Has anyone tried this software yet? It looks pretty comprehensive and seems to be a great alternative to Windows Media Center. It is also free. I am going to try it out on the PC in my home theater that is currently running Windows XP.

Media Portal Homepage

Yup, tried it, used it but back now I use Nero Media Home (also free if you have the latest version of Nero). Media Portal is a great bit of S'W but I had a couple of probs:
1) It uses the MS demuxer that does not support DTS sound in MPEG files (I have ripped by music DVD's to individual MPEG tracks)
2) Playing MPEG files like music tracks one after another is not as staight forward as with music files
3) You need to install codecs such as FFDSHOW to get full media playback support

Apart from those limites (which most people don't have) I highly recomend it - I even donated to the cause!

Nathan

If I remember correctly Randy (Sirquack) is using it with his HTPC. I'm sure he'll chime in; if not pm him!

As jmone pointed out MediaPortal is great but involves a bit of tweaking to get it to do exactly what you want. Remember that it's being developed for free and I think it works pretty well for a product that hasn't acheived commercial maturity yet. It has its flaws but it's getting better all the time. I'm planning on using it whenever I build my HTPC.

I have the latest version of MP installed on my home theater pc. I have had no major issues with the product, and have had many friends ask me if I was running Microsoft's Media Center Edition. My big deal is that I primarily use MP for watching HDTV using my Cat's Eye tuner card. I really don't use is for the music functionality, nor do I have gobs and gobs of videos installed to my hard drive. For movie watching I use TheaterTek DVD Software, which is awesome.

There are a few options around for playing different media types, but the field narrows quickly if you want to control it with an IR Remote, have a TV Tuner, Play Video / Pics / Music etc. The three that seem cover these requirements I've tried so far are Nero Home on XP, Micosoft Media Centre on Vista, Media Portal on XP and Vista.

I'm still searching for the "perfect" soln as each has a drawback for me. Your best to try the them as see how they work with your setup - all I can say is that it takes a lot of time, effort and teaking to get most of them to a half way decent setup.

FYI - I currently use Nero Home outputing Sound over S/PDIF, and Video @ 1080i from a NVIDIA 6200TC using DVI to a Yami V2600 to my Axioms & a Hitachi Plasma on HDMI.

"Fun" stuff has been the trial and error with:
- Support / Codecs / Demuxers for the different media you want (both Audio & Video)
- Drivers for your Sound & Video card (this makes a big difference eg. my system still gets a BSOD if I try to set my audio output to 96/24 bit then play a DTS track)
- Deinterlacing & Scaling: should you do this in the SW, the Amp, or the TV or all three! You can get some bizare looking results that can change with the format of your original video. Currently I've got the 6200TC video card set to the default 1920x1080i@60hz, the Yami as Pass Through, and then the TV has to scale it down to 1024x1024. Considering tha many of my files are 720x576i@50hz you can start to see waaaay to much overprocessing - Yet HDTV for us is 1080i....and you can not set your TV card to "pass through" or "original". Best option I think will be (but only just becoming avail and still big $$$$) is a HDMI Graphics card with a great scaler that supports 1080p, pass through 1080p on the Receiver, and a true 1080p Display.....so it just scales it once.

Someone has the sig of "enjoy the music not the technology", HTPC are really for those that enjoy the technology as I've spent waaaayyy longer on the system than listening to any of the media on it.

Nathan, I'm grateful to you for sharing your experience.

What do you use as in IR receiver?

I use the MS Remote/IR + Keyboard then programed my Yami Remote (ps you have to turn "debounce" with a registry hack if you want to use your 3rd party remote as the MS stuff uses 2 codes for everthing not just one to stop ir "bounce" - just another 2 days of working out what the prob was....)