Software setup - initial bits and bobs
So, Vista installed fine. Next problem, the default 800×600 looked ugly on my 32″ LCD (as expected) but the ATI Catalyst drivers didn’t offer 1360×768 which is the native for my TV (a Samsung LE32T5). I was using DVI at this point, so figured I’d try VGA. Same problem. Hmm, this could be a showstopper!
I did more googling… I found a few people with a similar problem, and a common solution was to try a utility called “Powerstrip”. This lets you create custom graphics resolutions and timing settings. I put in all the figures as per the manual for my TV and lo and behold, the display changed to the correct resolution. A new problem - I can only see half the screen! The rest of it has disappeared off the side of the display. Bit strange, as I’ve used my TV with a laptops’ VGA out before and it was fine. I played around with the custom timing in Powerstrip and got it centred perfectly, until I hit OK - the display then just said “mode not supported”! Something a bit odd there… I rebooted and tried again, this time clicking the arrows rather than dragging… and luckily it kept the setting. So, now when I boot the machine the display appears off-centre for a few seconds until Powerstrip auto-runs, and it fixes itself. Acceptable solution for now!
Once Vista was installed (I’m using the x86 version btw), I installed MediaPortal along with the latest SVN. Or rather, I TRIED to install it. One part of the installation pops up asking whether the installer should open ports on the firewall for TV Server. Now, I don’t use a firewall on the PC - all my machines sit behind a NAT router, so I leave the thing turned off (I find firewalls cause more problems than they fix sometimes!). Unfortunately the installer didn’t cope too well with this, and went pop in a lovely .NET error! I fiddled around and eventually worked out what it was - turned the windows firewall back on and all is well. There is actually a thread on this in the MediaPortal Forums, and it’s been fixed for RC2.
