MediaPortal 2.5 Release

We are proud to present MediaPortal 2.5

MediaPortal 2.5 is a full-blown media center software that addresses most common user requirements out of the box. Aside from its support for live TV and radio, it offers a complete media server for music, movies, and series. Info is automatically downloaded from various sources to provide posters, fanart, album art, and various additional metadata, such as cast, staff, and more. MediaPortal 2.5 also provides access to online video sources. Integrated news, weather information, and management for your digital images complete this software package. User management for your family let you configure users (e.g. kids) and restrict age dependend content and settings.

Installer

MediaPortal 2.5 comes with a brand-new installer, which is offering a smooth and comfortable installation process and also brings a cool design making the installer look fresh and modern.

New Features

In the installer you can choose between 3 TV engines (or non if TV functionality is not needed):

• TVE3 (only in NET4.8 version of Mediaportal 2)
• TVE3.5
• TVMosaic

You have a clear view of which packages are already installed, which will be updated, will which be added or removed. The installer takes care that all needed packages (e.g. NET) are installed in the background.

Please check also the wiki for more details.  

System

Many changes have happened in the backend of MediaPortal. The code was ported from NET4.8 to NET6, which provides a performance increase on most systems. However some features are not (yet) compatible with NET6 such as OnlineVideos and TVE3. Accordingly we decided to publish two installer and you need to decide which one covers your needs better.

• NET6 installer (OV and TVE3 not included)
• NET4.8 installer
  

Due to heavy development of MediaPortal 2 many new text strings were added last years, but are not localized yet. Everybody can support translating strings in our translation platform transifex. Every help to bring MediaPortal 2 forward is highly appreciated by our small development team.

Other Changes

• Potential deadlock when disposing GENA event subscription
• Separate Fullscreen/Windowed toggle from "Always On Top" behavior
• Update Nuget.config to use https myget source
• Update build process to use Transifex CLI instead of the now obsolete Transifex client
• Workflow navigation to child screens does not respect some parent screen properties
• Centralized MediaLogo and Certification images to Default skin to avoid redundant storage in multiple skins
• Fix shortcut items not displayed on Weather and News home content
• Fix Potential Infinite Loop In VirtualizingPanels
• Extended age certification logos for Canada, Japan, Denmark, Italy, Finland and Australia
• Add MediaPortal 2 version infos to settings
• Play/Pause OSD button restarts playback from beginning if pressed whilst seeking
• Nfo SeriesFanArtHandler can throw a null reference exception if actors list is null
• Opening the Diagnostics config page breaks server communication and other weird issues
• Wrong exception is logged/displayed if there is an issue during startup
• FanArtService can throw a NullReferenceException on shutdown

TV

Dedicated Radio Tile

So far radio was part of TV, with MediaPortal 2.5 we added a dedicated radio tile. In main menu you have a radio tile with own home content Radio has own EPG screens Recordings and schedules are still shared between TV and Radio, but can be distingished by media type

TVMosaic

The current TV engine (TVE3) for Media Portal 1 and 2 was developed long time before and is not state of the art any more. Accordingly we decided to develop the TVMosaic plugin as alternative TV provider. The TVMosaic Community Edition is freeware and can be configured by web browser. Because it is not bonded to windows it may run on many platforms. The client plugin can be selected in the installer now. Further improvements and bugfixes as improved EPG loading time were integrated since previous version.

Check the wiki for further information.

TVE3.5

	The current TV engine (TVE3) for Media Portal 1 and 2 was developed long time before and is not state of the art any more. The TVE3.5 is a further development of the TVE3, with mainly better support for SAT>IP The development was unfortunately stopped, so this plugin is just the latest, but stable state of unfinished work
Check the wiki for further information.

Other

• All EPG screens have clear focus texts explaining the function or behavior
• Downloading of TV and Radio logos is improved
• SlimTv ChannelContext is not thread safe
• Remove hardcoded limit of 4 digits when channel zapping

Nereus Skin

Dialogs

• A scale and fade animation was added when dialogs dis-/appear. The dialog appearance was significantly improved with a skin setting to configure (glow effect, edge radius, transparency).
• Fix dialog closes if non-clickable element within dialog is clicked

Configuration of Home Screen Header

The home screen header can be configured among date, time, current weather condition and current temperature.

Main Menu Tile Style

New option to switch main menu tile styles – square (default) and circle.

Other

• Settings for scroll speed, scroll delay and loop scrolling were merged into one dialog
• Better gradients and background imageCategory images in settings
• Better list index presentation for shares and input devices
• New button style with rounded edges
• Better textbox styles with icon
• Improved message with icon in case no share is added with option to add a share directly
• Added image for “local media” tile
• FanArt visibility settings have a live preview now

Input Device Manager

The Input Device Manager was completely revised by our developer Brownard! Now it supports not only HID devices, but finally also allows mapping of all non-HID devices or devices that send simple key presses to an application. Please check also out wiki for further details.

Plugins

This refers to all optional plugins, meaning they are not part of the installer, but need to be installed manually. You can find them in the download section.

Cinema

The Cinema plugin was dead for longer time, because the used service google showtimes was abadoned. Our developer BigGranu completely rewrote the plugin using alternative services. There is a NET4.8 and NET6 version. Features: Add multiple cinemas e.g. close to your place by entering your country and postral code See the play schedules for the movies in the selected cinema Watch the trailers (In this new version also HD trailer playback is supported)

Webradio

The Webradio plugin is using .NET6 besides .NET4.8 now and serveral improvements were integrated. Updated streaming list Updated player OSD (dome infos removed, some newly added) New context menu entry to add/remove favorites Filter dialog overworked

Emulators

The emulators plugin is using .NET6 besides .NET4.8 now and serveral improvements were integrated. Updates to support new HID input plugin Several skin improvements

Full list of changes

You can review all changes by taking a look at changelog: MediaPortal 2.5.
For known issues please check out our Jira and our Bug Reports Forum.

Installation, Upgrade, Download and Feedback

Installation

Download the zip archive and check the "Allow access" box in the context menu. Then extract the archive and execute the MP2 Setup file.The installer will automatically download any missing components and install them. Consider which version of MediaPortal 2.5 you want to install. Further details can be found in the NET section of this news. Summarized the difference is:

NET6: Performance increase on most systems, however some features are not (yet) compatible with NET6 as OnlineVideos and TVE3 and hence not included in the installer NET4.8: Stable and including all features, but no performance increase

Windows 10 K and KN editions: You need to manually download and install the additional Microsoft Media feature pack first. This will add the Windows Media Player and related technologies that are required by MediaPortal 2 to work.
Wiki:  http://www.team-mediaportal.com/wiki/display/MediaPortal2/Installing+MediaPortal+2

Upgrade

The new installer should handle any upgrades from previous versions without issues. In case of any problems we strongly recommend to first uninstall previous versions of MediaPortal 2 before installing MediaPortal 2.5, this is also the case when upgrading from MediaPortal 2.4.1 to MediaPortal 2.5.

Warning: Upgrading from a .NET6 version to a .NET4 version is not supported and the previous version should be uninstalled first before installing the .NET4 version!

Feedback

Bugs

If you think you found a bug then please first check if it has not already been reported: the Bug Reports Forum contains all active user bug reports with their respective status. For new issues post a detailed report in our Bug Reports Forum. Make sure your report includes all the required information.

Appearance and functionality

We invite you to make suggestions for improvement with special focus on menu layout, menu content explanatory texts and translations. Please post your comments in a new thread in the General section.

Requests for missing/new features should be made in the Feature Request Forum. As for bugs we would appreciate if you first verified that your request has not already been raised before. Also if possible please make only one request per thread.

 

Download

We hope that you took the time to read this release news as it includes vital information about the major changes. Get your own copy of the new MediaPortal 2.5 by selecting the download link. Please consider, if you need the NET4.8 or NET6 version, more details can be found above under "System".

Donate

If you would like to support MediaPortal, we would be happy to receive a small donation!

 

The MediaPortal 2 team wishes you a good year 2024 and a lot of fun with this new release!

.::. Download - MediaPortal 2.5 (NET4.8) .::.

 .::. Download - MediaPortal 2.5 (NET6) .::.