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Revision as of 15:53, 27 October 2011 by Robert d (Talk | contribs) (Troubleshooting Tips for XBMC Dharma 10.1 + PVR v2 Setup)

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Troubleshooting Tips for XBMC Dharma 10.1 + PVR v2 Setup

If Live TV does not work in XBMC, follow this guide to correct the problem.

  1. Is there a "Live TV" button on the Confluence Home Page?
    If yes,
    Click on the "Live TV" button.
    In the "Slide Out" menu, select TV Channels.
    Are there TV Channels listed on the far right of the screen?
    If yes,
    Are you able to view a channel?
    If no,
    Continue to Step 2.
    If no,
    Is the option Confluence Skin Home Page>System>Add-ons>Installed Add-ons>PVR clients>MediaPortal PVR Cleint (TSReader) enabled?
    If yes,
    Continue to Step 2.
    If no,
    Enable it.
    Go back to Confluence Skin Home Page>Live TV.
    In the "Slide Out" menu, select TV Channels.
    Are there TV Channels listed on the far right of the screen?
    If no,
    Continue to Step 2.
    If yes,
    Are you able to view a channel?
    If no,
    Continue to Step 2.
    If no,
    Is there a selection for TV in the Confluence Skin Home Page>System menu?
    If no,
    XBMC Dharma 10.1 + PVR v2 is not installed.
    Uninstall this version, you will not lose any user settings or configurations during the uninstall.
    Download and install the XBMC Dharma (PVR patched) version, XBMC Dharma 10.1 + PVR v2. Click on the link at the top of the page that states, "Prebuild Windows setup of XBMC Dharma 10.1 + PVR v2 (github/margro PVR build, updated @05-06-2011)" to start the download.
    Go back and review the steps above, starting at "Coming Soon: Guides for XBMC Dharma 10.1 + PVR v2 = XBMC with Live TV", and follow the steps that where skipped.
    If yes,
    Enable it,
    Go back to the Confluence Skin Home Page, click on the "Live TV" button.
    In the "Slide Out" menu, select TV Channels.
    Are there TV channels listed on the far right of the screen?
    If no,
    Continue to Step 2.
    If yes,
    Are you able to view a channel?
    If no,
    Continue to Step 2.
  2. Are there other TVs working in the house?
    If yes,
    Continue to Step 3.
    If no,
    Is the Live TV signal from cable, or an antenna?
    If cable,
    Are there loose or disconnected connections, cut, or damaged cables?
    If no,
    Call cable provider,
    If there is an outage,
    Ask for call back when outage is complete.
    If there is no outage,
    Report no service.
    If yes,
    Tighten, reconnect, or replace damaged cables,
    Are other TVs working in the house?
    If yes,
    Go back to Confluence Skin Home Page and try Live TV.
    Did Live TV work in XBMC?
    If no,
    Recheck for other loose or disconnected connections, cut, or damaged cables.
    If no other problems are found,
    Call cable provider,
    If there is an outage,
    Ask for call back when outage is complete.
    If there is no outage,
    Report no service.
    If no,
    Recheck for other loose or disconnected connections, cut, or damaged cables.
    If no other problems are found,
    Call cable provider,
    If there is an outage,
    Ask for call back when outage is complete.
    If there is no outage,
    Report no service.
    If antenna,
    Rescan for channels,
    Are channels being found?
    If yes,
    Repeat steps above to rescan channels using the MediaPortal TV Server Configuration Tool
    Rename channels to the exact same names used for "Mapping" scanned channels to the channels in the xml meta-data to avoid having to repeat the "Mapping" process.
    If no,
    Readjust antenna and rescan for channels
    Are channels being found?
    If yes,
    Repeat steps above to rescan channels using the MediaPortal TV Server Configuration Tool
    Rename channels to the exact same names used for "Mapping" scanned channels to the channels in the xml meta-data to avoid having to repeat the "Mapping" process.
    If no,
    Are there loose or disconnected connections, cut, or damaged cables?
    If no,
    Check the antenna and outside cables and connections to the antenna.
    If yes,
    Tighten, reconnect, or replace damaged cables,
    Readjust antenna and rescan for channels.
    Are channels being found?
    If no,
    Check the antenna and outside cables and connections to the antenna.
    If yes,
    Repeat steps above to rescan channels using the MediaPortal TV Server Configuration Tool
    Rename channels to the exact same names used for "Mapping" scanned channels to the channels in the xml meta-data to avoid having to repeat the "Mapping" process.
  3. Does Live TV work in the MediaPortal UI?
    If yes,
    Is the MediaPortal 1.1.x - TVServerXBMC plugin listed in the TV Server Configuration Tool>Plugins?
    If yes,
    Is it enabled?
    If no,
    Enable it.
    Go back to Confluence Skin Home Page and try Live TV.
    If yes,
    Continue to step 4.
    If no,
    Is the TVServerXBMC.dll file in the C:\Program Files\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal TV Server\Plugins" folder?
    If no,
    Follow instructions for "Installing and Enabling MediaPortal 1.1.x - TVServerXBMC plugin v1.1.3.107"
    Go back to Confluence Skin Home Page and try Live TV.
    If yes,
    Reinstall MediaPortal over the current instance of Media Portal (do not uninstall),
    Does Live TV work in the MediaPortal UI?
    If yes,
    Go back to Confluence Skin Home Page and try Live TV.
    If no,
    Continue to next step.
    Uninstall MediaPortal saving user settings,
    Reinstall MediaPortal,
    Does Live TV work in the MediaPortal UI?
    If yes,
    Go back to Confluence Skin Home Page and try Live TV.
    If no,
    Try to obtain support for this issue through the MediaPortal forums, or
    Uninstall MediaPortal,
    Remove all user settings,
    Reinstall and reconfigure settings for a fresh new instance of MediaPortal.
  4. Is there more than one Add-on enabled through Confluence Skin Home Page>System>Add-ons>Installed Add-ons>PVR clients?
    If yes,
    Disable all of the add-ons, except
    The MediaPortal PVR Client (TSReader) add-on. This is the only Add-on needed for a Windows Operating System.
    Go back to Confluence Skin Home Page and try Live TV.
    If no,
    If there is only one add-on enabled, is it the MediaPortal PVR Client (TSReader) add-on?
    If no,
    Disable it,
    Enable only the MediaPortal PVR Client (TSReader) add-on. This is the only Add-on needed for a Windows Operating System.
    Go back to Confluence Skin Home Page and try Live TV.
    If yes,
    Are there channels listed in Confluence Skin Home Page>System>TV>General>Channel manager far right side of screen?
    If yes,
    Go back to Confluence Skin Home Page and try Live TV.
    If no,
    If no,



If TV does not work in MediaPortal, go back to the tuner card TV Viewing Application and see if TV works.
If TV works in the tuner card TV Viewing Application, go back and re-check MediaPortal.
If TV does not work in the tuner card TV Viewing Application, there may be a problem with the tuner card, or the driver for the tuner card, or incoming TV signal is missing.

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Adding Fetchers

XBMC installs with two (2) default fetchers: thetvdb.com for TV Series scraping and themoviedb.org for Movie Title scraping.

Media Center Master installs several fetchers as defaults.

Here is where possible conflicts will arise, because different fetchers have been used in Media Center Master. IF you have used different fetchers in Media Center Master to obtain Meta

XBMC has several fetchers that can be installed through add-ons and set as the fetcher for scan/source folder.

The additional fetcher add-ons can be found through:

Movie Fetchers
Confluence Skin Home Page>System>Add-ons>Get Add-ons>XBMC.org Add-ons>Movie information>
Choose a Fetcher, click Install.
After it is completed installing, "Enabled" will appear in the right side of the list.

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XBMC Dharma 10.1 + PVR v2 = XBMC with Live TV

Before getting started with this guide it is important to note the new version of XBMC, Eden v11.0 will include PVR support, but as of now, all of the current downloadable versions of the Eden version of XBMC are experimental, nightly builds. It is also important to note XBMC Dharma 10.1 + PVR v2 is experimental and is not an official release from Team XBMC. In that XBMC Dharma 10.1 + PVR v2 does use Dharma the stable XBMC release, and can be considered the most stablest from the available choices, this guide will use XBMC Dharma 10.1 + PVR v2.

If a user wants to watch TV on a PC, at least one supported tuner card, or a provider that provides IPTV access is required. The tuner hardware doesn't have to be installed on the same computer on which the user wants to watch TV. The computer with the tuner hardware is called the back-end. The computer used to view TV is called the front-end. The back-end and front-end can be on one computer. XBMC will run on the front-end.

XBMC Dharma 10.1 + PVR v2 does not have the capabilities to support a tuner card, or a provider that provides IPTV access, on it's own. It requires support from another program to control a tuner card.(1) This guide will use MediaPortal 1.1.3. MediaPortal is a two (2) part, dual purpose, self supported, program. It works as both; a front-end for viewing TV or IPTV (also known as a TV Client), and a back-end for controlling the tuner card (also known as a TV Server). When the complete program, TV Client (front-end) and TV Server (back-end), is installed on one computer the configuration is called a single seat set-up. MediaPortal's TV Server can also be installed on a single computer, without the TV Client, and configured to support multiple tv cards as a back-end, server. This leaves MediaPortal's TV Client, and it can be installed on other computers, without the TV Server, and configured to support viewing TV or IPTV as front-ends, clients, and use the tuner cards installed on the back-end, TV Server computer. TV Clients can use any tuner card in the TV server that is not in use by another TV Client.

In this guide XBMC Dharma 10.1 + PVR v2 will be used as the front-end, TV Client, and MediaPortal is installed for the use of it's TV Server, the back-end. The problem here is both programs are not written using the same computer code, machine language. The two (2) programs can not communicate with each other. The solution is a plugin written for MediaPortal, MediaPortal 1.1.x - TVServerXBMC plugin v1.1.3.107. After installing MediaPortal the plugin will need to be manually installed into MediaPortal's file/folder structure before the MediaPortal TV Server can be configured for use with XBMC. XBMC can then be configured to use the plugin to communicate with and control the TV Server.

This guide will assume the user is familiar with XBMC Dharma v10.1. The guide will focus on a single seat (Windows) installation where both the TVServer and XBMC are running on the same machine. It will provide: links for preparing for an installation of a single seat set-up of MediaPortal 1.1.3, how to set-up and configure MediaPortal for scanning channels with a tuner card to view live tv through MediaPortal's TV Client, how to install the MediaPortal 1.1.x - TVServerXBMC plugin v1.1.3.107, how to configure MediaPortal 1.1.3 for using the plugin, and configure the MediaPortal PVR client add-on to, finally, view live tv in XBMC.

The guide will then continue by providing information for configuring MediaPortal to utilize Windows Media Center, TitanTV, or Schedules Direct, Electronic Program Guide (EPG) information for the users local area, acquired with additional software (mc2xml), and how to keep it up to date with a user defined scheduled task event in Windows. The EPG will be used in XBMC as a when and what to watch guide, with click-able watch now, or record, features. Additional information will also be provided for obtaining channel, station identification, icons, where to install them, and configure MediaPortal and XBMC to use the icons in XBMC's Live TV Guide.

(1)There are several programs available for this support depending on Operating System used with XBMC and which version of MediaPortal 1.1.x - TVServerXBMC plugin is used, such as: HTS Tvheadend, VDR, MythTV, MediaPortal, and ForTheRecord Argus TV Server.

Downloads required for this guide are all open source.

XBMC Dharma 10.1 + PVR v2

MediaPortal 1.1.3 - Scroll down the page to the "Older Versions" section and use the link to their download site for older versions.

MediaPortal 1.1.x - TVServerXBMC plugin v1.1.3.107

mc2xml

Also, required is a Supported TV Card.


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