After the recent demise of Meedio & the lack of interest in (or availability outside US of) Yahoo TV I'm looking for a replacement HTPC app; I've started here.
I first looked at MediaPortal shortly after it started two years ago & walked away unimpressed; I must confess my expectations this time round weren't that high but I couldn't be more wrong or impressed - MP is beautiful. I just have a couple of things that I'd like to change before I can consider myself truly content with my HTPC setup (I've tried looking through the forums & wiki to no avail).
These are:
i) MP seems slow (after Meedio anyhow). My setup surpasses the minimum requirements (except one): I've got Athlon XP 2400+, 2GB RAM, ATI 9600SE, Neb Digitv, loads of disc space & Windows 2003 std SP1 (the exception). I'm quite prepared to believe that my video card a bit too weak for MP, or that my CPU needs more oomph. Any advice on this is welcome.
ii) I want to change the menu structure to recreate my Meedio setup; instructions on how to do this are scarce (I couldn't find them). I know I go through the plugins interface, etc. but once I'm there I'm lost as to what to do; the changes I make don't end up looking like what I want (or expect)..
iii) I find the music interface a bit clumsy. I'd like to be able to browse my music collection like this:
artist index (A, B, ..., Z)-->Artist-->Album-->Tracks ...
album index (A, B, ..., Z)-->Album-->Tracks ...
by genre(rock, rap, ...)-->Artist-->etc.
by style(embedded in the 'Encoded by' tag) -->Album-->etc.
All the views that I use are posted on the Meedio forums should anyone be that interested, if required I could make some screen grabs of what I mean.
These three things are the only issues standing between me & a perfect HTCP setup (even my DigiTV card works, something that I never managed with Meedio). Any help an any of these would be gratefully received.
Cheers.
P
I first looked at MediaPortal shortly after it started two years ago & walked away unimpressed; I must confess my expectations this time round weren't that high but I couldn't be more wrong or impressed - MP is beautiful. I just have a couple of things that I'd like to change before I can consider myself truly content with my HTPC setup (I've tried looking through the forums & wiki to no avail).
These are:
i) MP seems slow (after Meedio anyhow). My setup surpasses the minimum requirements (except one): I've got Athlon XP 2400+, 2GB RAM, ATI 9600SE, Neb Digitv, loads of disc space & Windows 2003 std SP1 (the exception). I'm quite prepared to believe that my video card a bit too weak for MP, or that my CPU needs more oomph. Any advice on this is welcome.
ii) I want to change the menu structure to recreate my Meedio setup; instructions on how to do this are scarce (I couldn't find them). I know I go through the plugins interface, etc. but once I'm there I'm lost as to what to do; the changes I make don't end up looking like what I want (or expect)..
iii) I find the music interface a bit clumsy. I'd like to be able to browse my music collection like this:
artist index (A, B, ..., Z)-->Artist-->Album-->Tracks ...
album index (A, B, ..., Z)-->Album-->Tracks ...
by genre(rock, rap, ...)-->Artist-->etc.
by style(embedded in the 'Encoded by' tag) -->Album-->etc.
All the views that I use are posted on the Meedio forums should anyone be that interested, if required I could make some screen grabs of what I mean.
These three things are the only issues standing between me & a perfect HTCP setup (even my DigiTV card works, something that I never managed with Meedio). Any help an any of these would be gratefully received.
Cheers.
P