Terence's @rchive

Softwares required:

• Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 (Operating System)
• TVxb (EPG Downloader)
• BladeRunner Pro (Windows MCE EPG Loader)
• NVidia PureVideo Decoder or PowerDVD 6 (MPEG2 Decoder)

Operating System Setup

1. Install Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005.
2. Download and install Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 and .NET Framework 1.1 Service Pack 1. Then restart.
3. After restart, Perform Windows Update or download Update Rollup 2 for Windows XP MCE from Microsoft website. The updates add support for dual tuners (if you have Hauppauge PVR-500MCE) and several new features for the Media Center.
4. Download and install Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0. Yes, the sequence is very important. Install 1.1 1st, then Update Rollup 2 then 2.0.
5. Install NVidia PureVideo Decoder or PowerDVD 6 or any other MPEG2 Decoders. The media center needs a MPEG2 Decoder to play the video coming in from the TV tuner card.

Media Center Setup

After setting up the required softwares. You can now start Media Center by selecting it from the start menu or pressing the green window button on the remote. We will now configure media center to be able to control Astro Decoder (to change Astro channels using Media Center). If its the 1st time you start media center, you will be prompted to setup your TV signal. Otherwise you can access the Setup TV Signal wizard can be found under Settings -> TV menu in media center.

The first screen of the Setup TV Signal, just press next to proceed.

The wizard should detect your region as Malaysia, unless your OS is set to other country. Next to continue…

Select satellite as the receiving signal and next.

Click next after you read the instructions in the picture.

Select video source. You will be able to view the Astro live video if you choose the correct input. Make sure you have already installed a MPEG2 Decoder either NVidia PureVideo Decoder or PowerDVD 6. Otherwise, you will not be able to see the input video.

Prepare to let media center learn your Astro decoder’s remote control. Have your Astro Remote ready, read the instructions in the picture. Just click next and next to continue.

Place your Astro remote VERY VERY CLOSE to the MCE IR Receiver, press and hold 0 buttonnnn……… and release. Then click next.

Repeat the previous action for Channel Up button.

Media Center was able to identify my Astro Remote after reading 2 buttons. If Media Center can’t identify your remote then you would need to let Media Center learn all your remote’s buttons from 0-9, Channel Up and Channel Down. If that is the case, each button need to be learned twice. I encountered some problem while trying to get Media Center to learn all the buttons just for the fun of it. My problem is, after I press the button once, Media Center accepted it, but it will not accept it the second time I pressed it. After googling around, I found out that my Astro remote sends alternating signals with each button pressed. So, after Media Center learned the 1st round, point your Astro remote away from MCE IR Receiver and press the button. Then point back after the receiver to let Media Center learn it the second time.

Choose either option 2 digits or 3 digits. Although Astro supports 3 digits channels (the radio channels), but media center will always send 3 digits signal if 3 digits is choosen. Eg. If you key in channel 81, media center will send the IR signal 081 to astro. It works but its annoying so I choosed 2 digits instead.

Select No option and click next to continue.

Try changing channel using the MCE remote. The channel should change correctly if you have followed guide properly. Click next to continue.

Setting the IR speed media center sends the signal to the Astro Decoder. Just keep selecting “The channel did not changed correctly” option until media center decides for you that it should use slow IR speed. Slow is the best result for my Philips Astro decoder, try out fast/medium options if you have other decoders.

Finished setup Media Center to be able to control Astro Decoder. You can press the Live TV button on the remote and start trying to change channels.
Programme Guide Downloaders (Grabbers) Setup

You will need TVxb and BladeRunner Pro to download programme guide info from Astro’s website and load it into Media Center. So click on the links below to download the installers:

Download TVxb here
Download BladeRunner Pro here

TVxb Installation and Setup
Unzip the downloaded TVxb zip file and place it in C:\Program Files folder as C:\Program Files\TVxb. You might notice that the downloaded zipfile’s filename has “linux distribution” in it. There’s an exe file installer actually but I only used this before so its better to follow what I’m using currently.

TVxb installation folder should look something like this.

TVxb needs a TVxb.ini configuration file to know how and where to get Astro’s programme guide. You can download the ini file from the 2 links below

TVxb-1.ini (1 channel. For testing purpose)
TVxb-all.ini (All Astro Channels)

Updated 11 August 2008: I have not been using my media center PC for sometime, so I don’t have an environment to update and test the ini file hence the file on my server now is outdated. But no worries we have our own very own Malaysian media center community here at www.mediacenter2u.com. The latest TVxb.ini can be downloaded from the link below:

http://forum.mediacenter2u.com/index.php?topic=2.0

Testing TVxb

1. Download both ini files into folder C:\Program Files\TVxb\ini
2. Rename TVxb-1.ini to TVxb.ini
3. Goto folder C:\Program Files\TVxb\bin and double click on TVxb.exe to execute a trial run. (Please make sure you are connected to the internet)
4. After TVxb finished running, goto folder C:\Program Files\TVxb\xml
5. There should be 2 files, ChannelInfo.xml and xmltv.xml inside the folder. Feel free to open the file using notepad to view its contents.

TVxb Actual Setup

1. Delete or rename the current TVxb.ini back to TVxb-1.xml.
2. Rename TVxb-all.ini to TVxb.ini
3. Open TVxb.ini using wordpad or notepad
4. Delete the channels info that you do not receive to speed up guide download. More intructions are given in TVxb-all.ini file
5. Do not run TVxb.exe now. Proceed with BladeRunner Pro installation and setup

BladeRunner Pro Installation and Setup
Double click on the downloaded BladeRunner Pro installer and follow the installation wizard to install the application. Basically just next and agree all the way until done.

Next run the BRP Configurator from Start Menu or All Programs.

BRP Configurator will open with the “Grabbers” tasks selected in the top left pane. Specify the location of the TVxb.exe executable file and specify an Argument of –NoConsole (case is important) as shown below. Then click the “Add” button.

Click “PreProcesses” in the top left pane. Remove the “MakeChannelInfo” task in the bottom left pane as TVxb will generate a ChannelInfo file for you. i.e. Click MakeChannelInfo and click the Delete button. Next delete the HDiT task as well by selecting it and click the delete button.

Finally click on File -> Save to save the configuration.

Schedule BladeRunner to auto download programme guide

The BladeRunner BRP Configurator will have already created a schedule task automatically.

Open Control Panel and double click on Scheduled Tasks to view the created task (Should be named BDR).

Double click on the DBR task. Change the Start Time of the task to the time you wish the job to start. Its better to schedule it early in the morning so that the connection is better and there’s less traffic to Astro’s Programme Page as well.

Enable the “Wake the computer to run this task” option.

Optionally, you can run BladeRunner Pro by lauching it from Media Center’s Programs section or directly from Start Menu.

Final Testing of TVxb + BladeRunner Pro

Although we have finished configuring the 2 programs, we will try to run each of them individually to make sure everything is ok.

TVxb final test

1. Goto folder “C:\Program Files\TVxb\bin” to execute TVxb.exe. This will take awhile as TVxb downloads 7 days of programme guide from Astro’s website.
2. When TVxb finished running, goto folder “C:\WINDOWS\ehome\BladeRunnerPro\GuideData\” to make sure that xmltv.xml file is generated and you are able to open it with Internet Explorer.
3. Then procced to folder “C:\WINDOWS\ehome\BladeRunnerPro\QuickGuide\” to verify that ChannelInfo.XML file is there and able to be opened in Internet Explorer without any errors reported by IE.

BladeRunner Pro final test

Now we will run BladeRunner to load the downloaded programme listing into Media Center. Goto folder “C:\Windows\ehome\BladeRunnerPro\” and execute BladeRunner.exe by double clicking it. BladeRunner will then run TVxb.exe again but this time it will be much faster because the previously downloads by TVxb is cached.

Once you see the message “Process now complete, triggering mce…..”, BladeRunner has succesfully loaded xmltv into Media Center.

Setup Media Center Guide

If everything goes well, its time to setup EPG for Media Center.

Start Media Center and navigate to Guide section under TV settings. Select Set Up Guide Listings and select next to continue.

Just click next….

Key in “000000″ as your postcode and click next to continue.

Media Center will try to look for guides available for download. The previous run of BladeRunner has made an EPG Data available for Media Center. Next to continue.

Media Center will “think” that its downloading the guide info from the Internet while earlier just now, BladeRunner already loaded in the guide info. Next to continue.

You are done! Pick up your MCE Remote and press the guide button to bring up the guide. All the channels you configured in TVxb.ini should show up in the guide. And start changing channels using the channel up and channel down down buttons, only those that you configured will be displayed.

Phew…. Finally finished this guide. Any constructive feedback or questions are very welcomed. Please post in comments or email me @ terenceyung@gmail.com.

Enjoy your MCE HTPC!!!

Footnote:
Some images in this guide for TVxb and BladeRunner Pro are taken from TVxb site.

Reference:
www.tvxb.com – My main source of reference
www.thegreenbutton.com

Update:

05/07/2007 – I’m glad that my post have helped many people setup their own HTPC+ASTRO+EPG. I have updated the TVxb.ini to cater for the change in Astro’s Programme Guide page. There are 2 version available for download, 1 for XP MCE and 1 for Vista MCE. Get it from http://www.terencey.net/downloads (Special thanks to John Teh for posting the solution here so quickly)

30/09/2007 – Updated tvxb.ini for both Vista and XP MCE. Go to http://www.terencey.net/downloads to get the files. And remember to setup your MC to become 3 digits if you set yours to 2 digits. Enjoy!

11/08/2008 – Please visit www.mediacenter2u.com. Our very own Malaysian Media Center Forum. Latest TVxb.ini can be downloaded from there.

Part 1, Introduction
Part 2, Hardware Setup
Part 3, Software Setup

Share on Facebook

The basic hardwares needed to setup a HTPC are a TV Tuner Card and a Display Card with TV-Out Capability. There are alot of TV Tuner Card in the market but to be able to control Astro (use HTPC to change Astro channels), a TV Tuner Card that bundles an IR Blaster is needed. So far I only know Hauppauge PVR-150MCE and PVR-500MCE include an IR blaster in the package.

My Hardwares:

• Pentium III 933 Mhz Processor (Existing)
• Asus Geforce 4 MX 440 with TV-Out (Existing)
• 384GB SDRAM (Existing)
• 80GB Samsung 2MB Cache Hard Disk (Got it free when I subscribed HWM during PC Fair)
• DVD-ROM (Existing)
• Panasonic 21″ TV (Existing)
• On board sound (Existing)
• Hauppauge PVR-150MCE TV Tuner Card with IR Blaster and Remote (RM 499)
• Logitech Wireless Keyboard and Mouse (Existing)

Setting up the connections between HTPC, TV and Astro:

Install the Hauppauge PVR-150MCE card into a PCI slot. Preferbly the 1st or 2nd slot according to the card’s manual.

Various input options of Hauppauge PVR-150MCE and output options of my display card.

Connect a composite out cable (AV cable. The yellow, red and white head cable) from Astro AV out to the TV-Tuner card Composite In (AV In). If your video card has a S-Video Out port, you will need a S-Video to Composite converter in order to connect your TV’s composite in (AV In). There are many ways to output your HTPC’s display to the TV, S-Video Out to TV’s S-Video In, Composite Out to TV’s Composite In and etc. As long as the out and in ports are different you will need a converter cable to connect them. Even S-Video has variations of 5-pins and 9-pins. Find the right cable to connect your TV and display card. Then use a 3.5mm Jack to 2 RCA Composite Cable to line out your HTPC’s audio to the TV or speakers.

Connect the composite cables from your display and sound card to your TV’s AV Input.

Next connect the IR receiver to the USB port of your HTPC and stick the IR blaster on the Astro decoder’s infrared receiver.

The IR blaster from another angle.

With these hardwares, I am able to run my HTPC smoothly. Performance while watching and recording Astro programme is very good, just like watching Astro direct from the decoder to TV. But I experience slow performance when I try to multitask my HTPC by watching Astro and running other applications like Internet Explorer. I guess I’m demanding too much from it. But this setup is definately good enough to be a dedicated media player for Astro, DVDs, musics, pictures and MPEG4 shows.

Recommended Hardwares (My target):

• Samsung 32″ R7 LCD TV or similar LCD TV with HDMI inputs. (RM 4998)
• Intel Core Duo or AMD AM2 X2 Processor (Budget RM 600)
• 1GB DDR2 RAM (RM 320)
• HTPC Casing (Budget RM 3-500)
• A SLI/Crossfire and RAID capable motherboard that can fit into the HTPC casing (Budget RM 400)
• A display card capable of HDMI output or at minimum DVI-out. (Budget RM 700)
• 2 x 250GB HDD on RAID 1 configuration (2x RM 300)
• Creative XFI Extreme Music sound card (RM 450)
• Logitech Z5500 THX/DTS 6 piece speaker (RM 1500)
• Microsoft Wireless Keyboard for Windows MCE (RM 350)
• 802.11g Adapter Card (RM 100)

When I get my LCD TV, I will slowly upgrade my system to the above setup because I can’t get all at 1 go, cash flow issue. With FFDshow on a better hardware setup, it is possible to do post processing on video (Astro, DVDs, MP4s) signals to upscale it to HDTV quality. On top of upscaling, FFDshow is also capable of sharpening video outputs to make them very clear like the demo videos the shops used for LCD/Plasma TV demo. I tried to enable post processing on FFDshow to sharpen Astro shows, the frame rates drops like crazy and video became jerky because my CPU cannot handle the load.

Other than TV functionality, I would like that be able to play PC games on my HTPC as well. That’s why I budgeted RM700 for the display card. Imagine playing Need for Speed Most Wanted on a big screen using a sterring wheel. That will be really fun. Coupled with a good sound card and speaker combination, my HTPC will be able to deliver very good sound for not only the games but videos and musics as well.

The large HDD drive serve as a recording media to store hours of shows from Astro, musics, photos and downloaded movies. Running RAID 1 configuration will greatly protect me from losing all the data in the hard disk and save me precious time from reconfiguring the entire system again in the case of Hard disk failure.

Although I have a set of wireless keyboard and mouse, Remote Keyboard for Windows MCE by Microsoft is still worth getting. It has built in function keys that integrates very well with Windows Media Center and its looks alot nicer and cooler than my Logitech Keyboard. Bottom line this keyboard is designed to be used when sitting on a couch. A must have for me when my HTPC is capable of doing more things than plain watching shows. Check out the screenshots of the keyboard. You will want 1 if you have a HTPC with Windows MCE. (Pictures taken from this review):

Part 1, Introduction
Part 2, Hardware Setup
Part 3, Software Setup

Share on Facebook