MediaPortal 1.39.0

MediaPortal turns a Windows PC connected to your TV into a living-room media centre you control from the sofa.

Its standout feature is free live TV recording: plug in a TV tuner and it watches, pauses, schedules and records broadcasts like a set-top box.

It is free and open source, and version 1.39 arrived in October 2026 with native 64-bit and 32-bit builds.

What MediaPortal Actually Does

MediaPortal replaces the Windows desktop with a full-screen interface made for a TV and a remote. Everything is big, readable from across the room, and a few button presses away.

• Live TV and recording. Watch, pause and rewind live TV, browse the programme guide, and schedule recordings, with a compatible DVB, ATSC or IPTV source.
• Films and series. Plays your video files, DVDs and Blu-rays, and builds a library with posters and plot details.
• Music and radio. Your music collection with album art, plus internet and broadcast radio.
• Pictures. Photo slideshows on the big screen.
• Whole-house TV. The TV Server can run on one PC and feed live TV and recordings to other PCs running MediaPortal.

Make It Yours With Plugins and Skins

A large library of community plugins adds things like weather, extra metadata sources, online video sites and system monitoring. Skins change the whole look, and 1.39 updates the popular DefaultWideHD and Titan skins.

Plugins install through the built-in MediaPortal Extension Installer, which also keeps them updated. Many were written years ago, so check that a plugin still works with current versions before you rely on it.

What Is New in MediaPortal 1.39

Version 1.39 was released on 13 October 2026. It follows 1.38, the release that first brought a native 64-bit build.

• Fewer dependencies. MediaPortal no longer needs the old .NET 3.5 framework.
• TV and radio. A new tvgids24 guide grabber and radio improvements.
• Looks. Updated DefaultWideHD and Titan skins, and new audio level meters.
• Fixes. A music playback error, missing thumbnails and stale skin values are fixed, and bundled libraries such as SQLite and MediaInfo are updated.

Which Download to Take

The MediaPortal download page has the same release in two builds. Take the 64-bit (x64) one on a modern PC.

Choose the 32-bit (x86) build if your Windows is 32-bit, or if an older plugin you depend on will not load in the 64-bit version.

What You Need

MediaPortal runs on Windows and needs the .NET Framework 4, which current Windows already includes. If playback crashes when a video starts or stops, update the Visual C++ Redistributable runtimes.

For live TV you need a TV tuner card or USB stick supported by Windows. The TV Server installs its own database automatically, so there is nothing extra to set up.

Getting Better Picture and Sound

MediaPortal plays video through the decoders installed in Windows. LAV Filters is the usual choice, and the K-Lite Codec Pack installs it with everything else in one go.

For sharper scaling and HDR on a big TV, madVR and MPC Video Renderer are the renderers enthusiasts pair with it.

Building Your Library

To get your discs into the library, MakeMKV copies DVDs and Blu-rays to files without losing quality. tinyMediaManager then names your films and series and fetches posters, so they look right on screen.

For music, tidy tags with Mp3tag before MediaPortal scans your collection. Correct album and artist names make browsing by remote much easier.

Who Should Look Elsewhere

The tell is live TV. If you do not have a TV tuner and only play files and streams, a more actively developed media centre is the easier choice.

• Kodi is the most popular free media centre, with a huge add-on library, and runs on almost any device.
• Emby is a media server that streams your library to TVs, phones and browsers, with live TV and recording in its paid tier.
• ProgDVB focuses on watching and recording digital TV on the desktop, without the full media centre.

For TV over the internet instead of an aerial, IPTV Smarters Pro plays M3U playlists, and Pluto TV offers free channels with no setup.

For a simple player on the desktop, VLC Media Player or MPC-BE is lighter.

The Media Players category has the rest.

Quick questions

Download MediaPortal 1.39.0 and set up your living-room PC, or be the first to tell us how you got on.