I finally decided I'd had enough of the bugs from Mediaportal 1.16/1.17.  Nothing but problems since 1.16 for me with MP crashing, freezing after watching local media etc.  So I chucked it in and installed MP 2.1.  

First install - I installed it with 1.16 still installed.  It picked up all my existing configuration and proceeded to turn to utter crap.  Dropping the tv server constantly etc.  It also decided 2 of my 3 DVB-T cards were unknown types of cards.  

Second Install - I uninstalled MP 1.16. Uninstalled MP 2.1.  Reinstalled MP 2.1.  It detected my cards correctly but was still crashing regularly when trying to change channels.  Scrapped that and started over! 

Third Install - I reinstalled 1.16 and did a FULL uninstall and deleted the lot. OMG did it take its time! Too many oh who knows what :p  Installed MP 2.1 from scratch again.  Didnt import any settings from prior.  Tested it out and OMG!  it worked perfectly - or so I thought!  

Added in my media - tv shows, movies. All good. It worked fine.  Added in my music - it crapped out and started crashing the tv server again.  Removed my music (admittedly I have 450-500GB of music from waaaaaaaay too many CD's I actually own!).  Things started working fine again!  

Next step was setting up Trakt.tv.  Comes with the plugin pre-installed.  Seemed to setup fine but isnt syncing.  Not a biggie right now would just be nice to have it syncing so both my computers have updated syncs.  Doesnt come up with a rating system etc like the original did on MP1.  Thats ok.  I can live with it. 

Pet peeves about MP 2.1 - the interface is a little hard to use.  I would have loved a straight forward theme like MP1 has. Or even a straight forward theme like my Kodi one.  Tried removing stuff from the main menu I dont use - pictures and now music since Im not going to bother - I'll stick spotify on the computer for the rare time I use it for music!.  This just plain didnt work so Im guessing the inbuilt theme menu editing isnt working yet.  Annoying but livable.  

I HATE HATE HATE having to try like hell to get the damned tv/videos back into full screen! OMG!  Cant find how to do it without going thru menu after menu.  Very frustrating.  So if anyone knows what key to bind please let me know and I'll reprogram my harmony to use it!  

Cant switch to/from TVNZ1 & TVNZ2. I will get sound but no image, just a black screen.  So if I want to swap between those two I switch to 3/4 then to 1/2.  I dont seem to have the same issues with 3/4.  Havent tried switching from TVNZ1/2 to Duke either. Havent played with PiP, might when I get around to it one day.  No rush! 

Power saving,  very different to how I had it set in MP1!!  Its taken me a few days to work out but now its working and working well.  Use the default settings,  if you have a network share on your HTPC which stores your stuff make sure you tell it to go into away mode or else when someone turns off the system it'll shut it down mid stream.  Nothing like Game of Thr......... omg who was the tard that switched the tv off! :p  It now uses the Windows power saving rather than the built in.  This is good and bad, good once you work it out.  Only issue Ive had now with it was my SABnzbd got stuck on a file with 40k left to download but kept looping.  Computer wouldnt turn off till I rectified that problem.  Now it'll do standby / hibernate no problems.

TV Guide - still using EPG Collector as the built in guide download still comes up with garbage.  All good,  takes all of 30 secs more to setup.  I have it collecting at 6pm when I know the computer will be on and unlikely to be using all the cards. Works perfect every time.  

The TV quality is a crapload more reliable so far than my MP1 setup.  Doesnt break up / jitter / lag etc.  Channel switching is very very fast.  Not sure if the picture quality is better / the same / rubbish.  To be perfectly honest I dont personally use the lounge setup enough to really notice - I have a Kodi NUC in my bedroom hooked up to a 50" LED TV so thats my normal go-to.  Cant stand the Home and Away / Neighbors / Shortland Street / Masterchef nights! :p   All my recordings come out fine.  

So other than the few niggles Im having its actually working very well.  I would like a more in depth trakt plugin but thats really about all Im missing.  Dont need a movie plugin, dont need a series plugin etc.  It would be nice if they could integrate Spotify into it eventually as well but without an "official" app I doubt its worth the headache.  

I run my HTPC on an AMD A10-7850K CPU, ASUS motherboard (cant remember which) 2x4GB DDR3 - important to have it in dual channel mode or the GPU is absolutely awful!! 120GB SSD - the main drive along with the buffering for TV. 500GB drive for recordings, 2TB drive for downloads / storage.  Hauppauge HVR-2250 Dual DVB-T, Asus 7135 DVB-T Tuner.