MediaPortal is
open-source media center software with a
10-foot user interface (designed for the living-room TV) that acts as a
front end for a digital
PVR (Personal Video Recorder), video, pictures, and music, among other functions. Its
source code was initially
forked from
XBMC Media Center. MediaPortal runs only under
Microsoft Windows operating systems, unlike most other open-source media center programs such as
MythTV and XBMC, which are usually
cross-platform.
MediaPortal allows a computer to perform many entertainment-related tasks, such as recording, pausing, and rewinding live television, much like a PVR box such as a TiVo system. Other functionality includes playing video, playing music with dynamic playlist building based on the Last.fm service, launching and playing games, recording live radio and browsing picture collections. MediaPortal supports a plugin system and a skin engine allowing users to extend the base software.
Features
Direct X GUI
Video Mixing Renderer 9
Enhanced Video Renderer (EVR) on Vista/7
Advanced Digital Video Broadcasting support (Common Interface, DVB radio, DVB EPG, etc..)
Integrated Weather Forecasts
Built-in RSS reader
Plugins
Skins
Requirements
Minimum hardware requirements
The minimum hardware requirements listed here are for standard definition resolution playback and recording with
MPEG-2 video compression using a single TV-tuner. Note that multiple tuners, or
MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) playback carries higher system requirements, see the separate HDTV minimum hardware requirements section below.
1.4 GHz Intel Pentium III (or equivalent) processor
256 MB (256 MiB) of System RAM
DirectX 9.0 hardware-accelerated GPU with at least 64MB of video memory
* Graphics chips which support this and are compatible with MediaPortal:
** ATI Radeon series 9600 (or above)
** NVIDIA GeForce 6600 (or above), GeForce FX 5200 (or above) and nForce 6100 series (or above)
** Intel Extreme Graphics 2 (integrated i865G)
** Matrox Parhelia
** SiS Xabre series
200 MB free harddisk-drive space for the MediaPortal software
12 GB or more free harddisk-drive space for Hardware Encoding or Digital TV based TV cards for timeshifting purposes
HDTV minimum hardware requirements
HDTV (720p/1080i/1080p) playback/recording, and also recording from multiple tuners, and playback of
MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) video, carries higher system requirements.
2.8 GHz Intel Pentium 4 (or equivalent) processor
512 MB of System RAM
DirectX 9.0 hardware-accelerated GPU with at least 128MB of video memory
* Graphics chips which support this and are compatible with MediaPortal:
** ATI Radeon series 9600 (or above)
** NVIDIA GeForce 6600 (or above), GeForce FX 5200 (or above) and nForce 6100 series (or above)
** Intel Extreme Graphics 2 (integrated i865G)
** Matrox Parhelia
** SiS Xabre series
** XGI Volari V Series and XP Series
200 MB free harddisk-drive space for the MediaPortal software
12 GB or more free harddisk-drive space for Hardware Encoding or Digital TV based TV cards for timeshifting purposes
Operating System and Software requirements
Supported Operating System
Windows XP 32-bit Edition with Service Pack 3 or later
Windows Media Center Edition 2005 with Update Rollup 2 or later
Windows Vista 32 and 64-bit with Service Pack 2 or later
Windows 7 32 and 64-bit
Software prerequisites
Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
DirectX 9.0c
Windows Media Player 11(Only required on XP SP3, Windows Vista comes with WMP11 and Windows 7 comes with WMP12 already)
See also
Media PC
Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE)
Windows Media Center Extender
Windows Media Connect
Windows Media Player
XBMC Media Center - the GPL open source software that MediaPortal was originally based upon.
Comparison of PVR software packages
Microsoft PlaysForSure
References
External links
MediaPortal Website
MediaPortal Documentation & Manual
MediaPortal Forum
Category:2004 software
Category:Free television software
Category:Digital video recorders
Category:Free video software
Category:Television technology
Category:Television time shifting technology
Category:Software forks
