Is mediaportal going to survive the new xbmc (1 Viewer)

[Nosferax]

I'm coming from both MediaBrowser/WMC and XBMC, having used both for years on my previous HTPC build. But this time I went with MP and here is why:

• Music support. Both MB/WMC & XBMC have lousy music collection display/support in my opinion. Both put most of their dev ressources to the video side of the program.
• External player. From my years of using a HTPC i've come to the conclusion that the best player for me, quality and feature wise is MPC-HC. No codec to install and lots of configuration options. Both MB/WMC and MP give me an easy option to use it. In XBMC I have to manually edit a XML file to do this. MP gives me the added bonus, if I ever chose to, to be able to select which codec to use in the internal player. I haven't found a way to do this in XBMC, maybe via a XML file again.
• Menu configurations. It is relatively easy with MP to add and remove items on the home screen, either plugins or launchers. With MB/WMC it is simpler yet since they are only folders that you have mapped in the configuration utility. But it's harder in XBMC. Some skin doesn't give you any option to easilly do this, and other permit you to do this via custom made playlist which are hidden in a couple of menu level deep.
• Media metadata control. With MB/WMC you really have to use an external scraper like Media Center Master. The built in one is quite basic. XBMC on the other hand has now "universals" scraper that use multiple sources and is quite fast. But it lacks any builtin way to edit the metadata, and if something doesn't exist on the scrapers sources website it's a pain to create the data manually. While MP uses external plugins like MovingPicture, MyFilms and TV Series, those plugins give you a way to create/edit the metadata. That way you can import your home made video or one shot TV captures that doesn't need to be created on TheTVdb just so they can be scraped into your XBMC database.
• Plugins! Only a couple exist for MB/WMC and not all good. The Music plugin for example is terrible. XBMC has lots of legit, and some less so, addons (if you know the right repositories). This is one good point for XBMC. MP, of course, also have great plugins. MP has better integration though, since it is easier to place a plugin on the home screen than it is in XBMC. And as a personnal note, the fact that the plugins are writen in C#, a language that I know, means that I can write some. XBMC uses Python which would mean learning another language... again.
• Skins. MB/WMC has some good skin, almost all of them written by one guy! They are more limited in their option since they have to be coded in MCML which is quite limited by itself. MP has some good solid skins as well. I particulary love Amped, Avalon and StreamMP (which was a clone of Mediastream skin from XBMC if memory serves me...). Here XBMC is the clear winner variety wise though. But this variety comes at a price. Not all skins play nice with what the user wants to do. MP suffers from this a bit also I think.

All in all, those three applications do their job well. But with added functionality comes greater difficulty in setting them up. MB/WMC is the easiest to use for a noobie, working out of the box with minimal configuration, but also with minimal features. XBMC works quite well if you accept the way other have decided you should manage your media and experience. XBMC also suffers from the most abbrasive and unfriendly community/forum. Don't you dare post anything that may be remotely percieved as negative on their forum, you'll be flamed so fast you won't even feel the heat before turning to dust.

Just my 2 cents...

Alain

 

[costi]

I'm coming from both MediaBrowser/WMC and XBMC, having used both for years on my previous HTPC build. But this time I went with MP and here is why:

• Music support. Both MB/WMC & XBMC have lousy music collection display/support in my opinion. Both put most of their dev ressources to the video side of the program.
• External player. From my years of using a HTPC i've come to the conclusion that the best player for me, quality and feature wise is MPC-HC. No codec to install and lots of configuration options. Both MB/WMC and MP give me an easy option to use it. In XBMC I have to manually edit a XML file to do this. MP gives me the added bonus, if I ever chose to, to be able to select which codec to use in the internal player. I haven't found a way to do this in XBMC, maybe via a XML file again.
• Menu configurations. It is relatively easy with MP to add and remove items on the home screen, either plugins or launchers. With MB/WMC it is simpler yet since they are only folders that you have mapped in the configuration utility. But it's harder in XBMC. Some skin doesn't give you any option to easilly do this, and other permit you to do this via custom made playlist which are hidden in a couple of menu level deep.
• Media metadata control. With MB/WMC you really have to use an external scraper like Media Center Master. The built in one is quite basic. XBMC on the other hand has now "universals" scraper that use multiple sources and is quite fast. But it lacks any builtin way to edit the metadata, and if something doesn't exist on the scrapers sources website it's a pain to create the data manually. While MP uses external plugins like MovingPicture, MyFilms and TV Series, those plugins give you a way to create/edit the metadata. That way you can import your home made video or one shot TV captures that doesn't need to be created on TheTVdb just so they can be scraped into your XBMC database.
• Plugins! Only a couple exist for MB/WMC and not all good. The Music plugin for example is terrible. XBMC has lots of legit, and some less so, addons (if you know the right repositories). This is one good point for XBMC. MP, of course, also have great plugins. MP has better integration though, since it is easier to place a plugin on the home screen than it is in XBMC. And as a personnal note, the fact that the plugins are writen in C#, a language that I know, means that I can write some. XBMC uses Python which would mean learning another language... again.
• Skins. MB/WMC has some good skin, almost all of them written by one guy! They are more limited in their option since they have to be coded in MCML which is quite limited by itself. MP has some good solid skins as well. I particulary love Amped, Avalon and StreamMP (which was a clone of Mediastream skin from XBMC if memory serves me...). Here XBMC is the clear winner variety wise though. But this variety comes at a price. Not all skins play nice with what the user wants to do. MP suffers from this a bit also I think.

All in all, those three applications do their job well. But with added functionality comes greater difficulty in setting them up. MB/WMC is the easiest to use for a noobie, working out of the box with minimal configuration, but also with minimal features. XBMC works quite well if you accept the way other have decided you should manage your media and experience. XBMC also suffers from the most abbrasive and unfriendly community/forum. Don't you dare post anything that may be remotely percieved as negative on their forum, you'll be flamed so fast you won't even feel the heat before turning to dust.

Just my 2 cents...

Alain

From top to bottom:
1. I don't really use my HTPC for music, so I don't really care. However, what I like about XBMC is being able to switch to file mode any time I want.
2. For me, the fact that I don't need to bother with codecs and players is a bonus of XBMC. That said, LAV filters work fine so far, so once they are bundled with MP install both will work the same from my point of view.
3. Never had problem with either. What I do like, however, is doing everything from the GUI in XBMC. BTW. you can create your own entries for XBMC - use .nfo files, they have priority over the scraper.
4. I'll have to disagree here. While it is easier to put a plugin directly on the homescreen in MP, that plugin has to be supported by the skin in the first place. If the skin you want to use doesn't support the plugin (or vice versa, I'm never sure) you're screwed and it will either have to be put in a submenu or won't work at all. In XBMC every plugin is supported by every skin and if for some strange reason there's a skin page missing, it will use the one for Confluence (default skin). Also, MP plugins are a mess - some use separate installers, some don't; settings for some are accessed via MPConfig, some have their separate configuration apps; their data is all over the place (some install here, some there...) and to do anything you need to drop out of the GUI and grab a mouse, or use remote desktop and re-launch everything afterwards.
5. As mentioned above, I hate the fact that in MP your skin choice determines what plugins are available. I'd love to use MayaHD, but it doesn't support MyAnime, and it is not planned. Also, in XBMC skinners are able to create their own views and often use this. In MP, I have yet to see something beyond the standard 4.
As far as looks are concerned, XBMC wins for variety, but both apps have some good-looking ones. Also, the Default MP skin is just plain ugly (especially once you look at Confluence).

The added bonus for XBMC is that it works on almost everything (iOS, Android, RaspberryPI, Windows, Linux) and XBMCbuntu or OpenELEC are really fast and ligtweight even on low-end hardware (the OpenELEC install is about 150MB for the whole OS with XBMC).

In the end, for me the choice is similar to iOS vs Android.
XBMC is like iOS - almost everything working out of the box, all the features are bundled and you can do everything inside the app and whatever you do it's almost guaranteed to work. If you want to do something non-standard, however, you need to look under the hood and do some serious tinkering (similar to jailbreaking and Cydia). In summary: fast & easy to set up and enough for most people.
MP, on the other hand, is like Android - the basic install is rather poor, but you have lots of 3rd party tools and additions to really customize it the way you want. Each of them usually is more powerful than the XBMC counterpart, but since they're separate, they might not talk to each other as you would expect. In summary: powerful with lots of customizations, but difficult to set up and sometimes a bit "geeky".

 

[zicoz]

You can always just copy the skin file for MyAnime from another skin into the MayaHD folder.

And I would actually swap out IOS with WP in your little comparison there as it has a much more standardized design through out.

Also I don't really see how XBMC wins on variety when it comes to looks.

Looking at the Skins section of their home page there is Aeon, then there are 3 versions of MediaStream, and a couple of other skins that are a mix of few differences and not good looking.

 

[Dadeo]

This thread is already pretty OT since MP obviously survived several releases of XBMC since joshbrown1984 started the thread over two years ago,
The irony is that the latest release of XBMC is named after Frodo - the founder of MediaPortal - and uses our TV-Server code (among others) which Frodo left XBMC to develop.

It is interesting to hear everyone's different experiences. It just proves that it is great to have a choice of which app you prefer. I hope the day never comes when there is only one free media center app to choose! However, I think we should stick to describing our own experience rather than commenting on or disagreeing with others who have a different experience or point of view. I assume we are all happy with our choice or we would switch apps.

 

[costi]

You can always just copy the skin file for MyAnime from another skin into the MayaHD folder.

And I would actually swap out IOS with WP in your little comparison there as it has a much more standardized design through out.

Also I don't really see how XBMC wins on variety when it comes to looks.

Looking at the Skins section of their home page there is Aeon, then there are 3 versions of MediaStream, and a couple of other skins that are a mix of few differences and not good looking.

I suppose I could, but it was more as an example about how MP skins and plugins are organized.

iOS vs WP - I have no hands-on experience with WP, so you're probably right.

XBMC looks - the gallery on the XBMC homepage is severely lacking, even Confluence (default skin) gallery was not updated with 11.0 :lol: Look here for more up-to-date stuff: http://forum.xbmc.org/forumdisplay.php?fid=67

 

[m0t0k0]

I have been using MePo for a fair few years now and I'm really impressed with 1.3 Beta.

TV functions properly now and I can even get post processing to work properly.

But I have to say I did a fresh install and even tho I have done it a couple times before there are so many plugins which need to be installed and setup individually it was hard to remember how to do it. It must have been such a struggle the first time round!

I have not used XBMC in a long time but I think I'm gonna stick it on a spare machine just so I can get a good comparison.