XBMC or Mediaportal?

[nd4spdbh2]

OK guys well i have been a long time Mediaportal user, and have no complaints but i have always wondered about XBMC... is it worth my time to play round with it?

I must say the interface on XBMC looks pretty refined and sleek... but i just dont kno if its worth it... if it aint broke dont fix it?

[baditude_df]

Tried media portal and ditched it. Not sure why, just didn't do what I wanted it to and I didn't much care for the GUI. I'm sure you are a more involved HTPC user than I am though. I moved straight from there on to XBMC and I instantly loved it. I now use it full time instead of WMC.
I am strictly a DL and run from HDD guy though, and I do not run TV tuners etc, so I don't have any experience with said functionality within XBMC. Just really like how it works and how it looks for a basic HTPC playing downloaded .avi or .mkv content. Oh, and BR and DVD playback is seamless as well.
I cannot give you a direct comparison on anything other than the GUI, but I would say it's definitely worth your time to mess around with.

PS: If you figure out how to delete, change order of, or set default media sources from within the major categories (Videos, Pictures, Music etc) please let me know. lol. Still struggling with that.

[nd4spdbh2]

Tried media portal and ditched it. Not sure why, just didn't do what I wanted it to and I didn't much care for the GUI. I'm sure you are a more involved HTPC user than I am though. I moved straight from there on to XBMC and I instantly loved it. I now use it full time instead of WMC.
I am strictly a DL and run from HDD guy though, and I do not run TV tuners etc, so I don't have any experience with said functionality within XBMC. Just really like how it works and how it looks for a basic HTPC playing downloaded .avi or .mkv content. Oh, and BR and DVD playback is seamless as well.
I cannot give you a direct comparison on anything other than the GUI, but I would say it's definitely worth your time to mess around with.

PS: If you figure out how to delete, change order of, or set default media sources from within the major categories (Videos, Pictures, Music etc) please let me know. lol. Still struggling with that.


Hmm well sounds like ill be doing a backup of my current install o stuff and try out XBMC. As all my htpc duties are the same as yours.... downloaded content, no tv tuners and the occasional DVD.

Any other opinions guys?

[xtkxhom3r]

i just recently moved to xbmc from media portal 2 weeks ago and to be honest im not looking back.... in the beginning it was a huge mess because my movies were not renamed right so it was having a hard time finding cover art but after renaming everything exactly to how imdb has it then downloading a app named Ember Media Manager to download the thumbnail backdrop and nfo file for me it was a breeze

some times the thumbnail doesnt show up in xbmc all you have to do is right click on the file and click on thumbnail and click on different one and it will work just fine.


media portal was easier to get the cover art but xbmc just looks ssoo much better and not to mention the boot up time is instant i have a ssd on mine and it takes a good 20 sec to get mp open but xbmc starts in 1 sec so thats a HUGE plus in my book

[nd4spdbh2]

i just recently moved to xbmc from media portal 2 weeks ago and to be honest im not looking back.... in the beginning it was a huge mess because my movies were not renamed right so it was having a hard time finding cover art but after renaming everything exactly to how imdb has it then downloading a app named Ember Media Manager to download the thumbnail backdrop and nfo file for me it was a breeze

some times the thumbnail doesnt show up in xbmc all you have to do is right click on the file and click on thumbnail and click on different one and it will work just fine.


media portal was easier to get the cover art but xbmc just looks ssoo much better and not to mention the boot up time is instant i have a ssd on mine and it takes a good 20 sec to get mp open but xbmc starts in 1 sec so thats a HUGE plus in my book

hows the remote support in xbmc? i have ati wonder remotes that work like a charm in mediaportal through its built in remote features.

[xtkxhom3r]

hows the remote support in xbmc? i have ati wonder remotes that work like a charm in mediaportal through its built in remote features.

i have no idea man i just use my dinovo edge keyboard... iv been wanting to buy some kind of ir adapter for my pc but never got around to it... their not very easy to find lol...

[baditude_df]

hows the remote support in xbmc? i have ati wonder remotes that work like a charm in mediaportal through its built in remote features.

DiNovo Mini for me. Just switch to WMC mode and it works like a charm in XBMC too.

[Spion]

I've also switched from Mediaportal to XBMC and I honestly do not miss Mediaportal at all. I have live TV setup via MythTV and I playback HD movies/TV shows. Overall responsiveness has improved greatly compared to Mediaportal when playing back HD content and the Transparency! skin looks amazing. I use a MCE remote and it works great with XBMC on Linux. Getting your remote working with XBMC should be fairly simple if you use windows (and I'm sure Linux wouldn't be hard either).

[LandShark]

I've been using Media Portal for a couple of years now. Overall, no complain about it. However, I've always have my eye on XMBC for it's board OS support and eye candy.

How easy to set up XMBC? For me, Media Portal is a bit of pain to set up (so I don't mess up mine once installed and setup). I always want to give XMBC a try one day.

Please report back after you've tried!! ;)

[baditude_df]

What are you doing with your HTPC landshark? For me it was load and play. I mean, you set your country so that the Weather function uses DegC instead of DegF, and choose your default media locations for Video, Music, Pictures etc but that's about it. Then if you want to change skin or theme or tweak for personal preference it might be a little extra. I'd say ~ 1/2 hour totalled from intall to playing content from your HDD library.
If you have a surround set up/reciever etc it might take another 15-20 to choose the optimal settings in System setup for video and audio. It's all quite well layed out and intuative though.
As far as setting up TV, I have no experience with that. Spion? About an hour to play around and figure things out?

[xtkxhom3r]

it really isnt hard to setup its just different from media portal... u dont have a moving pic's plugin to setup the coverart n stuff but its real easy and looks awesome you should give it a try

[LandShark]

What are you doing with your HTPC landshark? For me it was load and play. I mean, you set your country so that the Weather function uses DegC instead of DegF, and choose your default media locations for Video, Music, Pictures etc but that's about it. Then if you want to change skin or theme or tweak for personal preference it might be a little extra. I'd say ~ 1/2 hour totalled from intall to playing content from your HDD library.
If you have a surround set up/reciever etc it might take another 15-20 to choose the optimal settings in System setup for video and audio. It's all quite well layed out and intuative though.
As far as setting up TV, I have no experience with that. Spion? About an hour to play around and figure things out?
my setup is at my sig. I use my HTPCs pretty much for everything that is gonna show on the TV. I think the major setup headache for me is the codec and when starting to customize it (plug in, GUI, etc.)

it really isnt hard to setup its just different from media portal... u dont have a moving pic's plugin to setup the coverart n stuff but its real easy and looks awesome you should give it a try
after reading this thread, I'm gonna take a serious look at the XMBC especially now I don't need any PVR function, just good browsing, playback, categorize, etc., feature. And I always like small foot print HTPC instead of a full blown case. e.g. MacMini, Zotac's new atom machine, etc.

I'm actually downloading the LiveCD as we speak. :cool:

[xtkxhom3r]

i would assume the live cd would be slower but who knows :confused:

i would just install it lol... ull see landshark ull love it

btw thanks for introducing me into the wonderful world of htpc's landshark.... my movie collection would be a mess with out it

[nd4spdbh2]

im playing around with XBMC on my main rig and i must say... WOW the interface is SO MUCH BETTER.

but configuration is not nearly as easy or as good..... 1. it doesnt see my itunes shared library for what ever reason.... and i have yet to figure out how to make it use a specific codec for specific files.

Edit - apparently XMBC cant use external codecs? ... deal breaker for me. GAH it was SO promising... i wish i could have anywhere close to that sleek interface on mediaportal.

[xtkxhom3r]

why do you need a specific codec for some files? all the files play fine on my rig... and you should try the aeon theme... now thats a awesome theme

[nd4spdbh2]

why do you need a specific codec for some files? all the files play fine on my rig... and you should try the aeon theme... now thats a awesome theme

because i much prefer coreavc.... and for dvd playback i like to use ffdshow filters.... gah why cant i have my cake and eat it too!

[Spion]

Have you checked out the DSplayer version of XBMC? You should be able to add in your own codecs as long as you can find the GUID for it. The second link i posted gives a pretty good guide to adding in external codecs to the DSplayer version of XBMC. The first is a download link for the DSPlayer version.

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=70436
http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=HOW-TO:_Using_DSPlayer

[Wicked Klown]

Why not use an external player such as MPC-HC with XMBC? This way you can use FFDshow and Coreavc.

[nd4spdbh2]

Have you checked out the DSplayer version of XBMC? You should be able to add in your own codecs as long as you can find the GUID for it. The second link i posted gives a pretty good guide to adding in external codecs to the DSplayer version of XBMC. The first is a download link for the DSPlayer version.

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=70436
http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=HOW-TO:_Using_DSPlayer

Why not use an external player such as MPC-HC with XMBC? This way you can use FFDshow and Coreavc.

honestly if i have to go through that much work to just get a codec to work.... i cant imagine what its gonna be like to get my ati remote wonder to work with it. Mediaportal was able to just chose which codec i wanted... and already had built in drivers for TONS of remotes including my ati wonder remote. If i use an external player i loose out on the whole integration HTPC aspect, i loose skipping forward and embedded play... kinda pointless IMO.

Note that Mediaportal Just came out with MP 1.1.0 RC3 2 days ago.