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Message: <blockquote data-quote="elliottmc" data-source="post: 19546" data-attributes="member: 14268">Very true.Now here I respectfully disagree with you. This is the difference between open source and commercial software. A commercial development would decide on the features which they wanted and implement them, hopefully in a stable fashion.I think you need to focus on what people are using Media Portal for, and which features the vast majority of your users will actually use.Let's take a case in point, the Tetris plugin. Sure, it's cool, but it's a novelty (and I mean no disrespect to the programmer when I say this). Tetris is not a "required" feature of a HTPC. Now, a MAME plugin (which ShowShifter has) would be of more general use, but even so, I tried this for a couple of hours and then got bored.The core functionality (IMO) is watching, recording and timeshifting TV, playing video and audio files, and generally being user friendly. Linking in with CDDB and IMDB, ripping CD/DVD and burning CD/DVD are nice extras, and "almost essential", but only once the real basic featureset is done.As a personal opinion, I think that you need to put these 1000 user requests on ice. No-one (myself included - hypocrite that I am!) is in a position to make demands on you. You are doing this because you want to, and ultimately you will do it however you see fit. I'm just looking from the point of view of an end user, and Media Portal will not be replacing ShowShifter on my HTPC. Meedio has a chance once they release DVB-T support later this week, and that has a very extensible architecture, but is still snappy and responsive.I would certainly agree with this. If myTV was as stable as the rest of Media Portal then I would switch.I think everyone realises what a difficult job you have. myTV runs like a dog on my system. This could be my fault. I would be more than happy to help with the testing, but you would have to let me know what you need from me. I'm happy to install software for testing. My programming skills are rusty, but I have written code, compiled and profiled.Based on my own experience, 2 weeks is barely enough time to get a response from people about bugs, never mind fixing them. Of course, as this is an ongoing project, any bugs not caught in the 2 week period will get fixed in CVS versions and subsequent releases.I'm amazed that Meedio has a much more active community than ShowShifter, despite the current lack of DVB-T support. Maybe the underlying architecture is better. From a user point of view, if I wanted to add a plug-in to HTPC software, I would choose software which I was using - again, stability is the key.I have no experience here, but from a user point of view, other software seems to be able to use the codecs fine. ShowShifter can record from my card and use my divx install to convert between SSF and divx avi files. Maybe you need to restrict your MPEG2 and avi codec support a bit in the short term in order to narrow down the problems. Maybe some things which you think are codec-related actually aren't. I know from experience that a change to one section of code can have unforseen implications.I'm certainly not intending to tell you how to do your "job", as ultimately I wouldn't have a clue how to write a true multimedia front-end. I guess I am a little more informed than many potential end users of Media Portal (as are most people here) and would like to make helpful comments. I have the utmost respect for the team's skills, as you wouldn't have got this far without being superb programmers.If there is any way that I can help, please let me know. I'm more than happy to help with testing.Best wishes,Mark</blockquote>

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