MVP Client 1.3.0 (2005/08/16)

[mightyt]

Originally Posted by fidget

Mightyt,

Do you have forced air for heat/AC? If you do, then you can run the Cat-5 next to the ducts. As far as feeding the server, I have one cable connection running to the room that has my server and then I feed it through a video amp and then into the tuner cards. That way, I get a nice strong signal.

Fidget .. Yes I do ... but the ducts are about 4-6 inches from the ceiling ...so I would be running cable down the wall which would not work with the WAF ...

I am also using a video amp since I have one too many splits in my coax.
Signal improved greatly after that ...

Thanks, T.

[fidget]

Originally Posted by mightyt

Fidget .. Yes I do ... but the ducts are about 4-6 inches from the ceiling ...so I would be running cable down the wall which would not work with the WAF ...

I am also using a video amp since I have one too many splits in my coax.
Signal improved greatly after that ...

Thanks, T.

The ducts are on the wall? If so, you should be able to cut a hole in the wall below the duct (at the height of a normal outlet) and run a steel tape (snake) up to the duct from that hole. There are some electrical boxes that will attach to dry wall. Lathe and plaster would be much more difficult (I know that I wouldn't try cutting a hole in plaster).

[Matt]

Wow, this thread has moved quickly - and luckily it's not problems

Some comments to previous posts:

Originally Posted by SprDtyF350

The MVP with the native software will play DivX. Sage will play my DivX stuff. Just curious why the MVP client doesn't.

The transcoder is PC software which my MVP Client completely replaces. I'd have to implement or integrate a transcoder, but given the poor results I've seen from the original software (anyone happily playing divx on the MVP??), I have no plans into that direction.

Originally Posted by dgage

Where do I send the donation? Seriously!

Thanks for the offer! If I get some time I'll check how paypal donations work from the receiver side, but until then, just enjoy the MVP Client

Originally Posted by SHS

I made some change from my first post hoplee this help you boys & girls get it working.
This step I did to Multi-MVP support is there, just I tested and so far so it working fine.

SHS, thanks for testing multi-MVP support (you are the first, I implemented it without being able to test it) and for documenting your results in this post.

I'm going to update the documentation to include the -multi command line argument and the Multi-MVP support.

Thanks again for the very positive feedback!

-Matt

[mightyt]

Originally Posted by fidget

The ducts are on the wall? If so, you should be able to cut a hole in the wall below the duct (at the height of a normal outlet) and run a steel tape (snake) up to the duct from that hole. There are some electrical boxes that will attach to dry wall. Lathe and plaster would be much more difficult (I know that I wouldn't try cutting a hole in plaster).

Well ... actually the duct is just over a hallway enterance between the Office and the Family Room thus there is no wall below the duct ...

Bummer ...

[Jason]

The transcoder is PC software which my MVP Client completely replaces. I'd have to implement or integrate a transcoder, but given the poor results I've seen from the original software (anyone happily playing divx on the MVP??), I have no plans into that direction.

Matt-

While it certainly depends on the power of the processor you are using, I for one was fine with the divx/xvid encoded files. I may be in the minority with 1gig of memory and an XP2800...

-Jason

[mightyt]

Originally Posted by Matt

Wow, this thread has moved quickly - and luckily it's not problems

Thanks again for the very positive feedback!

-Matt

I think you deserve a spot on Wiki for this ...

http://www.sage-community.org/index.cgi/wiki

T.

[SprDtyF350]

I guess I have to agree. DivX on the MVP is not really very good. Doesn't seem to fill the screen correctly. I really like the MVP Client. It works outstanding. I am getting beat up pretty good trying to get both of my MVP's to work but I'm sure it's just something dumb I am doing. I had one of them working last night perfectly and then tried to get the second one going. I think that aliens have taken over my computer now because I no longer can get video in Sage at all. Sage also doesn't like my log-in anymore when I start the service, and I have formatted twice, reloaded XP, and everything else. I think it's time to go work in the yard for awhile before my computer, that used to be my friend, finds itself in a big pile of pieces on fire..

Thanks Matt, the client is great.. My computer... That's another story

Randy

[SprDtyF350]

Originally Posted by Jason

Matt-

While it certainly depends on the power of the processor you are using, I for one was fine with the divx/xvid encoded files. I may be in the minority with 1gig of memory and an XP2800...

-Jason

I never had any DivX playback problems with my MVP's. Seemed to play just fine.. No stutter, etc. I just wish the screen would format better. Would I like to see the MVP client be able to play DivX/Xvid?? Sure I would..

Randy

[Matt]

Originally Posted by Jason

Matt-

While it certainly depends on the power of the processor you are using, I for one was fine with the divx/xvid encoded files. I may be in the minority with 1gig of memory and an XP2800...

-Jason

At what resolution and bitrate?

[SprDtyF350]

It works!!

I now have 2 MVP's up and running. Thanks Matt for the MVP Client.. It is too cool.. SHS, the second set of directions made sense and I saw what I was screwing up. Didn't even have to smash the computer up.. Just needed to get away from it for awhile.

A real MVP client is something I had been hoping for. I am presently running 8 DirecTV boxes throughout the house. Most of them the kids are probably watching MTV on. Maybe now I can add a couple more MVP's and get rid of 5 of them. (DirecTV boxes, not kids ).

Matt, please spend a few minutes to setup PayPal. Stuff like this is definitely worth donating.

Randy

[dgage]

Originally Posted by SprDtyF350

Matt, please spend a few minutes to setup PayPal. Stuff like this is definitely worth donating.

I couldn't agree more. Frey should throw you some money or something as well. I am absolutely positive you have saved many customers for Frey since I am sure some of us would have jumped if a better solution had come out sooner for the MVP. Heck, if I knew Linux better I would have already switched to MythTV with a few hacked Xboxes. As it is, the best PVR solution (SageTV IMO) also has the best MVP setup thanks to you!

David

[mightyt]

Originally Posted by ukmgranger

PS - could someone post some screenshots of the MVP client?
And another thing - can you watch 'live TV' on it? This is a must for me!

Yea ... I would love to see some MVP snapshots too ...

And did anyone answer the LiveTV question??

Thanks, T.

[Jason]

Originally Posted by Matt

At what resolution and bitrate?

Matt-

As reported by AVICodec, here are 5 different files with different formats. To the best of my knowledge, all of these played fine. I can remember that before I upgraded my processor from an 1800 to the 2800, I did have probs. If the PC can do the transcoding, then it should work fine...

-Jason


Video : 598 MB, 761 Kbps, 23.976 fps, 576*240 (2.21:1), DIVX = OpenDivx v4, Supported

Video : 604 MB, 815 Kbps, 23.976 fps, 592*256 (2.21:1), divx = OpenDivx v4, Supported

Video : 608 MB, 912 Kbps, 23.976 fps, 576*240 (2.21:1), DIV3 = DivX v3 ;-) MPEG-4 (Low-Motion), Supported

Video : 511 MB, 1334 Kbps, 23.976 fps, 640*272 (2.21:1), DIVX = OpenDivx v4, Supported

Video : 597 MB, 878 Kbps, 23.976 fps, 576*320 (16:9), XVID = XVID Mpeg-4, Supported

[Jason]

Originally Posted by mightyt

Yea ... I would love to see some MVP snapshots too ...

And did anyone answer the LiveTV question??

Thanks, T.

Yes... you can do just about anything that you can do on a regular PC. Live TV is one of them.

-Jason

[edbmdave]

Originally Posted by Jason

Matt-

As reported by AVICodec, here are 5 different files with different formats. To the best of my knowledge, all of these played fine. I can remember that before I upgraded my processor from an 1800 to the 2800, I did have probs. If the PC can do the transcoding, then it should work fine...

-Jason


Video : 598 MB, 761 Kbps, 23.976 fps, 576*240 (2.21:1), DIVX = OpenDivx v4, Supported

Video : 604 MB, 815 Kbps, 23.976 fps, 592*256 (2.21:1), divx = OpenDivx v4, Supported

Video : 608 MB, 912 Kbps, 23.976 fps, 576*240 (2.21:1), DIV3 = DivX v3 ;-) MPEG-4 (Low-Motion), Supported

Video : 511 MB, 1334 Kbps, 23.976 fps, 640*272 (2.21:1), DIVX = OpenDivx v4, Supported

Video : 597 MB, 878 Kbps, 23.976 fps, 576*320 (16:9), XVID = XVID Mpeg-4, Supported

I would also love to AVI (DIVX/XVID) work. I used the MVP w/ DIVX happily. The only problem I had was when the resolution was really weird then it would not remap the size and was not great for playback on the MVP. As I archive all my stuff to divx and maintain a very large library I would love this this to be available to the MVP.

If we are voting, I say please. Also what do the hauppauge (From the MVP) remote buttons map to in Sage with MVP?

[natesneat2000]

What kind of resources does this use on the client it's running on? Specifically, RAM and approx CPU per MVP.
Could one run a real client and 2 MVPs from an Athlon 2200, and how much RAM would be needed?

[SprDtyF350]

I don't know where to look for resources besides Task Manager but with 2 MVP's running on my XP2800 with 512mb ram I show around 5% CPU usage, and 370mb for the Page file. I don't know if that helps. If there is a better way to check please let me know.

Also, how the heck do you do screenshots in Windows? As far as MVP screenshots it looks exactly like Sage normally looks. Only difference I have found is the volume gets controlled by the MVP so you see the MVP's volume bar come up and the Sage volume bar stays the same. The menu display looks ok on my TV's. Not super crisp like on a monitor but pretty good for a TV trying to do computer stuff. The picture quality of shows, etc. is really nice. Looks just like it normally would if the cable were hooked straight to the TV.

I am only running a single E-Home wonder in the box I am using to play with right now and it is hooked to cable. This seems to work so well I will probably setup my real Sage box to use it. It has 2 PVR-250's using serial cables to tune DirecTV receivers, and I will probably add the E-Home card hooked to cable.

Hope this helps. I was skeptical also about the MVP. Such a little box couldn't possibly work very well. I have always been surprised by how well it actually does work. The software that came with it though wasn't so good. Matts MVP client is like Extreme makeover for the MVP.. Looks good now.

Randy

[krutaw]

Okay, so I've seen that some peeps have had up to 2 MVP's up and running, but the real question to me is ... how many can I really get up and running? I ask this because I'm setting up a friend's house with a SageTV solution where I will be using at least 4 MVP's. Is this possible with the MVP client?

[fidget]

Originally Posted by SprDtyF350

I don't know where to look for resources besides Task Manager but with 2 MVP's running on my XP2800 with 512mb ram I show around 5% CPU usage, and 370mb for the Page file. I don't know if that helps. If there is a better way to check please let me know.

Also, how the heck do you do screenshots in Windows? As far as MVP screenshots it looks exactly like Sage normally looks. Only difference I have found is the volume gets controlled by the MVP so you see the MVP's volume bar come up and the Sage volume bar stays the same. The menu display looks ok on my TV's. Not super crisp like on a monitor but pretty good for a TV trying to do computer stuff. The picture quality of shows, etc. is really nice. Looks just like it normally would if the cable were hooked straight to the TV.

I am only running a single E-Home wonder in the box I am using to play with right now and it is hooked to cable. This seems to work so well I will probably setup my real Sage box to use it. It has 2 PVR-250's using serial cables to tune DirecTV receivers, and I will probably add the E-Home card hooked to cable.

Hope this helps. I was skeptical also about the MVP. Such a little box couldn't possibly work very well. I have always been surprised by how well it actually does work. The software that came with it though wasn't so good. Matts MVP client is like Extreme makeover for the MVP.. Looks good now.

Randy

Randy,

If the MVP takes more CPU when it is displaying a bitmap, then it would be nice to see the CPU load when all MVPs are displaying a bitmap (overlay/menu/etc.). When I am displaying an overlay on my PVR-350, I can see the CPU load jump from 5% to 40+% (but I have a 1GHz EPIA-M system, so I expect that).

The best way to get a shapshot of the output of the MVP (other than using a digital camera) is to feed the output of the MVP into the S_Video input on your tuner card. This works for me because I am running SageTV Recorder on my PVR-350 so it can be used as a network encoder. I can use SageTV Recorder to do the recording for me and not worry about conflicting with my SageTV server.

[insomniac]

Everytime I look at this thread, im litterally dieing on the inside to upgrade to 2.1! Frey pleeeeeaaaasssseeee release your final version of 2.1 sometime soon!

I.