WebSkin 2013

Welcome to MediaPortal's first skinning contest for WebMediaPortal.*

Lyfesaver74 (jQui) is challenging all MP users to dust off their old HTML/CSS skills and put them to the test for a chance to win a Google Nexus 7, customized MP gear and more. Even if you don't win, every completed** skin that gets submitted will earn a FREE Basic MediaPortal T-Shirt**.

Prize List:

1st Place - New Nexus 7 (Tablet PC/Android 4.1)

2nd Place - MP GearBox (Customized MP T-Shirt, MP Cap, MP 16GB USB3 Thumbdrive, MP Keychain & more)***

3rd Place - Customized MP Hoodie/Sweatshirt***

All skins submitted meeting the "completed" status will also receive a free basic MP T-Shirt.

Project Details:

WebMP is a popular client for MP-Extended allowing users to browse, watch and download saved media plus record, schedule and watch live TV from almost any browser on any device. While the bulk of WebMP is your standard HTML/CSS, because MP-Extended is an ASP.NET/MVC project, skinners can utilize inline C# syntax (Razor) as well. Pair that with MP-Extended's ability to utilize custom DLLs to give the skinner total control.

The great news is that you don't need to know C# or ASP.NET/MVC to create an awesome skin, as Oxan has already included almost everything the skinner would need.

That's it. it's just that simple. HTML/CSS or go a completely new direction with custom C# code. it's all up to you!

To enter the contest, read the contest details or ask a few questions, follow this link to the contest forum thread.

*While MediaPortal is hosting the contest, all rules, prize choices and prize distribution is all under Lyfesaver74's control.

**See contest details in the forum link above.

***Prizes are subject to change (most notably, the graphics). All prizes will be "new" and it will be up to the winner to handle any returns/exchanges.

Use your favorite movie catalog app in MediaPortal on your big screen TV!

Are you a film buff?  Do you have a movie catalog? Did you know you can use it in MediaPortal to watch, browse and search your movies in a myriad of ways on your big screen TV, all while lying back and using a remote?

The My Films plugin combines the superb media center features of MediaPortal with the powerful features of movie catalog software, such as advanced searching, updating by field, sorting by any field, grouping and viewing your movies however you wish.

Eight different movie catalog apps are supported out of the box: 

• Ant Movie Catalog (4.1 new!)
• EAX Movie Catalog 
• Ember Media Manager (EMM) (new!)
• Personal Video Database
• DVD Profiler 
• Extreme Movie Manager (XMM)
• My Movies
• Movie Collector

(see Supported Catalogs for specific setup and details). 

No need to re-scan your data, you can start using your existing movie catalog in MediaPortal within minutes, and continue to use it with My Films.

My Films 6 adds support for NFO files, so any movie catalog app, or even other media center plugin, that supports NFO files can also be be used with My Films.

If you don't already have a movie catalog, as of version 6.0 you can create one using My Films (in AMC/XML format), which you can use with Ant Movie Catalog software, and take advantage of the many advanced features My Films offers for updating your database.

If you are new to MediaPortal - see the MediaPortal Setup guide in the My Films wiki to learn how to set up MediaPortal for use with My Films and your movie catalog.

Download via the MediaPortal Extension Installer (MPEI) or My Films in the Extensions section of the MediaPortal website.

My Films 6 supports MediaPortal 1.2.x as well as 1.3.0 alpha/beta

^{Once you've used your movie catalog with My Films, you'll never want to use anything but MediaPortal!}

Team MediaPortal is very happy with the positive response the Titan skin has received from both the press and users. Not only is the design concept being ported to other similar products, morpheus_xx and joostzilla have already begun porting Titan to MediaPortal 2!

As a result, morpheus_xx has created a development thread, that has now also become a guide, or step by step tutorial, to skinning MediaPortal 2! The thread is public, but "read only" to keep it clean and thus easy to follow the progress. Comments are more than welcome in the separate Comments thread.

Here is a little teaser of the work done so far:

Development thread (read only)

Comments and questions go here

Ho-ho-ho!

Santa is here, and he is curious how much our beloved community knows about the history of MediaPortal and the MediaPortal team.

Think you are a MediaPortal know-it-all?

Have a go at the questions below and leave your answers as comments on our facebook page

The winner will receive a mystery prize from Team MediaPortal!

Mehr über MediaPortal 1.3.0 erfahren Sie in usnerem neusten Video auf YouTube: 'MediaPortal 1.3 Beta - Neu Funktionen in der Übersicht! - Enjoy the new Titan skin!' - erstellt von SiLenTYL

Das Prequel findet sich hier: 'MediaPortal 1.3 Alpha Released - Installation und Konfiguration' - lehnen Sie sich zurück während Sie SiLenTYL durch die Installation und Konfiguration von MediaPortal 1.3.0 begleitet.

Für weitere interessante MediaPortal-Videos, abbonieren Sie SiLenTYL's Kanal auf YouTube oder direkt den Team MediaPortal-Kanal.

It's been a bit quiet since the last remotes release (almost too quiet), little did you know - a lot has been going on in the background. Today, we're announcing new versions of all MediaPortal remote software: MPExtended and WebMediaPortal 0.5, aMPdroid 1.1 and WifiRemote 0.7.

MPExtended

Things have progressed a lot since we started developing a remote interface for MediaPortal. Since we released the first version (0.4) a year ago, we've added a lot of new features. Unfortunately, this proved difficult without breaking compatibility with the old version, so we decided to break compatibility and create the a new API, which we've stabilized right ahead. This means that as of MPExtended 0.5, we will not break compatiblity between versions without giving due notice. Clients compatible with MPExtended 0.5 will thus be compatible with at least a few future version of MPExtended too.

There are too much new things in MPExtended 0.5 to cover them all here, but we can offer a few highlights:

• Translations into Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish.
• Search function.
• Improved stability and responsivity.
• MyFilms and mvCentral support, along with improvements for Moving Pictures, MP-TVSeries and stock MediaPortal support.
• Improved streaming framework, with better stability, seeking, network drive and HTTP Live Streaming (iOS) support.
• PowerScheduler plugin to keep the TV Server awake as long as there are active streams.
• Much improved and more easy-to-use setup system.
• For developers: Improved API with extensive filtering support.

You can download the new version HERE, or find more information in this forum post.

WebMediaPortal

Bringing MPExtended up to 0.5 allowed for new features and improvements to the HTTP client, WebMediaPortal. Much like MPExtended, WebMediaPortal is almost a complete rework. The new MPExtended API has allowed for WebMediaPortal to jump lightyears ahead.

Here are some examples of the WebMediaPortal changes and enhancements:

• Much improved default skin
• Extended support for custom third-party skin and plugins.
• Improved TV server support, with extended scheduler options, TV guide and status information.
• Share authentication database with the service and configuration interface.
• HTTPS, IIS Express 7.5 and working multiseat support.

You can find out how to install WebMediaPortal with the installation guide, or find more information in this forum post.

aMPdroid

Since there very so many changes in MPExtended, aMPdroid would only work with the developer version of MpExtended so we decided to combine our next release. aMPdroid 1.1 will ONLY work with MPExtended 0.5 or later. This and other factors lead to a major rewrite of the aMPdroid codebase which is part of the reason why it took so long for an update. It was worth it though, the codebase got slimmed down quite a bit and is now much more extendable and maintainable. Stuff like that isn't really interesting for users though, so what changed in aMPdroid that you can actually see?

Layout changes

The tabbed layout proofed to be a major headache. Without going too much into the details, the Android framework just didn't support this kind of layout, and dealing with all the hacks and ways around it got too time-consuming. Also, having tabs meant a restriction on the number of views that could be added.

So now instead of tabs you get a dropdown menu where you can select your view. And with the filtering framework of MPExtended in place, adding views is much easier now (e.g recently added, by year, grouped by letter, ...). There was also quite the performance improvment with this layout change.

Even more important: in the future it will be much easier to add additional views, maybe even allow users to define their own views/filters.

What's new

That's something you can now always see at first glance. The homescreen now features the latest items for movies, episodes, recordings or albums. You can even configure which items should be shown. If you don't care which new albums you have on your server, you can simply hide the latest albums.

Having this kind of "What's new" view was planned since the very first version of aMPdroid, so I'm glad that it finally got implemented.

Streaming

The internal media player has been completely redesigned and much of the codebase has been written from scratch. It has also been updated for the later versions of Android, for example it now hides the soft buttons when video is played back.

And since aMPdroid 1.1 uses the awesome MPExtended 0.5 for streaming, you get a few awesome new profiles (e.g. direct and HTTP live streaming).

Oh, and did I mention you can now stream music?

What else you might ask?

• Actionbar actions (turn on/off in settings)
• Improved actionbar
• Further improved tablet layout
• Support for MPExtended user access requests
• Support for ZeroConf
• Support for NetBios names instead of IP addresses
• Support for mvCentra (music videos)
• New and updated languages (new: Finnish, Swedish)
• Better support of ICS and JellyBean devices
• And many many bug fixes all over the place

What didn't make it in

aMPdroid has become quite huge and thus it's not that easy to maintain it and add new features. I know everyone knows what "killer feature" has to be implemented for the world not to end in 2012, but it's simply not possible for me to implement everything. As to what I would like to implement in the future for aMPdroid, here are a few of my top items:

• Widgets: Homescreen widgets to e.g. start aMPdroid with a specific client / show recent items.
• Video playlist playback: Play multiple videos in a row (e.g. music videos).
• Settings redesign: the settings page hasn't changed much since the beginnings of aMPdroid, so a rework is in order.
• Better navigation for non-touchscreen devices: In the long run, a version optimised for google tv and similar devices.
• Searching: Add search functionality to quickly find media items.

Okay folks.... that about wraps it up. I encourage each of you to take your MediaPortal setup beyond your front door!!! Dont forget to leave your 3D glasses in the buckets on your way out the door. Please dont steal our glasses.

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