MediaPortal TV-Server

PVR/Contents

MediaPortal TV Server Quick Start Guide

1. Download MediaPortal 1.2 from http://www.team-mediaportal.com/mediaportal-download
2. Install the MediaPortal TV Server (installation of MediaPortal itself is not needed, but can be useful for debugging purposes)
3. Configure your TV Server following the MediaPortal TV Server Quick setup guide. Detailed TV Server configuration documentation can be found here.
4. Download the TVServerXBMC plugin from the TVServerXBMC website (margro)
   • Extract the TVServerXBMC.rar file and copy the TVServerXBMC.dll to the plugins directory of your MediaPortal TV-Server installation (typically: C:\Program Files\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal TV Server\Plugins or C:\Program Files (x86)\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal TV Server\Plugins).
   • Open the "TV-Server Configuration" and enable the TVServerXBMC plugin under "Plugins".
   • Configure the TVServerXBMC plugin. Add network shares for your Timeshift and Recordings folder if you want to use XBMC PVR on a different PC than your MediaPortal TV Server PC.
   • Restart the TV-Server: Press under "Manual Control" the "Stop Service" button, wait a few seconds and press then the "Start Service" button (same button).

Connecting XBMC to MediaPortal

Note: PVR add-ons are not currently hosted in the XBMC add-on repo.

1. Download the MediaPortal PVR client add-on through the add-on manager in XBMC: Settings -> Add-ons -> Get add-ons -> XBMC.org -> PVR Clients
2. Go to Settings -> Add-ons -> Enabled add-ons -> PVR Clients and select the MediaPortal add-on
3. Select "Configure"

Connection

Mediaportal Hostname The hostname or IP address of the server where the MediaPortal TVServer is installed. Use 'localhost' or '127.0.0.1' when the TVServer is installed on the same machine. Default value: 127.0.0.1 Mediaportal XBMC plugin Port The default port for the TVServerXBMC plugin. Only change this setting if you have changed the TCP port on the TVServerXBMC plugin settings. Default value: 9596 Connection timeout(s) Timeout on XBMC<->TVServerXBMC communication. After the selected timeout, has elapsed, the addon won't wait any longer for an answer from TVServerXBMC and abort the selected action. Bottleneck is the timeshift start for TV channels. This can take a long time due to card initialization, so don't make this value too small. Default value: 10 (s) Windows user account (SMB) User name for accessing the Recording and Timeshift shares when running XBMC on a non-Windows system like: Linux/OSX Default value: <empty> Windows password (SMB) Password for accessing the Recording and Timeshift shares when running XBMC on a non-Windows system like: Linux/OSX Default value: <empty>

MediaPortal Free-to-air only Fetch/show only Free-to-air channels from the MediaPortal TVServer backend Default value: true Include Radio Fetch also radio channels Default value: true Import only TV Channels from group Allows you to fetch only the TV channels in a specific MediaPortal TVServer group. E.g. you can create a "XBMC" group at the TVServer side that contains only the TV channels that you want to appear at the XBMC side. Leave this field empty when you want to import all channel groups. Default value: <empty> Import only Radio Channels from group Allows you to fetch only the radio channels in a specific MediaPortal TVServer group. E.g. you can create a "XBMC" group at the TVServer side that contains only the radio channels that you want to appear at the XBMC side. Leave this field empty when you want to import all channel groups. Default value: <empty> EPG: Read genre strings (slow) Translate the EPG genre strings from MediaPortal into XBMC compatible genre id's to get a colored EPG timeline view. Depending on your EPG source, MediaPortal may return strings in your local language. In this case, you can skip the genre translation using this option. The addon translates only English genre strings to XBMC genre id's. You can extend the translation table by extending the following PVR addon file: pvr.mediaportal.tvserver\resources\genre_translation.xml Default value: false (= don't read and translate the genre strings)

Playback

Streaming method There are two ways to read the Live TV and recording streams from the TVServer backend: 1) direct file access and 2) using an RTSP stream. The "TSReader" option reads directly from the timeshift buffer or recording file (fastest) using a stripped version of MediaPortal's own TSReader filter. The "ffmpeg" option uses an RTSP stream for playback (slow channel switching, but it can pass firewalls with proper settings). Default value: TSReader Use RTSP streaming The TSReader should use the Live555 library to read an RTSP stream instead of accessing the timeshift buffer file/recording file directly. This requires the PVR addon to be recompiled and linked against Live555. This is not enabled for Frodo!! Depends on: Streaming method=TSReader Default value: false Fast channel switching (don't stop timeshift) Don't stop an existing timeshift session when switching to a new channel. This makes channel switching faster but might also break channel switching. Warning: Enabling this option will probably break SD<->HD channel swithing and switching to channels with different audio/video streams and codecs. Detection of the new streams at the XBMC side may fail because the PVR addon does not know exactly where the beginning of the new channel is inside the timeshift buffer file. Depends on: Streaming method=TSReader Default value: false Wait time after turning a channel (ms) Use this options to give the TVServer some time to fill the timeshift buffer before XBMC starts playing the selected channel. You can increase this value if you are experiencing frequent buffering after tuning a new channel. Default value: 0

Next step:

Configuring XBMC

Additional guides and links

• MediaPortal website - http://team-mediaportal.com
  • Documentation
  • Support forum
• MediaPortal backend for XBMC support forum - http://forum.xbmc.org/forumdisplay.php?fid=171