Being Windows based means the project can rely on the rock solid drivers and ease of setup that Windows systems have for TV tuners. I have found through experience that trying to set up tuner cards to work in Linux still very challenging although not impossible. As they have concentrated on having live TV / DVR support as their core feature it makes sense that the project is Windows only at the moment. The UI is even fully skinable although I’ve just kept mine to default for now.Īs I’ve mentioned, MediaPortal is an open source project that was forked from XBMC a while ago. I recently discovered MediaPortal, a Windows only fork of the XBMC project that is heavily influenced by the great features and style of Windows Media Center but takes the functionality a lot further. Over the years I have dabbled with many “media centre” products both software and hardware but there has always been one stumbling block: TV tuner card support and the whole DVR aspect of the HTPC. Having been a Windows Media Center user for many years has not stopped me looking for viable alternatives.

Mediaportal server