MediaPortal

I would like to provide a guide on using MediaPortal. Its a great application that doesn’t get enough attention from the major websites, I would like to pick on lifehacker here, because they have had several mediacenter articles that didn’t include MediaPortal Article1 Article2 , but instead they focused on Boxee, XBMC and Windows MediaCenter.

MediaPortal is great out of the box. It supports video and audio playback, picture viewing, DVR functionality for TV, and many other options. Its default themes are boring but get the job done. I recommend install different skins and additional plug-ins when setting up MediaPortal for the best user experience. All of the plug-ins and skins available on the website are developed by people in their spare time, so unfortunately there is a few issues once and a while, maybe that is why MediaPortal hasn’t received the same popularity as some of the other mediacenter applications.

There are some skins that really stick out in my opinion, and I will mark them here.
Xface (I used this one for a long time)
Indigo (My current skin as of Feb 2010)
Monochrome (Monochrome is the base, and Indigo is based off Monochrome)
I recommend you check out the forums for other skins.

ToDo: Recommend Plugins.