MediaPortal 1.1.0 final

Last week I upgraded the MediaPortal installation from 1.04 to 1.1.0 final. I decided to take the easy route and leave out the live tv functionality. At this moment my server is located out of reach of the analog tv cable, the whole tv-server setup has always been troublesome, and I've come to peace with the idea of not using the HTPC for live tv anymore. Most of what I watch is downloaded content anyway.

Using Windows Home Server I went back to a fresh Windows 7 install. This took some troubleshooting, because the restore CD required motherboard drivers. The version of the restore CD I used was based on Vista, while earlier versions were based on Windows Server 2003. After some search in help forums and a couple of tries I found the proper Vista drivers.

Installation of MP itself went smooth. I installed the following plugins:

- My TV Series

- Moving Pictures

- Last.fm scrobbler

- Last.fm player

- RadioTime

The last one is new for me, needed because webradio is not included if you install MP without tv. RadioTime lets you make a list of favourite radio stations online, from a very comprehensive directory of webradio streams. My TV Series and Moving Pictures are as awesome as in previous versions. The user interface for configuring My TV Series has improved big time as well.

One thing not working is the VFD. I can get the VFD to work, but it doesn't resume after the HTPC went into standby. This problem can't be fixed without a driver update, but it's unlikely that the case manufacturer or SoundGraph will still provide this support. I'm wondering if I can replace the VFD with something with something more robust.

Another problem is that MediaPortal resumes in a 800x600 screensize when the tv switches on. As a containment MediaPortal uses a delay at startup. This works if the HTPC resumes from standby at the same time as the tv is switched on. But it doesn't help when I switch from "Listen to music" mode (HTPC on, receiver on, tv off) back to "Watch TV" mode (HTPC on, receiver on, tv on). It seems the MP community is a bit stuck on getting the rootcause fixed.

Stuff that I still want to look into:

- Get BlueRay movies playing.

- Troubleshoot why some of the RadioTime stations are not working properly

- Try the X-factor skin again (new version released August 6th)

Last.fm

In the battle between the music communities Last.fm and Pandora, the choice is obvious in Europe: Since Pandora had to block service to anyone outside the Land of the Free in May 2007, the prize went to Last.fm.

Wikipedia gives a decent explanation of what Last.fm is and what it does, so I won't repeat that here. This month, Last.fm released a new web layout with a number of improvements. The Last.fm blog visitors are raising hell about the layout, but it has actually improved. With so many links and information, the pages used to have a tendency to get cluttered up. The new interface does a better job at that.

Now, about the auto-dj capabilities. I like to play my local music and not be dependent on the quality of the streams that Last.fm provides. The plugin available for MediaMonkey is trash. It's based completely off of Last.fm's recommendations. Typically, the recommendations are songs that the user hasn't played, so there's a big chance the recommendations aren't present in the local collection. The plugin fails to find a hit and defaults back to a favorite.

The MediaPortal plugin seems to do a better job. It really looks for songs similar to the songs played. Just playing "Hunting high and low" by A-ha results in a true 80s playlist, while "Ruby" by the Kaiser Chiefs gets me a playlist with recent Brit pop. Unfortunately, after a while some artists are played more and more often.

Part of the problem is that the auto-dj's use queries from last fm, but Last.fm doesn't really support the auto dj plugins. With all the data gathered by Last.fm, it should be possible to make a better guess of what song I want to hear next. I'd expect a setup page for configuring auto dj preferences integrated in Last.fm.

What I end up doing is just go to Last.fm, pick an artist and play the Music like... stream. Great fun, but anyone can do that, even if you don't have a profile at all. And then, what's the point in uploading data about every song I play?

Windows XP

My Media Center PC runs on Windows XP. Today I visited Microsoft updates site and found out I had a backlog of 41 high priority updates since January 2007. I simply never do the updates and I get away with it. I never even bothered to install an anti virus package, for performance and stability.
But then again, I don't get exposed to risks too often. My DSL router has a firewall. I only use the Media Center PC for running MediaPortal. It doesn't have e-mail or any office applications and I don't use the web browser on it.
Knock on wood...

What else?

So, I'm a MediaPortal user. But what competition is MediaPortal up against?

First and foremost, Microsoft. While Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 was still a separate package, the media center support has been integrated in Windows Vista. You'll have to get the Premium edition though. With the performance requirements that it imposes on your hardware, Vista is not the most cost effective choice for a Media Center PC. In general, MCE only works with certain MCE certified hardware.

Even though MediaPortal is free, Microsoft obviously blows MediaPortal away from a marketing standpoint. I think it's a wise choice for many people as it doesn't require specific installation or tweaking of settings. In fact, it doesn't have a whole lot of settings, you'll just have to put up with the way Microsoft set it up for you.

Meedio is another option. This program was formally known as myHTPC and development was stopped in 2006, after the software was sold to Yahoo! Yahoo! then turned it into Go TV which is only available to the US market. Meedio still has some advantages over MediaPortal, most notably the way you can manipulate how lists from its database are displayed in the user interface. Meedio used to be available for a modest price.

Worth mentioning also is xLobby. According to the website and the reviews it's very customizable and supports all kind of networking features. It's ahead of MediaPortal with features like multizone audio, pocket pc support and multi client support, but less user friendly. xLobby has never been open source, but the website always featured a "Free Forever" claim. However, xLobby went commercial in March 2007. A new paid version is coming out this year.

In the US the market for commercial Media Center packages is really taking off. Options include SageTV Media Center, Snapstream Beyond TV and CyberLink PowerCinema. Some of these packages are really marketed only for the US and Canada. That means that the standard TV guide is not supporting tv channels for potential users outside North America. Optionally, the package includes TV tuner hardware, a remote, etc.

And there's lots more! MythTV is another open source project, but less developed than MediaPortal and running on Linux. The latest version 0.2 dates back to September 2006 and the site doesn't show a lot of activity since.
GB-PVR is a project developed in the UK. Plugins are supported but the core engine code is not publicly available. Some of the screen shots on the site look an awful lot like MediaPortals BlueTwo skin, Would that apply to the source code as well?
France has several projects. Sesam-TV is freeware. Domotix is also a French project, free. Another French project is DomaxCenter. There's a paid and a free version. The focus is on home automation and there's no live TV support. And while we're at it, here's a nice review comparing 6 projects, also in French. Another example of a home automation package is MainLobby. Tvoon is a German project, but the latest release dates back to 2005. Got All Media is another open source project.

For Linux users and next to MythTV, there's Geexbox and Freevo. And for Mac users, Apple has developed Front Row. However, Front Row is so far without support for live TV.

Update: Of course, there's a much more complete list of HTPC frontend software available on internet. See Eirikso's blog.

MediaPortal

The front-end software of choice for my mediacenter pc is MediaPortal. MediaPortal is an open source project hosted at sourceforge.com, meaning that it's absolutely free. But most of all, it's developed by people who do this for fun. And that shows. The MediaPortal community is very active in developing new features, plugins and skins. There's a wiki support site and an active forum with help for if you run into any issues with the software.

The program neatly combines whatever content you have on the harddrive with additional information from the internet. The tv guide is downloaded from internet, so you won't need the newspaper for that anymore. It also takes the hassle out of programming a normal VCR. Cd covers are downloaded with the music you play, as well as additional information on the artist and a review of the album. Similarly, for movies the cover, the actors and further movie infomation is downloaded. One of the things I like best ist that it also supports tv series with episode guides. And then it gives you access to all kinds of internet content: News feeds, weather updates, webradio, movie trailers and more.

The software can be quite picky in the drivers and supporting software it uses, so make sure you update videocard drivers etc. all to the latest rev. MediaPortal has a reputation of being "buggy" compared to its competition.