Developers needed

[Dubstar_04]

Developers needed for the porting of media portal front end to Linux

What is media portal??

MediaPortal is an Open Source application ideal for turning your PC in a very advanced Multi-Media Center / HTPC. MediaPortal allows you to listen to your favorite music & radio, watch your video's and DVD's, view, schedule and record live TV and much more.

As Open Source software licensed under the GNU/GPL agreement, you get MediaPortal for free. This means anyone can contribute to MediaPortal or customize for their own needs!

MediaPortal is built using C# and currently has a growing international community of over 10,000 users.

HistoryMediaPortal's roots lie in the XBox Media Center (XBMC) project which goal was to build a media center application for the Microsoft XBox gaming console. The founder of XBMC, Erwin Beckers (also known as Frodo) concluded early in the XBMC project that there were notable limitations to the xbox platform, mainly that it is unable to support TV cards. XBox Platform limitations like these would ultimately hinder the vision of a feature rich media center application.

In February 2004, Erwin left the Xbox Media Center project to start a new project, now known as MediaPortal that would run on the Microsoft Windows platform. Initially existing code was re-used from the XBMC project but after several releases and innumerable feature enhancements there has been almost a complete re-design.

Today, MediaPortal continues as an open source project, has a core team of developers and a growing community of over 10,000 registered users.

In 2006 MediaPortal enters a new aera with the release of the TV server. For the first time users can now use multiple frontends for viewing & recording TV streamed from 1 or more TV servers.


Why not just use mythtv??

Media Portal is far more advanced than mythtv with a much larger comunity developing plugins and extra features. Media portal features eyecandy, animations and transitions between screens that mythtv terribby lacks. With the upcoming UPnP integration MP and mythtv will work together and users will be able to select a favorite 'frontend'

This port was started but due to a lack of developers has come to a stand still!!

See thread

http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/practical_way_porting_mp_linux-t12350.html

For more information on the media portal project see:

http://www.team-mediaportal.com/

If you could help please concider it as the addition of media Portal to ubuntu would make the perfect OS for many many users!!

Here is a few screenshots to hopefully entice people in;

http://www.team-mediaportal.com/images/zoom/bluetwo/viewsize/home.jpg

http://www.team-mediaportal.com/images/zoom/bluetwo/viewsize/mediaportal-weather.jpg

http://www.team-mediaportal.com/images/zoom/mayhem/viewsize/mediaportal-skin033.jpg

http://www.team-mediaportal.com/images/zoom/mayhem/viewsize/mediaportal-skin049.jpg

http://www.team-mediaportal.com/images/zoom/reality/reality-001.jpg

http://www.team-mediaportal.com/images/zoom/nonafo/nonafo060.jpg

http://www.team-mediaportal.com/images/zoom/nonafo/nonafo082.jpg

http://www.mediaportal-skins.net/Bilder/Coverview4.jpg

[Brunellus]

how is this different from the already-existing MythTV project?

[jeffc313]

is this an open source project?

[JamieC]

how is this different from the already-existing MythTV project?


Why not just use mythtv??

Media Portal is far more advanced than mythtv with a much larger comunity developing plugins and extra features. Media portal features eyecandy, animations and transitions between screens that mythtv terribby lacks. With the upcoming UPnP integration MP and mythtv will work together and users will be able to select a favorite 'frontend'

This port was started but due to a lack of developers has come to a stand still!!


is this an open source project?

MediaPortal is an Open Source application ideal for turning your PC in a very advanced Multi-Media Center / HTPC. MediaPortal allows you to listen to your favorite music & radio, watch your video's and DVD's, view, schedule and record live TV and much more.

No offense, but how about reading the post, first...

[Somenoob]

is this an open source project?

MediaPortal is an Open Source application ideal for turning your PC in a very advanced Multi-Media Center / HTPC. MediaPortal allows you to listen to your favorite music & radio, watch your video's and DVD's, view, schedule and record live TV and much more.

[Brunellus]

No offense, but how about reading the post, first...
tough to see all the text under the immense pictures.

[JamieC]

tough to see all the text under the immense pictures.

Yeah, that's probably why the pictures are below the text...

I know what you mean though, they are distracting I guess.

[Brunellus]

Yeah, that's probably why the pictures are below the text...

I know what you mean though, they are distracting I guess.
OOOH. the SHINY.

and now the substantive question: does this shininess depend in any way, shape, or form on any variety of windows?

[Hendrixski]

Hmmm, That would be nice seeing this ported to Linux. But, it's .NET based, and uses Windows Codecs. I see there's a discussion in the MediaPlayer community about if it's even worth doing this. I may be interested in helping. What's currently being done? more info would be helpful.

[justin whitaker]

OOOH. the SHINY.

and now the substantive question: does this shininess depend in any way, shape, or form on any variety of windows?

If I remember correctly, the code is cross platform. It's probably mono/C# based. I wouldn't mind playing with this...it would be nice to log into a Media or Gaming session and just run what I needed without booting into Gnome first.

[kevinf311]

:D :mrgreen: :biggrin:
I'm sorry! This is spam and completely not helpful to you, but I cannot resist it!

Developers! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMU0tzLwhbE)

:lolflag:

Sorry! Good luck with this project! It looks wonderful!

[Dubstar_04]

OOOH. the SHINY.

and now the substantive question: does this shininess depend in any way, shape, or form on any variety of windows?

At the moment media portal will run on any windows platform with the main requirements .net and directX

The best thing be for the mythtv team to incorperate the aesthetical effects into their code basically merging the two project. However following is the original idea for the project...

Basic Assumptions:
1.
There will NOT be handling with TV Server. Only a TV Client that can connect to either to MP-TV-Server on windows or MythTV-Server on Linux.
2.
Harmless changes will be send to MP team in order reduce the amount of different code between Original MP and ported MP.
3.
The Project will be based only on Open-Source software. Any dependency on commercial software will be replaced by non-commercial software.
4.
Development Environment :
Mono will replace the .NET
OpenGL will be used instead of DirectX
Mplayer/MPC will be used instead of Media Player and Directshow calls.

Project Steps:
1.
Compile the Latest MP-Client under mono environment, Under Windows.
Of-course there will be plenty of missing classes/methods.
Those parts will be handled in one of two ways:
a. Change the MP code that it will use other class/method or work differently. The change will be send to MP Development team so they could apply it in the main MP. (if they will be kind enough)
b. Implement the missing class/method in the Mono environment under mono project. (if the mono developers will be kind enough – they'll do that themselves.

2.
Replace all of the DirectX calls with corresponding OpenGL calls. Still under Windows.
It will be nice if the DirectX/OpenGL use will be user-configurable under Windows. (in Linux DirectX option will be disabled)

3.
Rewrite the code that use DirectShow to play video, to use mplayer libraries to play video.
It will be nice if the DirectShow/Mplayer use will be user-configurable under Windows. (in Linux DirectShow option will be disabled)

4.
Rebuild the Project under stable distribution of Linux (Ubuntu edgy).

A separated project will be a plug-in for mythtv Server. This shouldn't be so hard because the MP is now works in client-server architecture and there is an open implementation of MythTV-Client for Windows.

I would like to hear some opinions, tips, technical data or anything else except Win/Linux whinings and wars.

The Project currently has two unix-developers.
There will be needed much more:
1. Mono/.NET Programmers.
2. Unix C Programmers (for changes in mono project)
3. OpenGL Programmers.
If anyone is instrested please contact me with private messages.

As soon as there will be enough programmers – the project will be opened in SourceForge.

If is anyone is interested to know, I'm a System Unix team-leader and developer in my profession. I worked in the past with Java, Oracle, c#, mono, C, VB, Delphi and python.

PLEASE MAY I POINT OUT THAT I AM NOT A DEVELOPER. I AM MEARLY JUST TRYING TO ROUSE INTEREST IN ORDER TO MAKE THIS POSSIBLE.

[Brunellus]

this is being moved to the windows forum, as it is not currently a Linux project.

[Dubstar_04]

this is being moved to the windows forum, as it is not currently a Linux project.

Am trying to get the ball rolling on getting Media portal moved to Linux and preferably Ubuntu!!

The only reason I still have a windows pc is because of Media Portal, and I would verymuch like that to change.


UBUNTU PORTAL - THE UBUNTU MEDIA CENTRE!!!

Thats the idea anyway. I don't know how feasable it is??

[Hendrixski]

At the moment media portal will run on any windows platform with the main requirements .net and directX. The best thing be for the mythtv team to incorperate the aesthetical effects into their code basically merging the two project. However following is the original idea for the project...

Project Steps:
1.
Compile the Latest MP-Client under mono environment, Under Windows.
Of-course there will be plenty of missing classes/methods.
Those parts will be handled in one of two ways:
a. Change the MP code that it will use other class/method or work differently. The change will be send to MP Development team so they could apply it in the main MP. (if they will be kind enough)
b. Implement the missing class/method in the Mono environment under mono project. (if the mono developers will be kind enough – they'll do that themselves.

2.
Replace all of the DirectX calls with corresponding OpenGL calls. Still under Windows.
It will be nice if the DirectX/OpenGL use will be user-configurable under Windows. (in Linux DirectX option will be disabled)

3.
Rewrite the code that use DirectShow to play video, to use mplayer libraries to play video.
It will be nice if the DirectShow/Mplayer use will be user-configurable under Windows. (in Linux DirectShow option will be disabled)

4.
Rebuild the Project under stable distribution of Linux (Ubuntu edgy).

A separated project will be a plug-in for mythtv Server. This shouldn't be so hard because the MP is now works in client-server architecture and there is an open implementation of MythTV-Client for Windows.



What is the projected timeframe for something like this?

It seems feasable, but requires a lot of things to come together. However those requirements would fuel a lot of development in peripheral projects, like Mono. I like it. I think you should go for it. I'm going to follow it.

[Titus A Duxass]

This seems like a good idea, but it is not so different than MythTV?
No doubt it will be as difficult to install.

My thoughts are that we should concentrate on getting MythTV to work for all users and not jump into merging one difficult project with another equally difficult project that is in the infancy stage.

Just my 2€cents worth.

[craigc]

Hi,

Having moved to Ubuntu from Windows about a year ago i can say that i have tried both Media Portal and Myth TV. To be honest i found Media Portal to be a lot more user friendly. Bearing in mind my limited Linux experience i found Media portal easier to install, easier to configure and generally nicer all round. Things i couldn't do in Myth were a breeze in Media portal, such as opening a VIDEO_TS folder and playing a DVD. All this being said i am sure if i was more experienced in Linux i could have resolved these issues, however as it stands there still does not seem to be software on Linux that sets up easily and allows you to watch video and listen to music with the click of a remote. I even tried KnoppMyth and ran into difficulties.

I still prefer Ubuntu over windows though enough to sacrifice not running media portal anymore!

And it to date i have not found one program that just concentrates on streaming Music, Video and Pictures to a TV with a remote. I am not interested in recording as i just use a set top box to do that. Surely there is a niche for an MVP streamer rather than an all in one wonder of a PVR.

Anyone know how GeexBox is getting on these days?

Not a developer and not trying to spoil this thread, just a sort of opinion from someone who has used both, all be it to a limited degree :)

Craig

[Dubstar_04]

Hey Craig thanks for your input and comments. Don't be apologising about 'spoiling' anything, the forums are here for people to chat and share opinions. With regards to your experience of media portal i'm pretty much in the same boat, I have been using media portal for about a year and had windows MCE 2005 prior to that, and in my experience each (including mythtv) have their strengths and weakness's.

Like you say media portal is very straight forward to setup and configure how you like so much so that i can install media portal and set everything up in less than half an hour. Media portal also has a very intuitive UI that also benefits from a vast amount of eye candy. The shortfall of media portal is its stability, however i tend to think that it is more the stability of windows than media portal.

Windows mce very pretty, very very intuitive and simple to navigate, very unstable.

Mythtv is my latest htpc software of choice bearing in mind that i have only used linux since october 2006. I had several failed attempts at installing mythtv including trying to compile everything myself (not recommended for a new user) and up untill 3 weeks ago i just could not get things to work, then i installed the video drivers from the ENVY installer and compiled the latest DVB drivers from Video 4 Linux, then installed mythtv and everything worked great.
I've been using mythtv as a secondary HTPC in the bed room and so far have found it to be excellent. It doesn't have the same easy to navigate feel to it that media portal has and there is no eyecandy, and all the themes seem outdated (Ironically i use the retro skin), The time to change channels can take a while especially if i've been on one channel a few hours, and the commercial detection is not so accurate. The weakest part for me however is the tv guide, very slow and clumsy.

This may sound like a slagging of mythtv but its not. I really like mythtv because it seems very robust, it has the ability to back up dvds on to it including the transcoding to smaller files, I absolutly love 100% the ability to burn tv shows on to dvd with the menu and chapters, especially cool when my mates call me a computer geek then ask if i can burn them Top Gear because they missed it!! I think Mythtvs handling of recorded tv show is absolutly superb so clean and concise, making it quick and easy to find what you have recorded, and the vast choices for scheduling recording is excellent too.

Overall I prefer Mythtv to media portal and I hope that 0.21 brings new treats in the form of the UI rewrite and gernerally clean up of performance. Untill then though I have been creating my own skin with some of the media portal stuff including the Me-Po stuff that is already availible.

Ideally I would like the media portal team themselves to see the light and port media portal to linux however that will never happen as Frodo the main developer and founder of media portal and XBMC has built media portal with the core being reliant on windows and direct X and although these things are availible in different forms to linux for example OpenGL, media portal is way too reliant on these components.


P.S. If anyone is skilled in the ways of XML i could really do with some advice with my skin.

Regards

Dubstar