[News] MediaPortal 2 -2.1 Release (1 Viewer)

[rcauvin]

Hi.

1. Yes
2. No
3. You will need to redo your share definitions and reimport data, fan art, etc.
4. Nothing has changed regarding EPG. Nonetheless we recommend to take a look at @Lehmden's EPG Buddy.

All in all the new version is such a big step forward that we recommend to take the hassle and go through a complete media reconfiguration. TV is migrated.

Thank you for answering the questions.

Do you mind explaining what "share definitions" are, and what data needs to be reimported? (I don't think I imported anything for my current configuration; I just set up the channels and XmlTv, which was itself tedious and time consuming.)

Also, what is the status of MediaPortal2 and EPG? I have never been able to tell if EPG was built in to it or if a plugin was required. I see you recommended EPG Buddy. I will try it if EPG is not already built in to MediaPortal2. If EPG is already built in to MediaPortal2, then I might need help figuring it how to activate and configure it.

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.

"share definitions"

This are the storage of your local media like movies, series, music or images, that needs to be imported again, when you install the final version.

if EPG is not already built in

EPG is a difficult thing if you are a non commercial project. EPG data is expensive and the major reason why Microsoft has dropped WMC. For an Open Source project like MediaPortal (or Kodi, just to mention other similar projects) it's simply impossible to pay the fees to have a "build-in" EPG like Tivo or WMC had.

What we can do is to offer support for external EPG sources. In Europe we have DVB that mostly sends EPG on air so we can use this in MediaPortal fairly easy. In northern America you have ATSC that don't deliver EPG on air... So you need to get the EPG data from an external source. Well known is SchedulesDirect, but it's not free of charge. There are other sources (websites) who can deliver EPG data. To import those data into the MediaPortal TV database there is a TV Server plugin available, called XMLTV. This exists in both, MP1 and MP2. XMLTV is a standardized data format to transfer EPG data between various apps and tools.

Here is where EPG-Buddy jumps in. With EPG-Buddy you can use the data from tvguide.com. You can create an account at tvguide.com for free (opposite to SchedulesDirect). Once you've set up your account and line-up on tvguide.com you can use EPG-Buddy to download the data from tvguide.com on a regular (daily) base. EPG-Buddy now download and prepare the data so it can easily imported into TV database with XMLTV plugin... All this has to be set up only once. After the set-up is done it is working in background completely invisible. So once you have set-up your EPG you don't need to take care about EPG again. At least as long as there are no new stations that you want to add to your line-up... This "one time setup" ist the "prize" you have to pay for a full blown EPG in MediaPortal (or similar apps)...
EPG-Buddy a new EPG Tool with easy usage.

 

[rcauvin]

Thank you for your patience and for the detailed reply, @Lehmden. I will try install the new version.