Media Portal Vs. XBMC (3 Viewers)

[JDWestoby]

MP is a pain - sometimes.....

I wanted to give up on it a few times, but looking at other systems (hard and soft) just led me to conclude - nothing and I mean nothing touches it.

I wanted a clock, took a few hours to make one, connect to my home automation, no bother, simplify the skin for my netbook room clients, done.

CCTV in MP, done (iSpy) - heck, I'm wondering if I can turn this into a video intercom!

Would I like it on Linux, possibly. But overall how much do I care - I never see the OS from week to week (actually once it is set up, month to month).

Far more annoying is not knowing whether to install Windows updates for what is a PC dedicated to my TV!

 

[BlackBurn]

Bot XBMC and MP have their own advantages and disadvantages.

What I like about XBMC is the small footprint, especially when looking at distro's like OpenElec. This also allows XBMC to run on different type of hardware, Android and Raspberry Pi i.e. What I don't like about XBMC is the content scraping mechanism and keeping the libraries up-to-date. Also PVR is still not grown-up, channel order is changing randomly and I can't hide the all channels group.

MP (or maybe more, Moving Pictures & TV-Series) have superb scraping mechanism to get the library filled and keeping it up-to-date, also the PVR implementation is very good. I think the biggest downsize of MP is that it can be quiet overwhelming for a newcomer, it is pretty hard to find out which plugins you really want to try out. It would also help if the configuration and plugin interface was a part of the mediaportal front-end.

If I had to choose between the two, I would prefer MP, have a lot of experience setting it up, so the overwhelming part is no issue for me. I also think that a good Mediacenter can play all content, this includes PVR. Although XBMC is working hard on this part, I think there is still some room for improvement.

Besides the above, I think both systems lack a decent multiseat set-up (not only PVR, but also scraping and storing the library).
I also think both are good products and you need to look what better suits you, my set-up contains two XBMC servers and one Mediaportal.

I run my Mediaportal in the living room and this is my primairy system which is used on a daily basis. In the bedroom I have a Raspberry Pi running OpenElec. Due the slow CPU in the Pi, I have running a virtual XBMC system, which takes care of the scraping. As TV Server I use Argus and both systems have the Trakt plugin enabled, so both systems know what I've watched and what the next episode on the list is. The bedroom XBMC is used about two maybe three times a week and serves us well.

 

[splatterpop]

Nice discussion. I'd personally like to see it from the quality, not features or technology perspective. Except one has a system in mind for the technology oriented only.

I agree with those who say that acceptance is all a question of usability. In this aspect, XBMC, being very TV-like and practically offering zero configuration, is a winner over MP.

Whether one will be happy with either one downstream is a different question. Both cannot compare to a standard TV/surround setup in terms of image quality and usability, while offering extra value as a PC. This of course is extra value only to those who seek it. I find it very likely for people who just want a reliable everyday TV/video/Music solution to abandon the htpc and fall back to hardware.

 

[kiwijunglist]

I'd personally like to see it from the quality, not features or technology perspective

If you are talking about video quality, then MP has built in dynamic refresh rate changer with an audio renderer that constantly microadjusts the fps rate / sound speed to match the display hz. XBMC can not do this without installing additional audio renderers + complicated setup. I think MP wins in this regard.

 

[emphatic]

I'd personally like to see it from the quality, not features or technology perspective

If you are talking about video quality, then MP has built in dynamic refresh rate changer with an audio renderer that constantly microadjusts the fps rate / sound speed to match the display hz. XBMC can not do this without installing additional audio renderers + complicated setup. I think MP wins in this regard.

I'm positive XBMC has a ReClock like function built in, i.e. you can choose "sync audio to video" or something like that and video playback is silky smooth. Unfortunately, the picture is smooth as well, as in it lacks in sharpness, detail and colour presentation. MePo has far better overall picture quality IMHO. Sure, I sometimes notice micro stutters or frame drops in MePo, but I take that over smudge-a-vision any day of the week.

Emph

 

[splatterpop]

I agree with both of you, regarding the technical aspects.

The decision to accept one over the other (or even none at all), which is often the start of a discussion, is not primarily based on technology in my opinion. I think MP offers a resonable platform for a HTPC solution. This is how far technology goes. On top of that, a solution is created which is all about usability, stability and perceived quality.