Pre Releases are provided as a way for the community to test and give feedback on all the exciting things we have lined up for the next release. We allocate about one month for Pre Release testing. In that time we will only fix bugs, after which comes the final release!

Highlights of this release 

Bugfixes:
[MP1-5081] - WatchDog not switch Mediaportal log to Debug level
[MP1-5082] - Error when MP restart
[MP1-5086] - XMLTV Import error - An item with the same key has already been added.

New:
[MP1-5070] - Handle large Music Playlists

Improvement / Rework:
[MP1-5083] - Update MetadataExtractor to 2.6.0
[MP1-5084] - Update MediaInfo.Wrapper to 21.3.4
[MP1-5085] - Text controls changed to universal controls in TVZapOSD
DWHD OSD update
French language update

Along with the above items we kept consolidating our software.

Notes:

For use Bluray with BD-J support, please read the Wiki

Full list of changes

You can review the complete change log for this Release by using the link below:
Changelog: MediaPortal 1.29 Pre Release

Documentation of new features will be added to: Wiki - What's New

Installation, Upgrade, Download and Feedback

Installation

Since we switched to .NET4 you need to make sure you have.NET4 installed on your computer (not needed if you are on Windows 8 because it comes with .NET4, but you NEED the .NET 3.5 features enabled!). Otherwise you are not able to install MediaPortal and the installer just quits.

Download-Link: Microsoft .NET Framework 4 (Standalone Installer)

Aside from that when doing a clean installation of the this Release there is nothing else to worry about.

Microsoft SQL Server

If you plan to use MSSQL server for TV it is necessary to install it yourself before installing Mediaportal with TV Server. Instructions for previous versions are on the wiki, note that new versions were not checked for 100% compatibility.

For Windows XP, Vista - MSSQL 2005 - SQL Server 2005

For Windows 7 or later - MSSQL 2008 - SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2008 R2 Express

For Windows 7 or later - MSSQL versions above 2008, there's no official documentation from Mediaportal but you can install and configure it based on the articles above, google or documentation from Microsoft. Compatibility has not been tested.

Upgrade

Upgrading from MP 1.2.0 Beta or later to 1.28 Pre-Release

All MediaPortal 1.2.0 Beta installations can be upgraded to this Release without losing your settings.

Plugins:

If you are running MediaPortal 1.6.0 or earlier, then it is possible that some of your previously installed plugins will be shown as incompatible after the upgrade to this Release! Whether or not a plugin is incompatible depends on the MediaPortal subsystems the plugin uses.
All plugins that work for the 1.7.1 HotFix release, should also work with the this Release.

Upgrading Extensions:

The easiest way to upgrade your extensions is by launching the MediaPortal Extension Installer, and let it check for updated versions. However this only works for extensions that use our MPEI system. If the author of the extension releases it as a stand alone installer, you must contact them for an updated version.

General note about Upgrades

Manually stop TV-Service!

On some systems our installer is not able to update the TV-Server installation because its files are locked or the service can not be stopped.
For upgrades to this Release we recommend that you manually stop the TV-Service and make sure, via Windows Task Manager (enable the "all users" option), that the TvService.exe process is really gone before starting to upgrade.

Custom TV-Service properties

If you manually changed the properties of the TV-Service (like restart on error options), then you must redo these changes after the upgrade. The installer is not able to save and restore your custom service properties when it installs the new version of the TV-Service.

Feedback

Bugs

If you think you found a bug then please post a detailed report in our Bug Reports Forum.

Make sure your report includes all the required information. Incomplete reports will be removed to keep the forum clean.

 Download

Finally - the download. We hope that you took the time to read this release news entirely because it includes vital information about the major changes.

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

The Team wishes you a lot of fun with this new release!