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

Dr Tone

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October 29, 2008
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DXVA support in XBMC was a step in the right direction, but the new audio engine will do wonders for XBMC. Right now though it's lacking in that department.

With the new engine they are planning on supporting bitstreaming TrueHD, DTS MA etc etc. As of right now WASAPI doesn't even work in the video player at all.
 
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mithunsingh

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It would be great to marry these two together at least so xbmc can read synopsis information. xbmc has some issues it seems with .ts files and is not entirely stable when using skip and ffwd, resume etc, so that would be a priority! It would be great if i finally can have a HTPC setup to suit my needs without having to use other programs and using the mouse, and 4therecord/xbmc would be a great solution methinks!

Thanks for discussion here.....
 

AgeOfPanic

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    This is a nice subject, because XBMC and MP are the two leading open source MC out there. I always used MP. For me the external configuration made more sense when starting out. Now with StreamedMP and MovingPictures and Tvseries, I think it is a very complete product.
    However, tempted by the Android Remote, I recently decided to try out Dharma. I noticed that XBMC definitely needs less tweaking to get it going. However, when you do need to tweak something, eg for me the support for a standard MCE remote was badly lacking, it gets a lot harder.

    So pro and cons for me are

    MP
    Pro:
    - MovingPictures and TVseries + StreamedMP take away a lot of the hassle of installing
    - tweakability
    - TV support, don't use it, but might in the future

    Cons:
    - no Android remote (especially to play music without starting the tv)
    - only one really good skin. Hope I don't offend anyone, but for me StreamedMP is the only option. In XBMC the skin is only the skin, in MP StreamedMP really makes MP work. Otherwise, installing and updating is a lot more work.

    XBMC
    Pro:
    - feels like a more consistent written program, hope that MP 2 will negate this. Feels fast.
    - easy setup
    - Android remote, amazingly well done.

    Cons:
    - most of the times it's fine, but if something doesn't work, fixing it in the UI is annoying.
    - really poor support of standard MCE remote out of the box. Changing anything is hard.

    I'm trying XBMC right now with a patched MCE remote and the Android remote to control it without TV. That is the only reason to leave MP for now. Well that and wanting a change. Both programs are not perfect and have some qualities the other one doesn't have. Funny thing is that both seem to implement changes seen with the other. I'm just happy we have the choice and that the friendly competition seems to drive things forward.
     

    kiwijunglist

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    I would disagree with streamedmp skin comment being the only good skin. I think the bundling with the other plugins, the awesome installer, automatic updating and ability to customise using the installer + basic home editor makes it leaps ahead of the other skins in terms of usability and easy customisation. However I think Maya, Monochrome, Beazlewide are also very aesthetically pleasing skins.

    with regards to android remote, yeah MP is behind here. Also behind in terms of media extenders. There are some android remotes being developed.
     

    finrudd341

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    I've been running XBMC for a few weeks now, and while I miss Moving Pictures and My TV Series, the stability for me is the main benefit. I had problems with MP where I needed to exit out of the program and re-load after each film I watched, which I don't get with XBMC.

    I found the MCE Remote worked straight away, although to get most of the features working, I downloaded the plugin. I actually prefer the approach of config within the application, although it did take some getting used to.

    I am now using Media Companion, and have re-done the entire movie database, which should do me well for the future regardless of any platform I opt for - certainly once done, XBMC had no problems with the 600+ titles in the video sections.

    Regarding skins - the 'out of the box' skin with XBMC looks and feels good, and I have not yet played around with others. Compared to MP, this wins for me - I never liked the standard blue skin, which always felt to cartoonish for me. That said, I think Black Glass is a fantastic skin, and the ability to change it really gives it the edge.

    If I was living back in Europe, the TV side would be far more important for me, and that is where MP wins out with the TV server. However, there appear to be TV front end clients, and TV servers (MythTV etc) that will work with XBMC, and increasingly there are companies I am coming across using XBMC in professional installations - most of the German Hyatt Hotels are now using an XBMC variation for their in-room entertainment from what I can see. These are 350+ seat installations!

    I look forward to seeing MP 2 when it comes out, but for now, after many years of using MP, I am going to stick with XBMC, although I will continue to watch the boards here to see what's going on.

    Keep up the good work everyone - it's an amazing package, and will only get better. :D
     

    AgeOfPanic

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    I would disagree with streamedmp skin comment being the only good skin. I think the bundling with the other plugins, the awesome installer, automatic updating and ability to customise using the installer + basic home editor makes it leaps ahead of the other skins in terms of usability and easy customisation. However I think Maya, Monochrome, Beazlewide are also very aesthetically pleasing skins.

    with regards to android remote, yeah MP is behind here. Also behind in terms of media extenders. There are some android remotes being developed.


    Maybe I phrased it wrong. The other ones certainly look good, but for a new user I would always recommend StreamedMP, because of the things you named. What I meant was, that for XBMC this doesn't matter. The skin is just a skin and the actual program does all the rest. Out of the box, it seems more consistent and cleaner.

    I found the MCE Remote worked straight away, although to get most of the features working, I downloaded the plugin. I actually prefer the approach of config within the application, although it did take some getting used to.
    For me the MCE did some things, but for instance subtitles were not assigned to a button. Also the context menu was unreachable without a keyboard. Now they work, although not all the functions have a logical key.
     

    kiwijunglist

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    What I meant was, that for XBMC this doesn't matter. The skin is just a skin and the actual program does all the rest. Out of the box, it seems more consistent and cleaner.

    in MP a skin is just a skin is well. You downloaded streamedmp package which installs the streamedmp skin as well as 4-5 plugins (tv series, my trailers, moving pictures, global music search, ?my lyrics?)

    I also recommend streamedmp package for newbies as well, because it's easier than installing 4 plugins seperately & streamedmp skin is my favourite skin.

    I can't wait for MP2 i hope it supports DLNA/All Share and has some sort of support for extenders, maybe even if it emulated the WMP media server functionality it could extend to anything that is compatible with MCE/WMP which would be a lot of extenderes/devices.
     

    AgeOfPanic

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    I know that StreamedMP is a skin. What I meant was that with XBMC you don't have to install separate plugins. Movies and tv shows are scraped automatically. There are actually advantages to having separate plugins as well. I never used the build in Myvideos function of MP. It will be interesting to see what MP will choose to do for MP2. Will they go the route of addons like XBMC and have the MovingPictures and TVseries separate from the main installer or will they integrate these two plugins.
     

    kiwijunglist

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    I'm sure I read that they plan for the plugin installers to be more integrated, so I imagine you will choose the desired components within the GUI, also within the GUI it will take care of updates, setup etc. I think I read that Moving pictures and tv series will still remain as addons and will not be part of the core components.
     

    Mew

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    Having plugins such as TV Series and Moving Pictures as addons means that their development cycle and times are not tied to MediaPortal Releases. It would be nice to be able to install plugins from within MediaPortal, and say, to be alerted to updates (like where you can add or remove components in Windows and be alerted to Windows updates). I guess this may be possible in MediaPortal 2 and I assume the respositories (for plugins, skins etc.) on the redesigned web site might aid this.

    Mew
     

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