Future directions of MediaPortal (3 Viewers)

[janjuul]

Inker,
Glad to hear that you got a solid working 2.2.0 (and that even when installing new SVNs regularly) - I'm impressed.
However, it also sounds like you are spending quite a lot of time on your MP installation - playing around with new SVNs.
I'm simply looking for a stable version that my family can use and rely on recording the correct shows, as expected (and not crashing in the middle of something, and then killing the recording).

Repeating myself - for sure:
Current status is not gonna work for me going forward, and that is why I'm asking this question: Where is MP going ?

That's all !!!

 

[ktjensen]

Hi,

2.2.0 is still shaky on the TV side (which we all know)

There is again this "all"/"everybody"-thing. MP is running very stable on my machine. I do not use my normal television anymore. I had left MP for 10 days to do my recordings on vacation and it did as espected.

See? A forum always reflects the unhappy people which have problems, not the bunch of people who are using a product without getting into trouble.

Flip.

the above is so true. If your TV card is not working flawlessly with the original manufacturer software, to record, schedule, and playback shows, then MP will not work flawlessly. I ran into a similar situation with INTERNET EXPLORER and WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER as both did not work flawlessly with my computer. I had to fix them first and then MP started to work perfectly.

But we all need to be careful of gong too far. There could be a flaw in the television version of MP, and we are just ignoring it.

 

[ktjensen]

MediaPortal future ----------

To be a model that all others are measured against.

Converting a computer (and a computer game platform) to a single universal media entertainment device one day at a time.


While several other commercial versions of software exist to do much of what MP does, they get stalled in development, unless there is some competition. Does VISTA do everything that MP does? Does BEYOND TV do everything that MP does? Does APPLE TV do everything that MP does? If we did not have Linux (and its derivative children), or the apple operating system for macs; we would all still be using Windows 3.1 ?

 

[janjuul]

ktjensen,
Please don't make the freeware or linux the reason why commercial products evolve -- that is a very simplistic picture of the world.
MP is actually running on a very successful commercial software package called Windows from Microsoft - and one thing that Microsoft has brought to us i user centric design, and focus on collaboration and integration for the benefits of the users.
They are not the best in any of the areas (Mac is great on UI and Media, Linux is great around stability and scalability, etc.)
But Microsoft has managed to collect most of these technologies and features and provide it in one easy accessible package.....

I don't work for microsoft, nor do I need to praise them. But I'm just seeing too many people spend their time on pointing towards Microsoft or other commercial products being the 'common' enemy of open software and world peace
Sorry to say, but Microsoft is only successful because they have managed to provide us with somethings the others didn't.
Easy of installation and use !!!
Maybe not the most feature rich functions, but they are there and working seamlessly together with other products from the same vendor.
(does it smell of MP and the plug-ins).

If mediaportal could provide the same functionality - i.e. easy of installation and use for 95% of the relevant target audience (including no blue screen ) - them Mediaportal will rule the world for media center software.

And I would love to see that happen.

You can only exceed if you admit that there is room for improvement.....
PS: that should by the way be the biggest room in the world ;-)

 

[Roberdin]

If we did not have Linux (and its derivative children), or the apple operating system for macs; we would all still be using Windows 3.1 ?

Yes, because Microsoft would be happy for us never to upgrade or buy new versions of Windows?

 

[maxtrash]

But Microsoft has managed to collect most of these technologies and features and provide it in one easy accessible package.....

I agree that the Microsoft bashing is not fair. Let's realize that Mediaportal is using Microsoft-technology for a large part: windows, directx, sqlserver etc. Programming is in a way glueing together standard components. Maybe Mediaportal has 100.000 lines of code itself while using another 5.000.000 that were done by someone else.

Maybe we should thank them for allowing the use of this technology...

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

If mediaportal could provide the same functionality - i.e. easy of installation and use for 95% of the relevant target audience (including no blue screen

Stayed out of this post till now, because this is a revisited non-constructive post

If you are having BSOD problems, that is a issue, prior to mediaportal being installed, waiting to happen.

As far as the HTPC\PVR which is the CORE function and intended design of this software, it is MEDIA orientated, where it will progress or come to a end no one knows.

This is a expanding universe, and i'm certain as a full media centre application (which does mean ease of use, remember the word BETA as always changing\evolving) MP will improve.

Comparing anything to Microsoft, is like throwing a bucket of screws to a wall, unless you have the rest of the bits to build with and the PEOPLE to do the work nothing HAPPENS.

 

[CHli]

But Microsoft has managed to collect most of these technologies and features and provide it in one easy accessible package.....

I agree that the Microsoft bashing is not fair. Let's realize that Mediaportal is using Microsoft-technology for a large part: windows, directx, sqlserver etc. Programming is in a way glueing together standard components. Maybe Mediaportal has 100.000 lines of code itself while using another 5.000.000 that were done by someone else.

Maybe we should thank them for allowing the use of this technology...

100'000 LOC ? You must be joking hehe :-P

http://www.ohloh.net/projects/188

Maybe we should thank them for allowing the use of this technology...

Why is Microsoft letting us most part of its technology (.Net Framework and DirectX mostly) for free ? Simple equations :

Developper working (for free or not) with MS technology = User need to buy Windows to run the software

Of course the equation is by far more complex ! (they get more advantages than just selling you a windows for a hundred of $)

 

[CHli]

For me the main future direction should be to get away from DirectShow and use VLC or any other open source media player with integrated codecs as the core for media playing.

I think that would be a bad road to follow. Using codecs from VLC would mean that we would lose all hardware acceleration, and that's not something we want Also have you check how bad quality deinterlace VLC is doing? It's quite far a way from the HW deinterlace that todays ATI & Nvidia cards are providing.

You are right about MPEG-2 and H.264 which are or are going to be hardware accelerated and are used for DVD / DVB / HDDVD / BlueRay etc.

But the problem that user don't want to mess with different codecs to play each of their video files is still there and I don't see a way to prevent this. Perhaps a tool should check installed codecs and give some recommendations to the user (you should uninstall that, you should give that codec the priority, etc.) ?

 

[Salle]

I love MP as a mediaplayer, but I have a hard time to get the tv-part working. Chanelswitching is not working, almost everytime the chanel freezes for 10 sek or forever. I'm a new user and probably need to configure MP more and I'm using the internal tv-engine...