Walkthroughs for US / Canada users

McBainUK · 2011-09-05, 12:45 PM

Perfect. Good luck Smile

McBainUK · 2011-09-19, 12:19 PM

Hey mulletback. Just wondering if you've made any progress with the Clear QAM walkthrough? If you need any help with the wiki or general structure let us know Smile

mulletback · 2011-09-19, 01:38 PM

McBainbUK - I've gotten busy on other projects, but I do have a rough walkthrough. It's much too detailed, reflecting a lot of small details in the chaos of US cable listings. I need to cut it down and leave pointers to the little details, so I can add them later. I'll try to get this out today or tomorrow (before I get too busy again).

McBainUK · 2011-09-19, 02:11 PM

Great. Thanks for the update.

mvallevand · 2011-09-20, 05:01 AM

(I thought I'd move this thread to the relevant topic)

imilne Wrote:As for NPVR being too complicated, that's a tough one. There probably are things that could be done to make it easier, but that would take time away from the thousand other things that we'd all like sub to add or fix.

It's not complicated, but it is very steep learning curve. I expect new users come here because they find the software that came with their capture card inadequate and/or didn't like Media Center. A typical user might no squat about HTPC who writes "I only want to be able to watch TV, record with comskip, and set up a couple of PC clients." That easily sounds like a full weekend for a even techical users especially if they are users starting from XP. NPVR installs in minutes and then it works in days.

Quote:It's been a while since I've run Media Center, so I'm not too clued up on how it works. What specifically is easier about it? The in-line setup (possible via a remote) I guess?

It's pre-installed, comes with the the decoders it needs to play the files it records, and EPG and hardware installation is close to plug and play. GBPVR had this too in North America in the golden days near the end of the analogue era when most video cards could play SD mpeg-ps files with ease. You could simply hook your cable up to your PVR 150, scan your country, input your free zap2it account information and you'd have a full PVR in 10 minutes. Adding MVP's was easy and cheap too.

I'm not blaming sub, he's done the best he can respecting that this is not a commercial venture like SageTV used to be and 7MC is. And I can't offer any suggestions to sub to improve the first-time experience other than emphasizing Schedules Direct. This is where the wiki and the walkthroughs come in but they don't seem to be working and people are stumbling through instead.

To be fair NPVR with ATSC-OTA for people who are willing to pay for the bargain priced Schedules Direct, it is not much harder today. The trouble is there is a trend to use the illegitimate MC2XML program, and most people want cable and not OTA.

Martin

***sub*** · 2011-09-20, 05:24 AM

The reality is decoders and epg is always going to be difficult, but I think the current situation is a big improvement from GBPVR in the past.

NextPVR is worlds easier to configure for new users than GBPVR ever was. GBPVR required users to provide their own EPG before they could do anything. That bar was too high for most new users, and they'd give up right there.

In contrast, in NextPVR the user can scan for channels (analog, digital or dcr-2650) and then use the application to watch live tv and record. For a lot of users, that's all they came looking for. In a big chunk of the world this will even give you a mult-day epg. Even in those parts of the world that dont have a broadcast EPG, its enough for the user to try most features and if they like what they can see, then they can look for EPG to improve the experience.

I'm happy to take others recommendations for how to improve things.

mvallevand · 2011-09-20, 12:32 PM

sub Wrote:NextPVR is worlds easier to configure for new users than GBPVR ever was. GBPVR required users to provide their own EPG before they could do anything. That bar was too high for most new users, and they'd give up right there.

I'm not sure I would agree, for old school analog still used by many here for STB composite and svideo capture, and QAM mapping it is definitely harder. But QAM and ATSC scanning is much more reliable and that was huge. Channel mapping and merging is much improved too.

However when I wrote complicated I really meant that the HTPC world is more complicated not NPVR.

Martin

mulletback · 2011-09-20, 03:40 PM

I've got a first pass of a clear QAM walkthrough up on the wiki.

whurlston · 2011-09-20, 03:58 PM

mvallevand Wrote:I'm not sure I would agree, for old school analog still used by many here for STB composite and svideo capture, and QAM mapping it is definitely harder.

I've got plans for that one. Now that I'm successfully parsing the SCTE65 tables from the OOB data on DCTs, I can roll that into a clear QAM mapping utility. Most providers here in the states now use miniboxes which cannot receive out of band data. This means that the provider must send the channel mapping data in band and it can be received by any clear QAM tuner. I can definitely get it to work with HDHomeRuns since I don't need to use the BDA structure to capture the data. Other tuners will take me a little longer (since I have to read up on BDA). Between clear QAM and DCT users, we can probably create a database that will cover most of the country.

whurlston · 2011-09-20, 04:02 PM

mulletback Wrote:I've got a first pass of a clear QAM walkthrough up on the wiki.

Looks good! The only thing I can think of to add is that they can watch the channel without mapping it to the EPG. While watching, they can right-click the screen and choose the EPG source once they've seen enough to identify the channel.