Is mediaportal going to survive the new xbmc (4 Viewers)

[CharlieMopps]

Media portal was my first and only MPC software... I, in fact, built my mediaPC specifically for mediaportal.

I recently installed XBMC along with it and tried it out. I have to say, XMBC wins on all counts as far as I'm concerned.

I don't use the TV server so that's irrelevant to me.
The install was MUCH smoother.
Figuring out how to add a network folder was kind of tuff, but no worse than media portal. (both programs should work on making this nearly automatic)
The default skin beats MediaPortal hands down. It looks better, more professional, and is easier to use.
More video formats play out of the box without tinkering. Even HD content seems to play without a hitch.
I haven't had a single crash. MediaPortal would lock up enough that it was almost inevitable that after I hadn't watched a movie for a couple of days, I'd switch back to my media PC and know ahead of time that I'd probobly have to reboot before I could. Not so with XMBC.
XMBC is much more responsive. When I hit play, it plays instantly. When I fast forward, there's no lag. It acts just like I'd expect it to.

MediaPortal is great and has a lot more unique features. But if you want to just play movies and music out of the box without any bells and wistles and want the least amount of hassle, XBMC is the way to go. I hope both projects can learn from one another.

 

[CCob]

I have been using MediaPortal now for around 2 years and love it's feature set. After reading this post though I thought I would give XBMC a try too.

I must say in terms of speed and responsiveness XBMC wins hands down. Navigating menus is fluid and fast, no halt or delays like I get with MP. Playback of video was impressive, almost instant compared to the 3-4 seconds or so for MP for the same video. Fast Fwd and Rwd work correctly too as opposed to the only 4x or less working correctly on MP, most peoples comments to this seem to suggest using skip (which I am forced to use on MP) but my preference is to see the video whilst Fwd/Rwd is in action so that I know when to resume the video.

I only use TVSeries and MovingPictures (appart from LiveTV/Recording) which XBMC could replace quite easily with almost the same feature set.

The big thing that's missing from XBMC is full PVR support, and TVServer is excellent so using XBMC as the PVR client would be a great feature (still in development).

All in all MediaPortal is an excellent piece of software and a toy tinkers dream, for me the only think that lets it down is the responsiveness/hang that occurs quite regularly for me when using the client.

Just my two cents

 

[DJBlu]

I have been using MediaPortal now for around 2 years and love it's feature set. After reading this post though I thought I would give XBMC a try too.

I must say in terms of speed and responsiveness XBMC wins hands down. Navigating menus is fluid and fast, no halt or delays like I get with MP. Playback of video was impressive, almost instant compared to the 3-4 seconds or so for MP for the same video. Fast Fwd and Rwd work correctly too as opposed to the only 4x or less working correctly on MP, most peoples comments to this seem to suggest using skip (which I am forced to use on MP) but my preference is to see the video whilst Fwd/Rwd is in action so that I know when to resume the video.

I only use TVSeries and MovingPictures (appart from LiveTV/Recording) which XBMC could replace quite easily with almost the same feature set.

The big thing that's missing from XBMC is full PVR support, and TVServer is excellent so using XBMC as the PVR client would be a great feature (still in development).

All in all MediaPortal is an excellent piece of software and a toy tinkers dream, for me the only think that lets it down is the responsiveness/hang that occurs quite regularly for me when using the client.

Just my two cents

This.

I have been working with TV Server for 2 years and can say the changes I have seen in those 2 years have put it well ahead of other apps.

XBMC is slowly coming round to the fact people are wanting TV aswell as other Media. TVHeadend is slowly being developed and is far from a suitible solution.

Its good to see there are options out there for people, Choice is a great thing to have.

 

[JochenAndries]

As a noob, I answer : MediaPortal wins.

I'm smart, have MS- and Cisco -degrees, so I know my way around computers, handhelds,...

Years ago, I started to experiment, but stopped because lack of time. Two weeks ago I restarted.
First thing : XBMC, installation, no problem, first movie (it started : wrong poster,...) I gave up
Installed Mediaportal, moving pictures,... - Oooh yeah, that's the way It should be done !!!

For a noob : Mediaportal all the way !!!
Searching subtitiles, fanart, covers,... a piece of cake !

One downside : the xbmc-remote is mindblowing !!! MediaPortal should have it (and no, I HATE iPimp !!)
My girlfriend (HTC Magic, Android) was happy with the remote, so I (iPhone4) was happy.

 

[joystick]

AW: Re: Is mediaportal going to survive the new xbmc

Searching subtitiles, fanart, covers,... a piece of cake !

One downside : the xbmc-remote is mindblowing !!! MediaPortal should have it (and no, I HATE iPimp !!)
.

Yeah that app is really really cool

 

[danif86]

I have been using MediaPortal now for around 2 years and love it's feature set. After reading this post though I thought I would give XBMC a try too.

I must say in terms of speed and responsiveness XBMC wins hands down. Navigating menus is fluid and fast, no halt or delays like I get with MP. Playback of video was impressive, almost instant compared to the 3-4 seconds or so for MP for the same video. Fast Fwd and Rwd work correctly too as opposed to the only 4x or less working correctly on MP, most peoples comments to this seem to suggest using skip (which I am forced to use on MP) but my preference is to see the video whilst Fwd/Rwd is in action so that I know when to resume the video.

I only use TVSeries and MovingPictures (appart from LiveTV/Recording) which XBMC could replace quite easily with almost the same feature set.

The big thing that's missing from XBMC is full PVR support, and TVServer is excellent so using XBMC as the PVR client would be a great feature (still in development).

All in all MediaPortal is an excellent piece of software and a toy tinkers dream, for me the only think that lets it down is the responsiveness/hang that occurs quite regularly for me when using the client.

Just my two cents

Do you mean the native scrapper? or did u find a good solution?
I am trying to deciede between mediaportal and XBMC, and the trailer support in XBMC (from the movie list) is a killer..
But the media handling of Mediaportal (with MP TVSeries and MovingPictures) is sweet..

So don't realy know what I am ending up with.--

 

[modtang]

I love MP and I doubt I will ever abandon it for another htpc application. I've tried em all at one point or another, just for comparison, but MP is the one I always end up using. The constant development and awesome support are part of the reason I stick with it too. I've never had a problem that someone here couldn't help solve, and that's impressive in my books. I've been meaning to donate but I keep forgetting. I'm gonna go do that now. I <3 MediaPortal.

 

[kiwijunglist]

One downside : the xbmc-remote is mindblowing !!! MediaPortal should have it (and no, I HATE iPimp !!)
My girlfriend (HTC Magic, Android) was happy with the remote, so I (iPhone4) was happy.

Do you mean something like this?

YouTube - aMPdroid promo video

 

[zicoz]

One downside : the xbmc-remote is mindblowing !!! MediaPortal should have it (and no, I HATE iPimp !!)
My girlfriend (HTC Magic, Android) was happy with the remote, so I (iPhone4) was happy.

Do you mean something like this?

YouTube - aMPdroid promo video

What's the last thing he does in the video? Is he transcoding the video to an "Android format", copying the original movie or buffering for direct playback?

 

[kiwijunglist]

(s)he is downloading (copying) the video file from the htpc to the sd card on the cellphone for playback at a later date.