MediaPortal: Discover the Features

This Wiki section is the main User's Guide for those who are new to MediaPortal..  It describes how to navigate and use the main features and plugins installed with MediaPortal. 

Basics

So, you've successfully prepared your system, installed MediaPortal and completed quick setup? Well then: you're ready to start using MediaPortal!

Using MediaPortal is very intuitive. See Basics to learn about the MediaPortal interface.

Home Screen

When your first start MediaPortal you will see the Home screen.  There are two options for the Home screen: Home or BasicHome and many ways you can configure your startup options.

Navigation

Navigating the MediaPortal interface is very intuitive.  There are navigation features you may choose according to the input device you use (remote control, keyboard, mouse, touch screen, or other external devices like mini displays).  See Navigation to learn the options available such as:

• Keyboard shortcuts
• Remote keys
• Mouse or Touch screen controls:
  • Page up/down
  • Scroll bars
  • Top bar

Menus

Most windows in MediaPortal offer built in menus which allow you to select:

• Layouts - List, Icons, Big Icons, Filmstrip, Cover flow and in a few windows Big Icons List (Album). The Playlist layout is available in playlist windows (instead of the normal list layout).
• Views - Shares (Explorer style), Database, Playlists
• Sort Options

As well as navigate to other related windows or features, or perform related actions.

Note: Yes, there is both a Playlists layout and a playlists view.

Context Menus

Context menus enable you to perform additional actions which are relevant for the window you're using.  They're sometimes called dialogs because they allow you to interact with MediaPortal. 

Features

There are seven main features in MediaPortal.  The main features display by default on the Home Screen when you start MediaPortal. Five of them display on the BasicHome screen in the default skin Blue3/wide. For an overview of features, see our webstie:  MediaPortal: Discover the Features. To learn how to use these features, see:

• Videos
• DVD Disks/Images (not on BasicHome)
• TV
• Radio (not on BasicHome)
• Music
• Pictures
• Weather

To disable or enable these features, or display features on either the Home or Plugins Window, see Customizing > Configuration > Plugins. 

You may also customize many aspects of each feature. See the specific feature under Customizing > Configuration

Plugins included in MediaPortal

Plugins add to the functionality of MediaPortal.  A number of plugins are included with MediaPortal.

See Using MediaPortal > Plugins, in particular:

• LastFMScrobbler
• RSS News
• Wikipedia 
• Sudoku 
• Tetris

For an overview of the types of plugins and their differences, see Reference > Plugins