[Blog] Promoting MediaPortal (1 Viewer)

[powermarcel10]

Looks nice guys, very proffesional..

But I think, that mediaportal has to change a couple of crucial things, to conquer the market for best mediacenter software in the world..

Let me explain why:

When I used a mediacenter for the first time (I think it was 3 years ago) I was using Windows Mediacenter as a basic user.. After a few months, I deeped into the internet, to see what where the alternatives for Windows Mediacenter. Actually, there where 2 serious options. XBMC and Mediaportal.. XBMC was not an option for me, because there was no support for live tv.

So Mediaportal was the only option to try..

After installing it, It was for me to complex, and I decieded to go back to Windows Mediacenter.

After that, i have tried it 3 times, but constantly, It was to complex..

After 2 years, I decieded to give It another try, and I'm very happy with my decision, because now I am a fanatic user of Mediapotal..

BUT:

The reason that I have wait so long for using Mediaportal, is it is to complex for a basic user..

Mediaportal is simply not good enough configurated out of the box.. Things have to be simpler and better!

By example, the rolspeed is set on 50 by default.. when you set this option to 60 or higher, everything is a lot more smooth, so, why isn't that configured like that out of the box?!

Another thing that would be useful for a basic user: Some dialogs in the installer of Mediaportal to setup his music, picture and movie folders.. Dialogs to choose between myvideo's and Movingpictures.. I think, It's also a great idea to add the possibility to install some plugins with the installer. Let the user choose if he want them, or not..

I think that a lot of people try Mediaportal, but delete it after a few hours, because it's to complicated.. I think It's not so difficult to configure Mediaportal better out of the box, and add a couple of diologs to help the (new) user to configure this software.

XBMC is a good example.. That piece of software if configured much better out of the box.. Because that reason, a lot of people preffer XBMC above Mediaportal. The problem is, that those people has no idea how good mediaportal is when you configured It well..

So, Mediaportal is far away the best piece of software.. Also XBMC users must agree that when I show them my setup, because that have absolutely the WOW-factor!!

 

[Mike Lowrey]

powermarcel10
Good point! It would be useful to have a dialog based configuration tool.
The problem is that it's really hard to rewrite the existing tool( i already tried it when developing a WHS add in) because most things aren't abstracted from the UI...

As a result we probably have to wait till MP2 for a better experience...

 

[powermarcel10]

@powermarcel10
Good point! It would be useful to have a dialog based configuration tool.
The problem is that it's really hard to rewrite the existing tool( i already tried it when developing a WHS add in) because most things aren't abstracted from the UI...

As a result we probably have to wait till MP2 for a better experience...

Mediaportal is working like a charm here.. Every day I use it, I think: What the f*ck!!! This is so nice!

Also all my friends and family are totally blown away when I show It..

I have spent a lot of time to mediaportal.. . I'll think more than 1000 hours.. But every single hour is It worth..

Every menu and plugin is perfectly configured now, but I can understand that a lot of people don't want to spent so much time to it, and install other software.. I hope that the strategy for Mediaportal 2 is efficiency and ease of use.. Than I think a lot more people want to use Mediaportal..

EDIT: Also I want to say, is that the Mediaportal community is the best one I have ever seen on the web.. So much help, so many friendly people.. That's really great.. I have also used the xbmc forum in the past.. Well, they can learn a lot of mediaportal..

 

[Dadeo]

powermarcel10 - I think everyone would agree with you on all points! I know the Team is very aware of the difficulty many new users experience with setup, and we have tried in the past to create a good wizard. There is a lot of support and willingness in the Team to try again. However Mike Lowrey hit the nail on the head - it is not easy in MP 1. Even so, we are hoping we can at manage at least some basic, easy (doable) parts, as a start. I agree there are some 'default presets' we could improve to make a new users' experience easier.

It can be easy to setup MediaPortal for basic functionality - the problem is - who wants basic functionality when the main advantage of MediaPortal is all the customization and options available! So we have never really made it clear how to make setup easy. We are trying to do that in our new Wiki, and there is still a lot more we can do. Although it's not a 'solution' it is something we can do now that might help. We want to document different 'use cases' or configurations and what is required for setup in each case. User Guides can help a lot and we hope users will help by adding more. Our wiki contains a lot of useful information, but it is not always easy to grasp what you need to know/use for your particular setup.

Thanks for your very relevant comments and appreciation. It's always nice to hear!

 

[powermarcel10]

Thanks Dadeo,

I'm happy to see that you guys are not angry to me because of all my criticism.. Don't understand me wrong, mediaportal is a total amazing piece of software.. Really a wet dream for a tweaker like me!

I think that all options and tweak possibility's is a advantage of Mediaportal, but also It's disadvantage..

I want to promote mediaportal in the netherlands for so far I can.. I'll upload in the near future some video's on Youtube with some tutorials, and for the reason people can see what is possible with mediaportal, included all the plugins..

I'm also a fanatic user on the dutch site; tweakers.net. There is also a thread of mediaportal, and there is a lot of interrest..

If I know some things I could do, I like to help!

 

[Dadeo]

Why be angry? IMO you only state the facts, not criticism. It has always been a 'chicken and egg' situation for PR for MP. In the past we did not promote MP very much because we wanted to get the software more stable and easier to setup/use first. However, the more users/visibility we get, the more developers and help we get, and that is needed to make more improvements for both MP 1 and MP 2, such as a great setup wizard. MP 1.1 was already a huge improvement, and MP 1.2 is even more. We have many top notch developers for both the core and extensions. However, they all donate their free time and sometimes daily life interferes! if we want to become more visible and improve further, we really need more developers, especially in North America where TV standards (and other things) are quite different.

I don't think you need to be a genius to see how many more awesome skins and plugins we have now than a few years ago. Good developers are bound to be more attracted to an application with a solid core and a good (large) user base.

Obviously our main target user group is still advanced media center users and tweakers. But the bottom line is that every post anyone adds on external sites to inform them about the improvements in MediaPortal will ultimately benefit us all. So the message is: spread the word, wherever you can, however you can! Do one good thing, then make sure you tell the world!

tweakers.net is a perfect example. We did link their review of MP last Sept: 'Drie gratis mediacenter-apps getest - Three free media center apps tested' to our Press Reviews website page. However we really don't know how well these sites keep track of latest MP News. So any posts you add there, links to relevant Wiki pages for users needing help, or announcements of News releases on our website, are all a big help.

You can also post links to any YouTube videos related to MediaPortal on our Facebook page. Let me know about your tutorials when you post them, as we can add them, or a link, to our Wiki. Of course it's a huge help when YouTube videos add a link to our website as well.

The Netherlands has quite a good user base for MediaPortal. Perhaps if you started a thread about promoting MP in the Netherlands you might get some response? Maybe by working together you might be able to demonstrate MP at a popular trade show there?

Thanks for all your enthusiasm (fanatacism?). It's really inspiring.

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

EDIT: Also I want to say, is that the Mediaportal community is the best one I have ever seen on the web.. So much help, so many friendly people.. That's really great.. I have also used the xbmc forum in the past.. Well, they can learn a lot of mediaportal..

Thanks for that, but most of the credit should go to our experienced users, who do a fantastic job of pointing people in the right direction.

 

[powermarcel10]

Hi all,

thanks for thie kind words..

You know, since I'm using Mediaportla, I love my HTPC..

I have no job at this moment (I'm searching very hard for a job) but when I have, I'll should certainly donate something to the team.. That's also the reason I'm almost always online here! Except going out, I'm always bussy with Mediaportal.

I would like to learn developing a bit, for making new plugin-ins.. But that takes some time.

I also would like to promote Mediaportal on a computer event in the Netherlands.. Give me some time, I'll take a look for some relevance events

 

[erik070]

Adding to the comments of Powermarcel10 and Dadeo: A wizard for first time users would really improve the first experience people will have.

A few of my friends and my parents asked me if they could setup a HTPC just like I did. I've tried it with 2 friends, but aborted when they saw the configuration tool. I've tried to explain that it looks more complex than it really is, but no sigar.
These kind of people do not have a "healthy" affection to technoligy like I have. They tend to abort when things are getting complex/or looking complex even if it isn't.
A wizard with the basic setup: tv card, music, video's, pictures, some basic plugins like My-tvseries and maybee even a skin would be very helpfull for them.
They can then gratually step into the more complex stuff.

The vision about the wizard I have are something like this:

After the initial setup the config-wizards starts automaticly. Depending if the user choose the watch tv with MP the TV service is setup first.
The user can select the correct card in a dropdown, then pick his country and provider. The wizard will then search for channels.
The wizard will ask some simple questions about the location for their recordings etc. Most of the options will be set to a default setting.

Same goes for MP config. Some simple questions about what the user wants and where to find specific media (pictures, music video).

Maybee a interactive FAQ can solve problems for these users. Open FAQ and select one of the problems. Accordig to what the user choose a setting will be changed in MP config.
Things like EPG grabbing, scrollspeeds, type of remote could be changed with an option like this.



powermarcel10: if you need any help promoting MP in the Netherlands, let me no. Will also keep an eye open for an relevant event.

 

[powermarcel10]

Adding to the comments of Powermarcel10 and Dadeo: A wizard for first time users would really improve the first experience people will have.

A few of my friends and my parents asked me if they could setup a HTPC just like I did. I've tried it with 2 friends, but aborted when they saw the configuration tool. I've tried to explain that it looks more complex than it really is, but no sigar.
These kind of people do not have a "healthy" affection to technoligy like I have. They tend to abort when things are getting complex/or looking complex even if it isn't.
A wizard with the basic setup: tv card, music, video's, pictures, some basic plugins like My-tvseries and maybee even a skin would be very helpfull for them.
They can then gratually step into the more complex stuff.

The vision about the wizard I have are something like this:

After the initial setup the config-wizards starts automaticly. Depending if the user choose the watch tv with MP the TV service is setup first.
The user can select the correct card in a dropdown, then pick his country and provider. The wizard will then search for channels.
The wizard will ask some simple questions about the location for their recordings etc. Most of the options will be set to a default setting.

Same goes for MP config. Some simple questions about what the user wants and where to find specific media (pictures, music video).

Maybee a interactive FAQ can solve problems for these users. Open FAQ and select one of the problems. Accordig to what the user choose a setting will be changed in MP config.
Things like EPG grabbing, scrollspeeds, type of remote could be changed with an option like this.



@Powermarcel10: if you need any help promoting MP in the Netherlands, let me no. Will also keep an eye open for an relevant event.

Really good points..

That's also my opinion.

Mediaportal is not useful for people that have no sense with computers.. When my friends and family see my HTPC, they love it! I also want to build a system for my brother, and maybe my parants, but I'm affraid that they have to call me every week with "stupid" questions..

Also a thing about plugins.. Some plugins doesn't work anymore after a time because a change in the api or the site. Then It takes some time for the developer to update the plugin. When there is a update availible, people have to update it manually. I would like to see a pop-up dialog inside Mediaportal when a update is availible, and have the option to install it. (like xbmc) It is possible for skins like stramedMP, so why not for plugins?

Another nice feature of xbmc is that all settings can be configured inside the program. Would also love to see that with Mediaportal.

About the thing that Mediaportal is not good configured out-of-the-box: Maybe It is a good idea to add SAF (codecs) to the installation, en configure the right (most used) settings automaticly. People that do not have sense with computers (and codecs) don't know why a movie can't be played.. When the codecs are right installed with the installation, that problem is solved.

Also the option to download and choose your skin in the installation is maybe a nice option for the installer. I say always; "your first impression of something, is more than the half your the final verdict" So, a good first impression when starting the application is very important.

Things are to difficult for a lot of people.. For myself: It takes me a lot of time to configure Mediaportal, while I know pretty much about computers and that stuff.. So, I can understand that people who don't, have much problems with using Mediaportal.

@erik070: Would be nice to hear if you know some events where I, (or we) can promote Mediaportal.. Maybe you can sent me a PM if you have some ideas.. Than we can talk in Dutch! I have called a event hall in Groningen (Martini plaza) but they said there was no computer event for 2011 like normally.. Maybe you know some other places?