Software update: MediaPortal 2 alpha 1 winter release

Another update has been released for last year’s alpha release of MediaPortal version 2.0. With this program, a Windows machine can be used as the heart of the multimedia hardware in the living room. This makes it easy to listen to radio and music, as well as watch videos and DVDs. TV programs can also be recorded. By means of plug-ins and extensions, the functionality can be expanded and the ‘look & feel’ of the program can be adjusted.

Version 2.0 has been rebuilt from the ground up and is completely modular. It brings, among other things, improved stability, simultaneous media streams and an improved media library. This update includes improvements to the interface, making it possible, for example, to have an animated background. The release notes for this release can be found below.

MediaPortal 2 Alpha 1 – Winter Release!

Time for another Alpha release of the next generation in HTPC software: MediaPortal 2!

A lot has been done since the autumn release, so the path to Alpha 2 is nearly gone.

Please be aware that this is still an Alpha release, meaning that it isn’t either feature complete nor bug free, and therefor is not meant to be used on a productive system. Make sure that you read the instructions at the end of this news regarding installation, upgrade and extension compatibility.

Here is a list of major changes since the autumn release:

• The internal player handling of MediaPortal 2 got extended to control an unlimited number of players, which allows us nice things like Video Backgrounds
• Better input handling including support for key shortcuts (see Keyboard shortcuts)
• Copy and paste support for Text Controls / Virtual Keyboard
• Added UPnP compression support, which improves network performance
• Reworked the Fanart handling both on server (extensible provider structure) and client (faster loading)
• Multiple monitors are now supported correctly, MP2-Client can also run fullscreen on secondary screen
• Integrated news plugin, using news ticker in home screen
• Support for more power options. This will be used later for an advanced shutdown menu (WiP)
• Support for reading metadata from video MP4 tags
• Support for picture geo location (lookup country, state, city from GPS coordinates inside EXIF)
• Several tweaks done to further improve performance
• And last but not least: The new skin for MediaPortal 2 – Titanium!

Additionally there are new plugins available, ready to be used with the current Winter Release:

• Now it’s possible to use MySQL instead of Microsoft SQLCE, resulting in much better performance and no size limit for database. The required plugin can be downloaded separately from: (MySQL database plugin)
• Online Videos MP2 has been updated for Winter Release (OnlineVideos MP2)
• (coming soon: Integrated TVE3.5 test build: Test builds for Native MP2 TV)