Just went through a MediaPortal install…
A few days ago I posted a poll asking you, the readers, what you wanted to see more of. Concurrently, I was already doing an install of the latest release of MediaPortal with the Moving Pictures plugin and StreamedMP theme. So, I just want to let those of you who are interested in seeing more of other frontends, that my quick look at MediaPortal is coming. Stay tuned!
Browser: Internet Explorer 6.0 OS: Windows XP
I had installed the previous version of MP with StreamedMP/Movings Pictures. I did a clean reinstall of Vista on my desktop PC about a month ago and never put MP back on it (use VMC with MediaBrowser and use SageTV/XBMC here and there). I am planning on testing out the latest MP since they just released 1.0.2, curious to see how it goes for you.
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Jon Reply:
April 30th, 2009 at 11:48 am
I’ve not begun the write-up yet, but I have all the screen caps and my little set of notes ready to go. It won’t be much as it was mainly for curiosity’s sake…much like your wanting to take a look at it. I will say now that it has definitely come a long way from the last time I took a look. While I still prefer VMC, I can see why MP is so popular. Had I decided to start out with it first, I’d have very little problem in having it as my primary front-end.
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Browser: Internet Explorer 6.0 OS: Windows XP
Jon – if you scroll down on this link you will see some of the screenshots I had put together for MP back when I was testing it (early Jan). This was for version 1.0.0:
http://www.mediasmartserver.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=3054&start=15
One of the biggest concerns I had was that MediaPortal does not really support a server/extender setup. I have all my media stored on my Server and then streaming to 2 HTPCs, I just want to maintain all the metadata on the server (as I do currently). With MP it creates its own SQL database to maintain the metadata, so I would need to maintain the metadata separately on each HTPC. There is a way to set it up as “shared” but the folks at MP warn that it is not supported.
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Jon Reply:
April 30th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
You went further in-depth than I did. I didn’t look to see if metadata was now stored in a network accessible database – I just assumed, by now, that it was. I find it very odd that they will offer the TV Server, but make everything ‘assumed local’. It does appear that MovingPictures at least has folder monitoring process that will add new movies, but I don’t like the fact that if you need to make changes to any added metadata, you will have to visit each HTPC to make them seamless. Unfortunately, Media Browser faces the same issue from a user settings point-of-view. Display preferences, watched status, etc. are all confined to individual PCs and can’t currently be placed in a centralized location for sharing. Sam did just state, not 30 minutes ago, that he was currently working out the kinks in watched status sharing, so that will be a huge new addition, for me anyway.
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Browser: Internet Explorer 6.0 OS: Windows XP
Here is the link I came across on how to set up a centralized database for MP:
http://www.team-mediaportal.com/manual/UserGuides/CentralisedDatabases
I never tested it out (got a little gun shy when the Wiki starts off with the disclaimer that the config is not officially supported) but may give it a shot if I test out 1.0.2.
I agree, that would be huge for me as well if Sam got the watched status sharing working as I constantly go back and forth between my two HTPCs to watch recorded shows. The best way to solve this would be for MS to fully integrate Media Center into WHS or similar (SageTV does a great job at this).
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