[News] MediaPortal 2 - 2.5 Release (4 Viewers)

[ge2301]

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We are proud to present MediaPortal 2.5​

MediaPortal 2.5 is a full-blown media center software that addresses most common user requirements out of the box. Aside from its support for live TV and radio, it offers a complete media server for music, movies, and series. Info is automatically downloaded from various sources to provide posters, fanart, album art, and various additional metadata, such as cast, staff, and more. MediaPortal 2.5 also provides access to online video sources. Integrated news, weather information, and management for your digital images complete this software package. User management for your family let you configure users (e.g. kids) and restrict age dependend content and settings.

Installer​

MediaPortal 2.5 comes with a brand-new installer, which is offering a smooth and comfortable installation process and also brings a cool design making the installer look fresh and modern.

New Features​

In the installer you can choose between 3 TV engines (or non if TV functionality is not needed):

• TVE3 (only in NET4.8 version of Mediaportal 2)
• TVE3.5
• TVMosaic

You have a clear view of which packages are already installed, which will be updated, which will be added or removed. The installer takes care that all needed packages (e.g. NET) are installed in the background.

Please check also the wiki for more details.

System​

Many changes have happened in the backend of MediaPortal. The code was ported from NET4.8 to NET6, which provides a performance increase on most systems. However some features are not (yet) compatible with NET6 such as OnlineVideos and TVE3. Accordingly we decided to publish two installer and you need to decide which one covers your needs better.

• NET6 installer (OV and TVE3 not included)
• NET4.8 installer

Due to heavy development of MediaPortal 2 many new text strings were added last years, but are not localized yet. Everybody can support translating strings in our translation platform transifex. Every help to bring MediaPortal 2 forward is highly appreciated by our small development team.

Other Changes​

• Potential deadlock when disposing GENA event subscription
• Separate Fullscreen/Windowed toggle from "Always On Top" behavior
• Update Nuget.config to use https myget source
• Update build process to use Transifex CLI instead of the now obsolete Transifex client
• Workflow navigation to child screens does not respect some parent screen properties
• Centralized MediaLogo and Certification images to Default skin to avoid redundant storage in multiple skins
• Fix shortcut items not displayed on Weather and News home content
• Fix Potential Infinite Loop In VirtualizingPanels
• Extended age certification logos for Canada, Japan, Denmark, Italy, Finland and Australia
• Add MediaPortal 2 version infos to settings
• Play/Pause OSD button restarts playback from beginning if pressed whilst seeking
• Nfo SeriesFanArtHandler can throw a null reference exception if actors list is null
• Opening the Diagnostics config page breaks server communication and other weird issues
• Wrong exception is logged/displayed if there is an issue during startup
• FanArtService can throw a NullReferenceException on shutdown

TV​

Dedicated Radio Tile​

So far radio was part of TV, with MediaPortal 2.5 we added a dedicated radio tile. In main menu you have a radio tile with own home content Radio has own EPG screens Recordings and schedules are still shared between TV and Radio, but can be distingished by media type

TVMosaic​

The current TV engine (TVE3) for Media Portal 1 and 2 was developed long time before and is not state of the art any more. Accordingly we decided to develop the TVMosaic plugin as alternative TV provider. The TVMosaic Community Edition is freeware and can be configured by web browser. Because it is not bonded to windows it may run on many platforms. The client plugin can be selected in the installer now. Further improvements and bugfixes as improved EPG loading time were integrated since previous version.

Check the wiki for further information.

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TVE3.5​

The current TV engine (TVE3) for Media Portal 1 and 2 was developed long time before and is not state of the art any more. The TVE3.5 is a further development of the TVE3, with mainly better support for SAT>IP The development was unfortunately stopped, so this plugin is just the latest, but stable state of unfinished work

Check the wiki for further information.

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Other​

• All EPG screens have clear focus texts explaining the function or behavior
• Downloading of TV and Radio logos is improved
• SlimTv ChannelContext is not thread safe
• Remove hardcoded limit of 4 digits when channel zapping

Nereus Skin​

Dialogs​

• A scale and fade animation was added when dialogs dis-/appear. The dialog appearance was significantly improved with a skin setting to configure (glow effect, edge radius, transparency)
• Fix dialog closes if non-clickable element within dialog is clicked

Configuration of Home Screen Header​

The home screen header can be configured among date, time, current weather condition and current temperature.

Main Menu Tile Style​

New option to switch main menu tile styles – square (default) and circle.

Other​

• Settings for scroll speed, scroll delay and loop scrolling were merged into one dialog
• Better gradients and background imageCategory images in settings
• Better list index presentation for shares and input devices
• New button style with rounded edges
• Better textbox styles with icon
• Improved message with icon in case no share is added with option to add a share directly
• Added image for “local media” tile
• FanArt visibility settings have a live preview now

Input Device Manager​

The Input Device Manager was completely revised by our developer Brownard! Now it supports not only HID devices, but finally also allows mapping of all non-HID devices or devices that send simple key presses to an application. Please check also out wiki for further details.

Plugins​

This refers to all optional plugins, meaning they are not part of the installer, but need to be installed manually. You can find them in the download section.

Cinema​

The Cinema plugin was dead for longer time, because the used service google showtimes was abadoned. Our developer BigGranu completely rewrote the plugin using alternative services. There is a NET4.8 and NET6 version. Features: Add multiple cinemas e.g. close to your place by entering your country and postral code See the play schedules for the movies in the selected cinema Watch the trailers (In this new version also HD trailer playback is supported)

Webradio​

The Webradio plugin is using .NET6 besides .NET4.8 now and serveral improvements were integrated. Updated streaming list Updated player OSD (dome infos removed, some newly added) New context menu entry to add/remove favorites Filter dialog overworked

Emulators​

The emulators plugin is using .NET6 besides .NET4.8 now and serveral improvements were integrated. Updates to support new HID input plugin Several skin improvements

Full list of changes​

You can review all changes by taking a look at changelog: MediaPortal 2.5. Release notes - MediaPortal Jira
For known issues please check out our Jira and our Bug Reports Forum.

Installation, Upgrade, Download and Feedback​

Installation​

Download the zip archive and check the "Allow access" box in the context menu. Then extract the archive and execute the MP2 Setup file.The installer will automatically download any missing components and install them. Consider which version of MediaPortal 2.5 you want to install. Further details can be found in the NET section of this news. Summarized the difference is:

NET6: Performance increase on most systems, however some features are not (yet) compatible with NET6 as OnlineVideos and TVE3 and hence not included in the installer NET4.8: Stable and including all features, but no performance increase

Windows 10 K and KN editions: You need to manually download and install the additional Microsoft Media feature packfirst. This will add the Windows Media Player and related technologies that are required by MediaPortal 2 to work.
Wiki: http://www.team-mediaportal.com/wiki/display/MediaPortal2/Installing+MediaPortal+2

Upgrade​

The new installer should handle any upgrades from previous versions without issues. In case of any problems we strongly recommend to first uninstall previous versions of MediaPortal 2 before installing MediaPortal 2.5, this is also the case when upgrading from MediaPortal 2.4.1 to MediaPortal 2.5.

The official news can be found here.

 

[joecrow]

Opps from the "Download" page!

 

[ge2301]

Opps from the "Download" page!

View attachment 213292View attachment 213293

Path was basically ok, but seems the absolute path was needed. Should be ok now.

 

[joecrow]

Should be ok now.

Not for me still goes to 2.4.1.

 

[ge2301]

Not for me still goes to 2.4.1.

I changed the lower position below „development version“, now also the upper position is fixed

 

[Mike Sutherland]

I have had a nightmare with this upgrade. Tried to go from 2.4.1 using TVE3 to 2,5 with TVMosiac. Upon completion I couldn't see any TV channels from my Hauppage card. I spent 3 and a half hours of installs, uninstalls, registry deletions trying 2.5 with every version I could find; Net4, Net6, TVE3,TVE3.5, TVMosaic.

Eventually I was able to get a stable install with 2.5 NET4 TVE3.

Why did I have to spend so much time to do a simple upgrade? The EPG didn't work, I got loads of error messages regarding "Error invoking action StarTimeshift" but setting the service startup to delayed made no difference. Eventually I had to delete everything on the PC relating to MP2 and delete all registry entries.

Having achieved a stable install with 2.5/NET4 and TVE3 I am loathe to retry 2.5/NET6 and TVMosaic in case I have to spend another 3.5 hours fixing it.

 

[ge2301]

I have had a nightmare with this upgrade. Tried to go from 2.4.1 using TVE3 to 2,5 with TVMosiac. Upon completion I couldn't see any TV channels from my Hauppage card. I spent 3 and a half hours of installs, uninstalls, registry deletions trying 2.5 with every version I could find; Net4, Net6, TVE3,TVE3.5, TVMosaic.

Eventually I was able to get a stable install with 2.5 NET4 TVE3.

Why did I have to spend so much time to do a simple upgrade? The EPG didn't work, I got loads of error messages regarding "Error invoking action StarTimeshift" but setting the service startup to delayed made no difference. Eventually I had to delete everything on the PC relating to MP2 and delete all registry entries.

Having achieved a stable install with 2.5/NET4 and TVE3 I am loathe to retry 2.5/NET6 and TVMosaic in case I have to spend another 3.5 hours fixing it.

Sorry it took that long time.
Have you configured TVMosaic server (not part of our setup) according to the WIKI? If you change the TVEngine it's expected there are no channels in the beginning and the configuration needs to be done again. Better would have been to post the logs here when you had the first issue. We have tested several upgrade scenarios with different TV engines and it worked. the only thing that will not work is a NET4 on a NET6 installation. Here a full uninstall prior to the new installation with NET4 is needed.

 

[joecrow]

I have installed the the Net 6 MP 2.5 firstly the TV Mosaic version in con junction with a working TV Mosaic setup. On completion of the install TV played and EPG all worked out of the box.
I also tried the TVE 3.5 version, installed OK but no channels found in channel scan. I have a duel TBS 6281 SE DVBT2 Tuuner, see 2nd screenshot below. I was recently testing MP1 and the channel scan worked just fine with that!

Both versions caused problems with my AV program, not the install but when running MP, restoring the intems in quarantine does not resolve the issue the AV program continues to complain every 5 minutes, see 1st screenshot below.

 

[CyberSimian]

I also tried the TVE 3.5 version, installed OK but no channels found in channel scan.

I had this problem when I tested an earlier build of MP2, but it was caused by me trying to use my customised tuning-parameters file from MP1. The tuning-parameters files differ between MP1 and MP2, and MP2 won't find any DVB-T2 channels if you use an MP1 tuning-parameters file.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[joecrow]

if you use an MP1 tuning-parameters file

I'm not unless there is something leftover I don't know about? I did a full uninstall of MP1 and deleted the Team Media Portal folders in Program Files and Program Data, same for MSyQL, also did the same for the MP2 TV Mosaic version before trying TVE 3.5 one which is standard as downloaded.