MediaPortal

2.5 Media center app for Windows

Sven Sorensen

Review: Transforms a PC into a multimedia center, allowing users to access and play TV, movies, music and photos from one place.

Free and open source media playing software download, reviewed by Sven Sørensen
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Transforms your PC in to a complete media player.

MediaPortal is a fully-featured replacement for your television and radio.

The program takes a queue from Windows Media Center by taking over many of the functions of a television while supporting many of the most popular video and audio formats.

MediaPortal's user interface is certainly different from popular media players like VLC Media Player or Winamp in that it runs best in full screen. It's very graphical and features large buttons and text, similar to a TiVo or Windows Media Center. Background images may be customized.

The application supports most multimedia including Pictures, Videos, TV, Music and Radio. Adding these items can be accomplished by mapping categories with directories connected to the PC. Accessing TV is accomplished with a proper capture device while everything else is through your hard drive or via the web.

Dealing with photos is a pleasure with MediaPortal: there are a ton of different effects provided for slideshows such as fading, random transitions, rotation and the fetching of EXIF data.

Video files loading in to the application can be through a playlist. The application supports subtitles and different video and audio decoder selection. The application can be configured to automatically detect which video decoder to use.

MediaPortal can be controlled with a remote control device paired with the PC.

All in all, MediaPortal is a very comprehensive media player which provides endless ways of customization while supporting virtually all types of video and audio formats through the availability of codec packs. It's certainly a more modern alternative to digital cable while also providing all of the tools for playing your existing media collection.

Features of MediaPortal

  • Access MediaPortal from the web or mobile device.
  • Check the weather, news, RSS feeds and more.
  • Enjoy pictures, home videos or create a slideshow.
  • Listen to music and radio
  • Play videos, movies, DVDs and Blu-ray discs.
  • Stream media, radio and TV to any HTPC / PC connected to your network.
  • Use a remote to control your HTPC from your couch.
  • Watch, schedule and record live TV - like a TiVo, but better.

Compatibility and License

MediaPortal is a free application released under the GPLv3 license on Windows from media players. With software released under the open source GPLv3 license, anybody can download, install, run and distribute the software with little in terms of restrictions. The latest version we have is 2.5 and is available to download here.

MediaPortal accepts donations for the continued development of this free software.

What version of Windows can MediaPortal run on?

MediaPortal can be used on a computer running Windows 11 or Windows 10. Previous versions of the OS shouldn't be a problem with Windows 8 and Windows 7 having been tested. It comes in both 32-bit and 64-bit downloads.

Filed under:
  1. MediaPortal Download
  2. Free Media Players
  3. Open source and GPL software
  4. Media Playing Software
MediaPortal has been picked by our editors as good software.
MediaPortal has been tested for viruses and malware.
We have tested MediaPortal 2.5 against malware with several different programs. We certify that this program is clean of viruses, malware and trojans.