Essential software for HTPC

eoinf

I have an AS ion Rock and i am pretty happy with it but i seem to have a lot of different software to do different tasks , I was wondering if i could start to slim it down.

Just wondering what in yuor opinion is essential software for the HTPC

I am running Windows 7 and i have messed around with XBMC and MC7.

I want to use it for playing music & videos but also for TV.

Games aren't that important.

Cheers

EF

big_moe

Here is what I use

Blurays
AnyDVD HD to rip to image file
TSMuxr to take off all other languages/subtitles etc
Handbrake to convert to MKV

DVDs - Handbrake can rip & convert to mp4

Music - EAC to import music as FLAC (will do mp3 as well)
Winamp to tag music

XBMC as front end

XBMC doesnt do live tv though, if you want to have live tv on it then you'll need to explore MC7 or MediaPortal. I tried MediaPortal and didnt like it. XBMC is the business, i dont need the HTPC to do live tv

Bob_Harris

Media Center 7 is alright for Live TV and a video library. I don't like the interface but you can always get a theme. There's no great way of ordering channels other than manually (which is painful) or use GuideTool. Each time you do a new scan (if a channel changes transponder or you add a new type of tuner) you need to re-order the channels all over again. Overall MC7 is very smooth, but just too limited it what it will allow you do.

For my HTPC is use DVBViewer (€15 but well worth it) with a nice OSD skin, like this, along with XBMC for movies and music.

EventGhost is great for mapping all sorts of actions from your remote control / keyboard.

MediaPortal is just a waste of time. When switching to live TV on MediaPortal I would always have to hope for the best that it wouldn't crash, most of the time it did.

Mr McBoatface

Bob_Harris wrote: »

MediaPortal is just a waste of time. When switching to live TV on MediaPortal I would always have to hope for the best that it wouldn't crash, most of the time it did.

Not my experience with MediaPortal on Windows XP. Using it on Windows 7 was another matter altogether, not sure if it's an Windows7 or MP issue. Anyway I use it on 3 dedicated Windows XP HTPC's with 100% success.

With XP the initial set-up isn't an out of the box solution but In my household it has been used for nearly two years with rock solid performance. By default it supports the Freesat 7 day and Saorview 5 day EPG direct from the DVB source but there is full 7 day SKY EPG direct from the DVB-S source with this addon, it also provides Sky series link functionality. There are some really nice skins like StreamedMP but personally I prefer and I'm using Maya which has a nice clear interface. The MS media centre RC6 remote works perfectly too. I'm using PowerDVD 10 codecs for h.264 and VC1 DVXA video playback and PowerDVD 8 codecs for DVXA h.264 TV broadcast.

There are several other windows based TV software and plugins I'd love to be able to discuss but unfortunately the forum rules don't allow me to. Both MP and DVBviewer work very well with these plugins.

rlogue

I hated all the set up with MediaPortal and then it only worked in Vista when it felt like it. Not at all suitable for replacing a Sky box with and expecting the wife and kids to know how to use it.

On the other hand I think I've pretty much sussed it with DVBViewer as I now have a seamless link between the Freesat channels and the Irish channels on my TV.

And of course I can number the channels how I want them so 1 is BBC 1 HD, 7 is RTE 1

I've got DVBViewer running nicely on my HTPC and I have it linked in with a Hauppauge remote so to watch TV just point the remote at the TV and press the green button...