Mediaportal (windows) vs Plex (MAC) (1 Viewer)

[rafahol]

Hi all,

I'm really happy when I heard the moment that Plex (OSXBMC) was launched for the mac. This was the only way to keep me away from Windows where I was using Mediaportal at the time. I read a lot of sites about the advantages and disadvantages of the two packages but still found the basic pieces of xbox mediacenter one of the best mediacenter experiences ever. As I'm using a mac mini duo 2 core this is one the best htpc you can imagine (in terms of noise, quality and design).

But now I have the following questions/problems:

-> As I'm using also DVB-T (Firedtv) with Eyetv for watching TV I saw this is not possible with Plex. So only by using Remote Buddy Eyetv application can be started but this is thus not integrated like with Mediaportal.
-> As I have also DVB-S (sattv) I use Eyetv also for this but also this is not implemented in Plex.

My idea is to have the same content (movies/music/podcast etc but also live TV and recordings) on all my rooms in my appartment. I started to think about the idea to have a central location for all the storage and bought a NAS server (Synology 207+).

The problem now is that because the live TV is not implemented in PLEX I can't watch TV in other rooms then my living room (with Eyetv). Mediaportal supports the use of a client server idea, a server that streams everything to different clients (other pc's).

What can you advise me to do? Stay with Plex and find a way to have dual monitor support of the mac mini DVI output so that I can watch everything also in my sleeping room for example? Or install Windows and use Mediaportal Client/Server idea?

Regards,
Rafael

 

[revs]

Well as this is a MediaPortal forum you will get mediaportal-centric answers.

As you say - plex/xbmc is still work in progress and has no live tv yet. So if you want an answer now, then best option is to install/dual boot windows on the Mac Mini and put MediaPortal on there.

 

[rafahol]

Ok I understand. Next questions arise are the following:

-> As bootcamp is now supported for Mac Mini I'm able to install natively Windows on it. Which version of Windows would be best in terms of stability/speed etc. for Mediaportal. Would that be Windows XP? Or Windows Vista and which one would perform better 32-bit version of 64-bit version. I know I would have to use SP1.

-> Is there a possibility that Mediaportal will be ported to Unix so Mac in the future? Do you know of experiences using Mediaportal in Vmware Fusion/Parallels Desktop?

Regards,
Rafael

 

[revs]

MediaPortal runs under VMWare. However I have not tried watching any Media/TV with it.

For Bootcamp - you will be fine with Win XP Pro or Home. No need for Vista.

MediaPortal is a Windows only solution. So no Mac/unix/Linux Port. HOWEVER - it is highly likely that a TV frontend will be made for XBMC/Plex, so you can have a windows server running MediaPortal/TVServer, and connect to it from XBMC or a Mac running Plex and view your TV.

 

[jonaskp]

-> Is there a possibility that Mediaportal will be ported to Unix so Mac in the future? Do you know of experiences using Mediaportal in Vmware Fusion/Parallels Desktop?

I dont see that happening any time soon. Right now, MP depends on a lot of windows-only software. Also, the team is working pretty hard on just developing MP to windows, I don't think they would have eny time to port it.
A thing that perhaps could happen was that someone else developed a way of accessing the TVserver from a MAC. This way the server would still be installed on Windows, but the clients could be MAC. I don't know if this is possible at all, though.

 

[revs]

There is no technical reason why it is not possible. The MP TV Client (MP TV Client - MediaPortal Forum) program thats here can be run (using Mono) and shows TV via VLC fine, if a little unstable!

As mentioned though, its best to wait for the PVR interface in XBMC to be completed, and the MediaPortal TV Server support to be added. Then you can use the XBMC/Plex as a clent to watch TV.

 

[rafahol]

Ok that's really interesting. I hope in the future these programs tend to go all to 1 very useful/good mediacenter software package that can be used either on Windows/Mac or Linux. But at the moment there are some interesting projects in the pipeline like revs is saying about PVR interface for XBMC...

Well at the moment I will try Mediaportal then because it's the most open-source package at the moment available supporting all kind of tuner cards and client/server configuration.

Ok I managed to install Windows Vista 64-bit on my mac mini now and would like to know if dual tuners are also supported in client/server environment. I'm using a Firedtv dvb-t tuner for digitenne and a Technotrend USB tuner S2-3200 for sattv (including HD).

Is it possible to see everywhere the channels in this configuration even through the web and my iphone?

Another question I have is the use then of the Apple Remote under Vista 64-bit? Is this supported by Plex?

In difference of XBMC I know that with Mediaportal codecs has to be installed for viewing movies. Is it possible to have like codec pack that includes all (so you can see directly divx movies but also movies with extension: avi/mkv/hd/etc. and even iso).

 

[revs]

For any Plex questions please ask in the Plex/XBMC forum.

As for MediaPortal. There is an iPhone interface - https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...0-1-iphone-interface-mediaportal-ipimp-46556/

No idea about the remote under Windows, I never tried mine. The Apple remote hasnt really got enough buttons for MediaPortal anyway. I would suggest getting a MCE remote and receiver.

For Codecs - if you get ffdshow then that will play nearly everything. Although Quicktime Lite, and Haali Media Spliitter are also useful.

You can have multiple tuners - I have 4. All work together and multiple channels can be combined. i.e. you dont get 4x each channel

 

[rafahol]

Ok I understand that you can use multiple tuners. I have just bought an EEEBOX to install Mediaportal on it but I experience the following lacks/problems in comparisons to XBMC for example:

1) Slow startup. Sometimes having to wait for 40 seconds for the GUI is appearing. Is this a known issue?
2) The fullscreen TV window is sometimes with black bars on the right (not showing the correct full screen resolution but a different aspect ratio which is 4:3). Do you know of a way how to solve that? The resolution I'm using on my LCD screen is 1080x768.
3) The whole interface is reacting slow. If I switch from TV (using the server) to Music I have to put quite a while to be able to pick up a song.

Is this due to the EEEBOX or is Mediaportal slow?

Regards,
Rafael

 

[revs]

1. First startup is slow, but after that it shouldn't be too bad.
2. Screenshot please! (press F11 and a screenshot is placed in My Pictures).
3. Could be MediaPortal, could be the Eee Box... I find the interface isn't that slow. not super fast, but not slow!