How do I surf the internet with MP? (2 Viewers)

[mdsflyer]

Infinity loop "Mediaportal is not a webbroswer"

Surely Mediaportal is whatever we want to make it? That is the point of opensource, if there is a demand then there is a need. Your first response to many questions is negative, next time pause, take a breath and consider a view other than your own.

Cheers
m

 

[infinite.loop]

Infinity loop "Mediaportal is not a webbroswer"

Surely Mediaportal is whatever we want to make it? That is the point of opensource, if there is a demand then there is a need. Your first response to many questions is negative, next time pause, take a breath and consider a view other than your own.

my point is this.

a webbrowser plugin will always stay a compromise. you will never get the same usability as you get in firefox or other webbrowsers.
simply be cause the plugin has to be trimmed to be used by remote mainly.

such a plugin is a nice thing to have (as allready posted).
but in the end you will close MediaPortal and use your stand alone webbrowser.

this is my opinion based on experiences with existing webbrowser plugins from vaious applications.
i have no problem if you have a different opinion on that.

and everyone can feel free to develop a (new) webbrowserplugin, since this is what opensource is about.

 

[mdsflyer]

Hi Chris, thanks for the response. There are indeed other uses for a webbrowser other than surfing, for example my work roster is available via the internet, if MP has an inbuilt browser i can see my schedule for tomorrow without having to fire up my laptop. There are a number of websites that i wish to open without "surfing" e.g. my wife loves looking up her Biorythms page (dont ask!!) so i could use a simple webbrowser plugin happily.

These are only my uses and i'm sure out of the thousands of MP users there will be many other ideas i cannot even dream of, again thats why i believe that your initial response was unhelpful.

Cheers
m

 

[infinite.loop]

Hi Chris, thanks for the response. There are indeed other uses for a webbrowser other than surfing, for example my work roster is available via the internet, if MP has an inbuilt browser i can see my schedule for tomorrow without having to fire up my laptop. There are a number of websites that i wish to open without "surfing" e.g. my wife loves looking up her Biorythms page (dont ask!!) so i could use a simple webbrowser plugin happily.

that could be done with a rather "simple webbrowser plugin" like the one devo create a long time ago.
where you can create links and just open them to view the page.
navigation with the remote also works "quite" good there

but "normal webbrowsing, downloading, research" will definitly be easier with a better usablility in the stand alone browsers.
i understood that to be the initial question / requirement in the first post.

 

[TritonT]

I agree with infinityloop that MediaPortal should not be trying to compete with full function browsers, there are just not enough hours in the day for anyone or any team inside the MediaPortal community to do it! Not only that, it’s perfectly possible to launch a ‘real’ browser from the home menu anyway.

But it would be great to have a ‘web render engine’ that worked inside MediaPortal, this has not been achieved by any of the Plugin attempts.

An example of where this would add a nice function is My Radio. Radio stations are constantly referring people back to their web page for competitions, information and pictures. By having a field in the TV Database for ‘associated web page’ while listening to the radio station you could also be seeing the web page (with limited amount of navigation ability and maybe an option to launch the page in a ‘real’ browser).

There are plenty more opportunities in MediaPortal to use such a ‘web render engine’.

I assume embedding Gecko in some form is still the way to go, are there any other options?

 

[Spragleknas]

On topic: There are to plugins for web-browsing w/MP:
- FireFox based (outdated?)
- IE based (newer, simpler to install, not that "buggy")

Tried finding IE browser, but no luck

 

[petsa]

I use the Multishortcut plugin to launch FireFox from inside MP, and at the same time have it minimize MP. Then I get the best of both worlds. Together with MouseMode for my MCE remote I can access shortcuts and click on links. For new websites I have to get the keyboard...

/Peter

 

[mzemina]

I use the Multishortcut plugin to launch FireFox from inside MP, and at the same time have it minimize MP. Then I get the best of both worlds. Together with MouseMode for my MCE remote I can access shortcuts and click on links. For new websites I have to get the keyboard...

/Peter

I was trying to suggest this but using the program Ten Foot Browser - Look at my earlier post to find links.

 

[bermag]

To have a web browser easily available from MP is very important IMO. For example when it is a commercial break I want to take a look at any news about Media portal or something .

The keyword here is "easily". Having to exit Media Portal, launch internet explorer and then having to restart MP is not easily in my book. Very low WAF on that one. Well you could use the remote to turn off/on MP though making it a bit better though (just come to think about that option after writing the above lol). Still MP take some time to start though.

However, I don't want to use any crippled (compared to whatever browser you are normally using) browser plugins.

What I really want is to be able to launch a window with my normal web browser (including favourites etc) from inside MP without having to exit MP. Would be nice to run a web browser in a window and having TV running in the background. That is how I have imagined how a HTPC should work, seamless integration between TV usage and using your pc/tv as a normal PC.

I have tried to use My Programs plugin and it kind of works as long as you don't try it when in full-screen. When in full screen the program you launch will not get the focus. Beside that anything related to moving MP in and out of fullscreen doesn't work very well (it even crashed right now when I tried to switch MP from window to fullscreen).

I guess launching a separate window when MP is in full screen doesn't work (maybe it has to leave full screen to be able to launch an ordinary window) but perhaps it would be possible to embed IE within MP.

Or another solution: First of all make switching between full screen and window mode less buggy and faster (when running for example Media Player Classic in fullscreen it switch to window mode almost instantly). Second, have MP switch to/from fullscreen mode automatically when watching full screen tv/video and when going out of full screen MP returns to windowed mode (in a user defined size for example maximed). That way you could easily launch web browser or any other program (either from start menu or from my programs plugin).

Of course you should be able to configure "full screen tv" if it should be in "real" fullscreen or to be fullscreen within windowed mode.

 

[ch0colate]

Thanks for the tip TritonT, using my programs to launch opera in kiosk mode works perfectly for me. It gives me the ability to surf the web (using a bluetooth keyboard) as much as i need to do on my media center pc. Having media portal run pretty much everything in my living room on a 32" lcd I much prefer to run it all from within the mediaportal interface, I find this much better than having to exit media portal and run a browser from windows as it ruins the whole experience and just makes things more complicated for the girlfriend.

Cheers