Guide for HTPC

Leodido said:
thank you mate will check that out this evening, when the new telly ARRIVES :D

One more thing tho, most of the stuf works fine but I have one more issue I'd like to fix with your help.

Is it possible to display on screen information with KMPlayer? Like when I pause, fast forward, change volume etc..? Would come handy because at the moment nothing is displayed.
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i had kmplayer doing that, mine worked straight off the bat as far as i recall
 
Guys I received my TV !! :p
But now I do not understand something...
I have the following TV : 42PX80 Panasonic.

Why is it when I watch the national TV on the cable, the image is like teared, I browsed thru the aspect ratio 16:9, 14:3, just etc... but nothing seems to do it.

Why is that? I do not understand
 
SiD the Turtle said:
Hi photoshop, can you expand on that and also what do you use instead?
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The easiest way to understand what im saying is to watch a movie in something like KMPlayer or Media Player classic and then watch it back using MP's own built in player. You'll notice the image in MP is saturated and the colours are not true. Blacks appear dull and grey. This is the case for me and a few others.

Try playing a 1080p file at 24hz with AC3 sending the audio to an AV amp. Then you'll know what i mean. It just cant cope.

Dedicated players like media player classic or kmplayer are a lot better as they have been developed over many years and carry out their functions with no flaw. MP is still in development.

I use Windows Media Player Classic - Home Cinema Edition. It is essentially a modified and updated version of windows media player classic 6.4. I use it PURELY as the front end. By that i mean it is only displaying the picture. The unpacking of files is handled by Haali Media Splitter. HD files are decoded by CoreAVC. Avi/DivX/XviD is decoded by ffdshow. AC3/DTS Audio is sent straight to my AV amp untouched by AC3filter via HDMI. Mp3/Mpeg Audio is sent straight to my AV amp untouched by ffdshow via HDMI.

The player is controlled by my Harmony 1000 remote as i have mapped the keys (a "how to" is posted earlier).
 
Hmm I'll give it a try. To be honest I'm not enough of a videophile to notice I'd imagine. I would have assumed that as my graphics card does hardware decoding for most of the formats I watch (DVDs, MKVs, Blu-Ray) it would bypass codec issues.

Interesting to hear that you're using a Harmony with Media Portal, I have a 555 all configured, but it's not perfect so I'll dig out your guide.
 
I have some issues with media portal and codecs :(

First, geez the 42PX80 is a BEAST, huge TV :p but very nice also!

Ok here are my present issues, that I hope you can help with guys, don't let a wee newb alone in his misery!

Some really bizarre thing happening is while using the monochrome skin, I can't get moving picture to work at all, all I get is that screen with all the fields replaced by the string refereing to the plugin, ie movingpicture.title etc.. but when I'm using blue3 skin, it works perfectly and I get everything to work correctly.

TV Series works nicely but when I finish watching a movie, it launches a second time, apprently using the internal media player. This is rather odd because I specified in the options that I wanted to use KMPlayer exclusively.

Also photoshop, you are not using the latest version of the monochrome skin are you? Because my TV Serie view does not look like yours at all.

What do you do with shows that are not present on thetvdb and therefore that you can't add to the database? For example I have some NHL matches I'd like to add to it but I can't get do it because of course it is not a real serie per se.
 
Leodido said:
I have some issues with media portal and codecs :(

First, geez the 42PX80 is a BEAST, huge TV :p but very nice also!

Ok here are my present issues, that I hope you can help with guys, don't let a wee newb alone in his misery!

Some really bizarre thing happening is while using the monochrome skin, I can't get moving picture to work at all, all I get is that screen with all the fields replaced by the string refereing to the plugin, ie movingpicture.title etc.. but when I'm using blue3 skin, it works perfectly and I get everything to work correctly.

TV Series works nicely but when I finish watching a movie, it launches a second time, apprently using the internal media player. This is rather odd because I specified in the options that I wanted to use KMPlayer exclusively.

Also photoshop, you are not using the latest version of the monochrome skin are you? Because my TV Serie view does not look like yours at all.

What do you do with shows that are not present on thetvdb and therefore that you can't add to the database? For example I have some NHL matches I'd like to add to it but I can't get do it because of course it is not a real serie per se.
Click to expand...

What you are experiencing are the little naggs of MediaPortal. It really is in beta stage even though they have released a stable version.

I dont use moving Pictures so i cant comment on that problem.

As for it loading twice - im puzzled! Check MP configuration.

Im still using MediaPortal RC2 and Monochrome 2.1. I havent updated my MediaPortal for like 6 months and dont intend to either. It works so i see no need to upgrade and mess around with it. Your MP looks differnet because you are using the latest version.
 
Apparently the launching twice movie bug, was caused by Moving Pictures and should be fixed in the new version, I'll check tonight.

I understand your point :) I'm just a bit sad because I think the TV-Series plugin looks better in the older version ;)

I'll go mess with the skin customisation when I'll be confortable how media portal works.
 
how can i get MP to play VOB files, i still got about 100+ films in vob to convert but is there anyway i can make them play before converting ?


running moving pictures + KMplayer

any help would be great :)
 
Im looking for how to get MP to play WebStreams, say Bloomberg & CNN.
I have added the stream like in the TV config, but nothing plays.
Do I need a TV tuner card? I wouldn't of thought I did seeing its only a webstream.

The stream works on bloomberg.com but wont play in MP
 
Vimes said:
That is a nice keyboard and mouse :) But I am thinking of this one...

(But then again I can't even choose between a Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H board with a NVidia 9400 GPU and an Intel CPU or GA-MA78GM-S2H board with an ATI 3200 GPU and an AMD CPU).
Click to expand...
I've got that exact keyboard and there is one glaring flaw with it that I've come across - when you're using it on an otherwise idle PC there are no problems at all, but if you start downloading using wireless as well then there is serious lag that gets worse the faster you're downloading.

When I'm downloading at about 1.5-2Mb/sec across wireless I can barely use the keyboard/trackpad at all, clicks dont register, button combinations (e.g. shift+whatever) dont register, etc.

I'm only about 2m away from the dongle too. It does get a bit better if I sit right in front of the TV, but that kindof defeats the point of it being wireless really.

Seems like a fundamental problem with the product. Might try a Bluetooth keyboard/mouse combo to see if its any different.
 
@Durzel - I really like that keyboard, but I did buy a clone MCE remote and they do work well. For my LAN connection to my main PC I have used a CAT 6 cable and have a Gigabit connection. I then stuck a generic LAN card into the HTPC to connect it to the router for the Internet connection. That way I can transfer media file from my main PC at Gigabit connection speeds without compromising the connection to the Internet (by hogging the LAN) and as the connections are wired it also does not affect the above keyboard wireless connection.
 
Installing my HTPC tommorow in my cinema room.


When playing mp3's back through my Onkyo will the audio be ok if connected to the amp via HDMI?

I'm a bit confused....lol


Ideally I would like the HD content to be played via the HDMI both sound and video.

But I would like the Xfi to process the MP3's..

is this possible?

Or do I have to change the sound output deviice every time?

Or will the HDMI (4350 GFX) be fine for MP3 playback?
 
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