is it time to kiss mediaportal good bye (1 Viewer)

[upspace]

i know many wont like this thread. but i hope you still accept my opinion. ..

i used to be a happy and satisfied user of mp for quite a while. but what happend with mp? my oppinion is that recent updates became worse and worse in terms of quality and simplicity.

i am going to move away from media portal to gb-pvr. mp just became too fancy and does not what it is supposed to to - recording and watchting tv, dvd, avis, listening to music, internet radio - what a htpc is built for. but mp mp performance is bad, configuration a nightmare, not stable and uses too much memory. the facade looks very nice though but i doubt that the core/architecture is well designed.

please revert back all this lately introduced "overhead" and make mp a fast performing, stable and easy-to-configure media center again.

 

[infinite.loop]

my oppinion is that recent updates became worse and worse in terms of quality and simplicity.

please explain what you mean in detail, because all updates that have been done recently were bugfixes, so what are you referring too?

before anyone will start to flame around here be aware, that the topic/post will be deleted without a warning.

we have no problem with criticism as long as it is objective, polite and described in detail.

 

[Bram]

Different people expect different things...
My opinion is that MP is taking a big jump forward. Esspecialy when the plugins and skins that are in development now are finished.

 

[A Frater]

I though this was still in development (beta) so their is still bugs and that to sort out I have tried gb-pvr :lol: but their was bugs with that and MP looks so much better .

 

[NLS]

I second that I believe MP is going forward definately.

I don't understand what changed in terms of quality and simplicity.

I recreated the functionality I had in Meedio (I was using Meedio ALONG with GBPVR for the TV, I didn't use MeedioTV) in RECORD time (about 10 days - not full-time of course) and even more. So that MUST say something about simplicity.

When you say recent updates you mean what? 0.1 to 0.2? RC3 to RC4? SVN? I don't get you.

I have a GOOD knowledge about GBPVR. A very nice program if you ask me, but:

- it is a solution that came FOR TV and it shows (all added functionality came after that and to me, not greatly implemented)

- too "closed"... in fact WAY too closed (much more closed than Meedio ever was and MP never has been)

- good luck with sub (you will know what I mean if you ever make a post like the one you did here, on his forum, or when you ask for a feature)

now... MP, I hope it gets to be EVEN fancier (like Front Row), but currently I wouldn't say it's performance sucks AT ALL. As of memory usage (1) I don't care since THIS IS WHAT THE PC DOES when it runs MP... i.e. ...RUNS MP (duh!) as you say "this is what a htpc is built for" ...(2) I don't care since memory is stupidly cheap. I have 512 and is MORE than enough.

MP never crashed on me. Oups that is a lie. It froze a couple of times with some videos (I'll check it out further), but nothing too serious.

I suggest you DO try your luck with GBPVR and see what I mean, yourself (and I hope sub doesn't decide on making it commercial soon, the path myHTPC took with Meedio and the path MP cannot take since it is OPEN source).

I would happily steal "recording service" from GBPVR though (developers hear?).

 

[zion22]

There's some valid critisism there aswell, especially when it comes to setting MP up. However, I like to be able to tweak, customize etc. so I aint complaining. :wink:

MP is by far the best solution there is out there atm, maybe not the easiest, but by far the best IMO.

 

[NLS]

what makes it that hard?

I don't get it.

The hardest thing for me when I moved to MP was to find about the Home plugin. It really needs a major update to be much more intuitive (and add capability to call external apps without a plugin). I also would love some more advanced database handling (irrelevant of source media folders like it is now), but that is another story.

80% of what I do on my HEPC is done by MP itself, where in Meedio, 60% was native Meedio functionality and for the rest I just tried to bind external apps as transparently as I could. I can elaborate if you want. Now what is more difficult?

 

[moullas]

I agree that setup is hell... however i love MP and wouldn't easily leave it just yet...

I think after 0.2 reaches final status (and we all end with the RC's) the next move forward should be in :
1) documentation (this would save a lot of time both for devs and users alike if the docs are better...)
2)speed up in movies and music when they have folder.jpg (the time to move down a page is ridiculous, compared to most other HTPC soft)
3)ease of use in configuration, or maybe simplification and standardization of codecs options etc... (this already is happening with the latest SVN's), with the MPV and MPA thingies...)
4) Standardization of configuration processes, like keypressess and the like (read my suggestion at https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/viewtopic.php?t=15152 ). We don't need to reinvent the wheel at stuff that already have a high proven usability factor, like how to configure keys, or tv or radio... We should only look at other software (or hardware), find the best implementation and copy it!

Bear in mind that what i've written are my own personal nags on how MP could be improved... but i still love the good devs for all the work they put into this great program!

People like MP for what it is and what it can be, and it can rival every other HTPC soft given the right focus and direction. Keep the push forward people!

 

[Efros]

Yep the Setup can be pretty challenging, not only of MP but all the other little packages that you need. I have only tried MCE and Knoppmyth neither of which were pleasurable experiences. If you want to really get embroiled in setup hell try knoppmyth.

My RC4 setup is very stable and I only have to do a restart about once every 5 or 6 days, usually because of something I've done.

I echo what was said before my HTPC does nothing else, MP is the shell and no other non MP related programs run.

As to performance, well mine runs on an ancient K7S5a Pro mobo with a 2.2 GHz Athlon and 640 Mb of memory, certain things are irritating lags when changing to My Music, similar lags when bringing up the EPG. Not sure if this is my PC or if its inherent in MP at the moment. My biggest bugbear is the lack of compression to a decent format from dvr-ms, but patience is a virtue. And I know there is divx there but it dont work for my setup.

 

[knutinh]

I also think that more could be improved for newbies- I have spent considerable time searching these forums, the (thin) documentation etc. I do understand that the windows/directshow environment is dirty and really outside mps control. However, MP will often be blamed when the wrong codec desire to kick in., leaving no sound at all in an ac3 divx or something =)

Also, tuning of video and radio channels should die =) I mean, I have to tune these things every time I re-install MP because the regional selections are wrong, and the data is stored in binary files instead of user-friendly xml.

I am hoping for some kind of "super-package" where I have to specify language (Norwegian) and location (my home-town), then all kinds of things like My weather, My radio, My tv/EPG/channel logos will automagically line up with "best guesses" so that I dont have to input the same data many times.

Having a general audio/video filter setting as well as allowing exceptions to that rule would also be great. Having a general i/o formatting for filters would also be cool (specifying audio format for instance).

regards
Knut