MediaPortal 1.9.0 Pre Released
MediaPortal 1.9.0 Pre Release
Attached to this news you will find the Pre Release version of MediaPortal 1.9.0. 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 with your help.
For this Pre Release we've put our focus once more on Bug fixing and improved stability. However, there are a couple of new features. Skin designers will like the new <oninfo> and <onESC> functions. There are enhancements to the video resolution logos that will give you more information about the video you are watching. There is a new sort method in My Videos called Name with Duration. There are several improvements to logging, and a significant number of bug fixes.
Scroll down to the 'Full list of changes' to read up on all of them!
Highlights of this release
UNC Streaming for Live TV
The default protocol for LiveTV streaming on a multi-seat setup is RTSP. MediaPortal has an option to change this to UNC for those that experience problems with RTSP. In the last release, we fixed some long-standing issues with UNC paths. Therefore, this option (which was previously hidden) is now present in configuration.
Thumbnails
Thumbnails are a really important way for you to get feedback about video files, and these have been improved in several ways in this release. Individual plugins can now use their own default thumbs. Issues with large thumbnail creation are fixed.
Content Protection
We found a number of issues with content protection. It wasn't working properly in date view in 'Pictures'. Also, the PIN code was shown unencrypted in the configuration files. This is all now fixed, and the PIN code now supports letters as well as numbers. However, you will need to reset all your PIN codes for this release.
Titan Extended
The Titan team have decide to stop development on Titan Extended. Therefore it has been removed from the installer. If you already have Titan Extended, this won't affect you. For clean installs you will need to download Titan Extended manually from the plugins repository in order to find skin files for plugins. For 1.9.0, plugin developers will need to provide the Titan skin files as part of their own installers.
Titan TNC will be the new skin name of the Titan Extended theme, and this will be released as a stand-alone skin, probably at the same time as the 1.9 Final release.
Full list of changes
You can review the complete change log for 1.9.0 Pre Release by using the link below:
Changelog: MediaPortal
Documentation of new features can be found at the following link:
What's new for MediaPortal 1.9.0 (Pre Release)
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 1.9.0 Pre Release there is nothing else to worry about.
Upgrade
Upgrading from 1.2.x, 1.3.0 Alpha/Beta/RC/Final, 1.4.0 until 1.8 to 1.9.0 Pre Release
All MediaPortal 1.2.x, 1.3.0 Alpha/Beta/RC/Final, 1.4.0 till 1.8 installations can be upgraded to 1.9.0 Pre 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 1.9.0 Pre Release! Whether or not a plugin is incompatible depends on the MediaPortal subsystems the plugin uses.
All plugins that work for the 1.8 release, should also work with the 1.9.0 Pre Release.
Skins:
Warning! Due to the new features and changes introduced in 1.4.0, none of the 1.3.x skins are compatible with 1.9.0 Pre Release! Please contact the author of the skin you use for further information and updates.
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.
Upgrading from 1.2.0 Alpha or earlier to 1.9.0 Pre Release
All MediaPortal installations starting with 1.1.0 RC1 can be upgraded to 1.9.0 Pre Release, without losing your settings.
If you are running MediaPortal 1.2.0 Alpha or earlier, then none of your extensions (plugins and skins) will work after the upgrade to 1.9.0 Pre Release! You must update your extensions after the upgrade!
So, please make sure that 1.9.0 Pre Release compatible versions of your extensions are available before you start the upgrade!
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 1.9.0 Pre 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
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 small donation!
The Team wishes you a lot of fun with this new release!
.::. Download - MediaPortal 1.9.0 Pre Release .::.
