[News] MediaPortal 2 - 2.2 Release (1 Viewer)

ge2301

Lead Design MP2
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  • January 11, 2014
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    We are proud to present MediaPortal 2.2 Final
    Since the recent release of MediaPortal 2.2pre, we fixed some minor things. We now proudly present the final version of our next major release of MediaPortal 2 in version 2.2.

    MediaPortal 2.2 is a full-blown media center software that addresses the most common user requirements out of the box. Besides its TV and Radio services it is also offering a complete media management for movies, series and music, including posters, album and fan art as well as additional metadata (e.g. actor, director and much more) that are automatically downloaded from the internet. MediaPortal 2.2 also provides access to online video sources such as Amazon Prime. Integrated news, weather information and management for your digital images complete this software package.

    There is a long list of changes – you can find all details in the end of this news – major changes are:

    User Management
    Thanks to user management you'll be able to create different profiles with different settings, different privileges, and different skins. Each profile will maintain its own set of watched status. The user management is a server side feature, meaning all the profiles are saved on the server portion of Media Portal 2 and then distributed through all the clients where the User Management Feature is enabled.



    You can set a password and limit TV-groups, age rated content, access to media sources etc. by user. There are pre-defined user templates (Administrator, teenager, kids), which can be later further restricted or relaxed. User can upload their own profile pictures to customize their account. As a result, you can make your kids see only feasible content making Media Portal 2 the perfect family HTPC solution.



    For details or manual, please refer to the related WIKI section.

    Importer
    An overworked Data Base structure was introduced offering many improvements and features. It offers content group support for audio, stub support, user support, some new indexes for speed improvements, faster searching and correct ordering of artists, actors etc.

    By adding an async task handling we could also avoid the second importer run known from MP2.1 and improve the resource usage in idle or during import resulting in a better performance.

    The new DB structure is imcompatible with previous versions, but when upgrading Media Portal from a previous version the server will recognize old DB's from MP2.1.x and upgrade them automatically on first start. You will not loose any of your media items, watched status etc. An indicator in client informs you about the upgrade progress.

    With Media Re-import it is finally possible to correct or adjust wrongly imported media items manually comfortably from within client. You can select the best result from auto matcher or manually search by media name or identification number (IMBD, TvDB, …). You can simply access the re-import feature from context menu of a focused media item.




    Input Management
    The previous Input Device Manager plugin has been completely rewritten, allowing now to control not only Key Management, but also Screen Management. You can now assign special shortcuts to switch from one screen to the other directly. (i.e. assign a special shortcut to jump to TV, or TV Guide)

    The GUI for the Input Management is now much more intuitive and allows you to first chose the action and then the key combination to map to that action. It's now possible to see, remove or modify existing key mappings already assigned to a specific action quickly and more reliably.

    For details or manual, please refer to the related WIKI section.

    Genre Management
    Genres are managed differently now. During import genres are mapped to defined genre ID's, which can be localized with in client. There are VideoGenres for movies and series, AudioGenres and TVGenres. Unknown genres are also supported, they will be added additionally and are handled by their name during import.

    As a result you may filter comfortably media items by genre ID and you are also able to see newly introduced genre poster as an eye catcher.



    The TV part also shows genres now in case your EPG provider supports it. You can optionally activate EPG genre colors in TV settings and assign predefined colors to TV genres in all skins. The settings also allow you to map colors to genres to customize the EPG according your needs.



    Stub Support
    We implemented stub support for movies, series and albums. When a disc is inserted the matching stub will be found. A prompt will be shown to insert the media if disc is not found. Series discs that contain multiple episodes will be created as a multi part episodes. When using NFO files together with the stub files, the <fileinfo> part will be read from the NFO file to generate media details.

    • Album stub file extensions: "cd.disc"
    • Movie and series stub file extensions: "dvd.disc", "bluray.disc", "brrip.disc", "bd25.disc", "bd50.disc", "hddvd.disc", "hdtv.disc", "pdtv.disc", "dsr.disc", "vhs.disc"
    Focus Handling
    We have improved the focus handling in MP2.2. So far lists always start withed the focus on first item.

    • In long lists the focus is put directly on the selected item now and you do not need to scroll any longer through the list to find it
    • The focus behaviour for series media view is more intelligent and places the focus on the first partly or unwatched media item, allowing you to directly continue with the next unwatched episode/season
    Weather
    No more blocked weather data! You can now use your own private key for the weather provider OpenWeatherMap.

    Skins
    WMC Skin
    We improved and expanded WMC skin features refreshing its style to look more modern.

    Home Content
    Home Content is offering quick and comfortable access to media items and further information in home screen, if activated in skin settings. You be able to see instantly the latest added media items continue watching the latest watched movies, see your favourite music, which you were playing frequently. You can also directly select current running TV programs or favourite TV-channels directly from HomeScreen. You can comfortably switch between HomeMenu and HomeContent with “Info” (remote) or “I” (keyboard). It’s definitely a feature you don’t want to miss again.



    New Thumbnail View
    You are now able to switch between banners, posters and thumbnails for movies and series in skin settings.



    Other WMC skin changes

    • Higher resolution for menu images
    • Improved HomeMenu navigation with mouse (vertical navigation buttons)
    • Now the clock appears on the top right corner of the screen when the OSD is shown on Movies and TV Series playback
    • When playing a live video, it now shows as background in the home screen
    • Player controls for DVD's added in "WMC design"
    • Added disc# to AudioListViews
    • Removed animated Aurora Background, also remove it in skin settings
    A specially designed WMC skin addresses the needs of former Windows Media Center users. This skin with its two themes Default and Dark offers the same experience that you were used to while providing additional features that make it even better than Windows Media Center.



    The revamped BlueVision skin and its themes Default, Win10, Titanium Extended and Grey offer additional display options that allow adjusting the look of MediaPortal 2.1 to your personal preferences:
    Win10


    Titanium Extended





    Extensions
    MediaPortal 2.2's functionality can be further extended through the installation of additional plugins. The choice of extensions, while currently limited, is steadily growing. Discover what else is available in our Featured Plugins section.

    Trakt
    A new Trakt plugin has been developed with better sync and watched flags management, completely compatible with the new User Management system, allowing different trakt accounts for different users. The development of the plugin has been moved out from the standard Mediaportal 2 development. This will ease development and bug fixes.
    For details or manual, please refer to the related WIKI section.

    Flag Mover
    Flag mover is a new plugin developed for MediaPortal 2.2 and newer versions. You'll be able to backup user specific watched flags (JSON format) and to restore/transfer them into a new clean installation.

    Full list of changes
    You can review all changes by taking a look at the different changelogs: MediaPortal 2.2 Final and MediaPortal 2.2 Pre

    For known issues please check out our Jira and our Bug Reports Forum.

    --> Read the full news
     

    GeYe

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    Great progress and work. Only feature missing for me is 4K HDR or in other word madvr support.
     

    Hawkeye

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    Some questions regarding stub support: How is a .disc file supposed to look like? Is this valid? And is the media type required or is the extension .disc enough?
     

    ge2301

    Lead Design MP2
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  • January 11, 2014
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    • #6
    Some questions regarding stub support: How is a .disc file supposed to look like? Is this valid? And is the media type required or is the extension .disc enough?
    Here are some details about stub support in MP2.2:
    • The are stub support for Movies, Series and Albums
    • They are imported just other media
    • When a disc is inserted the matching stub will be found if possible so play counts are stored
    • Series discs that contain multiple episodes will be created as a multi part episode
    • Album stub file extensions: "cd.disc"
    • Movie stub file extensions: "dvd.disc", "bluray.disc", "brrip.disc", "bd25.disc", "bd50.disc", "hddvd.disc", "hdtv.disc", "pdtv.disc", "dsr.disc", "vhs.disc"
    • Series stub file extensions: "dvd.disc", "bluray.disc", "brrip.disc", "bd25.disc", "bd50.disc", "hddvd.disc", "hdtv.disc", "pdtv.disc", "dsr.disc", "vhs.disc"
    • When using NFO files together with the stub files, the <fileinfo> part will be read from the NFO file to generate media details
    • Episode details will be read from series NFO if available
    • A prompt will be shown to insert the media if disc is not found
    • The prompt can also be a video for video content or an audio track for audio content but currently that means placing those in a client folder
    <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8' standalone='yes'?>
    <discstub>
    <title>Album tilte</title>
    <artists>Album artists</artists>
    <cd>Disc number</cd>
    <tracks>Number of tracks on the disc</tracks>
    <message>Message to be displayed when the disc should be inserted</message>
    </discstub>
    <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8' standalone='yes'?>
    <discstub>
    <title>Movie name</title>
    <disc>Name of disc in Windows. Used when matching stub to disc</disc>
    <message>Message to be displayed when the disc should be inserted</message>
    </discstub>
    <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8' standalone='yes'?>
    <discstub>
    <title>Movie name</title>
    <disc>Name of disc in Windows. Used when matching stub to disc</disc>
    <season>The season of the episodes on the disc</season>
    <episodes>The episode numbers on the disc</episodes>
    <message>Message to be displayed when the disc should be inserted</message>
    </discstub>
     

    Hawkeye

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    Thanks for that informations @ge2301.
    • Album stub file extensions: "cd.disc"
    • Movie stub file extensions: "dvd.disc", "bluray.disc", "brrip.disc", "bd25.disc", "bd50.disc", "hddvd.disc", "hdtv.disc", "pdtv.disc", "dsr.disc", "vhs.disc"
    • Series stub file extensions: "dvd.disc", "bluray.disc", "brrip.disc", "bd25.disc", "bd50.disc", "hddvd.disc", "hdtv.disc", "pdtv.disc", "dsr.disc", "vhs.disc"
    So it's not enough to have e.g. [moviename].disc file it has to be [moviename].bluray.disc?

    • Episode details will be read from series NFO if available
    Is the .disc content needed when a corresponding NFO file exists? I use tMM to create the NFO and .disc files and the latter are always empty.

    Edit: Obviously the disc-tag is needed to match disc and stub, right?
     
    Last edited:

    henso

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  • February 16, 2012
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    So it's not enough to have e.g. [moviename].disc file it has to be [moviename].bluray.disc?
    The stub file is used as a placeholder for the actual media disc. So for providing the best chance for guessing the kind of video/audio present on the disc, the type of disc is needed which is currently done through the file extension.
    Is the .disc content needed when a corresponding NFO file exists?
    The disc file is a placeholder for the disc. The NFO file is basically not needed it just help improve matching and it can even be reused if you decide to rip the disc and place an actual media file next to it.
    Obviously the disc-tag is needed to match disc and stub, right?
    Correct and I would also consider all the other tags obligatory except for maybe "title" and "message".
     

    Requiem

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  • January 1, 2012
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    My last test of MP2 is a while ago (I still stick with MP1 for functionality reasons).
    Are there MP2 solutions for remote access meanwhile, like Web Frontend (MPExtended/WebMediaPortal) and Android Remote Access solutions (MpTvScheduler)?
     

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