I've had this installed for a few hours now and have managed to set up pretty much everything that's relevant to me.  So far I'm impressed and like the way it handles music, video and photos.  Windows Media Center spat the dummy [pacifier] when I asked it to handle my music collection, which is quite extensice.  Yeah, damned thing froze and wouldn't do a damned thing... had to use Task Manager to exit it and I never went back. 

That was not the case with Media Portal, however.  It mapped my music and video drive without a hiccup and I'm pleased with its handing of everything so far.  I have yet to view TV through it, but I know that it works as the setup went without a hitch, so all should be honky dory there

Glad you're happy, old friend.

Yeah, thanks for the tip, Doc, it's a fine piece of software and I appreciate your posting the heads up.

I haven't gotten around to customising it as yet, but I will, not that it's a bad looking app to begin with.

'Ere, and enuff of the "old", OLD matey.  Arrrrrggghhh.

For some odd reason ("OLD") I feel this twitch developing in my Ps trigger finger....

Dealbreaker question: Does the music library recognize the 'Album Artist' and 'Track Artist' ID3 tags as being two different things, and which does it organize with?

I had it installed but couldn't get it to work right. No matter now as I'm being picky about what I re-install.

You just made yrag's day....

This has become a dealbreaker for me as well. AFter screwing around with several media players (SOngbird, Winamp, KPLayer,..) and several music managers I've finally settled on MediaMonkey. It handles the tagging, artwork, and all the ID stuff very well and it's easy to use. 

Well I spoke too soon... Media Portal does not handle my music library.  No matter how I adjust/manipulate the settings it will not save my library to memory.  I thought it had but turns out it only kept stuff saved in C/starkers/My Music, not D/Music.

I've been to the FAQ and forums for answers but none as yet have resolved the issue.... but here's hoping.

Also for Po' and starkers... maybe you just need a plug-in?

http://www.team-mediaportal.com/team-blog/while-you-were-sleeping-plugins-2

http://www.team-mediaportal.com/team-blog/mediaportal-2-progress-report : Documents changes through June 2010... ID3 tagging looks like it's being done (per Media Library paragraph).

Po' -

There's a new MediaMonkey version out - http://www.neowin.net/news/mediamonkey-4031476

I use MediaMonkey for organizing everything, but as a player, it's too bulky for me.  I'm a foobar2000 fan, myself.

Found this link which you might want to look at...  http://www.team-mediaportal.com/team-blog/your-top-ten-developments-of-2011

Not suggesting you change your current arrangement.