beyond help...
#1
Hi all.

First post and I've been trying to set up my htpc. I have xbmc set up and running well on my Q6600 with an HD5670 and a Hauppauge 2250 running Windows 7 SP1. I started with NextPVR only to find a blank screen after setup. Ok, so I do some googling and ok, theres a patch for 311 which is what I have installed so I load the patch. Nothing. Well, its quite finicky on the codecs so I try different codecs. Nothing. I install other codecs, making sure to uninstall the others first, nothing. I manage to get the on-screen display to come up for the channel, but no pictrure or sound. I need exceptions in Windows firewall. Ok, done. Nothing. I try WinTV 7 and the channels come right up. ok, moving on. Here's ArgusTV. It needs SQL Server, seriously? Ok, installed and setup Argus now I'm stuck partway. It needs TV Guide Importer to get the channel listings. Ok. Ummm...where is it? I check the Wiki at Argus and they say it's a separate guide to install, but no link to said guide anywhere I could see. Maybe my brain is fried from trying to get this up and running for the past 2 days. I initially started with Ubuntu but I'm not even going there. I'm too old to learn a new OS. I don't have the patience. Seems to me this should be a simple process to get going. I am floored by the amount of tinkering and setup this entails. I did manage to record with Argus during the setup. I'm kinda stupified getting the channel listing and actually setting up the channels. Services to channels and channels to services. I'm frazzled....
*Edit: I should mention I'm running HDMI out to my receiver and HDTV.
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#2
Unfortunately home PVR stuff has always been a "tinkering" kind of thing with lots of little niggles as you have found.

The best thing I can sugges tto you (and I have run Argus, and tried NextPVR, both as backends to XBMC, as well as mediaportal) is to use windows MCE as your back end. The setup for that is far far far superior and much easier than any of the others especially for someone that would rather avoid the whole "ok, I solved problem 99, lets move on to problem 100..." and just want things to work.

Specifically with Argus, which is very good, the channel/service setup is ridiculously confusing. Unfortunately the developers seem to think its the logical way to go about it and don't seem likely to adjust any time soon. There's also the slight niggle that under certain circumstances new channels that show up in guide data but that you do not receive are automatically added by Argus, making the EPG data all "out of sync" with the channels. So it randomly breaks, and you have to figure out channels/services all over again.

That whole shebang was one big reason I eventually changed off Agus which otherwise was working very very well for me. I want to be clear about that - that whole channels/services setup is probably the big Achilles heel to Argus. The rest is really really good.

Once you have MCE setup use the PVR.wmc addon , which will have a couple of pieces and take a bit of setting up but overall you should have less little gotcha's than the other two because of the ease of MCE.

Also, make sure your posts use paragraphs and spacing or no one will read it.

As a big added bonus, the PVR.WMC addon is actively developed, and according to my recent survey trying most of the options in all backends, is more feature complete right now than any other in Frodo AND Gotham.
So thats another big plus. That's not to say a single bad word about the others, they are all good.
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#3
Thanks for the reply. I was thinking about trying PVR.wmc. I guess thats next.
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#4
I had the exact same problem when trying to install NextPVR for a friend. I cursed it and decided never ever to touch it again. Argus is pretty fine, I've tinkered with it twice. I agree that channel management is a bit weird since you have to map services to channels in the Recording console, then fix your actual channel list in the Scheduler console (took me a while to figure that out). Personally I use tvheadend on Linux, it's very solid.
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#5
It doesn't help that I have TWC (soon to be comcast) and I have my HD channels as 11.1-11.2 etc. Wintv sees these as 2001-2002 etc. but my schedules direct only goes to 1600. I'm currently on server-wmc but that only picks up my basic cable channels....
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#6
It goes without saying that your windows MCE setup has to be complete and working before anything else downstream will work. Schedules direct should not be necessary in that model.
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