Whats wrong with MCE (3 Viewers)

[Frodo]

snake, you should read the forums before posting shit like that.

-we did not forget my tv, in fact 99.0% of all development goes in my tv
-MP is beta software, MCE is a commercial released application. You cannot simply compare the two in stability

As said numerous times before, we are busy working on a stable version of 2.0 right now and we hope to release it in january

frodo

 

[rich710]

I tested MCE some weeks ago and at the first view it felt fast, good looking and stable. But when i have been weaking around I found all the disadvantages it had. The main things for med was this..

The Swedish EPG didnt show all channels

Couldn't mount .iso or .img files with the help of daemoon tools
(I know their is a plugin "My Movies" but it just mount .iso not .img)

I couldnt find any way to change name of my shares, if I have the map "Movies" on 3 different computers in my workgroup, they all had the same name in MCE.

No "My Trailers" plugin, that I have bben addicted to in short time ;o)

think there were more things that I not was happy with but i quickly decided to forget all about MCE....

 

[callmesnake]

snake, you should read the forums before posting shit like that.

-we did not forget my tv, in fact 99.0% of all development goes in my tv
-MP is beta software, MCE is a commercial released application. You cannot simply compare the two in stability

As said numerous times before, we are busy working on a stable version of 2.0 right now and we hope to release it in january

:shock: Frodo portal-Programmer #1 is talking to me I SHOULD TAKE A SCREENSHOT AND HUNG IT ON MY OFFICE WALL

Man what I said is true, and till we have a stable version the shit I said will still true. so do not be mad on me, I read the fourm and I know you working hard to give us somthing for free..

And I am so loyal to MP and will keep using it even if my wife left the home because she can not watch the TV for an hour without error or hang

So do not worry we will wait. and you keep the good work.

 

[dpirs]

:shock: Frodo portal-Programmer #1 is talking to me I SHOULD TAKE A SCREENSHOT AND HUNG IT ON MY OFFICE WALL

Man what I said is true, and till we have a stable version the shit I said will still true. so do not be mad on me, I read the fourm and I know you working hard to give us somthing for free..

And I am so loyal to MP and will keep using it even if my wife left the home because she can not watch the TV for an hour without error or hang

So do not worry we will wait. and you keep the good work.

He, he, you mad me lough...
.

 

[rusten]

Frodo,
You mentioned something I've definitely observed myself for the past several months -- and I wonder if you've considered this from the high level?

Quote "in fact 99.0% of all development goes in my tv "

I would say that more people use MP for playing content already archived/stored on disk, than use it for MyTV. Now that may change as more tuners become available, support is better, etc -- however, there will be more and more devices made that can drop content on a disk (e.g. set-top boxes that are now coming out with "Home Media Option" style upgrades) and the original/large following of people still exist: people that play DVD's / archived TV and videos / Music/MP3's.

With this in mind, from a high level decision-maker perspective, wouldn't you say that perhaps some focus should be shifted to further develop and impriove these areas? Top of my list would be (1) a better way to include all content, despite it's location (e.g. I don't have to navigate through multiple shares to find a file -- something more MS DFS where consolidating network resources within a single virtual "directory"/share), (2) native/better support for ISO's, and (3) uPnP support (where MP is a client/consumes uPnP devices).

Any comment on the 99.0% statement and the possibility of increasing the priority of non-MyTV features?

Thank you in advance!

 

[Smirnuff]

Any comment on the 99.0% statement and the possibility of increasing the priority of non-MyTV features

Hrmmm... could you sell that to 99% of the users on our behalf whilst at the same time getting them to accept the decreased work on the TV engine?

 

[Ralph]

Frodo,
Quote "in fact 99.0% of all development goes in my tv "

I would say that more people use MP for playing content already archived/stored on disk, than use it for MyTV. Now that may change as more tuners become available, support is better, etc -- however, there will be more and more devices made that can drop content on a disk (e.g. set-top boxes that are now coming out with "Home Media Option" style upgrades) and the original/large following of people still exist: people that play DVD's / archived TV and videos / Music/MP3's.

For me TV-Modul is the most important function a good htpc-software should have.
I just can encourage Frodo and all other delvelopers to get this think as good and even better than all the other htpc-softwares out there.
For instance speeding up channel changing in timeshift-mode needs to be improved.
And I need and do use this module daily to get new content on my hdd.
CDripper, Server/Client Plugin etc. are still to come but it's not just Frodos job.
There are quit a lot developers programming plugins to advance Media Portal to fit for nearly all needs.

I think we should take that time to get a TV-module that will beat all others.

Regards
Ralph

 

[Marcusb]

Top of my list would be (1) a better way to include all content, despite it's location (e.g. I don't have to navigate through multiple shares to find a file -- something more MS DFS where consolidating network resources within a single virtual "directory"/share), (2) native/better support for ISO's, and (3) uPnP support (where MP is a client/consumes uPnP devices).

I've just recently installed MCE to compare the two systems (lot's of urging from the WAF sector). I found that MCE looks very pretty and has a heap of great animations, but like most MS software, this is simply to hide the fact that it really can't do too much actual stuff.

From the quote above, from what I have seen MP already does these requests way better than MCE.

I thought the stupidest thing was that in MCE you can only map whole shared directoris, not a specific location. My photos are stored on the upstairs computer in the storage/personal/photos directory. MP can map directly to the photos location, but MCE can only map to the root directory and the user has to navigate to the right place.
This is a *major* flaw if you have a lot of different locations for different types of video files.

Also, in response to request #1 quoted above, MP can do this if you use the "Movie Titles" view rather than the shares view. Same for music too.

My partner soon conceeded that MP is far superiour after trying to use MCE to skip commercials. the 3min skip function is crucial. With MCE you have to hold the 30sec skip button for a few seconds, but it speeds up way to fast, so if you hold it for even a second too long it takes you to the end and asks you if you want to delete the show you just watched or restart watching from the beginning.

@ Frodo and the guys, I always knew you were very good at what you do, but after seeing the best a big corporation can do with unlimited funds and developers I now realise just how very good you are at what you do. All I can say is "Wow!!!" and "thank you".

 

[jonno280674]

I am fairly new to mediaportal, although I have been using MCE for almost a year as my main TV viewing tool.

The main reason I use a mediacenter is for the TV benefits, with the second most important aspect being music. I rarely, if ever use it for pictures.

The *only* reason I decided to take a look at mediaportal was due to the EPG (uk) in MCE becoming annoying. By annoying I mean that once or twice a _month_ it fails to download the EPG and you cannot record anything until you reboot. It also does not understand the EPG thats broadcast with the DVB streams. This is pretty much my only grip with the product.

So, I decided to try mediaportal to see if you guys had got a better EPG...

The simple answer is no. The MP EPG is even worse than MCE. Its buggy, slow and a PITA to setup. Almost every time I switch back to the EPG its decided to refuse to show BBC1 again, if I try and import the EPG data again it makes the TV go choppy, which isnt great whilst trying to record something!!.

Now, I know that MCE is commerial software and must be juged as that, but if you compare the two products for general consumer use, MCE wins hands down. OK, its not that configurable and Mirosoft kind of force you down their approved hardware route, but as long as you do what it says on the tin its pretty good. Mediaportal howevever is in heavy development and one of the problems that causes is instability, on a machine in my lab that is acceptable but my girlfriend just doesent understand the fact that she cant watch or record Casualty because there is a problem with VMR9 or that the guide isnt working!.

Dont take this the wrong way, I love opensource software, but only when its good enough to compete with the commercial stuff. I will also add that I am using the 0.1.3 release for the majority of my comparisons, largely due to the fact that I cant seem to get timeshift to work on 0.2.0RC1. I am also aware that alot of development work is going on to make v2 stable enough for the mainstream - I for one sincerly hope it is, since without competing products we will all suffer in the HTPC market.

My opinion, for what its worth is that the following areas need to become bulletproof...

1. EPG (Surely somebody can come up with a decent way to do this?)

2. EPG (It really is THAT important!!)

3. SPDIF out for DVD's - People use media centers to watch DVD's too I know it works but its hardly simple to setup!.

4. Speed - its too choppy when switching between channels.

5. Thumbnails for videos and recorded TV.

6. Why does the screen go blank when I dont press anything for 10 seconds? Unless its in fullscreen TV mode.

7. Better DVD handling - how the hell do you watch a DVD that is already inserted?

I will be going back to MCE for the rest of this year (I will be single if I leave 0.1.3 in the front room). Good luck with V0.2.0, I will be back in February to have another look!

Neil.

 

[pieroxy]

So thanks to all for these good forums (and the good software). User of XPMCE for a couple of years, I was really tempted to make the switch to Media Portal - THE unique alternative as far as TV is concerned...

It looks like I should wait until this thing is out of beta, which sounds like something reasonable...

One question though: Can I install MP on my XPMCE? It won't screw up MCE? (MCE is very sensible, so I thought I'd ask before).