I recently moved from WMC to Media Portal. One thing I’m missing from MC is a little red circle in Windows System Try when MC is recording. Is there a way to tell if Media Portal is recording without opening actual software?
It might be a bit overkill, but if you are feeling adventurous, I use a 7 inch USB screen and LCD Smartie / Virtual LCD / MP.dll to display lots of info about what MediaPortal is doing whenever the HTPC is awake. Here are some links: