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<blockquote data-quote="quiller" data-source="post: 94416" data-attributes="member: 27306">First, I apologize for bringing a slightly old topic into the limelight. Second, I completely agree that the front-page (actually, the entire first-time-user experience) is quite clumsy. In comparison to MP's cousin, MythTV, my first reaction to MediaPortal was &quot;what exactly is going on?&quot;I find this confusion to be unacceptable, considering my background: I'm a geek, and although I'm new to the HTPC world (I have yet to build one), I have done a lot of reading in recent days, and I also knew essentially what MP was (pointed here from another article which suggested it as a Windows-based alternative to MythTV). Still, when I loaded the home page for the first time, it took a few minutes before finding a detailed explanation of Media Portal's features.I suggest that the powers-that-be look at <a href="http://mythtv.org/modules.php?name=MythInstall" target="_blank">MythTV's documentation</a> for an example of a good introduction to the software. While the front-page of MP does provide immediate download and &quot;about&quot; links, there's no clear-cut, well-written overview of the technical features. The &quot;Features&quot; page now only covers the basics for those that don't really know what HTPC software is all about, not the specifics (i.e. what exactly, in layman's terms is &quot;TV Engine 3.x&quot;). For the average person, all the available information is fine; unfortunately, I doubt there are many &quot;average&quot; people attempting to install and configure something like MP.Food for thought: as I was reading through MythTV's introductory documentation, I was immediately and continually more comfortable about the concepts, options and requirements than with MP's documentation... and I've never installed Linux before!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="quiller, post: 94416, member: 27306"] First, I apologize for bringing a slightly old topic into the limelight. Second, I completely agree that the front-page (actually, the entire first-time-user experience) is quite clumsy. In comparison to MP's cousin, MythTV, my first reaction to MediaPortal was "what [i]exactly[/i] is going on?" I find this confusion to be unacceptable, considering my background: I'm a geek, and although I'm new to the HTPC world (I have yet to build one), I have done a [i]lot[/i] of reading in recent days, and I also knew essentially what MP was (pointed here from another article which suggested it as a Windows-based alternative to MythTV). Still, when I loaded the home page for the first time, it took a few minutes before finding a detailed explanation of Media Portal's features. I suggest that the powers-that-be look at [url=http://mythtv.org/modules.php?name=MythInstall]MythTV's documentation[/url] for an example of a good introduction to the software. While the front-page of MP does provide immediate download and "about" links, there's no clear-cut, well-written overview of the technical features. The "Features" page now only covers the basics for those that don't really know what HTPC software is all about, not the specifics (i.e. what [i]exactly[/i], in [i]layman's terms[/i] is "TV Engine 3.x"). For the average person, all the available information is fine; unfortunately, I doubt there are many "average" people attempting to install and configure something like MP. Food for thought: as I was reading through MythTV's introductory documentation, I was immediately and continually more comfortable about the concepts, options and requirements than with MP's documentation... and I've never installed Linux before! [/QUOTE]

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