I've spent the weekend trying to move to Media Portal from Vista MCE.
I truly believe that Media Portal can be the the Holy Grail of the front ends, but IMHO, there are two main areas where it needs significant improvement:
1: My Music. It was the main reason I stuck with MCE, and it still has some usability issues.
I know, some here like Shares. Shares do give the option of browsing one's hard drive, etc. But hey, why not add your desired drive/folder to whatever library you want to, and have MP watch for additions to it?
As it is now, if I hit the back button one too many times, I end up looking at a bunch of drive letters, which is hardly a polished end-user experience. Not good.
[EDIT] I am eating crow as I write this: There is a better way to browse, as I was just told here https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/show_all_albums-t26100.html?t=26100 If I may suggest that this be a default view, so as not to demand too much from the intellectually-challenged like me. {END EDIT]
Finally, it'd be great to get a field like Album Artist in there. It is very useful for stuff like classical music, where you could have the same piece by the same composer, but performed by a few different artists.
2. My Pictures. The dreaded Shares, again. It doesn't have to get fancy - just show my folders (albums) containing the snapshots of whatever important occasion I happened to annoy people at, and that's it. Hopefully, each such folder will have an icon representative of what's inside. But don't accidentally send me to choose between C:, D: or L:
If we can get some music to go with the slide show, or if we could do something like the Apple TV screen saver, it would just be gravy.
Anyway, I am really, really grateful for all of the developers' contributions. Please take these suggestions as what they are - a sincere desire to see this be the best of all the front-ends.
I truly believe that Media Portal can be the the Holy Grail of the front ends, but IMHO, there are two main areas where it needs significant improvement:
1: My Music. It was the main reason I stuck with MCE, and it still has some usability issues.
I know, some here like Shares. Shares do give the option of browsing one's hard drive, etc. But hey, why not add your desired drive/folder to whatever library you want to, and have MP watch for additions to it?
As it is now, if I hit the back button one too many times, I end up looking at a bunch of drive letters, which is hardly a polished end-user experience. Not good.
[EDIT] I am eating crow as I write this: There is a better way to browse, as I was just told here https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/show_all_albums-t26100.html?t=26100 If I may suggest that this be a default view, so as not to demand too much from the intellectually-challenged like me. {END EDIT]
Finally, it'd be great to get a field like Album Artist in there. It is very useful for stuff like classical music, where you could have the same piece by the same composer, but performed by a few different artists.
2. My Pictures. The dreaded Shares, again. It doesn't have to get fancy - just show my folders (albums) containing the snapshots of whatever important occasion I happened to annoy people at, and that's it. Hopefully, each such folder will have an icon representative of what's inside. But don't accidentally send me to choose between C:, D: or L:
If we can get some music to go with the slide show, or if we could do something like the Apple TV screen saver, it would just be gravy.
Anyway, I am really, really grateful for all of the developers' contributions. Please take these suggestions as what they are - a sincere desire to see this be the best of all the front-ends.