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[ichkriegediekriese]

Hi!

I have been using J River Mediacenter since version 11 for music and pictures – so for quite while – and have always been very happy with it.
However I never really used the Theater Mode because I was sitting in front of my PC. But now that my Linux driven satellite TV Box will most likely not get any further support I am looking for alternatives as a replacement to built my own HTPC.

So I got a satellite DVB S2 card set it up and fired up MC.
First up was channel scanning which went without problems but after working with MC for a while, I mean really a while, I came across a couple of things which I think need improvement – especially after I looked at XBMC and Mediaportal.
It is possible that some of my ideas/problems can be solved with more tweaking the configuration, if so I think at least things should be easier then.

So here are my points:

1)   
MC needs a real channel editor which runs in full screen mode with the ability to create own channel list with multiple selection of channels and a search function. Created channel lists should be accessible under „options-> Theater view->TV“ section
- Why does each channel have multiple entries, for each audio track one separate entry? Usually one entry of a channel, in a channel list, contains the audio tracks within so that the user can switch audio tracks later when watching Tv.

2)   
Option to display EPG:

a.   Horizontal and vertical
b.   Show the current channel in a thumbnail view while browsing EPG
c.   Possibility to view the EPG of one channel only - for the next couple of days/weeks
d.   Possibility to tune directly to the selected channel from EPG with only one click (remote control) –  skip the TV Show info (at the moment it needs 2-3 clicks)

3)   
Theater view needs a rework I think – in general. For example:

a.   „Mediacenter bar“ on top of screen hast to and needs to be replaced with a state oft he art OSD like other media suites have including easy access to change audio track and aspect ratio.
b.   Otherwise take a look at XBMC Mediaportal etc…

4)   Maybe Provide IP based drivers for Home Automation it is still a growing market (ie Control4, Crestron, AMS, Elan G…..) – just a general idea TV/PVR specific.

regards
Steven

[JimH]

For On Screen Display, see the wiki topic:
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/OSD

[kstuart]

What I have ended up with is the freeware program "Argus TV" for recording and EPG.  It's features are better than anything available for Windows currently ( glynor uses the old SageTV program, but that is no longer available since it was bought out by Google ).  Argus has some interesting DVR options that are not found elsewhere.

Then I use JRiver MediaCenter's superior video playback to view the programs.

I have a dedicated PC for the TV recording that does nothing else, and for whatever reason, JRiver's playback over a network is much better than MediaPortal or others.

And the presence here of the designer of LAV filters insures that MediaCenter video playback will stay state-of-the-art.

[ichkriegediekriese]

Hi

I did not know that TV-Server plus MC does work. I will give it a try. However that still leaves me with the Theater view which needs a rework :-).

I am aware of the argus server, read many times that it is supposed to be excellent but never found a page listing those good features - that's why I never bothered to give it a try yet - I know now it works with MC, Mediaportal and XMBC so at the moment its more abut the frontend.

MP also uses LAV Filters, so quality wise I would not expect a major differende. However MP sucks on managing media info for my movies whch works great with MC.....I hate those situations :-)

[ichkriegediekriese]

Hi

can you tell me how to set MC up with Argus TV (Server is already running).
I want to give it a try.

thx

[kstuart]

Hi

can you tell me how to set MC up with Argus TV (Server is already running).
I want to give it a try.

thx

You have to point MC's library to the folder that Argus TV uses to write video files.  Then when it finds new files, they are imported into MC.   It works fine for recordings that are done.

The one downside (over using MC's own TV server) is that you cannot view the tuner "live".

You can view a currently recording program by finding the open file in the folder, but it will only play in MC the part that was recorded when you started playing.

[ichkriegediekriese]

Ah ok.

Though I need live TV MC seems to be out of the question for the reasons I wrote above.
It is most likely to be Mediaportal the even if database management is crappy, however that can be solved by usinf ExtremeMovie Manager.

cheers. I hope JRiver will improve on TV integration and Theater view/ OSD look and feel. I will be back then.

[Yaobing]

1)   
- Why does each channel have multiple entries, for each audio track one separate entry? Usually one entry of a channel, in a channel list, contains the audio tracks within so that the user can switch audio tracks later when watching Tv.

It is on my list of things to do to consolidate channels with multiple audio streams into one channel only.

2)   
Option to display EPG:

c.   Possibility to view the EPG of one channel only - for the next couple of days/weeks

Currently possible in Standard view.

d.   Possibility to tune directly to the selected channel from EPG with only one click (remote control) –  skip the TV Show info (at the moment it needs 2-3 clicks)

MC needs to know what your intention is with regard to selected program (watch it, record it, etc.), so there have to be multiple clicks.

[muzicman0]

MC needs to know what your intention is with regard to selected program (watch it, record it, etc.), so there have to be multiple clicks.

Could you possibly make a distinction between the 'OK' button, and the 'Play' button?  Play could take you right in to watching, where OK would allow you to select the options you want.

[Micromecca]

I would like to see the following behaviour when browsing the Guide:

Pressing OK on the remote views the selected program
Pressing Record on the remote records the selected program (giving you a record once or series link option)
Pressing Info on the remote brings up the Information (just like what pressing OK does atm)

This is how pretty much every PVR I have ever used works and it makes sense however, I also appreciate that others may like how it currently works so why not just give us the option to control this behaviour and please everyone at once?

I am also hoping to see a serious increase in channel change time, it really is too slow in a server/client setup.

[ichkriegediekriese]

Hi!

Sorry I can't post quickly due to my job.


Micromecca is correct. That's the way it usually is.


On my PVR it works like this:

When watching live TV (no OSD active)

pressing "ok" Button: pops up channel or favorite list (can be set in options which one I want)
pressing "guide" Button: pops up EPG list

Within channel or favorite list:

"ok" Button -> tunes directly to channel
"info" Buton -> shows current show info
"red" button -> set the current selected show for recording, press it a second time show record information/times to change them mamnually

(I skip green yellow and blue - those perform pvr box specific option like switch from favorite list to channel list or to radio stations and so on)



Within EPG:

When list pops up it will show what is on at the moment for the selected EPG channels and the next upcoming show (not more) - sort of overview.

"ok" Button -> shows current in EPG selected show info
"yellow" button -> shows EPG for the selected channel only for as many days as available
"red" button -> set the current selected show for recording, press it a second time show record information/times to change them mannually
"blue" button -> tune to selected the channel directly with only one click! - via "ok" button would be much better though :-)!
"green" button -> show options i.e. tune to that show when it starts, search for re-runs of that show and so on

So that is how it usually works.


Though MC can be used with different remotes (windows MCE, OriginAE remotes) it would make sense to map available commands to IR codes (under options) - that way Jrives does not have to provide different keymaps by themselves.

@yaobing:

"It is on my list of things to do to consolidate channels with multiple audio streams into one channel only."

Thats good. Why not make the channel editor a real one? (as written above in my first post) Sounds logical to me to do this in one step.

"MC needs to know what your intention is with regard to selected program (watch it, record it, etc.), so there have to be multiple clicks."

Not necessarily as shown above.