Talk:MediaPortal

From HTPCnz

This article requires much more details on NZ-specific information, especially on running Freeview HD. This would include details on hardware/software acceleration, codecs and what exactly is required for proper HD playback/recording. I am happy to put something up on this front, but only have my experience with my setup, which may not be representitive. Are there others who may have tried out more configs willingly to update this?

discussions on Mediaportal

Here's my experience with Mediaportal. I've only just gotten a test card for analogue receiver trials while I get to the point I can afford to go ahead with my digital project.

I've installed a Winfast TV2000 XP card, and at this stage only the basic software that came with it, but I'm looking to put Mediaportal into place soon. I've been playing with it on my laptop just to try and get a little familiar with the interface, so am looking forward to trying it with the card.

So I've been playing with the RC2 release on my laptop with no TV input, and I've been able to get things working quite well. It seems to be shaping up in a nice way. The weather function seems to work, although the place it seems to get it's info from differs in predictions from what our Met Office tell us, but the music functions seem to be working okay, the shuffle option is nice (was missing that in RC1), and the picture slideshow works too.

The software install nicely when you have downloaded and installed some of the prerequisites, like SQL express, .NET framework, Visual C++.... It seems like a bit to really get started, but the installed application looks like it is worth the hassle. The look is quite crisp, rollover menus (which can scroll al little fast when navigating by mouse), different sub-levels and nice functionality. There's potentially a bit of config work required, and I've since found out that the new release isn't as friendly with the older analogue cards like I'm using, but I'm going to persevere with trying to test it without the tuner if possible.

I like the fact that once you have pointed the system at your music folder, you're quickly able to start playback, and the software goes so far as to download appropriate pictures for the artist and album, displaying them on screen. There's a slight glitch if you try to minimise the screen - it just shows a black screen and you have to try and task-switch to get back, but it keeps playing in the background (and it may just be my system). Having not fired the software up for a while, it took a little while to update the weather info from the internet, so doing this seems like the system hangs as you can't change page or menu option while this is happening, and there is no indication of what the system is doing in the background which would have been useful.

Once it has finished however the response is once again snappy.