Skip to Content

Free TUAW iPhone app -- try it now!
AOL Tech

media-portal posts

Filed under: Audio, Video, Windows, Open Source

Media Portal home theater PC app for Windows hits 1.0

MediaPortal 1.0
Open Source media center application Media Portal has been under development for 5 years. And this week the developers decided the product was stable enough to remove the beta label and launch Media Portal 1.0.

The application was initially based on the popular XBMC application designed to turn Xbox gaming consoles into media playback workhorses. But Media Portal quickly outgrew its beginnings as a Windows port of XBMC. Version 1.0 is a full featured application for accessing music, movies, pictures, weather, and other information from a full screen interface. If you have a TV tuner in your computer you can also use Media Portal to watch and record live TV.

I just installed Media Portal 1.0 on my netbook, and aside from the fact that I had to download and install Microsoft's .NET framework first, the process was pretty much a breeze. There's a one-click install option that lets you select common settings. Or more advanced users can configure the application to their heart's content.

The team is now turning its attention to Media Portal 2, which will be more modular and will may eventually incorporate new capabilities like the ability to stream media across a home network or over the internet to portable devices like cellphones. In the short run, Media Portal 2 will feature mostly backend improvements designed to make it easier to customize the application.

[via Geek Tonic]

Filed under: Audio, Video, Windows, Open Source

Media Portal II: Open source Windows Media Center replacement take 2

Media Portal II
While Windows Vista may have been PC World's biggest disappointment of 2007, but it does have a few nice features. It's pretty to look at, and Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate both pack Windows Media Center, an awesome interface for accessing your movies, music, and other media in full-screen mode, preferably while sitting on your couch 10 feet away from your TV/monitor.

But if that's not a good enough reason for you to "upgrade" to Windows Vista, there are plenty of other applications out there that let you turn your PC into a media center, including commercial applications like BeyondTV and SageTV and free software like GB-PVR and Media Portal.

Media Portal isn't just free, it's open source. But it hasn't always been the easiest application to install and configure. So the developers behind Media Portal have released the first preview of Media Portal II. Right now Media Portal II actually has fewer features than its predecessor. For example, while you can enjoy music, movies, and pictures, there's no way to watch or record live TV using Media Portal II.

But the program uses a new framework that will make it much easier for developers to issue updates. Members of the Media Portal community should also have an easier time writing plugins and skins for the application, so we're hoping to see big things from Media Portal over the next few months.

[via floppyhead]

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Microsoft Security Essentials
Chromium Pre-Alpha on CrunchBang Linux
Safari 4 Beta
10 Firefox themes that don't suck
IE8 RC1
Download Squad at the Crunchies After-Party
Download Squad at the Crunchies
WordPress 2.7
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Windows 7 Hands On
Comodo Internet Security
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
Mozilla Birthday Cake
Palm stuff
Adobe Lightroom 1.1

 


Follow us on Twitter!

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

More Tech Coverage

AOL Radio

Joystiq

TUAW

Daily Finance

Autoblog

Urlesque

Engadget

WoW

Switched.com

FanHouse