New computer coming - Should I go with MP1 or MP2? (1 Viewer)

[enchant]

I've had Media Portal 1 installed on a dedicated desktop computer for at least 10 years now. Sometimes it's a little sluggish, but it's always done the job for me.

I've decided to toss the old desktop computer and get a new mini PC. It'll have 8GB and Win10. I'll have to reinstall Media Portal.

The important thing to know is that my Media Portal needs are ultra simple. I've got folders with .mkv videos and I want MP to play them. No tv, no music, no news. So on the one hand, maybe it makes sense to just install a fresh copy of MP1, since I currently have at least a rudimentary knowledge of how to configure it and get it running the way I need it to. But perhaps MP2 is more robust and I might not have some of the sluggishness I've been living with all these years.

One thing that's very important to me is that through the MP1 configuration, I've been able to configure my remote to do a lot of the unusual (?) things that most remotes aren't designed to handle. e.g., the blue button will advance my subtitles 1/4 second and the red one will back them 1/4 second, etc. The record button is configured to delete a video.

Should I just stick with MP1, or is MP2 a more sensible option?

 

[joecrow]

Not an easy call. On one hand MP2 should be able to meet your needs pretty much out of the box and personally I think the "Input Devices" app for setting up remotes is really good and as far as I know works with everything. On the other hand your familiarity and knowledge of MP1 is worth a great deal and the differences in MP2 can make it very frustrating to start with. I suggest you give MP2 a quick try it is no problem to uninstall it if you decide it is not for you. You might want to investigate the sluggishness on you existing PC, maybe the CPU is getting too higher usage when decoding vids that could, depending on what hardware you have, be better done using graphics hardware acceleration.

 

[enchant]

Thanks, that sounds like a sensible plan. I honestly wouldn't know where to start troubleshooting the existing PC. It does next to nothing other than running MP. My video files are stored primarily on my personal PC and the HTPC accesses them through wired network. It's possible that there could be something awry there. I'm considering moving storage over to the new HTPC to take the network out of the picture.

 

[enchant]

Well, that was good advice. I downloaded and installed MP2. A couple bumps, but I was able to get it going. And I knew pretty much immediately that it wasn't for me. It looks like it was designed for a totally different kind of person. So I got MP1 installed and I'm working through the kinks go get it going properly. Thanks again for the help.

 

[AdHu86]

It looks like it was designed for a totally different kind of person.

I had the same feeling about MP1, nothing was working out of the box, it was full of hardcoded dependencies and bugs. That’s how I came to MP2 and I’m very happy with it