I've been battling with MediaPortal TV Server over the last few weeks. I have been creating a new TV server machine, and wanted to get it as "clean" as possible by installing from scratch.
I initially thought it was a good idea to get Windows up to date as much as possible, then install applications. This usually results in a stable system. In addition, I took partition backups throughout the process so that if something went wrong, I could restore to a clean position.
PING
I realised that there's no need to buy a tool such as Norton Ghost any more as there are plenty of solutions available for free (which use Linux under the hood). One such example is PING which conveniently comes as a tiny bootable ISO cd image - allowing you to use it without affecting your filesystem.
It backs up a partition using PartImage, to either a network share or another disc on the host computer. When playing around with configuring a new PC, this tool makes it so much easier to experiment with drivers for example without getting your Windows installation in a mess.
TV Server Problem
All was going well until I reached the point of installing the Azurewave DVB-T cards and MediaPortal's TV Server.
No matter what I did, I could not get TV server to tune the cards. The error message was cryptic as it was in the depths of the BDA architecture. This was very frustrating because I already have a machine on which TV server works perfectly well with the Azurewave cards.
I set about restarting my install from various points (thankfully using PING) but it took me an age to find out what was causing the problem. I reinstalled many of the Windows updates, as generally I don't entirely trust that they won't have broken something, and also other applications which I'd installed in advance of the TV tuners.
Coincidentally enough, in the end, it was a classic case of PICNIC (Problem In Chair Not In Computer) because I'd tried to take a shortcut.. Recently MediaPortal have started to ship their application in a new deployment package. Seeing as I didn't want the full MP, just the TV Server, I'd extracted the deployment package and retrieved the TV Server installation. Had I not done that, it would probably have worked first time (sigh).
In my enthusiasm, I'd forgotten to run on a dependency before installing the TV Server. The deployment package automatically checks for this and tells you, but I wasn't running that.
Tail between my legs, I'm forced to admit (as a software developer by profession) that I fell for something that I tell users all the time - read the instructions on the box (or similar, but in fewer words!)
I guess we're all susceptable to making a mistake from time to time, and of course as a developer I always think I know better than anyone else when it comes to these funny interweb boxes!
I have made a note not to be so cocky again...
