A Dream: MediaPortal & XBMC combining forces together...

[leo212]

As we all know, Mediaportal was born, in the first place, from the idea of migrating xbmp (xbmc) into Windows platform.
currently MediaPortal I & MP TV Server are working great & very stable.
meanwhile, another software arrived to Windows platform, and it seems to be very powerfull and it has a very rich set of plugins & scripts.
it called XBMC for windows.
I tested it and its working great!
it can do anything that media center software should do.
the animations are great, the configuration is easy and everything is being done with the gui. no external configuration or changing files are required.

The only thing that it don't have is the TV support.

Here's my dream:
MP developers will abandon the MPII project and join the "XBMC for windows" project.
they will create a plugin that will be able communicate with the MP TV Server.
and will continue improving and writing plugins for the XBMC & MP TV Server
and then everybody will live happily ever after.

I Know this dream is far from being come true so I'll be happy to get help from anyone who can - in order to build such a plugin for xbmc.

I Love MediaPortal but maybe it's time to stop & think - what is the purpose of MediaPortal when there is much faster, stable, richer and easy to use opensource project for windows as XBMC? XBMC can also run on Linux, Mac and of course X-BOX. MP can never compete with that.

[Macfox]

I too love XBMC and MP, but the reality is that it's not trivial task and in many ways the TV component is the biggest most complex part. There a good reason it hasn't been done. I guess it's like saying to someone ....hey nice deck/wheels/engine in your BMW... Let's rip it out an put it my Volkswagen as I prefer the shape.

That said there's definitely value in getting XBMC to be a front end to MP.

[leo212]

Originally Posted by Macfox

I too love XBMC and MP, but the reality is that it's not trivial task and in many ways the TV component is the biggest most complex part. There a good reason it hasn't been done. I guess it's like saying to someone ....hey nice deck/wheels/engine in your BMW... Let's rip it out an put it my Volkswagen as I prefer the shape.

That said there's definitely value in getting XBMC to be a front end to MP.

I'm sure that it's difficult, but it's not like rip out BMW engine and put in Volkswagen, I'm talking about a thin client to the xbmc that read from the stream that mp tv server provides, it already been done with MythTV. (currently there a working plugin to watch MythTV server with XBMC client)
I've read on forums that someone already start working on it (XBMC MP TVServer Client) . so I hope that it will be implemented soon...

[vvulture]

Originally Posted by leo212

Here's my dream:
MP developers will abandon the MPII project and join the "XBMC for windows" project.
they will create a plugin that will be able communicate with the MP TV Server.
and will continue improving and writing plugins for the XBMC & MP TV Server
and then everybody will live happily ever after.

Sorry to break your party dude, but i for one would not be living happily ever after is MPII was ditched.... I am not a XBOX fan..
Speak for yourself, but not others..

cheers

[Macfox]

Originally Posted by leo212

MP developers will abandon the MPII project and join the "XBMC for windows" project.

You make a very weak argument for this too happen. If you want any kind of discussion or support for such an idea, you need to go into more detail than....

Originally Posted by leo212

I tested it and its working great!
it can do anything that media center software should do.
the animations are great, the configuration is easy and everything is being done with the gui. no external configuration or changing files are required.

Not to be patronising... But do you do realise the history of MP. Frodo was the FOUNDER of XBMC and started MP due to XBMC missing the TV component. It's moved a long way since then, but so has MP.

MEDIAPORTAL - free MediaCenter HTPC Software - About MediaPortal

[leo212]

Originally Posted by Macfox

You make a very weak argument for this too happen. If you want any kind of discussion or support for such an idea, you need to go into more detail than....

does someone can answer this question - what is the purpose of MediaPortal II development? what does XBMC missing except the TV module?
it is nice that there are many opensource media center projects. but none of them can create a good software as the software created by combining them both.

Originally Posted by vvulture

I am not a XBOX fan..

you probably miss the point... it has nothing to do with XBOX, XBMC now can run on any platform!

[revs]

Tell me - what is it that XBMC can do that MP1 and MP2 cannot do?

As far as I am aware MP plays all types of Media, does TV (SD and HD), has a plug-in architecture, so can have any add-ons. MP2 only improves on this. What is so vital and missing from MP that it needs to be ditched for XBMC?

[Paranoid Delusion]

My experience with XBMC have been no remote support and without anyone developing that basic functionality is not a good armchair experience.

add music folder, can play track\album, adding to a playlist without keyboard, non existant.

Pictures, quite nice, nothing special that MP does not do, no zoom that i found.

Now the crunch, Videos, every file type i try playing just locks up and xbmc has to be killed by task manager, why, i know it has 2 inbuilt video players and both seem to experience this, i also know they use opengl for playback, were is the problem.

I know MP can have fun with codecs sometimes, this is easily overcome with the correct instructions for codec settings.

Good Luck to the guys over at xbmc (both of them, yes 2 people working on windows version), but they need more developers to get the basics right.

[peely]

See the XBMC TVServer plugin.

[EMKO]

wow just tried xbmc for windows i noticed that it ran really fast compared to MP not saying MP is bad im just saying that XBMC responded really fast in the GUI the only thing i don't like about it is that it doesn't have hardware acceleration for HD video even thought it played all my 720P stuff with out a hickup it did use 90% of my CPU thought. i also liked how i just installed it and opened it and that was it everything worked out of the box no install mysql and thigs like that it just worked. MP 1 didn't have that but from what i seen MP II looks good from the public beta test version hopefully it will be as good as xbmc in speed and responsiveness.

these are the thinks that i see in Xbmc that are better then MP so we can try to improve MP to be the best possible