media center software

wolfric

I'm surprised there isn't a thread dedicated to this. There is a big list of media center software available on wikipedia. I was wondering if people want to respond back with what they use and what they recommend.

I'd been using the windows media center on win7 for a while but it was dead slow opening videos and just bits and bobs that were generally annoying

switched to Boxee... Serious improvement. The features are amazing and the internet apps are great. It has a huge list of websites it grabs videos and audio from such as youtube cnn etc. 100's of the sites are listed. It takes all the videos from different sources and sorts them into movies and tv series section(so i can dump all my media into one folder and it sorts it all out). On the site getsatasfaction they have an active feedback page and most of the ideas suggested have been put in or are under construction.
Unfortunately it does freeze for some reason on occasion but it's still in alpha or beta.

Edit: just saw a small list in the useful links but no reviews and a lot missing.

What have you got to say about media center software (programs or operating systems)

banquo

I second Boxee.

I've tried all the 'big' ones - XMBC, Plex, but Boxee kicks ass. It's smooth, clean and foolproof. Looks great on a big Tv too.

slegs

Does Boxee do live TV through TV tuners with PVR features etc?

Simon201

Love Plex on me Macbook - has some good features ie - able to passthrough 5.1 sound on QT, Mkv's & AVI files etc whereas Quicktime itself doesn't seem to be able to do this without hacks. Also the audio offset adjustment is real handy sometimes.

slegs

Unless these can do TV through a tuner they are not true media centres. They are more like Media Jukeboxes for organising and replaying previously ripped or recorded content.

banquo

I guess. I think scheduled programming is on the way out though. I get all of my content online, so they're perfect for me. Another user may have other requirements, naturally.

Windows Media Center is (reportedly) a decent DVR.

Mr McBoatface

Mediaportal is super in my opinion. Full 8 day epg on Free-sat and Sky and 7 day epg on RTE digital all pulled direct from the DVB source no xml files or internet connection required. It plays any media format with the correct codecs, plug-ins for anything you'd ever need. Skins available to suit just about anybodies taste . MCE remote supported natively .

It does need some configuration work to get it up and running , once it's running correctly it's the bee's knee's.

Skatedude

Ì use windows 7 media center with media browser plugin and meta browser to pull the movie info. Mostly because its so simple and quick to use.