Media Portal 1 Manual
Media Portal 1 Manual
Media Portal 1 Manual
Chapter 2: Installation
2.1 Requirements 2.1.1 Supported TV-Cards 2.1.1 List of supported CAMs 2.2 Television 2.2.1 Capabilities 2.2.2 How it works 2.2 First time installation 2.3 Updating current MediaPortal installation 2.4 open Ports in Firewall (When using TV in Multiseat) 2.5 Manual Installation of Database Server for TV-Server (Installer can do that automatically) 2.4.1 SQL server 2005 Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express (additional but recommended) Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition 2.4.2 MySQL 5 MySQL 5 installation MySQL 5 GUI tools (additional but recommended) ?Configuring MySQL 5
Chapter 3: Configuration
3.1 MediaPortal Configuration 3.1.1 Project 3.1.2 General 3.1.3 DVD 3.1.4 Videos 3.1.5 Music 3.1.6 Pictures 3.1.7 Radio 3.1.8 Television 3.1.9 Remote 3.1.10 Directshow Filters 3.1.11 Weather 3.1.12 Plugins 3.2 MediaPortal TV-Server 3.2.1 TV-Server Configuration 3.2.2 MediaPortal My TV - first start (Multiseat only) 3.2.3 Using Hybrid TV Cards 3.3 TV and Radio Channel Logos 3.4 Electronic Program Guides 3.4.1 WebEPG - WAS REMOVED FROM MP! There is no TV-Server version yet!
4.1 Basic Navigation 4.2 My TV 4.4 My Pictures 4.5 My Radio 4.6 My Music 4.7 My Videos 4.8 MyVideo Editor 4.9 My Weather 4.10 Play DVD 4.11 My last.fm Radio 4.12 Wikipedia 4.13 My Sudoku 4.14 Settings 4.15 My Plugins
Chapter 6: Troubleshooting
6.1 MediaPortal 1 6.1.1 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) 6.2 TV-Server 6.2.1 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) 6.2.1 Database 6.2.2 Streaming-Multiseat 6.2.3 Log files 6.2.4 Testing streaming with VLC or mplayer 6.2.5 DVBSub2.ax not registered
Chapter 7: Bugreporting
7.1 MediaPortal Log file Locations 7.2 MediaPortal Logs Collector (included in MediaPortal package) 7.3 Knowledge Base (List of known Windows, codecs, drivers, etc. Bugs which cause issues in MediaPortal.)
Chapter 8: Appendix
8.1 Keyboard Shortcuts 8.1.1 General 8.1.2 My TV 8.1.3 My Music 8.1.4 My Videos 8.1.5 My Pictures 8.1.6 Misc 8.2 Command line options 8.3 Description of Video Zoom Modes 8.4 General Glossary 8.5 Television Glossary 8.6 Customizing Windows and MediaPortal MediaPortal Wiki: MediaPortal_Manual_Index (last edited 2009-06-04 10:55:23 by infinityloop)
About MediaPortal
Introduction
MediaPortal is an Open Source application ideal for turning your PC in a very advanced Multi-Media Center or Home Theater PC. MediaPortal allows you to listen to your favorite music and radio, watch your videos and DVDs, view, schedule and record live TV and much more, from the comfort of your GNU/GPL couch using your TV and a remote. As Open Source software licensed under the agreement, you get MediaPortal for free. Open Source also means anyone can contribute to MediaPortal or extend it for their own needs! MediaPortal is built on the Microsoft .NET framework using C# and currently has a growing international community of over 10,000 users.
Features
MediaPortal has an extensive range of features already build into the product, and can be extended with many included plugins and user-contributed extensions.
History
MediaPortal's roots lie in the XBox Media Center (XBMC) project which goal was to build a media center application for the Microsoft XBox gaming console. The founder of XBMC, Erwin Beckers (also known as Frodo) concluded early in the XMBC project that there were notable limitations to the xbox platform, mainly that it is unable to support TV cards. XBox Platform limitations like these would ultimately hinder the vision of a feature rich media center application. In February 2004, Erwin left the Xbox Media Center project to start a new project, now known as MediaPortal that would run on the Microsoft Windows platform. Initially existing code was re-used from the XBMC project but after several releases and innumerable feature enhancements there has been almost a complete re-design. Today, MediaPortal continues as an open source project, has a core team of developers and a growing community of over 10,000 registered users.
Mission
The vision of the MediaPortal project is to create an open source media centre application. In reaching this goal MediaPortal: Promotes open source - MediaPortal is based on the ideas of open source, licensed under the GPL and builds on and supports other open source projects. Promotes the sharing of knowledge and collaboration - Through the use of information sharing tools and practices MediaPortal is a collaborative environment. Understands that development is a team effort - Treating our users as co-developers is proven to be the most effective option for rapid development. Applies the Law of Diminishing Return - The majority of the effort should be invested in implementing features which have the most benefit and widest general usage by the community. If you would like to know more about the future direction of features in MediaPortal you can have a look at the roadmap. MediaPortal Wiki: MediaPortal (last edited 2009-01-16 13:34:21 by flokel)
MediaPortal Features
Out of the box, MediaPortal contains an impressive range of features.
General Features
Create your own skins, or choose one of the available skins. MediaPortal can easily be extended with extra plugins. Internal support with custom keymapping for several remote controls ( Streamzap, MCE, Red-Eye, WinLIRC, Hauppauge, FireDTV). Windowed and fullscreen support.
My TV
The following is a partial list of features that are supported by MediaPortal's built-in TV-Engine. There are currently two seperate TV engines - the built-in engine which gets installed with MediaPortal automatically and the new stand-alone ?TV Server, which can be used to replace the built-in engine. For a full comparison list between the 2 TV engines, please read the TV Server Overview. Supports analog TV (both with ?software encoding and ?hardware encoding), ?DVB-C (cable), ?DVB-T (antenna), ?DVB-S (satelite) and ?ATSC. HDTV and AC3 support. Support for multiple tuners. Record, watch, and time shift live TV. Advanced recording scheduler: Record now, once, daily, weekly, on weekdays (Monday - Friday), every time a program appears on the selected TV channel, or every time a program appears on any TV channel. Advanced recording management: Handle conflicts, set recording priorities, and use custom quality settings. Transcode recordings to WMV, XviD, or MPEG format. Disk Management automatically deletes old and/or watched recordings. TV Guide: Grab DVB-EPG & MHW-EPG directly for DVB. Download program data from internet using one of the many available Built-in support for XMLTV. Data is searchable/sortable by a number of different fields and channels can be grouped. Supports over 10,000 channels. Automatic channel tuning. Normal on-screen display (during movies and TV) and special Zap OSD (shows description of what is currently playing). Support for Teletext. Standby control to put your HTPC to sleep. It will awake when there is a recording that needs to start. Support for Comskip to skip commercials in recordings. EPG Plugins.
My Videos / My DVD
Play any movie your computer has a codec installed for (DVD's, DivX, MPEG, Matroska, etc) All your movies will be stored in MediaPortal's video database View and sort your movies by title, actors, genre, release year, rating Automatically retrieves pictures and info from IMDB ?Stacking/unstacking if your movie consists of multiple files Internal DVD player with menu's (you can also use an external DVD playing application) On Screen Display (OSD) for pause, rewind, fast forward, stop, mute, bookmarks, switching audio
My Radio
Listen to your favorite radio stations (FM, DVB or internet streams) Auto tuning (for FM radio) Logo's for each radio station (this is a manual process) Supply a friendly name for each radio station Receive streamed internet radio stations (ASX and Shoutcast) Support for external radio tuner applications Automatically start listening to your selected radio station when MediaPortal starts
My Music
View your music by artist, album, genre, rating or browse the music files Sort your music in many ways like track, genre, filesize, artist, album, etc. Use visualizations from ?Windows Media Player 10 and higher Load, create & save ?playlists (.m3u, .pls, .b4u) Automatically gets pictures and info for all of your artists and albums View as list, icons or big icons Shuffle, repeat, fast-forward, rewind, pause, etc. Music ratings Favorites Party shuffle mode Search music for specific songs Display all your favorite songs in one screen Utilize Winamp, Foobar or iTunes plugins for music playback
My Pictures
Watch your pictures and photos Slideshow support with nice transitions Zoom in and out, rotate pictures (the rotation is non-permanent, but remembered next time) Pause, previous/next picture Delete pictures Background music, either songs from My Music, or radio from My Radio Auto thumbnail generation Sort by name, date or size View as list, icons, big icons or filmstrip Ken Burns effect slideshow
My Weather
Show the latest weather information Support for multiple cities Current temperature, 3-day forecast Temperature (in C or F) UV index, humity (%), wind-speed (mph/kph), etc Support for live images from internet, like satellite, temperature, UV index, wind, humidity, precipation
More Features...
Launching external programs like Games Emulators E-mail application Internet Browser IRC client Burner let's you burn all type of files and folders directly to CD/DVD
from within the MediaPortal interface Showing RSS news feeds Read mail from within MediaPortal Monitor computer hardware: CPU temperature Motherboard Temperature Hard disk Temperature Used Memory Used Virtual Memory etc. Allows the PC to automatically go into standby/hibernation and wakes it when there is a scheduled recording, just like a real VCR Has different alarm features You can even play Tetris & Saduko! << Back to MediaPortal Manual MediaPortal Wiki: MediaPortalIntroduction (last edited 2008-07-21 14:52:48 by localhost)
MediaPortal and TV-Server Requirements MediaPortal will run fine on recent Windows computers (see supported Windows versions below). However, make sure you have installed the software components decribed in the following list. Contents 1. Operating System 1. Supported operating systems 2. Unsupported operating systems 3. Operating System Components 4. Required updates and hotfixes 5. Filesystem 6. Drivers and Codecs 2. Hardware Requirements 1. Requirements for running MediaPortal and/or the TV-Server 2. Requirements for watching HDTV, Blue-ray or HD DVD content 3. TV-Server specific requirements 1. Database server requirements 2. Dependencies
Note: Using MP 1.0.0 or above the installer will automatically install latest DirectX if necessary. Note: In Vista it's also required to have November 2008 DirectX End User Runtime installed. Microsoft latest avaiable Windows Media Player Version
Note: Using MP 1.0.0 or above the installer will automatically prompt you for the download of latest WMP. Microsoft Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86) Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86)
Note: Using MP 1.0.0 or above the installer will automatically install the Visual C++ Redist. packages.
Only for XP / MCE2005 BDA/DVB hotfix This hotfix is essential for viewing digital TV broadcasts. It is already included in roll up 2 of Windows MCE 2005, for Windows XP you have to install it manually. [Updated psisdecd.dll] Firewire hotfix This hotfix is necessary if you have upgraded to Windows XP SP2 and use FireWire devices. It is already included in Windows XP SP3. videoplayback flicker hotfix This hotfix resolves a problem with flickering video playback. [Updated quartz.dll] It is already included in Windows XP SP3.
Filesystem
Depending on the bit rate of the transmission recordings TV can take up lots of hard disk space. Recording one channel for one hour you get a file size peaking from around 4GB for SDTV to about 8GB for HDTV. FAT16: maximum recording length is ~ 15 (HDTV) to 30 (SDTV) minutes FAT32: maximum recording lenght is ~ 30 (HDTV) to 60 (SDTV) minutes NTFS: maximum recording length is ~ 2000 (HDTV) to 4000 (SDTV) hours Obiviously choosing the NTFS filesystem is highly recommended.
Necessary if you want to watch and record TV with MediaPortal (?Supported TV cards) MediaPortal TV-Server out of the box supports all analog TV cards with hardware MPEG-2 encoder and all digital TV cards which use BDA-drivers.
Codecs: all codecs that support the hardware decoding capabilities of the above mentioned video cards this includes codecs from latest Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra, ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre, Corel WinDVD 9 and MediaPlayer Classic Home Cinema To check if the performance of your PC is sufficient for HD content, have a look a these trailers. DVD HD test films BlueRay test films
Dependencies
The Tv-Server depends on the RPC Locator service activation. This service should be automatically installed with the Client for Microsoft Network under the properties of your network card.
<< Back to MediaPortal Manual MediaPortal Wiki: GeneralRequirements (last edited 2009-06-15 20:35:24 by pbb)
Tv Cards Supported
In general the tvserver supports 1. any DVB/ATSC card which has BDA drivers 2. any analog card with h/w encoding onboard 3. some analog cards which use s/w encoding 4. the SkyStar-2/Airstar-2/!?CableStar-2 cards A full list of supported cards can be located here - ?MediaPortal Supported TV Cards. If your card is not located in this list, it may be worthwhile to search the forums. The following table shows which special features are supported for which card(s)
DVB-S(2) cards
Feature FireDTV-S FloppyDTV-S Multi CI/CAM CI menu LNB ?DisEqc DVB-S2 channel support support selection Positioner support decoding Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes FTA only Yes Remarks (driver >=1.2.3.8) (driver >=1.073) (driver >=1.9.812.2, requires VC2008 runtime Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package with optional WinTvCI USB module Not compatible with most Nvidia nForce4 chipset based motherboards
KNC
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
YES
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
FTA only
No
No
Yes
Yes
No
FTA only
DVB-C cards
Feature FireDTV-C FloppyDTV-C Twinhan Technotrend KNC Hauppauge + WinTvCI Cablestar-2 HD CI/CAM support Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes YES Yes CI menu support Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Multi channel decoding Yes Yes FTA only Yes Yes FTA only FTA only Remarks (driver >=1.2.3.8) (driver >=1.073) requires VC2008 runtime Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package with optional WinTvCI USB module -
DVB-T cards
Feature CI/CAM CI menu Multi channel Remarks
support FireDTV-T FloppyDTV-T Twinhan Technotrend KNC Hauppauge + WinTvCI Airstar-2 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes YES No
decoding Yes Yes FTA only Yes YES FTA only FTA only (driver >=1.2.3.8) (driver >=1.073) requires VC2008 runtime Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package with optional WinTvCI USB module -
The CI/CAM slot allows you to insert a smartcard and watch paytv channels. Without a CI/CAM slot and smartcard it is not possible to watch encrypted (paytv) channels. Note that in many countries the 'normal' local tv channels are also encrypted and can only be watched if you have a smartcard and a card with a CI/CAM slot. For many supported cards (see tables above) there is also a CI menu available, to access CAM settings, parental control a.s.o.
LNB selection
When using DVB-S, your setup can contain 2 or more LNB's Each LNB can be tuned to a single satellite, so if you have more LNB's this allows you to receive 2 or more satellites. To make this work the tvserver has to select the correct LNB when tuning to a satellite This is done via DisEQC which is the standard protocol for selecting the correct LNB. Here is an example of a setup which uses 4 LNB's to tune to 4 different satellites:
DisEqc Positioner
Another option to tune to more then 1 satellite is by using 1 LNB and a diseqc positioner. A diseqc positioner is a small motor which drives the lnb and dish to the left/right to tune to the correct satellite as shown below
DVB-S2
DVB-S2 is the new generation of DVB and is used to transmit HDTV H.264 channels. Due to the better compression and new modulation methods the H.264 HDTV channels can be transmitted using the same bandwidth as a normal SDTV MPEG-2 channel. To receive DVB-S2 channels you'll need a card which has a DVB-S2 tuner like the Technotrend DVB-S2 3200 card.
QAM 64/256
64-QAM and 256-QAM are often used in digital cable television and cable modem applications. In the US, 64-QAM and 256-QAM are the mandated modulation schemes for digital cable as standardised by the SCTE in the standard ANSI/SCTE 07 2000. Note that many marketing people will refer to these as QAM-64 and QAM-256.
ATSC 8VSB
8VSB is the 8-level vestigial sideband modulation method adopted for terrestrial broadcast of the ATSC digital television standard in the United States, Canada, and other countries.
Conax, Irdeto1+2, BetaCrypt, CryptoWorks. max 14 pids Conax, Irdeto1+2, BetaCrypt, CryptoWorks. max 14 pids ?BetaCrypt SECA/Mediaguard SECA/Mediaguard SECA/Mediaguard ViaAccess SECA/Mediaguard Conax max 14 pids 1 tv channel ? 1 tv channel ? 2 tv channels 2 tv channels 2 tv channels unknown
?TechniCrypt CX 26.1.5.0.6
Note
On many cams you have to enable multi-channel decryptions. Todo this you need to access the CAM / CI menu with either your DVB receiver or applications like ?MyTheathre. Enter the CI menu and set the multi-channel decryption to ON (or enabled) MediaPortal Wiki: TV-Server/listofcams (last edited 2009-04-23 18:52:01 by ?morpheus_xx)
Introduction
The ?TV-Server is an application which allows you to set up one central server with one or more TV cards. All TV related tasks are handled by the server and streamed over the network to one or more clients. Clients like MediaPortal can then use the TV-Server to watch live TV, recordings and EPG data over the network. The client plugin of the TV-Server replaces the default built-in TV Engine.
Capabilities
Feature TV-Engine is a windows service Analog support DVB-C support DVB-S support DVB-S2 support DVB-T support ATSC OTA support ATSC QAM support Automatically determines installed TV cards Support for TV cards has to be added manually Viewing/recording multiple channels per transponder Use timeshift with liveTV Watch encrypted TV channels (with valid smartcard) Record TV-Shows Record scheduled shows when MediaPortal is not running Play analog radio Play DVB radio Play encrypted DVB radio (with valid smartcard) Grab DVB-EPG Grab DVB-EPG when MediaPortal is not running Grab DVB-MHW Grab DVB-MHW when MediaPortal is not running LiveTV can be streamed to multiple clients Recorded shows can be streamed to multiple clients One or more front-ends (like MediaPortal) can connect to TV-Engine Record MPEG-2 transport stream (.ts) Timeshift buffer is added to a "Record now" recording MPEG-2 transport stream timeshifting H.264 transport stream support DVB AAC audio support Place shifting Multiple tuner support (even mixed) TV-Server/Client Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Hybrid tuner support Teletext viewer CI support for floppydtv CI support for firedtv CI support for twinhan CI support for technotrend CI support for KNC cards DVB-S generic BDA DisEqc support DVB-S DisEqc Motor control DVB bitmap subtitle support (live TV & recordings) DVB teletext subtitle support (live TV & recordings) DVB-S linkage scanner MediaPortal Wiki: TV-Server/overview (last edited 2009-06-04 10:51:31 by infinityloop)
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
MediaPortal MediaPortal TV-Server Client Plugin Network card Plus all general MediaPortal requirements MediaPortal Wiki: TV-Server/HowItWorks (last edited 2008-10-07 11:25:31 by pbb)
MediaPortal Installation
Introduction
The MediaPortal Installation Tool (also known as the Deploy Tool) allows you to download and install all necessary components for a complete MediaPortal install. It is included in every release of MediaPortal and handles among other things the choice of TV engine, installation of a database server if needed, Windows firewall configuration and missing core components required for MediaPortal.
Cleanup
In order to avoid problems during the installation process, uninstall both MediaPortal and the TV-Server, either through Control Panel or the uninstall shortcuts in the MediaPortal and TV-Server program groups. (This will not do anything to your backup.)
Upgrading Installation
1. Make sure your system still meets the requirements; these may have changed for the current version! 2. Download the latest release of MediaPortal. 3. Make sure that you already uninstalled MediaPortal and if present the TV-Server, as mentioned in the Backup and Cleanup stepo earlier. 4. Install MediaPortal. Detailed instructions can be found on the Installing MediaPortal page. Note: Always run the installer from your local harddisk, not from a networkshare. The Installer is a .net application which can not be started if they are located on a networkshare.
Restore configuration
Note: If possible, please do a clean installation, which means not to re-use old configuration files, plugins or skins. Re-using these files has a high chance to break your new installation of MediaPortal, because of the changes in the new release. You can restore the backup files you created manually, or use the backup folders which were created by the installer inside the program files and application data folders. Backup files which can be restored without risking to break the new installation MediaPortal The following folders and files, from your application data MediaPortal data backup folder: The Thumbs folder. TV-Server Import TV Channels, Radio Stations and recording schedules: Start TV-Server Configuration > TV-Channels > import button > select your exported xml file Import old recordings: TV-Server Configuration > Recording settings > Database import Note: You have to configure the recording path to point to the folder where your recordings are stored before you do the Database import. Backup files where restoring means to risk that your new installation will break MediaPortal The following folders and files, from your application data MediaPortal data backup folder: The InputDeviceMappings\custom folder. The Database folder. All XML files in the base folder. The following folders and files, from your program files MediaPortal Programs backup folder: Plugins Folder Skins Folder every other Folder MediaPortal Wiki: UpdateingMediaPortal (last edited 2008-12-23 01:38:02 by charli181)
Windows Firewall Specify Applications that are allowed through the Windows Firewall
Start > Control Panel > Windows Firewall > Exceptions tab > Add Program TVService = Can be found in your TV Server directory SQLServr = Can be found in "c:\program files\microsoft sql server\mssql.1\mssql\binn\" SQLBrowser = Can be found in "c:\program files\microsoft sql server\90\shared\"
Other Firewalls
MediaPortal Wiki: TV-Server/Configuration/Firewall (last edited 2008-07-21 14:54:21 by localhost)
Press the install button to continue When its the prerequisites are installed the setup continues to install sql server itself. SQL-Server installation
Again press the next button System Configuration Check Setup will verify if all components are present and if so the following screen will be shown:
Press the next button, after a few seconds the setup asks for a registration name: Registration
Choose any name you like, its not important and press next Feature selection
Here you can select which features to install. The default options are fine, but if you want to install SQL server on another drive then you can do that here When done press next again Authentication mode The next screen is important!!! Choose mixed mode and fill in a password for the sql server administrator account Write down the password, we will need it later on!
Error and usage report settings The following screen we can skip since the default options are ok. Simply press next again
Again a screen (does it ever end?) press the install button Setup Progress
Yes! finally the installer decided to shut up and start doing what its supposed to do. Sql server is being installed... time for a coffee At the end the following screen is shown and you guessed it already, press next
Press finish and we're done. MediaPortal Wiki: TV-Server/install-SQL-Server (last edited 2009-01-30 10:55:04 by flokel)
4. Enable Local and remote connections and select Using both TCP/IP and named pipes. note: You may have to restart the SQL server. 5. Select SQL Server Browser and Service under that, and change the Startup Type to Automatic and Start it.
3. Click on memory in the left tree 4. Fill in the min/max values for the amount of memory
Installation MySQL 5
Note: Using MediaPortal 1.0 or above the SQL server is automatically downloaded and configured by the installer. No user action is required. Download the MySQL 5server setup and run the setup.exe. Select Windows Essential (x86) runing the setup Press next: ::Download::. The setup should begin and show the following screen.
In the following screen choose Typical unless you have specific reasons not too. Then press next again
Skip the signup (you can signup if you want, but its not needed) and press next
Now its time to configure the MySQL server. Make sure the checkbox is checked and press Finish
I choose here the standard configuration. If you want you can also choose for the detailed configuration. Press next
Important!!! Here you select the password for the root user (the administrator). Make sure you write this password down since you will need it later. Also make sure the enable root access from remote machines is enabled. When done press next
Notice: If you get an error ('side-by-side configuration is incorrect') on loading the configuration on Vista ::this:: link. please follow MediaPortal Wiki: TV-Server/install-MySql5 (last edited 2009-01-30 10:59:04 by flokel)
MySQL Administrator
MySQL Administrator is a powerful visual administration tool that makes it easy to administer and monitor your MySQL environment and gain significantly better visibility into how your databases are operating. MySQL Administrator now integrates database management and maintenance into a single, seamless environment, with a clear and intuitive graphical user interface.
MySQL Workbench
MySQL Workbench is a database modeling tool for MySQL. You can use it to design and create new database schemas, document existing databases and even perform complex migrations to MySQL.
Installation
Simply run the setup and follow the screenshots below..
MediaPortal Configuration
The MediaPortal Configuration application is divided into a number of sections or 'pages', all relating to a different part of MediaPortal. Not all of these sections will necessarily apply to every user or need to be configured immediately. All settings can be changed at any time after installation so it is not necessary to configure each section initially.
Minimal configuration
After first installing MediaPortal, you should configure any section whose functions you plan to use immediately. Adding folders in the media sections (Movies/Music/Pictures) will allow you to interact with your media immediately and are generally a good place to start. If you plan to use the TV functions then you should also configure it's section. Finally, ensure that you have configured a remote if you plan to use one. Consult each section's page (listed above) for more detailed instructions on it's configuration.
Navigation controls
The top of the setup window has several navigation controls: User Config files: This opens the folder where various configuration files are stored. Open Thumbs directory: Opens the folder with all thumbnail images. Open Log directory Opens the folder with MediaPortal logs. Open Database directory: Opens the folder where MediaPortal databases are stored. Open Skins directory: Opens the skins folder. Switch to expert/standard mode: Toggles the interface mode of the configuration program. In Expert Mode, you will be able to perform a more detailed configuration. Help: Opens an online help page for the current screen. These help pages are actually the wiki pages you are reading now. Update Help: Finds the most recent location of the online help pages. Use this if you get an error page when trying to open Help.
At the bottom of the window, there are more navigation controls: Donate to MediaPortal: This link opens the MediaPortal donation page. To be able to support the newest hardware, MediaPortal needs your financial support! OK / Cancel: Apply or discard all changes, and close the configuration program. <<< Back to MediaPortal Manual --- Next To Project Page >>> MediaPortal Wiki: MediaPortal/Configuration (last edited 2009-04-30 07:49:14 by d58-106-116-61)
Project
This page shows some general information about MediaPortal, and different ways to get in contact. Update help: This button download most recent information about where to find the help pages. If you get an error page when clicking the Help button, clicking this button will fix the problem.
MediaPortal Config Project General Movies DVD Television Radio Music Pictures Remote DirectShow Filter* Weather Plugins
General
MediaPortal Config
This section contains all settings that control the look and feel of MediaPortal. Some - Project of these options can also be set from within the MediaPortal interface, in the General - General options of the Settings section. - Skin - Thumbnails - Volume settings - Keyboard shortcuts* - Keys and Sounds* - On-Screen Display* - Skip steps* - Startup delay* - Watchdog* - Daemon Tools* - File menu* - Refresh Rate* Movies DVD Television Radio Music Pictures Remote DirectShow Filter* Weather Plugins
Start with basic homescreen (Default: off) This will cause MediaPortal to start with a simplified home screen, giving the menu options usually of !TV, Music, Video, Pictures and Weather. Note that the Skin has to support the Basic Homescreen (e.g. ProjectX). Start MediaPortal in fullscreen mode (Default: on) With this option you can configure MediaPortal to start in full-screen mode. If unselected MediaPortal will start in a window. Use alternate fullscreen Splashscreen (Default: on) With this option set, when in fullscreen mode, the splash screen on startup of MediaPortal will also cover the full screen instead of a small box in the middle of the desktop. NOTE:- This setting only takes effect when MediaPortal starts in fullscreen mode. Autosize window mode to skin (Default: off) Automatically sizes the window (if windowed mode is used) to the skin's designed size. Keep MediaPortal always on top (Default: off) Note that not only does this keep MediaPortal on top of other windows, it also prevents other windows from getting (keyboard) focus. With this setting on, you cannot control any other application until you've closed MediaPortal. Hide taskbar in fullscreen mode (Default: off) This will make sure you will not see the Windows taskbar when using MediaPortal in fullscreen mode. Autostart MediaPortal on Windows startup (Default: off) Automatically start MediaPortal when Windows starts. Minimize to tray on start up (Default: off) When starting MediaPortal, instead of showing the application, this hides it in the system tray. Useful if you have scheduled recordings with the classic inbuilt TV-Engine that requires MediaPortal to be running, or when you want to be able to quickly start MediaPortal. Minimize to tray on GUI exit (Default: off) When clicking the 'X' icon, MediaPortal will not close but will be minimized to the system tray. MediaPortal can be closed by choosing Exit from the File menu or Exit from the tray icon context menu. Enable this if you use the classic inbuilt TV-Engine. Show special mouse controls (scrollbars, etc.) (Default: on) Some pages show scrollbars etc, which only makes sense when you are using a mouse. If you are using a remote control, you can disable these controls. Hide file extensions like .mp3, .avi, .mpg, ... (Default: on) Hides file extensions when showing file lists. Enable skin sound effects (Default: on) Enable sound effects that are build into skins, for example the swooshing when selecting a menu item. Enable animations / transitions (Default: on) This will cause animations to be played in the skins transition to different screens. Switching from home to music for example wil play an animation to blend the transition into a fluent action. Disable tray area's balloon tips (Default: off) Hides the pop-up ?balloon tips that Windows shows on various events. Turn off monitor when blanking screen (Default: off) Turns off the monitor when MediaPortal is idle for more than 1 minute. Is only effective when a supported monitor/TV can handle the signals via the cable connection. This is an ideal setting if you are energy wise. Turn monitor/tv on when resuming from standby (Default: on) Some videocards and or monitors/televisions will not initiate when the PC wakes from resume. So the computer will resume but the screen stays on standby. Enable this if your TV or monitor will not wake up from standby Allow S3 standby although wake up devices are present (Default: on) Allow the computer to enter S3 standby mode even though USB devices are set to wake up the computer. (Normally, only S2 standby mode will be achieved with USB wake-up devices.) Restart MediaPortal on resume (Default: off) This will prevent stuttering playback with nVidia videocards. Show last active module when starting/resuming from standby (Default: off)
MediaPortal will automatically show the last module, or screen, that was in use prior to the computer going into standby mode or exited. Automatically skip commercials for videos with ?ComSkip data available (Default: off) This setting will allow MediaPortal to skip through commercials that have been detected by the 3rd Party Product Comskip. Note this is only for the video section only of MediaPortal. Use screenselector to choose on which screen MP should start (Default: off) When enabled, the screen chosen in the dropdown box below will be the screen that MediaPortal will start on by default. Enable this if you use multiple outputs on your video card and would like MediaPortal to start on the secondary screen. You must also specify which screen you want to use (see below). In addition, the following options are available: Log verbosity (Default: Information) Sets the detail level of the logfiles that are stored in the log folder underneath the MediaPortal application folder. Process priority (Default: Normal) Sets the priority of MediaPortal, higher gives MediaPortal more systems resources, too high can make the system unstable or crash when MediaPortal crashes. Start screen If Use screenselector to choose on which screen MP should start is enabled, this allows you to specify the screen you want MediaPortal to start on. MediaPortal Wiki: MediaPortal/Configuration/General (last edited 2009-05-04 18:21:29 by flokel)
DVD
MediaPortal Config
Some of these options can also be set from within the MediaPortal interface, in the My - Project DVD options of the Settings section. This information will be used within the Play DVD - General section of MediaPortal. - Movies - DVD - Codecs - Player* - Post Processing* Television Radio Music Pictures Remote DirectShow Filter* Weather Plugins
Language Settings
Force Subtitles - Default: off Check this if you want to show subtitles. Preferred subtitle language - Default: English Select the subtitle language you want the player to use when playing a DVD. This subtitle language needs to be available on the DVD. Preferred audio language - Default: English Select the audio language you want the player to use when playing a DVD. This language needs to be available on the DVD. Aspect Ratio Use pixel ratio correction - Default: off Enable or disable check box to improve display of movies on your screen. Aspect ratio Correction Mode Crop Letterbox Stretch Follow Stream (recommended) Display Mode Default (recommended) 16:9 4:3 Letterbox 4:3 Pan-Scan Autoplay Autoplay DVD: Autoplay, never ask. Don`t autoplay, never ask. Ask every time a DVD is inserted (default). MediaPortal Wiki: MediaPortal/Configuration/DVD (last edited 2009-02-14 14:20:27 by 213)
Videos Configuration
This section lets you tell MediaPortal where it can find your video files, and set some video specific options. Subtitle and OSD settings are also adjusted here. Some of these options can also be set from within the MediaPortal interface, in the My Videos options of the Settings section. These settings will be used within the My Videos section of MediaPortal. General Tab
MediaPortal Config - Project - General - Movies Folders Database Player Extensions* Views* Post Processing*
DVD Television Radio Music Pictures Remote DirectShow Filter* Weather Plugins
Setting the Default Zoom mode Default Zoom Mode - This allows you to specify which zoom mode will be used when opening media. Below is a list of the different possibilities Normal (default) Original Source Format Stretch Zoom 14:9 Zoom non-linear strech 4:3 Letterbox Note: More information about how each zoom mode manipulates the video, can be found on the related wiki page Specify the storage location for your video playlists Playlist Folder - Here you specify the folder you use to store your video playlists. Use the Browse button to select a location. Repeating Video Playlists Repeat/loop video playlists - Default: on When you want MediaPortal to play your playlist again when finished, check this option. Marking your Videos as Watched Mark every already watched file (deactivate for performance with many files) - Default: on If you have watched a video the status is set in the database, so you can sort by videos which are watched and unwatched Specifying Zoom Modes Allowed zoom modes Selecting these modes allows them to be used with MediaPortal MyVideo section. Normal - Default: on Original Source Format - Default: on Zoom - Default: on 14:9 Zoom - Default: on Stretch - Default: on 4:3 Letterbox - Default: on 4:3 Pan and Scan - Default: on Subtitles Tab
Turning Subtitles On/Off for Videos Show subtitles - Default: on With subtitled videos, you can enable their display here, or disable by removing the check against this option. Note: the appropriate codecs need to be installed in order for MediaPortal to be able to show subtitles. Changing Subtitle Font Type,Size and Style Display font: - Default: Arial 18, Bold If you choose to display subtitles, you can choose a font and size from this list. Only fonts installed in windows can be selected, or install new to have a wider choice. Adjusting the visibility of the Subtitles Drop shadow (pixels): - Default: 5 You can make the subtitles stand out from the background/video by adjusting the drop shadow for the subtitle. Increase the shadow by the appropriate number of pixels. Change the default Subtitle Language Default language: - Default: English Select the subtitles language that will be automatically chosen when multiple languages are
Music Configuration
MediaPortal Config
Some of these options can also be set from within the MediaPortal interface, in the My - Project Music options of the Settings section. This information will be used within the My Music - General section of MediaPortal. - Movies - DVD - Television - Radio - Music Folders Database Import Extensions* Views* Sort* DSP* ASIO*
Player Settings
General settings Player BASS engine: - Default Internal dshow player Choose between BASS engine and Internal dshow player. BASS engine gives you better technology than DirectSound, and a lot of music formats are supported by default like FLAC and AAC. Sound Device Choose which soundcard you want to use when playing music, or Default Sound Device to follow the Windows settings. Use ID3 tags / autoadd music file to database (recommended) - Default: on When this option is selected MediaPortal will scan all files for ID3 tags. This will be done every time, which can take some time if there are a large number of music files. Select this option if your music collection changes a lot. see Organizing Your Music Collection for more information about the use of the music database. Playback settings (BASS player only) Playback settings (BASS player only) Upmix stereo to 5.1/7.1 - Default: Off Selecting this option will allow you to hear music on all of the speakers even if the music is only stereo. Output level - Default: 85 Change the maximum output level here. Lower the value if you hear any distortion. Fade-in on start / Fade-out on stop - Default: Off Selecting this will slowly start and stop the music volume. Gapless playback - Default: Off When selecting this option, no silence is heard between two tracks. Cross-fading: - Default: 4.00 Cross-fading mixes the next song into the current song. The amount of seconds changes the time the two songs are heard simultaneously Bufering: - Default: 5.00 Buffering is the amount of seconds MediaPortal reads ahead to avoid stuttering. Change if you experience any stuttering
Visualization
These settings are only valid with the BASS engine selected. Visualization - Default: None Visualizations are animated images created based on the music played. Everytime the a song is played different images appear on the screen. The kind of images can be selected here. Three kinds of visualizations are supported Windows Media Visualisations Winamp Visualisations including milkdrop Sonic Preset: Presets are default settings for each visualization Preview This window gives you an idea of what the visualization will look like Target FPS - Default: 25 The number of times per second the visualization is updated. The higher the number the more fluent the visualization will become. However, most visualizations require a lot of computer power so your fans can become loud or MediaPortal will respond slow to other commands. Enable status display in full screen mode (fast systems only) - Default: off show song info on track change - Default: On
Playlist settings
Playlist folder - Default: <My Documents folder>\My Playlists Here you specify the place to store your playlists. Repeat/loop music playlists (m3u. b4, pls) - Default: off When you want MediaPortal to continuously play your playlist, check this option. Auto shuffle playlists - Default: on When you want to shuffle the playlist after it loads check this option. Save playlist and position when leaving for another plugin - Default: on This option will save your playlist and show it as it was when you leave the playlist screen Resume last playlist when re-entering My Music - Default: on If you exit My music to do something else and after that re-enter My Music the last playlist is resumed
Now playing
Dynamic content Disable internet lookups for cover art - Default: off MediaPortal will not automatically look for CD covers on the internet Disable internet lookups for best album tracks - Default: off MediaPortal will not automatically look for the best album tracks on the internet Disable internet lookups for track suggestions - Default: off MediaPortal will not automatically look for track suggestions on the internet When adding files to the playlist - Default: Enqueue next When selected, adding a file to the playlist will make MediaPortal play the file as the next track Add to the end When selected, adding a file to the playlist will make MediaPortal add the file to the bottom of the playlist Visualization options Show lyrics - Default: never This setting is under development and can not be changed Show visualization - Default: off The enables or disables the visualization
Misc settings
AutoplayCD: This setting changes the behavior when inserting Audio CD's Autoplay, never ask - (Default) Selecting this option will always start playing a Audio CD when it is inserted Don`t autoplay, never ask Selecting this option will make MediaPortal do nothing if you insert an AudioCD. You will manually have to go to My Music to play the Audio CD Ask everytime a CD is inserted By selecting this option. MediaPortal will ask you each time if you want to play the Audio CD or not
"Jump on "Play now" This option will show you the options you have when pressing the big play button on the top of the Microsoft MCE remote (this is not the same button as the OK button) None Pressing play will: play song (this is the same action as the OK button on an MCE remote) Now Playing [always] Pressing play will: play the song and jump to the playing now screen Now Playing [if multiple items] Pressing play will: play the song and jump to the playing now screen if there are more songs in the playlist Current playlist [always] - (Default)
Pressing play will: Jump to the playing now screen Current playlist [if multiple items] Pressing play will: Jump to the playing now screen if there are more songs in the playlist Fullscreen [always] Pressing play will: Jump to the fullscreen showing the selected visualizations if enabled Fullscreen [if multiple items] Pressing play will: Jump to the fullscreen showing the selected visualizations if enabled if there are more songs in the playlist MediaPortal Wiki: MediaPortal/Configuration/Music (last edited 2008-07-21 14:52:50 by localhost)
Pictures Setup
MediaPortal Config
Some of these options can also be set from within the MediaPortal interface, in the My - Project Pictures options of the Settings section. This information will be used within the My - General Pictures section of MediaPortal. - Movies - DVD Slideshow Transitions - Television - Radio Use Ken Burns effect - Music Use random transitions - Pictures Use X-fade transition (default) - Folders - Extensions* Slideshow Settings Picture visibility - Default: 3 sec Transition - Default: 20 frames Ken Burns speed - Default: 20 Repeat/loop slideshow - Default: off Auto shuffle slideshow - Default: off * Only in Expert mode Remote DirectShow Filter* Weather Plugins
Radio Setup
This information will be used within the My Radio section of MediaPortal. Note: After configuration, you may want to display channel logos in MediaPortal. Read TV and Radio Channel Logos to see how that works.
MediaPortal Config Project General Movies DVD Television Radio - Stations Music Pictures Remote DirectShow Filter* Weather Plugins
Initial screen
Streams folder - Default: (empty)
Radio Cards
Map stations to radio card MediaPortal Wiki: MediaPortal/Configuration/Radio (last edited 2008-07-21 14:54:28 by localhost)
Television setup
Some of these options can also be set from within the MediaPortal interface, in the ?My TV options of the Settings section. This information will be used within the My TV section of MediaPortal. Note: Instead of using MediaPortal's default TV plugin, if you are feeling adventurous, you might want to try the new ?TV-Server. This provides a complete replacement for the My TV plugin, as a networked client-server solution. After configuration, you may want to display channel logos in MediaPortal. Read TV and Radio Channel Logos to see how that works. To get a program guide, configure either WebEPG (recommended) or the build-in XMLTV.
MediaPortal Config Project General Movies DVD Television TV Client# Capture Cards ?Channels ?Channel Groups ?Program Guide ?Recording Post Processing* Teletext*
Initial screen
Settings
Video codec - Default: MPV Decoder Filter
Audio codec - Default: MPA Decoder Filter Audio renderer - Default: Default DirectSound Device Deinterlace mode None (default) Bob Weave Best Default zoom mode Normal (default) Original source format Zoom Zoom 14:9 Stretch Non-linear Stretch 4:3 Letterbox
Auto on
Auto turn TV on when entering My TV - Default: off Directly show fullscreen TV - Default: off
Misc
Select channel by index (non US) - Default: on Show channel numbers - Default: off
Autotune
Country Input Source Antenna (default) Cable Scan Progress Signal strength Signal quality Channel list To edit a channel, double-click it or right-click and choose Edit Channel. To delete a channel, press delete on your keyboard or right-click and choose Delete Channel. To re-arrange, drag and drop the channel in the new location. Note: after re-arranging your channel list, do not go to the next tab but choose OK to save your settings so far. Channel Download Add/Edit Delete All Add/Edit Channel General Name Channel TV channel is encrypted Analog Frequency TV standard - Possible values: Default, NTSC M, NTSC M J, NTSC 433, PAL B, PAL D, PAL G, PAL H, PAL I, PAL M, PAL N, PAL 60, SECAM B, SECAM D, SECAM G, SECAM H, SECAM K, SECAM K1, SECAM L, SECAM L1, PAL N COMBO Country DVB-T / DVB-C / DVB-S / ATSC Network ID (DVB-T, DVB-C, DVB-S) Service ID (DVB-T, DVB-C, DVB-S) Physical channel number (ATSC) Major channel (ATSC) Minor channel (ATSC) Transport ID (all) Carrier Frequency (all) Symbolrate (DVB-C, DVB-S, ATSC) InnerFEC (DVB-C, DVB-S, ATSC): Max, Not Defined, Not Set, RS 204/188, ?ViterBi Modulation (DVB-C, ATSC) Polarisation (DVB-S): Horizontal, Vertical Provider (all) Audio PID (all) Video PID (all) Teletext PID (all) ECM PID (DVB-S) PMT PID (all) Bandwidth (DVB-T) PCR PID (all) Audio 1 PID (all) Audio 2 PID (all) Audio 3 PID (all) AC3 PID (all) Audio (all) Audio 1 (all) Audio 2 (all)
Audio 3 (all) External Type: Received by tv card, Received by external settop box Input via: CVBS#1, CVBS#2, SVHS, RGB Channel number on settop box
Autotune Radio
Country Input Source Antenna (default) Cable Scan Sensitivity - Default: High Progress Signal strength Signal quality Radio Download Edit Radio Station Name Frequency Genre
Audio Mapping
CVBS #1/2/3, SVHS #1/2/3, RGB #1/2/3 Audio-in #1/2/3
Quality
Use quality control - Default: off Default quality: Portable, Low, Medium, High Audio quality: 192/224/256/384 Kbps Average bitrate Peak bitrate VBR
TV channels TV Channels
What does the checkmark do? Combine Combines the channel number and frequency of the first channel with all other info from the second channel. (First and second in sorting order, not in selection order.) Add Manually add a TV channel. Delete Delete the highlighted channel. Edit Edit the highlighted channel. Clear Delete all the channels. Up Move the highlighted channel(s) one place up in the preference order. Down Move the highlighted channel(s) one place down in the preference order. Lookup Import channel list from predefined city-based listings. Backup
Backup the channel list (and scheduled recordings) to an XML file. Restore Load the channel list from an XML file, completely replacing any existing channel set. Import from TV Guide Add CVBS/SVHS Delete scrambled
TV Cards
Map channels to TV card Available TV channels Assigned TV channels
Map Channels
TV channel group Available TV channels TV channels in group Up/Down
Scheduler
These settings configure XMLTV. I recommend skipping this section and instead running one of the alternative EPG solutions after the MediaPortal configuration, these are much more flexible than XMLTV. Grabber Settings Grabber Parameters List Basic multiday grab Advanced single day grabs
Days to keep in guide - Default: 7 Days to download - Default: 1,2,3,5 Run grabber with lower priority - Default: off Run grabber Windows Task Scheduler Settings Create task at - Default: off User account/Password Delete task
Recording Settings Custom Paths and Filenames Disk quota Post processing
MediaPortal Wiki: MediaPortal/Configuration/Television (last edited 2009-04-02 20:14:30 by ?Pretoriano)
Remotes
Here is a list of all the different remotes supported by MediaPortal and how to configure them in MediaPortal
MediaPortal Config Project General Movies DVD Television Radio Music Pictures Remote ?USB-UIRT* ?SerialUIR* ?WinLIRC* ?Red-Eye* ?Direct Input*
MediaPortal Config Project General Movies DVD Television Radio Music Pictures Remote DirectShow Filter* Weather Plugins
So this list will depend on which codecs you have installed and how many.
MPA Decoder
This audio decoder will be installed by default unless the tick box relating to it in the installer is unchecked. AC3 Decoder Settings DTS Decoder Settings AC3/AAC/DTS/LPCM Format AAC Decoder Settings
MPV Decoder
This video decoder will be installed by default unless the tick box relating to it in the installer is unchecked.
PowerDVD 6 Decoder
PowerDVD 7 Decoder
The PowerDVD7 Decoder is installed if you install the PowerDVD product from Cyberlink. It is capable of decoding both standard and high definition video. In order to use hardware accelerated H.264 decoding on certain new video cards you will need to download and install the latest patches from the Cyberlink website.
Weather
This information will be used within the My Weather section of MediaPortal. Begin with the basic setting for Temp, Wind Speed and updating interval by using the rolldown menus and chose the alternative you want.
MediaPortal Config Project General Movies DVD Television Radio Music Pictures Remote DirectShow Filter* Weather Plugins
After that you have to add at least one city to the list. To do this push the "Add" button, the window below will appear. Write the name of the city you want to have and press "Search".
When you press "Search", the window expands and shows a list of possible cities. Chose the correct one, you will then be able to look at the weather info for this city when you start MediaPortal.
If you want to have a satellite image, temperature image, etc. you have to add them separately. By visiting a weather-site, search for a proper image and then right-click and select "Copy link" on the image. Then, add the copied link to the correct image path and press "OK". The pictures will now appear when trying to watch them in the My Weather plug-in. Notice: The image paths have to be independent of which day it is. If the images do not display or show the wrong day after a day or two, then the link is wrong. The picture should always have the same path and name to work. Notice 2: Even though the instructions mention these images have to be online (on HTTP addresses), you can use downloaded images from your harddisk! This makes it possible to run scripts on your own computer that download more complicated images, and use these in MediaPortal. MediaPortal Wiki: MediaPortal/Configuration/Weather (last edited 2008-07-21 14:53:19 by localhost)
MediaPortal Config Project General Movies DVD Television Radio Music Pictures Remote DirectShow Filter* Weather Plugins
You can quickly enable and disable plugins by double-clicking on their icon. By right-clicking the icon you can: enable and disable the plugins, choose whether it should appear in the Home screen or the My Plugins section and configure the plugin (if this possibility is offered). A gray icon is disabled, and in the upper right corner of each enabled icon you can see whether the plugin shows on the Home screen or the My Plugins section.
My Alarm ?My Burner Home My last.fm Radio MSN Messenger My Music My News My Pictures Play DVD My Radio ?Settings My Sudoku My Tetris Topbar My TV VideoEditor My Videos My Weather ?My Wikipedia
External Players
Foobar 2000 ?iTunes ?Winamp
Process Plugins
Audioscrobbler AutoCropper ?ComSkip Launcher ?DirecTV Serial Tuner External Display ?Hauppauge IR Blaster ?ISDN Caller-ID ?MAME Devices ?MPEx TuneCmd ?MusicDB Reorganisation Music Share Watcher PowerScheduler ?TV Diskspace ?TV Episodes Cleanup TV Movie Clickfinder ?TV Notifier ?TV Recordings Cleanup WebEPG Grabber YAC Caller-ID
Additional Plugins
Apart from the plugins included with your MediaPortal installation, there are many other plugins that can be downloaded separately. You will find these on the MediaPortal Extensions-Plugins page.
Configuration TV-Server
Chapter1: First Start
First Time Configuration
Chapter3: Plugins
ComSkipLauncher ConflictsManager PowerScheduler ServerBlaster TV Movie Clickfinder - EPG import plugin XmlTv
2. Click the change button and you will see the following:
3. Fill in the hostname or ipadress of the PC on which the master-tv server is running and press Done. 4. If all is ok, Mediaportal will present the following screen
5. Press esc to go back to My Tv. 6. From now on you can use My Tv just like before. MySQL users: Please make sure to install the same version of MediaPortal on both the server machine and the client machine in order to have it work. If you are using SVN versions of MediaPortal, make sure you are using the same SVN version of MediaPortal and the same SVN version of the TV Server Plugin. MediaPortal Wiki: TV-Server/Configuration/Client (last edited 2008-07-21 14:54:19 by localhost)
Configuration
When you have installed the TV-Server all cards will be shown in the setup. The picture gives an example of a system containing a FlyTv Express X1 MST-T2A2 TV-card:
The FlyTv Express is a dual hybrid card which contains 2 analog inputs 2 dvb-t inputs This card allows you to use 2 analog tuners at the same time or use 2 DVB-T tuners at the same time or use 1 DVB-T tuner and 1 analog tuner at the same time To make the TV-Server aware of this we select the first DVB-T and analog tuner which belong together with a right click and place them in a seperate group:
Since this is a dual-hybrid card, we do the same for the 2nd DVB-T and analog tuner.
Now that the tuners have been placed in a group, we should see the following picture:
Here we clearly see that we've now defined 2 hybrid cards. Each hybrid card contains 1 analog and 1 DVB-T tuner. Now the TV-Server knows that these cards are hybrid ones and will respect the limitations of the card(s) so that things should work fine.
The logo images can be PNG, JPEG and GIF. PNG is preferred, since it features alpha-transparency and optimal compression for logo-type images. Animation in GIF images is also supported. TV logos are mainly used in the program guide, where the logos are displayed quite small and are resized to square dimensions. Therefore: Use the simplest variation of the logo, small text will not be readable. Add extra space to your picture files if they are not square. Radio logos are displayed much larger, and their aspect ratio is not adjusted.
Matching filename
To make MediaPortal show the correct logos, you have to match the image filename to the corresponding channel name. 1. Open MediaPortal Setup. 2. Go to Television -> TV Channels or Radio -> Stations. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Note the channel names that you have downloaded the logos for. Open the folder where you have stored the downloaded channel images. Rename the image file so that the name matches that of the TV or radio channel. Repeat that for all channels you want to be shown with appropriate logo If the channel name contains characters which cannot be part of file names (/ : etc.), replace those characters with a underscore (_).
The EPG consists of information about each program that will be shown. This includes base information such as: Title Start and end date/time Description Extra information sometimes available: Genre Director Actors Repeat / First run The amount of information available depends on the source of the information, and on the application used to retrieve the data. Not all sources provide all data, or in a usable form.
Internet
Many sites provide a human readable and searchable TV guide on the internet, in most cases for the coming week or even two weeks ahead. Most providers have an online guide for their stations and sometime other stations as well. Also the web sites of newspapers often contain a TV guide. There are many programs available that download these guide and format the data so that it can be imported into MediaPortal. For the storage of program information, MediaPortal uses the file format created by XMLTV. XMLTV is one of the first popular applications to retrieve program information from the internet. MediaPortal is provided with a system for getting EPG data from the internet called WebEPG, but we also provide a list of alternatives (by no means complete).
NexTView
NexTView EPG data is transmitted as part of the analog TV signal, mostly in Germany, Austria, France and Switzerland. This data can be decoded with a program called nxtvepg (nexTView EPG Decoder Software). nxtvepg also provides a list of supported channels and providers. MediaPortal Wiki: UserGuides/Country_based_EPG (last edited 2008-10-05 18:07:24 by pbb)
MediaPortal WebEPG
What is WebEPG
WebEPG is a Electronic Program Guide grabbing application. There are several other programs that do what WebEPG does, but not as easily and not as well integrated with MediaPortal.
WebEPG advantages
One of the big problems of a general EPG grabbing application, like XMLTV, in MediaPortal is that channel names don't match the names used in MediaPortal, causing the TV guide data not to be imported properly. This is what WebEPG aims to address. WebEPG uses the channels created by MediaPortal and with the user's input, maps that to the channel from the TV Guide site. It doesn't require the user to change any channel names. When downloading EPG data from DVB, you only get data for the next 48 hours. With online TV Guide grabbers like WebEPG you may get up to 14 days!
WebEPG Configuration
1. When using a TV card, make sure you have set the TV channels either in the original integrated TV engine (TVE2) or the newer stand-alone TV server (TVE3). 2. Open your MediaPortal program files folder and start WebEPG-conf.exe.
3. First, import the channel information from MediaPortal. Do this by selecting either MediaPortal or TV Server in the Source dropdown list in the Import Channel Data box. Then, click on the Import button. Note that the channels may not be in the order you defined in your TV setup, but this has no influence on the display order in your program guide inside MediaPortal.
4. If you don't want to receive program data for some of the channels, you can remove them by highlighting the channel and clicking the Remove button. You may be able to add additional channels manually using the New Channel box, but for me these don't show up in the program guide. 5. You can try the Auto Mapping feature to automatically configure your channels based on the channel names. Select your country in the Country dropdown list, and then click the Auto Map button. When several data sources are found for a channel, the first one will be used. 6. To manually assign data sources to a channel, select a channel to configure and click the ... (browse) button behind the Channel textbox on the right side of the window. A Selection dialog will show up now. Fold out the Web Sites item, and then fold out your country item.
Choose one of the available data sources, and select the channel from this list. If the channel is not available in the list, it may be available in one of the other data sources, or else underneath one of the other countries, if it is a foreign channel. If you still cannot find your channel listed, you may need to edit or create a new Site Configuration/Grabber File. See
customizing WebEPG for details. Click the Select button to assign the data source to the channel. You do not need to close the selection window yet. Just move it to the side a bit, and click one of the other channels in the underlying WebEPG Config window. Then repeat the previous procedure to assign a data source to this channel. After you've assign all channels, you can Close the window. 7. Some channels show more than one TV station, switching halfway the day from one station to the other. To configure these channels, click the Multiple (Merged) button. Then click the Add button to start defining the day sections. The Merged Channel Details window will show up now.
As with normal channels, click the ... (browse) button again to assign a data source. But now you also need to enter a starting and an ending time for the part of the day on which this station shows. Note: there is currently a bug in WebEPG which drops the first item that starts exactly at the switching time. To work around this bug, just set the starting time one minute earlier. If the switch happens as 19:00, just enter 18:59 as the starting time. You don't have to do this for the ending time.
Press Ok to close the window, and repeat this process for each TV station that shows on this channel. 8. Finally, you can define the number of days you want to download program data for. Specify this number in the Grab Days box. Be aware that you can not download more days than your data sources provide (you can see this amount in the Guide Days box for each channel), and that specifying more days means an increase in the amount of time it takes to download your whole guide. 9. Now click Save and close the application with the X button in the top right corner of the window. (There is not proper exit function.)
Scheduled downloading
With the WebEPG grabber plugin you can schedule automatic updates of WebEPG.
Customizing WebEPG
WebEPG can be customized by editing existing site configuration (to add new channels, remove old ones, get extra data, etc), or by creating new configuration files for sites not currently listed. For details see: Customizing WebEPG
Troubleshooting
When assigning data source to channels in WebEPG configuration, the data source does not list your channel. Not every data source has information on all channels. Try another data source, or even another country if it is a foreign channel. If you still cannot find your channel listed, you may need to edit or create a new Site Configuration/Grabber File.
See customizing WebEPG No program data is showing up. Make sure there is a TVguide.xml file in the xmltv folder inside the MediaPortal application data folder. Make sure that the path to the tvguide.xml file is correct in MediaPortal Configuration > Television > XMLTV (integrated TV engine v0.2) or TV-Server Configuration > Plugins > XMLTV (stand-alone TV server v0.3). Manually added channels don't show up in the program guide. Only channels whose name exactly matches a channel in your TV setup, will show up in the program guide. Some programs are missing on merged channels. This is a known bug; set the starting time of the station switch one minute earlier. No program data available after midnight on merged channels. No solution is known. Other Check webEPG.log inside the MediaPortal log files folder for details. Consult the forums.
Going further
To beef up your EPG, why not add some nice TV channel logos? Try customizing WebEPG MediaPortal Wiki: MediaPortalSetup_WebEPG (last edited 2008-11-05 11:08:44 by chello089076174191)
Using MediaPortal Basic Navigation My TV My Pictures My Radio My Music My Videos MyVideo Editor My Weather Play DVD My last.fm Radio Wikipedia My Sudoku Settings My Plugins
From the Home Screen you can access all features of MediaPortal. The scroll list shows you all available modules. If you have disabled scrolling menu items in Home Plugin, then only those items that you have selected will be displayed, or only those that fit in the menu space. On the top right you see 4 buttons: Power: Selecting this button will bring up a new menu with 4 options 1. Shutdown: your PC will shutdown 2. Restart: your PC will restart 3. Sleep: your PC will enter standby mode. 4. Hibernate: your PC will enter hibernation mode.
Background: This option allows you to display the currently selected TV-Station in the background of the home screen.
Close: This option will close MediaPortal and brings you back to the Windows desktop.
Basic Homescreen
You can switch between the classic and basic homescreen using a switch button, which by default is "H". More information on the Basic Homescreen is needed.
Prev/Next page Page Up/Down Previous menu Enter number Activate Context menu Maximize view Esc 0 .. 9 Enter F9 X
Volume down/up -/= Mute Play Pause Stop Rewind/FFrwd Skip prev/next M P Space B F5/F6 F7/F8
Parent directory U, Esc File info Delete Switch home Screenshot F3 Del, 0 H F11 Start
Exit MP
Power
See also: keyboard shortcuts overview, Keys and Sounds section of MediaPortal Configuration, key definitions at My TV and My Videos.
Topbar
Introduction
If you enter a Module e.g. My Videos and you navigate to the top of the frame the Topbar will pop up.
Buttons: Back: this option brings you back to the screen you have come from Video Step Backward: if you are playing a video you can use this option to go one step backward Video Fast Backward: if you are playing a video you can use this option to go fast backward Video Play: you can use this option to start a video file or resume a paused Video Video Pause: if you are playing a video you can use this option to pause the playback Video Stop: if you are playing a video you can use this option to stop the playback Video Fast Forward: if you are playing a video you can use this option to go fast forward Video Step Forward: if you are playing a video you can use this option to go one step forward Maximize/Minimize: this option can be used to Maximize/Minimize MediaPortal Close: This option will close MediaPortal and bring you back to the WindowsXP Desktop MediaPortal Wiki: MediaPortalBasicNavigation (last edited 2008-10-07 10:13:49 by pbb)
Using My TV
Features
Turn on/off TV Browse Channels Browse Electronic Program Guide Record Shows Compress Shows Search Shows Using My TV is simple once you have tuned in the correct channels. You will have these options: Electronic Program Guide The electronic program guide gives you a nice overview about your TV-Program. If you select a show you will get into the record screen. On the left side you will have multiple options for recording. On the right side you will see the description of the show and upcoming episodes (if available).
Using MediaPortal Basic Navigation My TV My Pictures My Radio My Music My Videos MyVideo Editor My Weather Play DVD My last.fm Radio Wikipedia My Sudoku Settings My Plugins
Groups: If you have predefined different channel-groups (bouquets, e.g. sports, news) you can select your favorite one, here. Channels: Here you can browse all available channels (of the selected group) and select one. TV on: Click TVon to turn TV on or off. Timeshift: Click Timeshift to turn timeshift on or off Timer: Here you can see your scheduled recordings and schedule a new manual recording. Recorded TV: Here you can see your recorded shows. Search: Here you can search for a show by name, artist, etc. You will see all upcoming shows and you can directly record a show. Teletext: Here you will see Teletext for the current channel.
The timeline shows your current position in time and in the "Timeshift Buffer". White Arrows = Your actual position in the timeline Red = The part of the show that is not covered by timeshift (from the moment on you switched to that channel or started timeshifting) Green = The part of the show that is covered by timeshift (meaning you could rewind until the spot where red and green meet each other) Orange = The part of the show ahead from your current position that is covered by timeshift (meaning you can forward til the end of the orange bar which is the live position of the current tv program when you e.g. hit pause and resume afterwards)
Prev/Next channel F7/F8 Last channel Now playing Autozap Record Zoom Z Enter O,P R S
Y C
See also: keyboard shortcuts overview, Keys and Sounds section at Setup General, key definitions at Basic Navigation and My Videos.
TV Guide
Note: To display station logos in the TV Guide, check the TV and Radio Channel Logos guide.
Setup
To setup My TV, go to the Television section in MediaPortal Setup. You can also change some settings from within MediaPortal, with the ?My TV section in Settings. MediaPortal Wiki: UsingMyTV (last edited 2009-02-06 04:26:45 by charger)
My Pictures
Using MediaPortal Basic Navigation My TV My Pictures My Radio My Music My Videos MyVideo Editor My Weather Play DVD My last.fm Radio Wikipedia My Sudoku Settings My Plugins
Features
Share and enjoy your pictures/photos with slide shows. Add fun to your slideshows with background music or radio. Easy management of photo albums all from the remote. Zoom, rotation and Ken burns effect of photos. The My Pictures Plugin has the following options:
Highlighting a picture in the list and right clicking the mouse or using F3 on the keyboard, an on screen display
Rotate
View As
List (The image below) Icons Big Icons (an example is the first image on this page) Filmstrip (The image above)
Sort by
Slideshow
"normal slideshow" ie just the pictures in that folder currently open will be shown as slideshow
R. Slideshow
"recursive slideshow" ie pictures in that folder currently open as well as pictures in "child" folders will be shown as slide show
Create Thumbs
MediaPortal Wiki: UsingMyPictures (last edited 2009-01-27 19:13:23 by 118-93-15-21)
My Radio
Using MediaPortal Basic Navigation My TV My Pictures My Radio My Music My Videos MyVideo Editor My Weather Play DVD My last.fm Radio Wikipedia My Sudoku Settings My Plugins
Features
Organize and listen to your favorite radio stations. Support for streaming, DVB and FM radio thru internal add on cards. Use the integrated player or use your favorite external application.
View
List (The image below) Icons (The image above) (Note: to display station logos, check the TV and Radio Channel Logos
guide.) Big Icons (an example is the first image on this page)
Sort by
Previous
Changes channel to the radio station/stream one above the current station in the list as sorted by name.
Next
Changes channel to the radio station/stream one below the current station in the list as sorted by name.
Guide
Using MediaPortal Basic Navigation My TV My Pictures My Radio My Music My Videos MyVideo Editor My Weather Play DVD My last.fm Radio Wikipedia My Sudoku Settings My Plugins
There are four different ways of how the information about your music collection can be displayed by MediaPortal. How you access your music collection How you browse through your music collection How this information is displayed in Mediaportal How big the icons are you click on and how they are sorted How you access your music collection share view database view How you browse through your music collection Music -> Artist -> Album -> Tracks Music -> A-Z -> A-> Artist -> Album -> Tracks How this information is displayed in Mediaportal 01 - OK Computer - Radiohead - Airbag.mp3 (04:44) 12-07-2006 01 - Airbag.mp3 (04:44)) How big the Icons are you click on and how they are sorted List: shows a list of small icons and text on the right side of the icon Icons: shows a group of medium sized icons with text underneath Big Icons: shows a group of big icons with text underneath Big Icon List: shows a list of big icons and text on the right side of the icon Filmstrip: shows one big icon and a small strip underneath MediaPortal Wiki: UsingMyMusic (last edited 2008-10-07 10:14:31 by pbb)
My Videos
Features
Using MediaPortal Basic Navigation My TV My Pictures My Radio My Music My Videos MyVideo Editor My Weather Play DVD My last.fm Radio Wikipedia My Sudoku Settings My Plugins
My Videos is the central point for all kinds of video data. It will play videos and DVDs. It will stack multipart movies and you can create playlists. ?IMDB support is built in to automatically get movie information
View
Clicking this button cycles through the various display modes for the videos view: Icons, Big Icons, Filmstrip & List. Right Clicking a video in the list will display a menu with the following choices: Add to playlist - adds the selected video to the current playlist Scan IMDB - downloads information from ?IMDB database and automatically adds it to the MediaPortal database. Delete this video File menu Copy Move Rename Delete New Folder Set as Destination Goto Destination Unstack - ?
Pressing F3 on a selected movie will display the ?IMDB information or will access ?IMDB to download the information and automatically adds it to the MediaPortal database.
Sort by:
This allows you to change the order of the files. Name, Date, Size, Year, DVD#
Switch Views
Provides the option to change View based on Shares, Genres, Actors, Titles or Years Note that the Views Genres, Actors, Titles or Years requires that the movie titles have been added to the database.
Eject
Ejects the DVD disk in the DVD drive.
Configuration
The location for the files displayed in My Videos is established using Videos Setup.
Movie Information F3
Switch audio stream A See also: keyboard shortcuts overview, Keys and Sounds section at Setup General, key definitions at Basic Navigation and My TV. MediaPortal Wiki: UsingMyVideos (last edited 2009-04-30 00:04:50 by d58-106-116-61)
My Video-Editor
Last time updated: 2007-01-30
Using MediaPortal Basic Navigation My TV My Pictures My Radio My Music My Videos MyVideo Editor My Weather Play DVD My last.fm Radio Wikipedia My Sudoku Settings My Plugins
Introduction Now you can edit and cut your files within MediaPortal just using your remote! This Plugin was created to help getting rid of commercials, pre- and post recordings or whatever you like. You can edit video files using dvr-ms and mpeg format. Just add the segments you would like to keep to Cutlist and a new file will be created and named as your original file was named. This is important to get all information, that are stored in MediaPortal's database like EPG-Description, when watching the video. Your original-file will get the phrase "_original" added. -
It took quite some time to get this work. Even MP's code needed to be changed for this. Special thanks to Kaybe and Brutus who did all the coding! I just brought them together and helped with the screens. If you have any suggestions or comments, please post here. And I think it may help to keep Kaybe and Brutus motivated to go on, if they get some positive feedback, too. :wink: Regards Ralph
Plugin Type
Window
Development Status
Describe the development status, like stable, alpha, beta, proof of concept, etc.
Requirements
Requires MediaPortal x.x.x.x Requires plugin ?xxx to be installed and activated. Requires ?certain hardware. Requires ?certain stand-alone software.
Download
Included in the main MediaPortal installation.
Configuration
See My Video-Editor config.
Usage Guide
Let's go: 1. In the first screen you can browse your computer and choose the file you would like to edit. 2. In the next screen you can use pause and play button on your remote. Use the slider for fast browsing through your file and the back and forward button to make 1 second steps. 3. Press start and end to mark the segment you would like to keep and press add. This segment will now be added to the Cutlist. You can repeat this several times to add multiple segments. 4. After that just hit the Cut-button and your file will be created and saved. You will get a pop-up message when the file has been saved. The Cancel button can be used to stop this saving procedure.
5. Just go back (ESC) and choose another file you would like to cut. That's it. Enjoy and have fun.
Change Log
Update 18.09.2006: New release of VideoEditor out now. New features added: convert dvr-ms files to mpeg message box will ask you to delete original file after converting or cutting MPs database will be updated after cutting a file Please notice that actually only dvr-ms files, (your standard recordings made with MediaPortal) will take full advantage of all features! Mpeg files actually only have limited features: no joining only the first entry (in and out) in cutlist will be used no progressbar We will try to get all features work with mpeg files, too.:) To get the latest release you need an SVN-Snapshot. Only recommend for advanced users!
Update 12.09.2006: Dvr-MpegCut now is called VideoEditor! Update 08.08.2006: New release of Dvr-MpegCut out now. new features added: when cutting/saving a file a progress-bar will show the status you can now join several files to one big file! -> only working for dvr-ms-files, right now. Just choose cut or join on the first screen to activate the feature you would like to use. The new big file will be named as the first file you choose. The first-file will get the phrase _joined added. cutlist entries can be edited Just choose the entry you would like to edit and hit the context-menu button (F9) You can choose delete or edit this entry select an entry in cutlist and press OK, and you will jump to the start and end point of this entry in explorer now your shares are shown, too bug fixes: current time issue has been fixed explorer issue after leaving cutscreen has been fixed
Todo list
List and briefly describe any items on the todo list for future version. Example: Fix feature XYZ in next version. Add new feature X.
Author(s)
?kaybe and ?brutus, skin by ?Ralph.
License
Describe the usage license for your plugin here.
See Also
You can supply extra links here.
Discussion / Support
Forum discussion
<< Back to Plugins. MediaPortal Wiki: UsingMyVideo-Editor (last edited 2008-10-07 10:14:57 by pbb)
My Weather
Features
Using MediaPortal Basic Navigation My TV My Pictures My Radio My Music My Videos MyVideo Editor My Weather Play DVD My last.fm Radio Wikipedia My Sudoku Settings My Plugins
Detailed weather conditions Multiple choices for units of measurement Toggle between multiple locations (configured in Weather Setup in the Mediaportal Configuration program) Four Day weather forecasts Multiple weather maps for each location The Weather Plugin has the following options:
Images
Displays the following types of weather maps: Satellite Temperature UV Index Winds Humidity Precipitation To toggle through the map choices, click the third button from the top ("View: Precipitation" in the above image) Please see the Weather Setup page for the weather image configuration instructions
Refresh
Updates the current screen with the most recent weather information
4 Day Forecast
Shows a detailed forecast for a single day. Clicking the Day button (the "Monday" button in the image above) will cycle through the four days shown in the initial screen of the plugin Clicking the Day button a fifth time will return you to the initial screen of the plugin
City
Brings up a OSD menu that allows user to choose the weather locations set up in the Weather Setup section in the MediaPortal Configuration program MediaPortal Wiki: UsingMyWeather (last edited 2008-10-07 10:15:07 by pbb)
Play DVD
This function plays the currently inserted DVD. If more than one DVD exists, MediaPortal will show a dialog box, with the possibility to choose which DVD to play.
Using MediaPortal Basic Navigation My TV My Pictures My Radio My Music My Videos MyVideo Editor My Weather Play DVD My last.fm Radio Wikipedia My Sudoku Settings My Plugins
Example
My last.fm Radio
MediaPortal interface
Start / Change stream Recommendation radio MediaPortal User's group radio Tune into chosen tag Personal radio of Loved tracks of My neighbour radio (Tags) (Friends)
Using MediaPortal Basic Navigation My TV My Pictures My Radio My Music My Videos MyVideo Editor My Weather Play DVD My last.fm Radio Wikipedia My Sudoku Settings My Plugins
My Wikipedia
Features
Using MediaPortal Basic Navigation My TV My Pictures My Radio My Music My Videos MyVideo Editor My Weather Play DVD My last.fm Radio Wikipedia My Sudoku Settings My Plugins
The Wikipedia plugin allows the user to search the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia from within MediaPortal. Using an on screen keyboard, the user can enter a search term and the plugin will display the related article. The plugin also allows the user to display images or follow links contained within the article. The Wikipedia plugin currently supports seven local Wikipedia sites.
Search
Clicking this button opens an on screen keyboard The keys can be selected by navigating to a key by remote control, clicking on a key with a mouse or by typing on the htpc keyboard Using the On Screen Keyboard, enter a search term Clicking "Done" searches for the exact phrase. If the plugin finds an article on the search term, it will be displayed in a textbox on the right side of the screen. Clicking "Contains" returns a list of articles which the search term appears in the title If the search returns no results, the message "Sorry, no article was found for your searchterm..."
Language
The plugin can access several local Wikipedia sites. For example: English German French Dutch Norwegian Swedish Italian Read the section "Hacking wikipedia.xml" on the bottom of this page to find out how you can customize the used languages.
Links
Selecting this button opens up an on screen menu with a list of related topics that are linked in the search term's Wikipedia entry. Selecting an item from the menu displays the Wikipedia article for the selected item.
Images
Clicking this button opens up an on screen menu with a list of images that are contained in the Wikipedia entry for the current search term. Selecting an item from menu replaces displays the associated image. The image replaces the text on the right side of the screen.
This button is only displayed when viewing and image. Allows the user to return to the text of the Wikipedia entry after viewing a related image.
"Hacking" wikipedia.xml
As of SVN revision 13052 (21.02.2007) there is a new configuration file for this plugin. Just look for wikipedia.xml in MediaPortal's root directory. The file starts with a section where all available sites are listed. You can change the order of the languages here (how they appear in the language selection control) and it is also your first startpoint for adding a new site. To do so just append the name of the new language to the list. The second step to add a new site is to add a new section like the following: <section name="Your language"> <entry name="url">URL to your local Export page</entry> <entry name="imagepattern">Term used in image URLs</entry> <entry name="imageurl">URL to image pages</entry> <entry name="string">The string ID of your new language (see below)</entry> </section> The last step would be to add a new language string to your MediaPortal language file. Strings 2600 and up are used for language translations. Good luck MediaPortal Wiki: UsingWikipedia (last edited 2008-10-07 10:16:18 by pbb)
My Sudoku
Features
Using MediaPortal Basic Navigation My TV My Pictures My Radio My Music My Videos MyVideo Editor My Weather Play DVD My last.fm Radio Wikipedia My Sudoku Settings My Plugins
Sudoku, also known as Number Place or Nanpure, is a logic-based placement puzzle. The aim of the puzzle is to enter the digits 1 through 9 in each cell of a 99 grid made up of 33 subgrids (called "regions") so that each row, column, and region contains exactly one instance of each digit. A set of clues, or "givens", constrain the puzzle such that there is only one way to correctly fill in the remainder. For more information on history, strategy and analysis of Sudoku, please visit the Sudoku page on Wikipedia.
New game
The New game button starts a new game. To fill in a square with a number, move the highlight to the square you want to fill in and select it. A list control will appear with the choices 1-9 (numbers to fill in) and 10 to clear the square of any previous value. The chosen number may not always appear in the square; see description of invalid moves button below.
Help once
The plugin will fill in one square at random with the correct number (shown in white above).
Reset Game
Clears the grid of all numbers entered by the user. The squares that were filled as clues to start the game remain (shown in black).
Solve
Shows the solution to the puzzle. The numbers black are the clues to start the game; numbers in red are the squares that were empty at the start.
Level:
Choose the level of difficulty: kids easy medium difficult
Clear
Removes all numbers from the grid. MediaPortal Wiki: UsingMySudoku (last edited 2008-10-07 10:16:51 by pbb)
Settings plugin
Using MediaPortal Basic Navigation My TV My Pictures My Radio My Music My Videos MyVideo Editor My Weather Play DVD My last.fm Radio Wikipedia My Sudoku Settings My Plugins
The Settings plugin allows you to change certain aspects of MediaPortal from within the MediaPortal interface, as an alternative to the various other locations outside of MediaPortal. Please note that the external setup program allows for more option and settings than this internal settings plugin.
Settings Features
?Setup Wizard ?General ?Screen Calib (Screen Calibration) ?My TV My Pictures My Videos My DVD My Music MediaPortal Wiki: UsingSettings (last edited 2008-10-07 10:17:03 by pbb)
My Plugins
My Plugins collects all the enabled window plugins that are not shown in the Home screen. See included plugins and community plugins for an overview of MediaPortal plugins. MediaPortal Wiki: UsingMyPlugins (last edited 2008-10-07 10:17:30 by pbb)
Using MediaPortal Basic Navigation My TV My Pictures My Radio My Music My Videos MyVideo Editor My Weather Play DVD My last.fm Radio Wikipedia My Sudoku Settings My Plugins
The MPEI was developed to help our users to find, install and update MediaPortal Extensions such as plugins, skins and others. This is possible by browsing a list of extensions which is available on our online repository. But it also allows you to manually install extensions on PC's without an internet connection. Creating new Extension packages is also included in MPEI
Manual
Create a new Extension Install and uninstall Extensions MediaPortal Wiki: MPEI (last edited 2009-01-15 12:33:56 by infinityloop)
1. How do I add Radio Logos? 8. General Development 1. I would like to compile MediaPortal by my own. 2. Where can I find the MediaPortal source code? 3. How do I download the MediaPortal source code? 4. What's the size of MediaPortal source code? 5. I have changed some code, how can I make it available to the public? 6. I have coded a plugin/skin/whatever. How can I make it available to the public? 7. Do I have to keep some formatting or coding style when coding for MediaPortal? 9. Skin Development 1. Is there any documentation for the skin XML files? 2. I have changed graphics or skin XML files but don't see a change in MediaPortal. 10. Performance 1. Why doesn't MediaPortal perform as well as the application provided with my TV card? 2. Why does MediaPortal use DirectX9 Video Mixing Renderer (VMR9) for Video Playback? 3. Would a stripped-down version of MediaPortal be faster?
Does MediaPortal run on Windows 2000, Windows XP (Pre Service Pack 2)32 bit version or Windows XP 64 bit Version?
MediaPortal will NOT install on Windows 2000, Windows XP 32 bit version (pre Service Pack 2) or Windows XP 64 bit version . More informtion can be found on the Supported Operating Systems page
Does MediaPortal run on Windows Vista (pre Service Pack 1) , Windows Server 2003 , Windows Server 2008 or Windows XP/Vista with Beta Service Pack versions?
These versions of windows are not officially supported by the MediaPortal Team. Especially Windows 2000 and the server versions of Windows lack of the Stream Buffer Engine (SBE) by Microsoft which MediaPortal relies on for watching TV. More informtion can be found on the Supported Operating Systems page
I am using a stripped down or streamlined version of XP. Why does MediaPortal run so badly on it?
Stripped down Windows versions mostly lack of some basic services and settings MediaPortal uses. We cannot supply a list of services that have to be installed, as some plugins need services that others don't. In general we recommend not to used a stripped version of Windows, you might experience some very weird things and unexpected crashes with it. The same applies if you disable some Windows services by hand. You cannot predict what plugin component is going to need what service.
If your bug is not reported there, please read the bug template thoroughly and post your bug to the normal forums or, even better, to the test team forum. bug section on the Posting to the test team forum ensures that the test team will try to reproduce your bug and hand the necessary information over to the developers to fix the problem.
If it's not, you're welcome to describe your feature with as many details as you can and post it onto forum section. Those details help the developers to get an idea on how the feature should look that like at the end and helps other users to give some input and enhancements on your idea. Please note: Requesting a feature does not necessarily mean it will be implemented as soon as possible or that it will get implemented at all. Please refrain from asking questions like: "I have posted a feature request, but still I don't find it in MediaPortal. When will someone put that in?" Feature requests should be an inspiration for the team, bugging does not help there. But as many users know, there are a lot of requests that already came to life and made MediaPortal even better than it was before. The team always had open ears for new features and ideas.
If I have a dual tuner card, how many shows can I record/watch at the same time?
You can record two shows simultaneously with a dual tuner card. While recording, you can only view those channels since they are being used by the tuners. If you are recording with only one tuner, you can scan and watch any other channel with the second available tuner.
Does MediaPortal support media extenders like the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3?
At the moment there are no media extenders that work with MediaPortal. As a developer you are more than welcome to add support for those.
FireDTV basic support for HID devices (multimedia keys on keyboards, uncertified MCE remote clones) DirectInput gamepads MAME gamepads (as supplied plugin) All other remotes need some 3rd party applications to send keystrokes or HID commands to MediaPortal (sometimes supplied with your remote).
My TV What is the default recording format and how can I change this?
MediaPortal uses DVR-MS by default and this cannot be changed. DVR-MS is just a wrapper for the MPEG stream recorded by MediaPortal. You can get the pure MPEG/AC-3 streams using the convert feature in MediaPortal without any loss or recompression.
Where will my recordings be saved by default and how can I change this?
The default path is: My Documents\My Recordings To change this open MediaPortal configuration and goto: --> Television --> Capture Cards --> Select (your) Capture Card from the list --> Edit --> On the Tab "Capture card" you can determine the recording folder (if the card is activated for recordings)
Furthermore you need a TV card with CI that is properly supported. Currently only 2 kinds of cards are confirmed to be working with CI. Others might also work but that still needs to be tested thorougly. See ?Supported TV-Cards to find out which cards support a common interface for channel decryption.
fps 47.41: The average frame rate since playback has been started sync: 0: The average time difference between when the video frames should have been displayed and when they actually were displayed drawn: 19083: The number of video frames actually drawn since playback has been started dropped: 19: The number of video frames dropped by the video renderer jitter: 18: The average time between successive video frames delivered to the video renderer And what about the white line moving from left to right? It will display any "tearing" or other breaks in the video "smoothness" - the line should be continuous and move smoothly.
Don't forget to tick every supported-format checkbox (e.g. "AVI", "MKV", etc) when you install Haali's Splitter.
The playback of the video is horizont cut into halfs, what is that?
This is called "Tearing".
Why am I getting no sound when playing DVDs or videos with AC3 audio?
Your AC-3 codec may be configured to output to SPDIF instead of your speakers. Open Windows Media Player. Click Tools -> Options. Select DVD tab and press Advanced, and ensure the AC3 and DTS decoder settings are set to decode to speakers and not to SPDIF.
A description of all available Video Zoom Modes can ve found on the related wiki page.
DVD playback Why do i just get a blackscreen instead of a menu on some DVDs?
This is a codec related problem. We strongly recommend that you always use DVD-Navigator, video and audiocodec from the same brand. In example PowerDVD, or the Vista inbuilt. If you try to combine DVD Navigartor and audio/video codecs from different manufatuers, then you will encounter problems with menus of some dvd's
I saw nice album pictures on some screenshots, where can I add them?
Album art is added for all songs in a folder by putting a file in the folder named folder.jpg. If such a file is detected by Media Portal, it will be displayed as the album art when any song in the folder is playing. To use an image for a single track, name the image file the same as the audio file but with a .tbn extension. This acts as a thumbnail image that will be displayed when the file is playing. For example, given a song called songOne.mp3, name the image for this file songOne.tbn. You can also grab automatically (from Amazon.com) an album cover by browsing to "My Music", switching to "Share View" and bringing the context-menu on an album folder and then select the "Find Coverart " button. Then follow the on screen indications.
My music files have different volume levels, how can I avoid adjusting volume on every song change?
You could try foobar2000 as external player. It has an option called "Replay Gain". Scan your collection once, activate it in foobar's config and enjoy seamless track changes. Hint: Change the default settings from ape tags to ID3v2.
I have changed some code, how can I make it available to the public?
If you have patches or additions to MediaPortal, upload WHOLE files (no diffs) to the SourceForge patches section. Please note that you need an account for that, we cannot accept anonymous submissions. As soon as the patch is checked, tested and approved, it will be added to the SVN repository by a team developer. This way we can make sure that your patch does not break MediaPortal for other users.
Do I have to keep some formatting or coding style when coding for MediaPortal?
All stuff we put into SVN should follow the Microsoft C# coding style guidlines. IMPORTANT: Read this document to follow our adoption of those guidelines, especially the paragraphs about formatting, identation and commenting. Primary goal for the coding style guidelines (no matter if our own or Microsoft's) is to keep the code most readable for everyone. Please also add comments to your code to make it transparent for other devs. This practice attracts other devs to give some input and fixes for your code. You wouldn't want to read spaghetti code either, would you?
Skin Development Is there any documentation for the skin XML files?
Yes, you can find information on it on ?this wiki page.
I have changed graphics or skin XML files but don't see a change in MediaPortal.
Skin graphics and XML files are cached, just delete the packedgfx*.* files in the %?ProgramData%\MediaPortal\cache\skin folder . They will be rebuilt on the next MediaPortal start. Or remove the whole %?ProgramData%\MediaPortal\cache\skin folder, this will ensure graphics and fonts are rebuilt.
Performance
Why doesn't MediaPortal perform as well as the application provided with my TV card?
MediaPortal needs to support a large range of TV cards. For this it uses the Windows DirectShow API. The applications provided with most TV cards will communicate directly with the card and therefore can perform better in certain conditions. They can do this because they only need to support a very limited set of hardware and the provided applications typically have a limited feature set compared to MediaPortal.
Why does MediaPortal use DirectX9 Video Mixing Renderer (VMR9) for Video Playback?
VMR9 mode is used for TV and video playback for a number of reasons. The most important ones are: Drawing GUI on top of the video doesn't flicker. This enables on-screen displays to be drawn over the live TV images. DXVA can be used in hardware if codec & HW supports it Better image quality Better scaling quality VMR9 has improved timing code It can work in Direct3D exclusive mode which means the entire machine is set to fullscreen and no background application are allowed access to the video hardware. Under Direct3D Exclusive Mode, less CPU is required to play videos and depending on the resolution of the video, playback may be smoother. Exclusive mode is also required to stop tearing.
2. Common Errors & Problems 2.1. Error Message - DVBSub2.ax not registered
When receiving this error message, it will be due to the fact that the Visual C++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86) has not been installed onto the machine. To resolve this issue, please uninstall the software Visual C++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86) and install. that raised the error and then go to Once the C++ 2005 Reditributable Package installation is complete re-install the software which caused the error and everthing should be fine.
. .
This indicates a TV channel which is free-to-air. You can view this tv channel without a subscription This indicates a TV channel which is encrypted. To view this tv channel you will need 1. A tv card with a CI interface 2. A CAM 3. A valid subscription + smartcard
. .
This indicates a Radio channel which is free-to-air. You can listen to this channel without a subscription This indicates a Radio channel which is encrypted. Tolisten to this channel you will need 1. A tv card with a CI interface 2. A CAM 3. A valid subscription + smartcard
8. Things work when using good old MP, but not with tvserver
Make sure: 1. things work ok in setuptv (scanning works and timeshifting) 2. that there are no tvcards configurated in mediaportal itself. Check this with configuration.exe and remove any card configured under television
Troubleshooting Database
Sql server configuration
When you have problems connecting to the Sql Server database then open the Sql Server Configuration Manager and verify if: SQL Browser service is running
TCP/IP is enabled
Firewalls
The first thing that can block a connection to SQL Server is a firewall. If you have any firewalls, make sure they are configured to allow connections to SQL Server. Please check your Firewall Configuration
Troubleshooting Streaming
Verify ip adress used for streaming
If everything works ok in a single-seat environment but not in a server environment then open setuptv and check if the ip adress assigned to each server is correct. This ip adress will determine on which network the video/audio will be streamed:
Firewalls
The streaming server uses the IETF RTSP/RTP protocols. RTSP runs on top of TCP, while RTP runs on UDP. Many firewalls are configured to restrict TCP packets by port number, and are very restrictive on UDP. Open the appropriate ports on the firewall. This allows the streaming server to be accessed via RTSP/RTP on the default ports and provides better use of network resources, lower speeds for client connections and less load on the server. Firewalls include ?McAfee, Norton, Windows Firewall which ships with Windows XP SP2, and Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) which ships with Windows 2000. Please check your Firewall Configuration MediaPortal Wiki: TV-Server/troubleshooting-Streaming-Multiseat (last edited 2008-07-21 14:52:47 by localhost)
Windows 2000/2003/XP
Normally on an english XP this is the following folder:
Windows Vista
Normally on an english Vista this is the following folder:
Next select a channel and press the 'Start Times' button. Now if you look in the streaming server.log which is located in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\MediaPortal TV Server\log you'll see the following:
Program files
By default, the MediaPortal and TV Server applications are stored within a folder Team MediaPortal underneath your Program Files folder. However, this may have been changed by the user during installation. The most secure way to determine the actual location is by reading the registry key. Windows XP/Vista Variable C:\Program Files\Team MediaPortal\ %ProgramFiles%\Team MediaPortal\ HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall Registry \MediaPortal\InstallPath HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall \MediaPortal TV Server\InstallPath
Application data
Configuration files for MediaPortal and TV Server are stored underneath the Team MediaPortal folder inside the All Users profile folder. The easiest way to open this folder is by using the User Files shortcut that is placed in your MediaPortal program group (in the Start menu), this will open the MediaPortal folder underneath the application data folder. Windows XP C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Team MediaPortal\
Log files
The information contained in these log files will assist in troubleshooting your problems. When troubleshooting, please ensure to increase the log verbosity through the MediaPortal Configuration application. For bug reporting it is recommended to run the MediaPortal Test Tool log-exporter application which contains more information on the system (i.e. Operating System, Event & System Logs, Codec connections.)
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Team MediaPortal \MediaPortal TV Server\log\ C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal TV Server\log\ %AllUsersProfile%\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal TV Server\log\
Temporary files
The MediaPortal Installer (DeployTool) and various other applications store extracted files in the Temporary Files folder. Windows XP C:\Documents and Settings\<Username>\Local Settings\Temp\
MediaPortal TestTool Contents 1. What it is 1. Information 2. Features: 2. MediaPortal - Debug Mode Shortcut 1. When do you use it 2. How does it work 3. Manually starting TestTool 1. When do you use it 2. How does it work 4. After a crash 5. What to do with the exported logfiles 6. Additional Information 1. Command-line parameters 2. DirectShow Graph capturing
What it is Information
This tool was designed to make testing and error reporting as easy as possible for you. The TestTool is included in your MediaPortal installation (MPTestTool2.exe). With the MediaPortal TestTool you will be able to export all necessary log files and system informations with only a few mouse clicks. Alternatively you can still manually attach all log files to support and bug report threads, or upload them to our pastebin and attach the links to your report.
Features:
Clears all log files before the test. Starts MediaPortal in "debug-mode" (enables debug logging for this test run). Exports Windows event logs, DXdiag info, list of installed Microsoft hotfixes and all MediaPortal log files. Exports all TV-Server log files (if installed on the same PC; single seat setup). Saves all log files as one zip file to a configurable destination. (Default is Desktop.) Automatically starts when MediaPortal crashes and allows you to export all logs. Captures all created DirectShow graphs and creates JPEG's of them. (This requires the Vista SDK on Windows Vista.)
After a crash
When MediaPortal crashes, then this will instantly trigger the TestTool to show up. All your log files will then be exported to the configured location. (Default export location is your desktop.)
If you post test results based on a test plan, please use the template posted in the Testplan and Post the Results announcement.
1. To attach your zip file click on the Manage Attachments button under Additional Options
Display Issues MediaPortal GUI gets black after video playback stops
Reason: This problem occurs in some cases when you use MPV or ffdshow as video codec, in combination with the Enhanced Video Renderer (EVR). Solution: You can solve this problem by using an updated version of the Mpeg2DecFilter from home cinema or another codec, such as from PowerDVD or WinDVD. MPC
No audio for some seconds when using skip steps / fast forward
Reason: This is a specific issue with some codecs like Cyberlink. You watch an movie or TV and after you used the skip steps or FF/FR the video plays but there is no audio for ~10 seconds. Solution 1: Select a different audio codec like MPA.
Storage Issues Networkdrive is not reachable and therefore MediaPortal does not display any Media
Reason: There can be many different reason why a networkdrive is not reachable, until you click at it once in the explorer, after you started your pc. Could be that your networkcard was not ready fast enought or some other networkrelated problem. Solution: You just need to use UNC Paths when you add shares inside MediaPortal configuration.
Easiest way to do so is to select the "network" instead of the networkdrive, then your server pc and then the folder you want to use. MediaPortal Wiki: KnowledgeBase (last edited 2009-05-26 13:49:21 by infinityloop)
General Shortcuts
. . Use cursor to Navigate
Perform action
Pause/Resume
Start playing
Stop playing
Parent folder
Rewind
Fast Forward
Play Previous
Play Next
Volume -
Previous window
Volume +
Mute
Screenshot
Home Screen
Fullscreen TV
Show/Hide OSD
Step backward
Step forward
Previous TV-channel
Next TV-channel
Mini EPG
Last Channel
Recorded TV
Delete selected Recording
TV Guide
Decrease time interval Increase time interval
My Music
Switch between Playlist/GUI Add song/folder to Playlist
My Videos
Switch To/From Video Playlist Add selected item to Video Playlist
Fullscreen Video
Zoom A/R mode Show/Hide OSD
Step backward
Step forward
Enter time
Toggle Subtitles
Stop
Pause
Movie Calibration
Swap arrows Reset Calibration
DVD
Previous Chapter Next Chapter
My Pictures
Delete selected Picture
Slideshow
Pause/Resume Slideshow
Zoom out
Zoom in
Rotate Picture
GUI Calibration
Reset Calibration
OSD
Value plus (+) Value min (-)
Here follows a list of all available commandline options: /fullscreen or /fullscreen=yes Forces MP to start in fullscreen /windowed or /fullscreen=no Forces MP to start in windowed mode /screen=X Forces MP to start in screen number X Please note that /screen=1 will result in starting MP on the secondary screen and /screen=0 will start MP on the primary screen. It can be used like this: MediaPortal.exe /screen=1 (this will start mp on the secondary screen) /crashtest Simulates MP crashing /skin=XX Forces MP to use skin named XX It can be used like this: MediaPortal.exe /skin="Xface" (this will start MP with the Xface skin) MediaPortal Wiki: UserGuides/commandline_options (last edited 2008-07-21 14:54:28 by localhost)
Pro: + no distortion + no quality loss through resizing Con: - black borders if video resolution is lower then display resolution - cropped image if video resolution is higher then display resolution
Normal
The 4:3 image gets zoomed until it matches along the vertical axis.
Pro: + maximum video size without cropping + aspect ratio is correct (no fat people) Con: - black borders
Stretch
The 4:3 image gets streched along the vertical and horizontal axis until it fits the screen.
Pro: + no black borders Con: - no correct aspect ratio (people might look fat)
Non-linear stretch
The 4:3 image is zoomed until it is a bit larger then the visible screen. Then it is stretched along the horizontal axis to fill the screen. Contrarily to the stretch zoom mode the center of the image is not stretched.
Pro: + no black borders + no distortion in the center of the image Con: - top and bottom area slightly cropped - left and right areas of the image distorted - may look disturbing on pans or tickers
Zoom
The smaller side of the image gets zoomed to fill the screen. The larger side will be cropped
Pro: + no black borders + no distortion Con: - if black borders are small then parts of the picture might be cropped - decreased image quality of low resolution content
14:9 Zoom
Usually movies are shot in 21:9 (cinemascope), which results in very big black bars on 4:3 screens. Some broadcasters try to make all their viewers happy by cutting the 21:9 source video to 14:9. As result you see only small borders on the top and lower section on a 4:3 screen. On a 16:9 screen however, you will also see black borders on the left and the right side of your screen. The 14:9 zoom is meant to remove these borders on 16:9 screens by zooming the image with a fixed value. Pro: + no distortion Con: - depending on the broadcaster there could still be some black bars left
4:3 Letterbox
This zoom mode is only useful on 4:3 screens! Watching a 16:9 video on your 4:3 TV this zoom mode adds letterboxes in order to display the image with the correct aspect ratio. Pro: + corrects distortion Con: - only useful on 4:3 TV's when watching 16:9 videos MediaPortal Wiki: VideoZoomModes (last edited 2009-01-22 18:09:35 by infinityloop)
Glossary
Welcome to MediaPortal's wiki glossary. Here you will find detailed explanations of the terminology used when configuring and using this great software. If there is an expression which isn't listed, but you think would help other users, then please add a page. Additionally, you can add to, correct or just simplify the explanations . The Glossary is also useful when writing other pages in the wiki. If you use any of the words listed below, simply use an internal link referencing the description. That way, when a user is reading your page, they can easily lookup an explanation to the terms. This means you can write about the topic rather than worrying about confusing some users with the terminology. 1080i/p 16:9 3ivX 4:3 480i 480p 5.1 Audio 720p AA - Anti-aliasing AAC - Advanced Audio Coding ?AACS - Advanced Access Content System AC-3 AC3 Filter AC'97 Add-ons (plugins) ?Advanced Access Content System Advanced Streaming Format Advanced Stream Redirector Advanced Television Systems Committee AFAIK - As Far As I Know Aliasing ?Analog Anamorphic widescreen Anti-aliasing Artifact ASF Aspect ratio ASX ATSC Audio taper Audio Codec '97 Audio Video Interleaved AVI Back buffer format ?Balloon tips BASS Audio Library BDA Bitrate ?Blu-ray bps
Broadcast Driver Architecture ?C# Capturecard CBR CDDB CFRC Cinematic Frame Rate Conversion Coax Codec ?Codec pack Common Interface Component video Composite video ?Compositing Compression Content recording ?Concurring Versioning System Constant Bit Rate Content Scrambling System ?CRT ?C-Sharp CSS ?CVS Daemon Tools DD - Dolby Digital Deinterlace ?Stencil Buffer Format Digital Visual Interface DirectShow ?DirectX DivX ?DTS DVB ?DVB-C ?DVB-S DVB-T DVD DVI DVR ?DVR-MR DxVA ?EDTV Electronic Programme Guide ?Enhanced Definition TV EPG Extensions (plugins) ?External player plugins FFDshow Filter FireWire ?Forum Framesize
Framerate ?Freedb ?Frontend FPS GUI ?GUI plugins ?HDCP ?HD DVD ?HDMI HDTV - High Definition Television HTPC - Home Theatre PC Huffyuv Hwmc Hybernate ID3 IMDb IMHO ?Infrared Interlace Internet Movie Database ?Interpolation ?Intervideo ?IR ?IR Blaster ?kbps ?Ken Burns Effect ?Letterbox ?Matroska ?Mbps ?MCE ?MP3 ?MPEG ?MPEG-1 ?MPEG-2 ?MPEG-4 ?MPG ?Multicast ?Multisample type ?Multisample quality ?.NET Framework ?NTSC On-Screen Display ?Open Source OSD ?OSM ?OTA ?Overlay ?Overscan ?Over The Air PAT ?PAL ?Party Shuffle
?PCM ?Personal Video Recorder ?Phase Alternating Line ?Picture-In-Picture ?PIP ?Pixel Correction Ratio ?Playlist Plugins ?PMP ?Portable Media Player ?Process plugins ?PVR ?Progressive scan ?Pro-logic ?Post Processing Powersaving ?QAM Tuner QuickTime ?Radlight filter manager ?RDS ?ReClock ?Renderer ?Reference Recording ?Resolution ?RBG S3 Standby (Suspend to RAM) S4 Hybernate (Suspend to Disk) ?SBE ?SCART ?SDTV ?SECAM ?Set top box ?Shoutcast Skin ?Smoothing ?Sony/Philips Digital Interface ?S/P-DIF ?Stacking ?Standard Definition TV ?SIF Single Seat ?Source Interchange Format Standby STD STR ?Streaming radio Suspend to Disk ?/S3 Suspend to RAM ?Super Video-CD ?SVCD ?S-Video ?Tag reader plugins
Taper ?Taskbar ?Teletext ?TFT Timeline ?Timeshifting ?TOSLINK ?Transcoding ?Tuner TV-Engine TV-Server ?Variable Bit Rate ?VCD ?VCR ?Vertex processing ?VfW ?Video Cassette Recorder ?Video-CD ?Video for Windows ?VideoMixerRenderer ?VMR ?VMR9 Windowless ?VMR9 Renderless ?VOB ?VOBSUB Volume taper ?WAF ?Wake-on-LAN ?Wake up device ?WDM Widescreen ?Wife Acceptance Factor ?Window plugins ?Windows Driver Model ?Windows Media Player ?Windows XP Media Center Edition ?WinDVD ?WMA ?WMF ?WMP ?WMV ?WOL ?USBUIRT XMLTV ?XviD ?YUF Zap-OSD MediaPortal Wiki: glossary (last edited 2008-07-21 14:54:21 by localhost)
What is DVB?
DVB stands for Digital Video Broadcasting The DVB Group was started in the early 1990s to develop standards for digital TV for Europe. Every digital TV system in Europe - and in many other territories - uses DVB. DVB is the European standard for digital TV and, as such, provides a very high-speed, robust transmission chain capable of the many Megabits per second needed for each of several hundred MPEG-2 digital TV channels.
Transponder
In the old days, a typical satellite transponder had about enough bandwidth (40 MBPs) for a single analogue PAL colour TV channel. So if your satellite had 22 transponders, you could transmit 22 TV channels. Today using standards like MPEG. A typical TV channel can be compressed by DVB MPEG-2 to around 4 Megabits per second. Channels can be mixed - or multiplexed - in the same transponder giving a rule-of-thumb of 10 TV channels (each around 4Mb/s) in a typical (40Mb/s) transponder. Today we see that a single transponder (40MBps) transmits up ~10 TV channels and radio channels The core system is the same for digital satellite, cable and terrestrial TV with different modulation methods for each mode. In the UK, for some reason, Cable companies have chosen not to adopt the DVB standard.
Transmission
DVB systems distribute data by: satellite (DVB-S, DVB-S2 and DVB-SH; also DVB-SMATV for distribution via SMATV) cable (DVB-C) terrestrial television (DVB-T) terrestrial television for handhelds (DVB-H) microwave using DTT (DVB-MT), the MMDS (DVB-MC), and/or MVDS standards (DVB-MS) These standards define the physical layer and data link layer of a distribution system. Devices interact with the physical layer via a synchronous parallel interface (SPI), synchronous serial interface (SSI), or asynchronous serial interface (ASI). All data is transmitted in MPEG-2 transport streams with some additional constraints (DVB-MPEG). A standard for temporally compressed distribution to mobile devices (DVB-H) has been published in November 2004. These distribution systems differ mainly in the modulation schemes used, due to the different technical constraints: DVB-S (SHF) uses QPSK, 8PSK or 16-QAM o DVB-S2 uses QPSK, 8PSK, 16APSK or 32APSK, at the broadcasters decision. QPSK and 8PSK are the only versions regularly used. DVB-C (VHF/UHF) uses QAM: 16-QAM, 32-QAM, 64-QAM, 128-QAM or 256-QAM DVB-T (VHF/UHF) uses 16-QAM or 64-QAM (or QPSK) in combination with COFDM and hierarchical modulation
Content
Besides audio and video transmission, DVB also defines data connections (DVB-DATA - EN 301 192) with return channels (DVB-RC) for several media (DECT, GSM, PSTN/ISDN, satellite etc.) and protocols (DVB-IPI: Internet Protocol; DVB-NPI: network protocol independent). Older technologies like teletext (DVB-TXT) and vertical blanking interval data (DVB-VBI) are also supported by the standards to ease conversion. However for many applications more advanced alternatives like DVB-SUB for sub-titling are available.
DVB is also developing a Content Protection and Copy Management system for protecting content after it has been received (DVB-CPCM), which is intended to allow flexible use of recorded content on a home network or beyond, while preventing unconstrained sharing on the Internet. DVB-CPCM has been the source of much controversy in the popular press and it's said that CPCM is the DVB's answer to the failed American Broadcast Flag [1] DVB transports include metadata called Service Information (DVB-SI, ETSI EN 300468, ETSI TS 101211) that links the various elementary streams into coherent programs and provides human-readable descriptions for electronic program guides as well as for automatic searching and filtering. Recently, DVB has adopted a profile of the metadata defined by the TV-Anytime Forum [2] (DVB-TVA, ETSI TS 102323). This is an XML Schema based technology and the DVB profile is tailored for enhanced Personal Digital Recorders. DVB lately also started an activity to develop a solution for IPTV (DVB-IPI, ETSI TR 102033, ETSI TS 102034, ETSI TS 102814) which also includes metadata definitions for a broadband content guide (DVB-BCG, ETSI publication expected December 2006).
Emulation Set-up
Multi Arcade Machine Emulator
My TV
How to get Electronic Programming Guide (EPG) for my country How to get a software encoding TV-Card up and running
My Videos
Codecs and Containers Guide Change Font Size Keyboard Shortcuts Overview Postprocessing with ffdshow
Removing TV commercials
Ad Removal DVRMS Toolbox Ad Removal Comskip Ad Removal with 4 The Record and Comskip
Silence
Set up a ramdisk for your Timeshift Buffer MediaPortal Wiki: UserGuides (last edited 2009-06-04 10:58:07 by infinityloop)
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