A Media PC with MediaPortal

OK, I admit it, I've ignored the Freesat/Freeview part of this project so far, and have been concentrating on the HTPC side. Well, I can't be blamed as my modded XBox (which acted as the media player) was removed from under the TV, and the fact that the two Humax PVRs were left in place, then I was in no hurry to get the Freesat/view side working. I promise to make an effort soon (with getting 4 the Record installed and working.)

In the great thing about MediaPortal working as a Media PC is the plugins that can grab on-line content, such as fan art, and series and movie info/synopsis. The StreamedMP skin installer also installs/upgrades and supports the Moving Pictures and My TV Series plugins, and makes the PC look and feel like a wonderful Media Player, together with the My Trailers plugin, the PC really feels like a HTPC.

The HTPC, combined with my two Humax PVRs (with which I can pull recordings off quite easily), means I can use the PVRs to record a whole series or movies, transfer them onto the HTPC to be watched at anytime that's convenient.

Configure WebEPG in MP

As promised, here's the guide to getting WebEPG in MediaPortal to work - it is on my MediaPortal wiki pages: Setting up WebEPG.

I will expand it more as I go along... especially with SVN versions of MP.

MediaPortal: The re-installing trick

My answer to many MediaPortal configuration problems is, to re-install! This seems to work for me, time and time again. The only problem in doing this is that you lose your 'settings' information... so if you are willing to re-configure MP and its many plug-ins that you have setup, then take my advice and re-install!

A re-install, certainly did the trick for my new GPU and BBC HD problem. Now receiving HD via satellite works a treat! The problem, as I suspected, was the fact that MP would not 'apply' my configuration change of the location of the 'timeshift buffer'. Previously, I had configured MP to buffer onto a USB stick. Later I realised this might not be a good idea for HD processing... so changed it back to the HDD, but had not realised that it was still buffering to the USB stick, until I looked at the back of the case, where the stick was plugged into, to see that is was still merilly flashing away!

A fresh-from-scratch re-install did the trick and now buffering is on the local HDD, and receiption and decoding of BBC HD is perfect. (I still have to try recording at the same time as watching BBC HD to test the new GPU.)

I had an experiment with creating a RAM disk for the location of the timeshift buffer, but I could only create a 32MB RAMdisk! This has to be bigger for the buffer I suspect. I need to find a free piece of software to create at least a 256MB RAM disk...

Another re-install?

To solve several problems with MediaPortal, I decided to upgrade to an SVN version (untested development snapshots). I had been waiting for version 1.0.1 of MediaPortal to be released, but the deadline of 15th March has been postponed with no ETA...

The version I upgraded my MP 1.0.0.0 was this one 02-10-2009 Rev:21688. This version fixed:
(a) the unsupported skin message at MP start-up, and (b) I can ESCape out of the Recorded TV screen. Unfortunately, when I installed this SVN version, I did not perform a complete uninstall of MP. And last night's installation of my new GPU (more below) there were problem not being able to make certain configuration changes that would 'stick'. I think I will have to wipe MP 1.0.0.0 completely off the system, then install the latest SVN version: 03-22-2009 Rev:22029.

I spent a few hours last night installing and configuring my new HiS 2600 HD GPU, to see if I could get BBC HD/ITV HD broadcasts decoding properly on my P4 HTPC within MP. I had varying success, the card certainly produced good enough pictures to watch, but they were not smooth enough. I also had problems with MP crashing out and freezing up after a while of watching BBC HD, but I haven't be able to isolate the problem. I am considering a re-install of XP to get a clean system install to see if this helps... but this does mean investing more time and effort.

A new GPU for BBC HD/ITV HD

Another day, and another dollar to spend! This time, it looks like I need a new GPU to decode BBC HD and ITV HD...

So I posted this question: "Can I get BBC HD with my setup", on the Media Portal forums. The answer turns out to be "yes" but "not watchable"! So after messing around installing various HD codecs, Power DVD 9, MPC, and Core AVC, the last one worked but I get slow/stuttering/juddery picture and sound with BBC HD and ITV HD broadcasts. My machine also gets itself in a twist when tuned into these channels - refusing to change away!

So the conclusion in the thread is that my NVIDIA GeForce 6600LE is not adequate for HD decoding... so I've just spent £23 on the HiS HD 2600 Pro from Scan. We will see how this goes - won't we?

Anyway to recap of my spending on this HTPC project so far:

• Antec Veris Remote Max HTPC case @ £133
• Pinnacle 7010iX Dual Analog + DTT + Dsat tuner card @ £23
• 2 x 1 Gb PC2-4200 DDR2 RAM @ £20
• Pentium 4 CPU fan @ £15
• SATA DVD rewriter @ £15
  
• HD 2600 Pro GPU @ £23

Total: £229

HTPC Software: Moving Pictures: an MP plug-in

Once you have MediaPortal installed, messed about with changing a few skins, only when you've installed the Moving Pictures plug-in does the PC feel like a Media Center box.

This MediaPortal plug-in organises your 'movies' media files, downloading covers, movie info, and fan art to create an 'atmospheric' movie library:


Forum and download available here.

Media Center setup issues

I've been running my Media Center PC as a HTPC for a few weeks now, and here are some issues I have noted:

1. Antec Veris Remote Max case
(a) I found that the case has two jumper connectors that allow the remote to power the box on OR the front power button to. I can not have both connected so that I can do both - it's either or... (b) The case was quite noise in place under the TV, but I did not know whether it was the hard disk(s), CPU fan or case fans. Futher investigation reveal it to be the case fans (of which I only had one on)... so I think I need to replace at least on for a silent fan... (c) The locations of the DVD/CD-ROM drive and the hard disks are so far apart that it made it impossible to connect both and IDE DVD/CD-ROM drive and a hard disk under the same IDE channel. To solve this I purchased a SATA DVD/CD-ROM AND removed the IDE 160Gb CE drive. (d) I have to look at the iMON software and tweak it a bit more. The volume button on the case seems pretty useless at the moment...

2. Pentium 4, 4Gb RAM, GeForce 6600LE GPU, Abit AA8-3rd Eye mobo
Currently, this setup is working fine for a Media Center. I had it recording a programme could do other things without too much problems. But I have not fully stress-tested it, so it might proved not so adequate. My current problem with is this setup is the power consumption - up to 160W at max usage... not to good. My FOXSAT-HDR will consume upto 50W at max usage. See above for the comments on the £130 case, but having seenthe good looking Opera Media Center ATX case for just £35, I wonder if this could be an alternative, if bought with a basic iMON remote and sensor?

3. MediaPortal software
This seems to provide what is required, but the problem seems to be the setup - needed a lot of time and effort to get it working properly and doing what you want. The good things is that it seems to have all the plug-ins you want, and there's a support forum where you can get help. There are some major quirks to get used too or overcome with MediaPortal and its plug-ins... but could be worth it in the end. I am currently trying my MP configuration to work properly with WebEPG, Streamed-MP skin, Moving Pictures plug-in... next will be the TV Series and For the Record plug-ins...

A Working MP EPG

I've done it! I've got the WebEPG populating with info for most of the channels. With help from the MP forum of course. See my post here for the new webepg.exe that is needed to get this working. Follow my two links and follow the instructions in there, then download this webepg version to populate the EPG.


Above is a screenshot of the EPG with the Monochrome skin. This skin is easy to install, as it comes with full instructions on how to install it. This is a good skin to start with, but I have found the Streamed-MP skin (ported from XBMC) which looks a lot better, and will be installing that...

MediaPortal: EPG

Yes, I think I've just been able to get the (web) EPG on MediaPortal working! After making this post on the MP forums, I clicked on a couple of buttons (Load/Refresh in the Mappings tab of the XmlTV plugin of TV Server configuration) and the data appeared!



This was done on my work PC using a Pinnacle USB 60e tuner (which can only pick up 5 channels!), so I will have to confirm it on my Media PC at home. Once I've done this I will post the exact steps, but the link above is what I did (over and over!)

Here a screenshot with the monochrome skin:

PC Media Center

Now that I have the P4 PC bits installed in the Antec Veris Max case, and have managed to get MediaPortal and XMBC running (although not quite fully, yet). It is running well enough to replace my modded Xbox.

So out goes the PC under the TV and the Xbox:

And in goes the Antec Media Center:


EDIT:
The power consumption of this Media PC is 6W in standby, and upto 160W in usage! Yikes! I will have to be thinking about a new motherboard and CPU to reduce the power consumption (like this Media PC). I have two hard disk in this box: Seagate PipelineHD 320GB and a Seagate 160Gb CE drive. Now that it is in place, it is quite noisy when it runs, but I am not sure where the noise is coming from. I will have to find out whether the noise is from the CPU fan, the power supply (fan) or the case fans. It could also be the hard disks inside making the virbrations...