First Look: DVBLink V4 Beta 1 Server configuration

If you have installed the server component of the new DVBLogic DVBLink V4 beta then one thing you may have noticed is that nothing appears anywhere on the start bar or desktop. Whilst this will be fixed in latter releases to include a link on the start bar the reasoning is that the server is no longer configured through an application but through a a web page. The magic address you need to remember is http://localhost:39876

You’ll note the webpages are very similar to the screens on the DVBLink 3 server configuration screens.

To add a source you need to click on the relevant source template.

Once added you click on the spanner to configure the source

Double Click the tuner you want to configure  then click Yes to save. You can then click on Headends.

Click Add to add a head-end line then double click  this and choose relevant head-end.

You can then choose Scan

Select the relevant transponders by clicking on them (or click Select All) then click Scan.

Note the nice new Scanning popup with both Signal strength and quality showing.   Unfortunately due to some of the restrictions on the current beta I was unable to install this build on my live set-up so I wasn’t actually able to tune any channels.

So as you can see the setup process is really similar to the existing V3 configuration and as long as you remember http://localhost:39876 you shouldn’t have too much trouble getting set up. At the moment there are a number of things missing out of the beta that are preventing me trying this version in anger – particularly the restriction to only 4 tuners but I am going to continue setting up a test rig and add some tuners so I can go through the rest of the process later this week.

I really like the idea of the web based setup as it means you can make some changes whilst the Media Center is in use. Also it really helps when using DVBlink with a headless server like Windows Home Server. The other really cool thing this might help with is installing DVBLink on Windows Embedded (I was never able to get the V3 Server configuration to work in Windows 7 Embedded Standard)