Why I think I'm switching back to Media Center (1 Viewer)

[level20peon]

Well I think many users see MediaPortal as something it just is NOT. MediaPortal is open source. This implies two things: There is nobody payed for developing this project and the project IS most certainly no program "for girlfriends". The simple fact that open source projects are community based and not customer based leads to the question "Does MediaPortal want you ?" instead of "The developers want you to buy MediaPortal.".
Most problems in the Forum are solved by experienced users and sometimes developers themselves. This results out of the fact that the correlation of developers and users has vastly changed since the beginning... there are thousands if not tens of thousands using MediaPortal today but just a handfull of devs.
Although there are more and more unexperienced users wanting to use MediaPortal so the logical result of this is that the people who can help are simply more and more overwhelmed at an exponential rate. So there are many unanswered topics in the forum as well as dozens of double post topics (some users don't even know how to use a forum).

I am a very experienced computer user who had to read dozens of pages until I knew what I know about MediaPortal today (even reading the manual is too difficult for most users but this is no MediaPortal specific problem) and sure Setup could be easier and less complex. Some people even think that the developers should come to their home and setup everything for them because they don't understand the matter at all. But if I (!) want to use what MediaPortal has to offer for free why shouldn't I (!) do something to get the functionality. This is the simple principle of taking and giving in open source projects !

Maybe someday MediaPortal will grow to a point of total intuitive installation and use. But until then most of the "naggers" are better of with MCE.

Keep up the great work everybody


-level20peon

 

[Gamester17]

The XBMC way...

1. Agreed. My parents struggled with MediaPortal for some time. They use XBMC now as a way of accessing the recordings MediaPortal makes.

http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/wiki/index.php?title=The_XBMC_manifesto

"It is our belief that usability is the most important aspect of a media center"

 

[The_Stig]

XBMC is really great. No doubts about that. But comparing MP with XBMC isn't too fair since XBMC is only based on a single hardware configuration. MP has to match multiple hardware installations...

 

[Ev|Ldick]

Interesting Thread!

I have had MP for about 6 months and have recently upgraded to the new release.

I use MP for very basic functions both my wife and small child also use it:

Listening to music stored on HD
Watching movies stored on HD
Checking weather
Slide show

For this MP is far superior than WMC:

I have customized my menu so i dont have any other functions i am not using showing
I can stack files so that they appear as one and dont have -cd1 in their title
The Movie Database works great allowing me to see cover art and a synopsis if i want

Sure i would change a couple of things but offers much more than an out of the box piece of software.

 

[jamiro]

This is a very interesting post.
As a new user I would like to add a few comments.
It took me a little over a week to get MP setup and working, it was difficult and I only managed to get my TV card working by finding an old entry in the forums. But the fact is I didn't have any expectations about MP, after all it is free and if I have to spend several hours getting it to work then that is fine with me. If I paid $200 for it then I would angry, but I didn't, it was free. I am grateful that it is even available.

When my brother recently asked me for some advice about setting up a media centre, I told him to stay away from MP. Why? Well because he has a lot of money, very little computer knowledge and virtually no spare time. So MCE is perfect for him. So I agree with level20peon that MP is not girlfriend material and to be honest you shouldn't expect it to be.

My family love MP, it is easy for them to use. Yes it does some strange things every now and again, but this is actually rare. My wife who is not computer literate loves using MP and she also loves that I didn't spend hundreds of dollars to get it setup. Some of our wealthier friends have purchased hard drive recorders for a lot of money and yet they do not have half the functionality of our media centre which was built on spare old computer parts and free software. I did mention it was free didn't I?

I agree on a couple of points.
Yes it could be easier to setup, but having said that you can take it too far as Microsoft often do and treat the end-user as an idiot and assume what is best for them. I like being able to get to the MP setup and see how things are setup and working.

I do find it odd that with each SVN, one bug is fixed and yet it creates two more, but at least a previous poster has explained why this is so. Hopefully this will change in the future.

As an end user I have no illusions about MP, I recognise it is a work in progress. At the moment it does what I want it do and more. If I was richer I would probably just go out and buy MCE and be done with it, but I'm not.

Despite all the little glitches MP has improved in presentation and usability from the stable version I first installed to the SVN I am currently using. It can only get better.

I hope this project remains focused on refining the core of what is a great piece of software. As end-users we should encourage and contribute to the project and NOT expect it be MCE for free.

Thanks.

 

[zag2me]

XBMC is really great. No doubts about that. But comparing MP with XBMC isn't too fair since XBMC is only based on a single hardware configuration. MP has to match multiple hardware installations...

I always thought it would be a great idea for Media portal to recommend some basic hardware for people to use. I think many people would love to be told what is recommended. People just want a working HTPC at the end of the day, it does not really matter what hardware is in it.

The other option of course is to support every tv card, graphics card, remote control ect and spend forever trying to fix individual bugs or writing support for new stuff.

 

[infinite.loop]

XBMC is really great. No doubts about that. But comparing MP with XBMC isn't too fair since XBMC is only based on a single hardware configuration. MP has to match multiple hardware installations...

I always thought it would be a great idea for Media portal to recommend some basic hardware for people to use. I think many people would love to be told what is recommended. People just want a working HTPC at the end of the day, it does not really matter what hardware is in it.

The other option of course is to support every tv card, graphics card, remote control ect and spend forever trying to fix individual bugs or writing support for new stuff.

suggesting TV-Cards is no problem at all.

i.e. if someone asks me for a good card which has a CI, i can only forward him to digital everywhere and their floppy/fire-dtv products.

they are simply great.
hardware, firmware, drivers are top notch. even more importand is the communication we have with digital everywhere.
if we find a bug, then they do their best to fix it as soon as possible (it took them only 2 days the last time to fix a smal bug in the driver of the new S2 model)

"problem" for most users is the price.
so they go and spend half the money for i.e. a TerraTec, Twinhan or something else.
at the end they are left alone with absolutely buggy drivers, bad frimware, bad hardware and virtualy no support from the manufatuers. (i learned that lesson too the hard way )​

suggesting other hardware like mainboards, gfx-cards and soundcards is quite a problem.

i.e. gfx-cards 3 times a year you get new models. each model has a bunch of different versions. and then the driver-version contribute their part to the general madness.....​

i thought that the community would help to get that "fixed", when i started with the hardware selection help.
so the users adds his gfx-card/tv-set/ect. there and tells the others how good/bas it is.

or even show their HTPCs solutions.

again, only a handfuly showed interest during the first weeks

 

[Marcusb]

jamiro, I like your post. It pretty much sums up my attitude.
as Infinity Loop hinted at, I am a bit sad that we have had quite a few posters reply with "I'm a programmer..." and not offer any help if they can.

I had pressure from my partner to install MCE "Which just works". After using it for a few weeks I was asked to revert back to MP. There are quite a few things MCE can't do and also a lot of very annoying usability issues that won't be fixed by posting on a forum like this one.

I'm probably biased though, as I thoroughly love MP. I acknowledge there are some annoying long running issues, but most of these don't seem to affect me. As for setup, it can be complicated, but with the amount of configuration possible then I guess that can't be helped too much.

 

[and-81]

XBMC is really great. No doubts about that. But comparing MP with XBMC isn't too fair since XBMC is only based on a single hardware configuration. MP has to match multiple hardware installations...

True, but in this case it's about usability. Not stability. I've always found MediaPortal to be very stable on my setup.

I think XBMC is still a great example of usability. It's easy to use and intuitive and is controlled only by a simple remote control.

MediaPortal is still a work in progress, and we need to be able to take criticisms and suggestions along the way.

Sometimes we get very angry and abusive criticism. We should never accept that. But I think dmeglio's criticism was reasonable and should be taken on-board.

Cheers,

 

[infinite.loop]

XBMC is really great. No doubts about that. But comparing MP with XBMC isn't too fair since XBMC is only based on a single hardware configuration. MP has to match multiple hardware installations...

True, but in this case it's about usability. Not stability. I've always found MediaPortal to be very stable on my setup.

I think XBMC is still a great example of usability. It's easy to use and intuitive and is controlled only by a simple remote control.

MediaPortal is still a work in progress, and we need to be able to take criticisms and suggestions along the way.

Sometimes we get very angry and abusive criticism. We should never accept that. But I think dmeglio's criticism was reasonable and should be taken on-board.

well i think that noone in here got angry yet, or posted in an abusive way

the point from the stig is valid. its much easier to develop a software when you only have to get it working on one hardware. we have quite a "challange" there

the usability in terms of logical GUI layout, key-shortcuts ect. is a different story. there we can look at other applications too, and find things what they do/handle better. XMBC is one of them