Remark: The selection of the software encoder is found in the General section > Software Encoders Tab

Prerequisites

System requirements

Please be aware that TV-Server does not officially support analog tuners that do not have hardware encoders due to the problems with driver setup, acquiring encoders, encoder compatibility etc. Your tuner might work, but there is no guarantee. It is recommended that you attempt to receive digital broadcasts if they are available, or use an analog TV card with hardware encoding. If neither of those options are available or you are determined to use a tuner with software encoders then your system has to meet the following requirements:

• Pentium IV 2.8GHz equivalent or faster CPU

Software requirements

MediaPortal needs a pair of DirectShow MPEG encoder filters - one for video, one for audio - in order to work with software encoding tuners. Install both the drivers and the software that came with your card because the software may include the MPEG encoders that you need. For example, the software for Hauppauge cards often includes the MainConcept encoders.

MediaPortal currently supports the following commercial MPEG encoders (in order of recommendation):

• InterVideo Video Encoder (WinDVR, WinDVD Recorder no longer available)
• MainConcept MPEG Video Encoder (trial version)
• CyberLink MPEG Video Encoder (trial version)

If your card doesn't come supplied with an encoder then you'll need to install one of these manually.

 

1.2.0 alpha:  Support for the ATI AVIVO encoders has been added in MediaPortal 1.2.0 alpha. User testing has shown that the ATI encoders are more reliable and stable than some of the other encoders.
You can download the encoder package at no cost from here. Simply enter your system details and then download the AMD Media Codec Package (previously known as AVIVO) from the optional downloads tab.
Note: You might be able to install the package even if you don't own a Radeon HD video card.

"How do I find out if I have one of these encoders installed?" If you're unsure whether you have one of the supported encoders installed, you can use GraphEdit to find out. Start GraphEdit, choose "Graph" and then "Insert Filters" (or use CTRL-F). Next, open up "Video Compressors" from the tree and a list of the installed encoders should appear. Look through the list and see if one of the encoders mentioned above is mentioned.

Note: sometimes encoders are listed in the "DirectShow Filters" list.

"Do I have to install one of these encoders?" No, not necessarily. If the software that came with your TV tuner includes a different MPEG encoder then you don't need to install one of the commercial encoders. For example, LeadTek cards come with the LeadTek MPEG Video Encoder. You can use the same procedure described above to find out if a specific MPEG encoder is installed together with your tuner software.

Note: not all encoders are are supported. You will need to install one of the listed encoders if the encoders from the bundled software are not supported.

 

1.2.0 alpha:  In MediaPortal 1.2.0 alpha you can use the Software Encoders tab in the General section to view the list of encoders that are supported and to see whether any of them are installed.

Software setup

Configure the software that came with your card and make sure you can view TV with it. If possible you should also make sure you have configured the MPEG encoder before trying to configure the TV card and perform auto tuning in TV-Server. To start off, it is recommended that you use the lowest possible quality settings. You can always try to increase the quality once you have everything working.

If you've got the InterVideo Encoder Filter installed, then you can also use the MediaPortal Configuration program to configure this MPEG encoder.

Troubleshooting

I'm getting a "no capture card(s) were found" message. What can I do?

Somehow TV-Server was not able to detect your card. There can be several reasons for this:

• Your TV card is unsupported
• Something is wrong with your system
• Something is wrong with your TV card drivers
• Something is wrong MediaPortal's support for your card

"I suspect it's my system or the support for my TV card" If you're sure you card is on the list of supported software cards and you suspect something is wrong with either your system or the support for your TV card, then post a support request in the appropriate support forum section or try to get help via IRC.

"My card is not supported :-(" Don't give up just yet. Maybe support can be added for your card. Check out the forums and ask for help. If your software card does not come with an MPEG encoder then just ignore that step, but do remember you'll have to install a commercial MPEG encoder as described in the Software requirements section.

I'm getting an "unable to create graph for this device" message. What can I do?

If you see the following error in the mediaportal.log:

22/05/2006 14:34:27 SinkGraphEx:  video codecs installed:24 preferred:4
22/05/2006 14:34:27 SinkGraphEx:  try video codec:'InterVideo Video Encoder'
22/05/2006 14:34:27 SinkGraphEx:  try video codec:'MainConcept MPEG Video Encoder'
22/05/2006 14:34:27 SinkGraphEx:  try video codec:'MainConcept Demo MPEG Video Encoder'
22/05/2006 14:34:27 SinkGraphEx:  try video codec:'CyberLink MPEG Video Encoder'
22/05/2006 14:34:27 Exception   :System.ArgumentException: Value does not fall within the expected range.
   at System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.MkParseDisplayName(IBindCtx pbc, String szUserName, UInt32& pchEaten, IMoniker& ppmk)
   at System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.BindToMoniker(String monikerName)
   at MediaPortal.TV.Recording.SinkGraphEx.CreateGraph(Int32 Quality)
22/05/2006 14:34:27 Exception   :Value does not fall within the expected range.
22/05/2006 14:34:27   site      :Void MkParseDisplayName(System.Runtime.InteropServices.ComTypes.IBindCtx, System.String, UInt32 ByRef, System.Runtime.InteropServices.ComTypes.IMoniker ByRef)
22/05/2006 14:34:27   source    :mscorlib
22/05/2006 14:34:27   stacktrace:   en System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.MkParseDisplayName(IBindCtx pbc, String szUserName, UInt32& pchEaten, IMoniker& ppmk)
   at System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.BindToMoniker(String monikerName)
   at MediaPortal.TV.Recording.SinkGraphEx.CreateGraph(Int32 Quality)

This means you don't have any supported DirectShow MPEG2 encoder filters installed. See the Software requirements section for how to solve this.

If you receive this message but don't see a similar error in the mediaportal.log, then please make sure you actually configured an MPEG encoder. See the Software requirements for more information. If you have configured it correctly then post a support request in the appropriate support forum section or try to get help via IRC.