On 20 Sep 2010, chefkoch suggested that this page is outdated and needs to be updated and rewritten to link to current pages in the wiki.

This page will tell you how to use IRSS (IR Server Suite) to enable blasting, or changing channels using your remote with your set top box (STB).

This is the only way you can really use MediaPortal with a set top box.

Unselect MCE remote

First you must unselect the option to use your MCE remote or it will override all your IRSS remote commands.

In MediaPortal Configuration, select Remote, and the following screen will display:

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TV Server Configuration

Analog Card setup

Ensure that your TV tuner is correctly installed as in the screenshot below. It does not matter what country you select here. Do not bother Scanning for TV channels as you will be using a set top box. In case you are planning to feed analog cable signal to the TV tuner you would have to Scan for TV channels.

Getting channels into TV Server Configuration

This is one painful part of MP but then you would have to do it only once. Once you have defined it remember to Export the Channel list. If required in future you can use the Import button to import the channel list. Point to Note: You can use the Preview button to check if you have properly defined the IR blasting etc once you have completed all the setup.

Manually adding the TV Channels

In order to set it up the first time, you would have to click the add button. Type the name of the channel in the General tab.

 In the Analog tab enter the Channel number of your channel as on your set top box. This is the channel number that you would have to enter to watch that channel via your set top box. Select the Input type as Cable. Remember to select the correct Source.

When you add the channel for the first time, they will all appear as types "Channel not mapped to a card". If you click on Preview button, it will give you the message that the channel is not mapped to a card. wait for the following step to use the Preview.

Mapping Channels to TV Card

You can define as many channels as you want. In case you have multiple TV cards each with a different source of TV programming (example: Satellite TV via STB and another Via Analog Cable), you can define here what channel maps to what card. In case you have only one card then you would have to map all the channels to that tuner card.

You can go back to TV Channels menu and now you can see that the channels are no longer displaying "Channel not mapped to a card", instead it shows you the types of the channel you mapped to (e.g Analog in my case, check the third picture above). you can use the Preview button now and make sure all the channels are working by selecting each channel and click Preview.

Channel Grouping

Channel Grouping is useful to define sets of favourite channels. Click the Add button to define a group.

After you have defined the new groups you would have to map channels to those groups. A channel can be in multiple groups. You change the order of the channels by using the Up and Down buttons. Point to Note: You can change to another Group in MP by pressing the “I” (info) button on the MCE remote while in TV Guide.

Recording Settings

• In the settings tab you can define the pre and post recording buffer times.
  
• In the Disk quota tab you can define the minimum free disk space that is required before MP automatically deletes old recordings to make way for new ones.
  
• In the Recording Folders tab you define the Recording and the Live TV Timeshift folders. You can also select the Recording Format. As of this version (MP 1.0.0) only two formats .ts and .mpg are supported.
  

Configuring TV3 Blaster Plugin

This probably is why you are reading this guide!

• Adding IR Commands In the IR Commands tab click on the New button to define a new IR Command corresponding to your STB remote. In the Name field enter the name of your STB button. In my example it is 5. Select the port from which the IR command needs to be blasted from. Click the Learn button and then press then corresponding button (5 in my case) on the STB remote very close to the MCE IR receiver. The distance between the STB Remote and the MCE IR receiver should be around 2 to 5 cm. Adjust the distance if you cannot get the learning correctly. Once the button had been learnt, click the Test button to test the newly learnt IR Code. If you have your IR transmitter/blaster connected properly then you should see your STB reacting to the Test button. If it did then you got it right. Now you would have to repeat this for the remaining STB remote buttons.
  
• Plugin Setup Unless you have a complex setup you would want to select localhost as the server.
  
• STB Setup If you happen to be one of those lucky persons who have an STB that is predefined in IRSS then you do not have to worry about the IR Codes learning etc. You can directly choose your STB model from the Quick Setup drop down and you should be all set.
  
• In case you are not so lucky then you would have already defined the IR commands by now. Now you would have to assign an IR command to the Digits by selecting it from the drop down and clicking the Set button. Leave the defaults under Options unless you have to fine tune the wait, delay etc.
  
• Very important to take note of the fact that settings MUST be done per TV card  and that you can select which port to blast to:
  

IRSS Configuration

Start IRSS Configuration and select Microsoft MCE for both Receive and Transmit options.

Leave the settings as in the following screenshots.