MP2 alpha does NOT and will NOT support Windows XP. (2 Viewers)

[D j]

Wow, just wow. Can you guys kick someone any more while they are down ?
I actually came here to help code plugins/themes for MP2 (because i was told it was going to have PiP) but only to find WinXP will not be supported.
I have. no words.

ugh...

You would have to seriously stick britney spears over my head but naked before i ran MP on anything other than XP. Or any other service for that matter.

Is this written in stone or are you guys seriously considering future OS options ?


ps: I take that back. This is the most disappointing things i've heard in all of my life.


so your options for a media portal solution with PiP are as follows


A.) Run a incredibly slimmed down version of windows 7 in a live environment off a hidden partition with IP whitelist on the router side. Along with a DNS publisher.
(And some kind of auto-reboot mechanism.)

B.) Run XP SP2(with the sp3 ""update"") and MP1 on two different servers at the same time.

Kind of a waste of resources if you ask me, not to mention a pain to make a reboot mechanism that doesn't interupt normal playback. PM Me for find me on facebook if you have any questions i guess.

 

[onelegend]

I've heard the final release will support windows 3.1 as well!

 

[Lightning303]

Wow, just wow. Can you guys kick someone any more while they are down ?
I actually came here to help code plugins/themes for MP2 (because i was told it was going to have PiP) but only to find WinXP will not be supported.
I have. no words.

ugh...

You would have to seriously stick britney spears over my head but naked before i ran MP on anything other than XP. Or any other service for that matter.

Is this written in stone or are you guys seriously considering future OS options ?


ps: This has to be one of the most disappointing things i've heard in all of my life.

Thats just how things are when it comes to technologie. When MP2 Final gets released, Windows 8 will be out for quiet some time. So winxp will be 3 generations old. If you want a clean, slick, fast and good product you have to make a cut somewhere. Otherwise mp2 would just be bloated with little codes and patches everywhere to make it compatible to xp and this would just slow things down and make maintaining the code much harder.

 

[legnod]

i cant understand why so many people still want to use XP....If you would have used Win7 for a few weeks with modern pc hardware you definitely dont want your XP back. thats a promise!

 

[hafblade]

I completely agree with legnod. XP is old. When you use an old os you are obviously willing to use old software. So stick with MediaPortal 1. It's also great and let us be honest. There is a really long time until the real release of MediaPortal 2 is setting place. There should be noone be willing to use XP in 2-3 years. I also stopped using my c64, amiga, win 3.1, win 95, win 98, win me, and so one at some time in the past.

 

[mm1352000]

Rather than only speaking about the practical reasons for abandoning XP (eg. smoother UI, better support... etc.), it would be much more informative if somebody could specify at least some examples of the technical reasons that MP 2 can't be used with XP for the benefit of people like D j. I'd appreciate an *actual* answer to this myself...

 

[morpheus_xx]

SkinEngine and VideoPlayers are using Direct9Ex interfaces that are present in Windows 7 only.

 

[MJGraf]

I'd like to add some points as well.
To my understanding nearly everything in MP2 is made in a modular way, i.e. as a plugin. That means that all the VideoPlayers and the SkinEngine itself are plugins as well.
The current VideoPlayers and the current SkinEngine use interfaces only present in Win7. However, as soon as we have all got used to Win8 (although I doubt it for myself atm ) there may even be another Skinengine and / or players, which use dx11.1 and the new renderer (as to my understanding it is then possible to use the new renderer in connection with direct3d without the hassle with EVR and dx10 at the moment). As a result, this skin engine would only be compatible with Win8 and above, since Win7 and below do not support dx11.1.
On the other hand, it would surely be possible to write another skin engine, which is compatible with WinXP (and this is the point where Albert / Morph may correct me, but this is my understanding...). However, there are not so many active MP2 developers at the moment and the question is, whether these few developers should spend their time to develop a skinengine for an os, which is more than 10 years old. My personal opinion is: no way! And the reason is very simple. MP2 must be developed to a level, in which it is not only technically better than MP1 (which I personally think is already the case in many ways), but in which it has all the features and eye candy that 75% of the current MP1 users need. At that point in time, many people will switch to MP2 and I'm sure that at this time many developers will follow (as they will also use MP2 as their main media application).
As soon as there are more developers for MP2, it would be much easier to develop a skinengine for WinXP due to the increased manpower. Although I personally doubt that WinXP support is still a "must have" for many people at that point in time, I'm sure that noone would complain if someone takes the challenge and develops a MP2 skinengine for WinXP.

Well - just my 2c
Michael

 

[tourettes]

The current VideoPlayers and the current SkinEngine use interfaces only present in Win7. However, as soon as we have all got used to Win8 (although I doubt it for myself atm ) there may even be another Skinengine and / or players, which use dx11.1 and the new renderer (as to my understanding it is then possible to use the new renderer in connection with direct3d without the hassle with EVR and dx10 at the moment).

I wouldn't consider EVR as hasle (and EVR is purely based on DirectX). Also the DX11.1 based renderer Windows 8 is offering is quite similar from developers point of view as the today's EVR is. Only change is that it is a bit more comples "hasle" since it has a bit smaller abstraction level (at least on quick peek on MS sample code gave such impression) and it has new things like 3D video that creates lot of extra work.

 

[MJGraf]

Sorry tourettes, I wasn't clear - I didn't mean to say that EVR is a hassle.
The background is that when I started to get some insight into the MP2 code I wondered why it still uses dx9ex - although there is already dx10 and even dx11.

I didn't understand this as I (and this is really a personal opinion) think that software should always be developed for the most current hardware and software-base. I completely understand that there are a lot of people, who don't have the newest hardware and the latest os and maybe just can't afford it. But IT develops soooo fast that when you start developing something today for the latest and greates hardware and software, this may already be "mainstream" or even outdated when the software is ready to use. I once thought completely different, when I first had a look at a software in the early 90s developed by a company, which was still quite unknown at that time. The software would only run on a server, which was so big that it used up a whole room, needed an own air condition in that room and had the price of a house. I thought that this doesn't make sense and no one will ever buy that software. Actually, the name of the company was SAP and now that you have the computing power of that server monster on your IPhone, it turned out that this software was quite successful... This was when I changed by mind about that.

Ok, back to topic: What I found out is that EVR can only be used easily with dx up to version 9ex. I read some article at msdn, which explains that it can be used with dx10 and dx11 as well, but this is more complicated due to some threading issues - this is what I meant with "hassle". I further understand that these issues are gone with dx11.1 and the new renderer. But please correct me here, if my understanding is wrong because I'm really anything but a dx-guru - I just try to understand...

/Michael