A Fair question from a Noob: MP is this what I need? (1 Viewer)

[MBStudios]

Hello,
Forgive my question if it seems ignorant but then ignorance is simply the lack of understanding. Boy am I lacking here.

Ok, so I thought I would simply state what I am looking for and then if you would help me to know if I have found it in MP!

I installed mediaportal and I really like the ability to create a DB of my Movie folder .. at the moment I have a small database of 156 movies.
I have been using Movie Label 2010 ... I like it but WOW MP is so cool how it looks on my TV. Heres the thing though .. I am not needing the TV service part of it. I only want to;
1. browse my movies
2. be able to see the IMDB data about them
3. Play the movie or Trailer
4. Have an UI simular to what I see when I am browsing the Folders in MP

THE QUESTION then!

IS MP what I need or is there a simple alternative I might should consider?

MY windows operating system is: Win XP Home edition service pack 3 or is it 3.5 ... hmm its the lates I just updated it a few days ago.

Your help is much appreciated, I am not to savvy about all of this and fear installing something that might make my system unstable.

Thank you in advance
Mark

 

[DieBagger]

You might want to checkout boxee...

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE MediaPortal!!! But if you're an inexperienced user and don't need the tv functionality, boxee imo offers a more user-friendly and slicker browsing experience out of the box.

 

[kiwijunglist]

If you jump on the mediaportal wagon, then you should install streamedmp skin. This will also automatically install My TV Series and Moving Pictures. Moving Pictures will automatically use imdb to build a database, and has covers and fanart and all the movie details. It doesn't support Trailers (yet)I personally think that moving pictures is easier to use than the built in mediaportal movie support.

Please bear in mind that you have to be fairly comfortable with computers to install + setup mediaportal properly.

 

[jungle rich]

Have a look at XBMC (xbmc.org). It has a very clean interface and numerous options. I bounce between it and MP, depending on my mood. BTW, you can install MP without the TV functions.

Boxee is based off XBMC, but adds social networking to the interface. I couldn't get it to work correctly, but I would encourage you to have a look. You can install several different media centers and hop between them to decide which you prefer.