MediaPortal 1.3.0 RC Released
We are happy to announce that the Release Candidate of our new major release MediaPortal 1.3.0 is now available for download!
A lot has changed since the release of MediaPortal 1.2.3. Too much to fit everything into one news. So we will focus on what has changed since the 1.3.0 Beta release. If you want to find out what was added in the 1.3.0 Alpha and 1.3.0 Beta version, then please have a look at their release news, or view all the changes in our wiki: What's New > 1.3.x
This Release Candidate is the last stop before the final version of 1.3.0. The focus since the release of 1.3.0 beta was on bug fixes and polishing. We want to thank everyone in the community for their help with finding the bugs!
Please be aware that even though this version is very close to the final product, it can still contain issues. This means that we advise against using it on production systems. Make sure that you read the instructions at the end of this news regarding installation, upgrade and extension compatibility.
Now let's get to the changes!
Highlights of this release:
- Titan: many fixes and adjustments
- Titan Extended: added support for more community plugins as well as bugfixes and tweaks
- MediaPortal Audio Renderer: fixed a issue with AC3 encoding that could cause a memory leak
- Themes: fixed a bug that could crash MediaPortal when changing themes several times
- Videos inside Pictures section: a lot of problems have been fixed that where present when users tried to play their holiday videos along with viewing their holiday pictures
- Thumbnailer: fixed a bug which caused the creation of a thumb to fail for files which have a semicolon in their name
- Volume Control: A bug was fixed which caused that you could not increase the volume on a fresh install on Windows 7
- TV-Server Database connection: fixed an issue in the upgrade procedure which could change the hostname in gentle.config to "localhost"
Full list of changes
You can review the complete change log for 1.3.0 Beta by using the following links:
Compiled List of Skin and Plugin related changes
Community Skinners and Developers should have a look at the following pages to find out about the changes which will effect their extensions.
Some of these changes are mandatory to become 1.3.0 compatible:
Installation, Upgrade, Download and Feedback
Installation
When doing a clean installation of 1.3.0 RC there is nothing special to worry about.
Upgrade
Upgrading from 1.2.x, or 1.3.0 Alpha/Beta to 1.3.0 RC
All MediaPortal 1.2.x and 1.3.0 Alpha/Beta installations can be upgraded to 1.3.0 RC, without losing your settings.
Plugins:
If you are running MediaPortal 1.2.x, then it is possible that some of your already installed plugins will be shown as incompatible after the upgrade to 1.3.0 RC! Whether or not a plugin is incompatible depends on the MediaPortal subsystems the plugin uses.
If you are running MediaPortal 1.3.0 Alpha or Beta, then all your plugins are compatible with 1.3.0 RC.
If a plugin provides skin files for MediaPortal's Default skin, then the author should also check the Skin related changes.
Skins:
Warning! Due to the new features and changes introduced, none of the 1.2.x nor 1.3.0 Alpha skins are compatible with 1.3.0 RC!
Please contact the author of the skin you use for further information and updates.
Skins that work under 1.3.0 Beta also work under 1.3.0 RC!
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 1.3.0 RC
All MediaPortal installations starting with 1.1.0 RC1 can be upgraded to 1.3.0 RC, 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 1.3.0 RC! You must update your extensions after the upgrade!
So, please make sure that 1.3.0 RC 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 1.3.0 RC we recommend 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
Skin related
We are very curious what you think about our new skins in 1.3.0. Please share your thoughts in the forums created for feedback on Titan and the Default skins.
Bugs
If you think you found a bug then please post a detailed report in our 1.3.0 Beta/RC 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 1.3.0 RC .::.