My Home Theater PC Project

HTPC Blog back on-line

nospam@example.com (Geert-Jan) — 2010-03-02T15:36:09Z

Unfortunately the blog has been off line for a while due to a crash of my webserver. I hand some problems retrieving the backup, but as you can see, I succeeded!

I appologize for any inconvenience caused.

Logitech Harmony 555 Settings

nospam@example.com (Geert-Jan) — 2009-01-07T08:25:54Z

As several people are still reporting problems with their settings of their Harmony remote, I fired up the Harmony Remote software and noted down all the settings I have used to configure my Harmony 555.

The settings are displayed in Dutch, as that is the version of the Logitech Harmony Remote Software (7.5.0) I'm currently using...

Continue reading "Logitech Harmony 555 Settings"

Version 1.0.0.0

nospam@example.com (Geert-Jan) — 2009-01-05T08:26:35Z

First of all I would like to wish you all a very happy New Year!

In between Christmas and the start of the New Year I installed the final release of Media Portal 1.0.0.0, including the TV Server and the version 1.4.2.2391 of the IR Server suite.

Before installing the new version it is advised to uninstall any previous installations completely, which I did through the Control Panel Add/Remove programs. Unfortunately that did not remove all traces from previous Media Portal installations. After installing/uninstalling Media Portal 1.0.0.0 I went into regedit to remove all registry settings related to MediaPortal, and reinstalled version 1.0.0.0 again. First the good news: The system seems to be working pretty well, including the remote control with IR Server Suite 1.4.2.

Final Release...

nospam@example.com (Geert-Jan) — 2008-12-23T10:53:20Z

You might already have noticed that the final release 1.0 is available for download now on the media portal site. Up until now I did not install any updates, and I still pretty hesitant to install this final version. The official site suggests to uninstall your previous version before installing this one...... and I don't like to play around too much with a system that is - apart from the suspend/resume problem - running fine. I might try the installation after Christmas, and off course I will keep you informed on my experiences with the installation.

For now I would like to wish you a very nice Christmas!

Suspend - Resume problems

nospam@example.com (Geert-Jan) — 2008-11-08T18:23:37Z

I'm struggling with the suspend and resume function of my HTPC. For one or the other reason it will not properly resume from suspend state. I'm using the Power Scheduler plugin, configured both in Media Portal and in TV Server. The automatic suspend function works perfectly, but I can not rely on the resume.... Some times it resumes fine after the first suspend, but consistently not after the second suspend, and in the majority of cases also not after the first suspend.

I find it very difficult to debug this, so any clues are welcome.

By the way, I already tried using the MST tool which was recommended to me in earlier reactions, but unfortunately without success.

Installing the Monoschrome skin

nospam@example.com (Geert-Jan) — 2008-05-30T17:53:43Z

As my remote is working now, it is time to install a new skin for Media Portal. I picked the famous Monochrome skin, to be downloaded from the Media Portal site.

Continue reading "Installing the Monoschrome skin"

IR Server Suite to resolve Remote Control Problems

nospam@example.com (Geert-Jan) — 2008-05-15T16:59:11Z

[Update]

Refer to my recent post and experience with version 1.0.0.0 of Media Portal and version 1.4.2 of IR Server Suite, which superceeds this post!

[End of Update]

Continue reading "IR Server Suite to resolve Remote Control Problems"

Latest Media Portal SVN-Snapshot (05-09-2008) Rev 19069

nospam@example.com (Geert-Jan) — 2008-05-15T11:53:37Z

As you could have read in my previous post, I downloaded the latest Media Portal SVN Snapshot from the Media Portal site. After installing and configuring (don't forget to change the number of CAM crypto channels, refer to one of my previous blogentries on switching channels) TV Server I fired the Media Portal SVN Installation program:

Continue reading "Latest Media Portal SVN-Snapshot (05-09-2008) Rev 19069"

Latest TV Server SVN-Snapshot (05-09-2008) Rev 19069

nospam@example.com (Geert-Jan) — 2008-05-14T18:49:34Z

Today I had some time again to spend on the installation of my HTPC. I decided to start with the download and installation of the latest SVN Snapshot. The snapshots can be downloaded from the Media Portal Site. Unzipping the downloaded files reveals to installation packages, one for the TV Server and one for Media Portal. I started with the installation of the TV Server snapshot, by firing the appropriate install program:

Continue reading "Latest TV Server SVN-Snapshot (05-09-2008) Rev 19069"

Remote control

nospam@example.com (Geert-Jan) — 2008-04-28T13:04:34Z

As you might know from one of my previous posts, I got myself a Logitech Harmony 555 Remote Control unit. I found out that it is a real challenge to make it work with Media Portal and the Antect Fusion 430 v2 case. The story seems to be like this: The panel supplied with the Antec has a built in remote receiver, which in fact is an OEM built by SoundGraph. Therefore I installed the latest version of the iMON software from the SoundGraph site.

The Logitech Harmony 555 comes with a neat configuration utility which directly connects to the Logitech website, and has the remote control settings for almost all remote controlled equipment available for download into the Harmony Remote. I decided to configure the remote as an MCE remote working with the Antec Fusion case.

After putting these configurations in, I tested the system, but unfortunately not all the keys on the remote seem to work. I can not - as an example - while watching TV switch the channels, neither with the numeric keys, nor with the ch+ or ch- keys.

Up until now I did not find a solution for this problem, but I will keep you posted.