Before MC, I gave MediaPortal a good go (I even donated $'s to the cause). While everyone will have a different set of needs, my #1 criteria was a single HTPC front end prog that would play ALL my media. The two tricky ones for me were my Muxed MPEG/DTS files (chapter rips from Music DVD's with DTS sound tracks), and home anamorphic DV-Type 1 movies. MC is the only prog I’ve come across that lets you choose your filter including what splitters you want and mix and match them by file type. MC wins. Nero Home is second. MediaPortal and Windows Media Centre are third (both use the MS Splitter).
However, I also agree that the MediaPortal HTPC Interface is far more extensible than what we have in MC, but for me I found that after the novelty wore off of using the weather, sodoku, calculator etc plugins I was really wanted was to use the IF to play content. For me (and the family), the current HTPC Interface is not perfect, is clunky, can be inconsistent but at the end of they day it does the job.
For what it is worth, some updated comments from my original post:
TV/PVR Support: This has come a long way over the last two months, the DBV-T support being added and the bugs currently being ironed out for Timeshifting and Recording. These features will suit my needs just fine but progs like MediaPortal are streets ahead in this area with support for EPGs, mapping of channels from multiple inputs with IR blaster support etc.
Remote Control – I’d love to see this MC support tweaks / configs out of the box like Customisable key mapping support (without using Girder) to control what the “OK”, “Back”, “Pause”, “Stop” buttons do as I find some of this inconsistent and the ability to map a key to launch TheaterView from STDView so you don’t have to get the keyboard!
WAF – The family is almost used to (or resigned to) the fact we use the HTPC for all our media content playback. The kids even watch the Home Videos now!
Sync – I did not appreciate this one before, but my wife has a Samsung MP3 Player, my daughter an IPOD, my son a PSP, and I’ve got a smart phone. I’ve got all my Music on the HTPC in WMA Lossless, and can sync to ALL of these devices without a single code of additional software or the need to worry about the transcoding – try that with the others! I will concede that this is a feature that should be added to the TheaterView so that the family can access it.
Support – MC and MediaPortal are right up there with the best with taking your feedback, suggestions and ideas and turning out changes in the product.
Thanks
Nathan