocating the Freeview channel numbers!

I managed to get everything mostly working today. I started from scratch and used DVBLink to assign the channel numbers as they should be - I only realised how to do this today. I then used the MC EPG listings for the channels it had, while using EPG Collector to download the Sky EPG to an XML file and imported this into DVBLink - this covers the channels that aren't in the MC guide. The only channels I used Guide Tool for were the BBC radio stations.

The only problems I have left seem to be related to the satellite card, occasional picture breakup and a very high pitched whine on DVB-S2 transponders. The aspect ratio on CBS Reality also seems to be wonky on 16:9 material but otherwise everything else is fine.

Tea 1000

Karsini wrote: »

I managed to get everything mostly working today. I started from scratch and used DVBLink to assign the channel numbers as they should be - I only realised how to do this today. I then used the MC EPG listings for the channels it had, while using EPG Collector to download the Sky EPG to an XML file and imported this into DVBLink - this covers the channels that aren't in the MC guide. The only channels I used Guide Tool for were the BBC radio stations.

The only problems I have left seem to be related to the satellite card, occasional picture breakup and a very high pitched whine on DVB-S2 transponders. The aspect ratio on CBS Reality also seems to be wonky on 16:9 material but otherwise everything else is fine.

Thanks for the update! Most people disappear once everything is either working or they've abandoned it!