Posted On: 18/08/11             0

MediaPortalMediaPortal.  I’ve gotten a lot of confused looks when I mention that MediaPortal is my HTPC software of choice.  Probably because if you go only a few years back it was a very buggy, ugly and slow piece of software.

Installation is a breeze, everything needed for it to run is installed automatically so you only have to click install and then wait.
Once installed this is where the fun begins.  I’m not going to go through the configuaration of MediaPortal because theres sooo many options which is one of the major reasons why I prefer it over any other frontend.  Customizable.

The next step is to install a skin.  Now there are plenty of skins for MediaPortal but mine and many other peoples favourite is StreamedMP.  This skin comes with its own installer and can install a number of popular plugins with it.  The plugins you are going to want are the TVSeries plugin, Moving Pictures plugin and FanArtHandler plugin.  There are hundreds of other plugins which you can find searching the mediaportal forums but these three are must haves.

So once you’ve done that your good to go.  Unlike other HTPC frontends MP doesn’t put a limit on tv tuners or tuner type so you can have as many different tuners as you like. It does all the good stuff you’d expect from a media center frontend like timeshifting, recording, playing movies, music, pictures etc… But what seperates MP from any other htpc frontend is how customizable it is.  You can manually decide which codecs for which formats, you can play blu rays natively (movie only and requires AnyDVDHD), you can create links to any application on your pc from the MP home menu, change refresh rate dynamically based on content, stream live tv to any other pc in the house, browser the internet from your sofa, watch online videos, stream music from grooveshark or spotify… need I go on, the possibilities are endless.

Factor in the fact it is free and open source and you are looking at the best piece of media center software available. Go ahead. Try it out.