[Blog] - MediaPortal Mobile Access

Is iPimp really supported by WP7 for the moment? I remeber reeding someware that there was some problem with IE and the webkit stuff?

AW: MediaPortal Mobile Access

What about samsungs bada?
If I had enough time I would try it myself. But I think there are a lot of people who know more about mobile development than me.

Hi all,

I would like to open the discussion on the future on MediaPortal on mobile platforms.

By this I do not mean to ask whether we will ever see a port of MP on IOS or Android as it would probably mean a complete rewrite of the software using different SDKs. What I would like to discuss is how the dev team and the community is envisaging the future of MP in a world where Windows tablet PCs might become as common as iPads and Android devices.
My vision is that 2012 is going to be a very interesting year for the technology world with the release of Windows 8 which should be optimised for tablet devices. Put in simple terms, Microsoft CANNOT afford to let Apple and Google dominate the tablet market as it has just too much to lose. So assuming the Microsoft can put its act together and release a decent tablet enabled OS, we should start to see Windows tablets soon on the market.

One of the first Windows devices could be the ASUS eee Pad transformer, as mentioned in this article:

ASUS may put Win 8 in next Eee Pad Transformer tablet - Good Gear Guide

I have played with this device today in its Android version and it is fantastic! However I will not buy it primarily because it does not fulfil my primary requirement, which is a decent media centre software such as MP. I want to be able to use it on the go to play movies and TV series. So at the moment I am using a netbook that I have upgraded to 2GB of RAM and Windows 7 Home Premium, it does the job but MP is a little awkward to use on such a small screen.

Using a touch interface for MP would entirely change the experience: just imagine being able to use gestures to navigate through the menus and drive how we watch content on the tablet!

Or am I just dreaming? Maybe MP is an HTPC software and that’s it?

So what do you guys think? Will MP leave one day the lounge room to find its way on mobile devices and maybe start a new life there? Or is it destined to remain confined in traditional PCs and laptops in the home? I guess the debate remains very open.

Hi Oxan,

There is no question that aMPdriod looks fantastic, and to your point, a new MP front end for Android devices would be an entirely different product from the MP that we know today on Windows.

There is something I need to add to my original post: the hardware factor. Will legacy apps run on ARM based Windows tablets? Or maybe Intel will finally release some tablet oriented CPUs after letting ARM, Nvidia and Apple take the lead on this?

Any other prediction from anyone on the topic?

I have a Windows 7 tablet (ExoPC) and I run MediaPortal as a client on it today. Obviously it's not optimised for touch, but it's usable. A touch-optimized skin would improve things a bit, but really not much is needed. The only real issues are that MePo doesn't handle screen rotation well, so I have to remember to disable that, and the battery life is only about 3hrs.

I do not see how legacy apps (i.e. x86 binaries) will run on ARM-based windows tablets in any meaningful way. While they could in theory use x86 emulation, it would be very slow and power-hungry, I just don't see it being practical, so you'd have to wait for ARM versions of your existing apps. That's if ARM-Windows turns out to be anything more than a soon-to-be-forgotten sideshow, as I personally suspect. The whole point of running Windows on a tablet for me is binary compatibility, otherwise I'd have bought an Android tablet; I just can't see why anyone would want to buy a non-binary-compatible Windows tablet. Maybe Intel will manage to come up with an x86 chipset that can compete with ARM in performance/watt, that would definitely be more of a step forward for Windows tablets.

I did spot the ExoPC, looks great, I guess it's really showing the way to more promising things.

Intel might be onto something with the new “Ivy Bridge” chipset.

See Intel Debuts First 3-D Transistor for New ‘Ivy Bridge’ Chip | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

"With the development of the Tri-Gate transistor, Bohr estimates that Intel is definitely going to stay competitive with its rival, ARM Holdings"

So hopefully we should see intel based windows tablets soon, and it won't be necessary to recompile applications.

Exciting stuff!

Gents,
I've read somewhere on the forum that there is a touch optimisation for MP itself. For the W7 touch based clients that might be handy.
For the smaller mobile phone device the best option is probably iPimp. I have it running on a W7 home premium that is my MP server, and currently I'm trying to get it operational with a W7 HTPC. I'm able to remote control my mobile PC with Vista on it. Experiments with streaming to the windows mobile 6.5 device are still going on.
Conclusion: on my old technology it has already been proven that mediaportal can work together with mobile technology in quite a nice way.
I'm sure that future will bring us more exciting news.
Best regards,
Berns