After the release of MediaPortal 2.2 Final the team focussed on improving usability and extending functionalities besides fixing bugs.
MediaPortal 2.2 is a full-blown media center software that addresses the most common user requirements out of the box. Besides its TV and Radio services it is also offering a complete media management for movies, series and music, including posters, album and fan art as well as additional metadata (e.g. actor, director and much more) that are automatically downloaded from the internet. MediaPortal 2.2 also provides access to online video sources such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. Integrated news, weather information and management for your digital images complete this software package.
As usual there is a long list of changes – you can find all details at the end of this news – major changes are:
TV
Extended subtitle support: All kinds of subtitles (DVB, Closed Captions, Teletext) can now be displayed. Individual settings allow users to customize which kind of subtitles they wish MediaPortal to support.
N.B.: When in window-mode, a remaining problem may lead to 'Teletext' subtitles being cut-off at the left and right side of the window.
Recording skin functionality: All recording functons in the different menus have been stream-lined. Recordings can now be scheduled from more places using the record button. Recording options have been expanded.
Previous programm: pressing "0" on the remote or keyboard will now switch back to the previously watched channel.
EPG:
'Single Channel' will now display the complete available guide.
Improved one-button navigation allows to quickly move 12 hrs (Next/Prev) or 24 hrs (Fwd/Rew).
Start and end of the MiniEPG channel list can now quickly be reached with either Home/End on a keyboard or Prev/Next on a remote.
Typing a channel number will highlight the respective channel in the EPG.
**Extended TV card support:
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TBS cards CI/CAM
DiSeqC motor delay
Digital Devices dynamic PMT
HD-PVR 2
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HID Input Device Management**
MediaPortal is now processing HID input. This allows the use of any Microsoft-compatible input device, be it remote, keyboard or gamepad. Generic Windows functions (including the standard MyTV, MyVideos, MyMusic, MyPictures) are pre-mapped to MediaPortal functions, therefore all devices should in principle work out of the box.
The plugin now not only allows to map any button or key on your input device to a MediaPortal function but you can also assign a MediaPortal or Configuration screen. This way you can for example assign special shortcuts to switch from one screen directly to another (e.g. to directly jump to TV from anywhere within MediaPortal).
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System**
Importer: Out-of-memory issues during large imports have been fixed.
Restart: A new option in the shutdown menu now allows an easy restart of MediaPortal
(needs to be enabled in settings first)
List navigation: Navigating in long lists has become easier. The following functionalities are now in place:
Up/Down Move focus by one element. Scroll down/up if top/bottom list element has focus
Pg Up/Down Display the previous/next screenful of list elements ('Channel Up/Down' on remote)
Home/End The first/last element of a list gets the focus ('Prev/Next' on remote)
Mouse control: The sensitivity of the mouse has been reduced so that minor movements will not immediately take the focus away.
Settings section: The system response upon entering the settings section has been significanly improved. The new busy cursor gives a more modern touch to your skin.
Special key handling: All keys and combinations are now treated as such. So Ctrl-F7 is now a different key than Shft-F7 or F7 itself. Note that Shift-F10 is hard-coded to the MS Windows context menu function.
Extensions
MediaPortal 2.2.1's functionality can be further extended through the installation of additional plugins. The choice of extensions, while currently limited, is steadily growing. Discover what else is available in our Featured Plugins section.
Trakt
A new Trakt plugin has been developed with better sync and watched flags management, completely compatible with the new User Management system, allowing different trakt accounts for different users. The development of the plugin has been moved out from the standard Mediaportal 2 development. This will ease development and bug fixes.
For details or manual, please refer to the related WIKI section.
Flag Mover
Flag mover is a new plugin developed for MediaPortal 2.2 and newer versions. You'll be able to backup user specific watched flags (JSON format) and to restore/transfer them into a new clean installation.
Moving from MP1 to MP2
Procedures to install MP2 in parallel to MP1 are described in the Wiki
For all those who would like to move from MP1 to MP2 and preserve their current media organisation, our forum member raffe has created a small tool that will extract information from your MP-TvSeries and MovingPictures databases and picture folders, The tool will leave all your original data untouched, create .nfo files for all your media and copy existing pictures from your MovingPictures and MP-TvSeries to your new MediaPortal 2 media folders. The .nfo files and pictures then allow a smooth and quick import of all your media info into MediaPortal 2. See thee respective forum thread for further details.
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Full list of changes**
You can review all changes by taking a look at changelog: MediaPortal 2.2.1
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.
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 2.2 to work.
Wiki: http://www.team-mediaportal.com/wiki/display/MediaPortal2/Installing+MediaPortal+2
Upgrade
MediaPortal 2.2 has a new media database structure that is not compatible with versions prior to MediaPortal 2.2 Pre Release. The installer will recognize an existing incompatible database and migrate the content to the new version. Please be aware that this might take a while depending on the amount of your media items. The data base migration progress is shown by an indicator in the client.
N.B.: If you upgrade from an earlier version than MediaPortal 2.1 the data base is incompatible and cannot be migrated. You will need to redo your server settings including the setup of media sources.
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.