MediaPortal 1.1.0

Rated 40/50 by whodoes at Apr 30, 2008

FREE I just wanted an attractive easy stable front end for videos on my network.. Im using BeyondTv for my TV PVR. Ive been very happy using this (NOT FREE) software and have appreciated the regular updates and the simplicity. BUT it is paired with an awful external application "BeyondMedia" for organizing network media (vids, mp3, pics etc.). I LOVE using MediaPortal as a replacement. I havent tried using any of Mediaportal's other functions so i cant speak to those. I like everything ive tried to use. The dev. community seem active and updates/plugins seem to roll out regularly.

Rated 30/50 by frankwick at Jul 22, 2008

I love this program, I have used it for 18 months (at least) and it is has come a long way in that time. I mean, a looong way. However to say this is as polished as Windows MCE is either crazy, uninformed, or complete MS bashing. Whatever the case, both are good products, one is a free add-on, the other is included with Windows. Windows MCE has been out since 2004 and has made significant progress itself. It is the better of the two products, but that is not a slam on MediaPortal.

Rated 20/50 by balandran at Oct 12, 2008

Nice interface Not very intutive and I had to guess at why it wouldn't work with my tuner card. So I guess my tuner card is too old. Really wanted to use this, but needs to be user friendly and intuitive.

Rated 30/50 by XIIAOLYN at Oct 18, 2008

Pretty interface! Easy to find your music rather than going to my music just to find it. Freezes up when starting it up. But I can't expect much from a free program :D It just doesn't work very well on Windows XP SP3. Other OSes?

Rated 50/50 by at80 at Apr 14, 2009

Media Portal is an excellent product and free! I prefer it over MediaCenter as it has more functionality, is faster and has much better features. Only gripe is that you need to spend time setting it up and configuring it or customizing it for your system....too many options.

Rated 50/50 by Vimes at Apr 14, 2009

It is an excellent and well supported piece of software that is very worthy of a donation to help to fund it, albeit it is free. However my only reservations in its configuration is the complexity that could overwhelm the new user. Whilst I have used it for several months now I have decided to use Media Portal for media files and then purchase DVB-Viewer for the TV function as I found the TV aspect of MP to be confusing and difficult to use compared to DVB-Viewer (which is not free unlike MP). I have tried Windows 7 Media Centre and that is simplicity in itself. It found my TV card immediately and I had a fully populated EPG and working TV function from the start. The media support from Media Centre is not as capable as Media Portal (when using the TV series plugin and My Films plugin) but again it is very very easy to setup. Both Media Centre within Windows 7 and Media Portal are great products and as MP matures I do hope that it will become easier to configure and not as daunting as it is compared to MC. I have a feeling that there is not a consolidated focus on simplifying the setup and configuration of MP, even though there is a newbie section within their forums, and this is, in my opinion, where MC within Windows will win every time. On balance, if you have the time patience and skill, I would recommend using MP, just ensure that you also grab the subtitle integration files as they did not make the 1.01 release in time for them to be included, if needed. Also spend a lot of time reading up within MP's forums to get an idea of how it functions.

Rated 50/50 by Vimes at Sep 1, 2009

I would spend sometime reading the release notes within their forum.... http://forum.team-mediap...eased-69653/#post502427 ...whilst this beat does require testing and feedback you must remember that it is a beta and not recommended to use full time on a media PC. For that they have version 1.02 which has been working a treat for me for a while. I am using it on Windows 7 x64 and the only issues I had was the refresh rate not auto changing when playing 24hz material and some issues with my remote control. However both of these were fixed with help from their supportive forums. Media Portal is worth all the effort to get it to work but I had limited success in ever getting the TV function to show a populated EPG. I ended up buying DVB pro and I use that for the TV viewing.

Rated 20/50 by grilloh at Jan 10, 2010

Nice user interface with many media options Unstable and unpredictable I had high hopes for this product when I first installed it, because the interface is attractive and appeared to be very useful. I even considered jettisoning my usual programs in favor of the MediaPortal. And then it began - freezing up, not recognizing the hardware, reporting that the hardware was in use by another program, and on and on. Most of the time I had to reboot in order to get out of the program - a simple "end program" action could not do the trick. I finally gave up on it, finding that I wasted an enormous amount of time trying to make it work as promised. Oh well - at least it is free.

Rated 40/50 by pal1102 at Jun 27, 2010

Good character recognition on non HD TV. Not as intuitive as I would like. Some menu commands are off screen and one must learn by trial and error to place the cursor near the edge of the screen. However, I never read the instructions. Updated on Jun 27, 2010

Rated 40/50 by johncoxx at Jul 25, 2010

I have looked for specific fonts before that I have found in media like that and they are hard to find. All I could suggest is looking around for something similar. http://www.articlesbase....are-review-2130892.html