MediaPortal

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MediaPortal

MediaPortal running on Windows MC XP
Developer:	Team-MediaPortal
Latest release:	0.2.2.0 / December 23, 2006
OS:	Microsoft Windows
Use:	Media center
Licence:	GNU/GPL
Website:	www.team-mediaportal.com

MediaPortal is an open source media center software that acts as front-end for Personal Video Recorder (PVR), video, pictures, music and many more functionalities. As a Microsoft Windows based application, MediaPortal is quite unique compared to the many open source media center programs the Linux world possesses, such as MythTV, Freevo, VDR, GeeXboX, etc.

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 TiVo. Other functionality includes watching video, listening to music with dynamic playlist building based on the social music network Last.fm, launching and playing games, recording live radio and browsing picture collections. MediaPortal supports a plugin system and a skin engine allowing the base software to be extended to perform whatever functionality the user desires.

1 Features
2 Requirements
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Features

Direct X GUI
Video Mixing Renderer 9
Advanced Digital Video Broadcasting support (Common Interface, DVB radio, DVB EPG etc..)
Skins
Built-in Weather, RSS reader, and Wikipedia, ...
Plugins

[edit] Requirements

[edit] 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. Multiple tuners, or MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) playback carries higher system requirements, see 1080i/1080p HDTV minimum hardware requirements.

1.4 GHz Intel Pentium III (or equivalent) processor
256 MB 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

[edit] 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
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

[edit] Operating System and Software requirements

Windows XP with Service Pack 2
- With Windows XP you are able to use MediaPortal with one DVB TVCard or multiple Analog TVCards
Windows MCE 2005 RU2
- With Windows MCE 2005 RU2 you are able to use MediaPortal with more than one DVB TV Card
Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 with Service Pack 1 and Microsoft .NET Framework 2
DirectX 9.0c
Windows Media Player 10 or later