Media Portal thoughts

[jonb1974]

I recently when to Virgin Plus, so I can record TV, etc. So I would no longer need the recording function in GBPVR. Just AVI's, photos. I decided to have a look at Media Portal. I must say it looks so pretty. But it did have a few issues, crashing, etc.

Finally got everything looking damn good. I notice any posts on the forum over there get no replies, it's amazing, as such I still hang out here.

Anyone gone Media Portal and stayed with Media Portal or people gone and came back to GBPVR? I'm not sure about the recording part of Media Portal as don't use it.

Is the reason so many people use GBPVR is because of it's robustness and ability to just keep going and going? Because no offence to anyone, but Media Portal does 'look' better appearance wise.

As a side note, I just started using FFDSHOW to upscale to 1080p, highly recommended!

[nitrogen_widget]

It's a personal preference.
I prefer clean & functional.

My tivo has a minimal interface compared to GBPVR.
I like my TIVO because it does the minimum OSD.
I like GBPVR because it's default skin does similiar.

I never understood the need to put as many graphics & animations as possible in a media center.
It's all just more crap thrown on the screen to me.
It looks cluttered.

Also, I attempted media portal once.
After strugling with the configuration I went looking for something else & found GBPVR.

GBPVR was very easy to set up.
The config app just made sense to me.

[mikey]

I've tried MediaPortal a few times in the past.

It does look nice, but I had lots of stability issues with it. It'd crash often.

I also prefer GBPVR's fast channel change with live preview mode.

[pcostanza]

I've dabbled with it twice and each time, removed it in a few days. On 2 different systems it used more resources. I just feel at home with GBPVR. And you can't beat the support here!

[martint123]

I personally have no need or interest in a flashy interface.
Support here is superlative, I find no reason to venture elsewhere since I came across this software after having a look at one or two others in the dim and distant past.

[Deusxmachina]

Is the reason so many people use GBPVR is because of it's robustness and ability to just keep going and going?

Short answer: yep.

The new Media Portal skin for V2 looks very cool. Since GBPVR V2 came out (PVRx2), no one can say GBPVR is ugly. And the default Community Skin is as good as pretty much anything else out there, imo. Well, ok, the colors might be a little flat, but you can swap in more vibrant ones.

Even if it didn't look nice, people aren't looking at a screen very often while listening to music or looking at a front-end while watching a movie. At the end of the day, I trust GBPVR to record what I tell it to without crashing. I can't say the same for Media Portal. Seems like plenty of people like it for a front-end for music or whatever, but the TV part has problems, and even aside from TV I question its overall reliability. Just seems more like a parade of technology and experimentation than something you'd actually use.

Not trying to bash it, but it is what it is. With version 2 being reworked and supposedly leaner, maybe it can be great.

Meanwhile, here's GBPVR. It works. It has a very helpful forum. People like the program enough to write numerous plugins for it. I get to hang out with people from New Zealand as I try to find reasons why I haven't moved there already. What's not to like?

[Hairy]

I think a lot of people judge software, and hardware I suppose, on whether it meets expectations, (rightly or wrongly) - "does it do what I had hoped it would" and for me this is where GBPVR excels. It's consistency and flexibility, in the PVR world, is unrivaled as far as I'm concerned.

After that, there is an element of whether it looks good doing it . Here, personally, I think some of the other packages have the edge, only slightly mind you. My concern is that for a lot of people today, the how it looks part is beginning to over take the does it work part. All though I would never under any circumstance suggest that stability or functionality be sacrificed for "eye candy", I do fear that, as with a lot of things in life , some people are going to choose the "prettier" packages.

Personally a few significant additions would make all the difference to the GBPVR GUI for me. But since I'm completely ignorant as to what's involved in implementing them, I've no idea if they would impact on stability or simply require too much time and effort to justify.

I think most people use GBPVR because it simple just works and like most people I wouldn't sacrifice that for anything. Many moons ago when I was looking for a piece of PVR software, I tried all the commercial packages and opensource options but GBPVR was the only one that just worked. It was by far the easiest to setup and the most consistent operator.

So for me if it comes down to the does it work and does it look good. As others have said the does it look good part comes down to personal preference. Whereas we are in the wonderful position of having found a piece of software that does just work, and with an astonishing level of support.

And I think that fella doing some of the new Community Skin themes is doing a bang up job

[dark_half]

And I think that fella doing some of the new Community Skin themes is doing a bang up job

LOL.Nothing wrong with a little self promotion. I do agree with you and keep the good work

[pBS]

yep, i use it to watch an manage my tv...
not to look at the menus or show off the 'cool interface', and having to apologize cuz it crashes in the middle of showing it off..lol [tho i have actually done that with gbpvr..and it never crashed]

none of that here..

plus as we see here lately, the hardware support is at the top of the crowd and gaining speed...[PCH/MVP/QAM]

i was wondering if anybody's ever interviewed Sub for any articles...
i've seen reviews and such, but no 'interviews' or input from the author, considering he's pretty easy to get ahold of..

i really see this forum as a Phenomenon...Unique on the web...
and one of the reasons the software just 'works'
[alot of hard work and help from Sub *and* members]

[wannabepvr]

And I think that fella doing some of the new Community Skin themes is doing a bang up job

LOL.Nothing wrong with a little self promotion. I do agree with you and keep the good work

Agreed on both counts!