Media center software

janesssssy

janesssssy

janesssssy

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What is the best or in every ones opinions the best media center software to use.

I am hoping when i move in to my new house, i will get a 42 - 48 inch LCD screen, and connect my SUGO PC to it. Currently im looking at my Nero Home but im sure there is better around. I am running on Xp Pro.

Any suggestions?
 
Media Portal.

I've used MCE but it really is a piece of poop. Can't resume AVI's, can't fast forward or rewind AVI's, OAR is incorrect. Poor configability with plugins, cannot use FFDSHOW without using a plugin (My Movies 2) Slow playback in My Music section.
 
squiffy said:
Media Portal.

I've used MCE but it really is a piece of poop. Can't resume AVI's, can't fast forward or rewind AVI's, OAR is incorrect. Poor configability with plugins, cannot use FFDSHOW without using a plugin (My Movies 2) Slow playback in My Music section.
Click to expand...

Yes you can to all of that ^^^. I have been using MCE2005 for 2.5 years, and recently upgraded to Vista.

Op, I use it for my TV running a link from my Sky box, Vista is a big improvement on 2005 with fewer live tv crashes (yet to have one). I have not used anything to compare it too, but I have been happy with MS option which is why I upgraded to Vista because the confidence I have in using the software.
 
1) Resuming. I stopped a AVI, went back into browsing, went back onto the AVI. It started from the beginning. In Media Portal it asks if you want to resume from the last point or from the beginning

2) FFWD/RRWND. Media Portal allows you to have variable speed fast forward and rewind in multiples of 2 upto 32x. MCE appears to be 4x at the very most.

3) Cannot scale DVD's in MCE with FFDSHOW without My Movies 2. In Media Portal you just select post processing in DVD setup.

4) In XP Pro, it keeps OAR. In MCE, it stretches 4:3 to the borders of the screen. Exactly the same settings in FFDSHOW.

5) Music playback- MCE uses Media Player library, which is painfully slow. Media Portal allows you to browse by folder and is blazing fast.
 
With media portal i cant find where to play music. Thats my only gripe so far.

Plus it can play HD movies backup up on my Hard drive (.EVO) files.
 
janesssssy said:
With media portal i cant find where to play music. Thats my only gripe so far.
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You're doing something wrong, I've used MP for music no problems. You need to configure what directory to use. I also use the alternative player that's bundled in MP, bass engine or something? Think had to install a couple of directshow codecs, flac/mpc/ogg.
 
If you can get hold of Meedio, use that! I have done for years and compared to most other htpc software it's great there is a learning curve involed but the customizion is superb.
 
I'm happy with MCE 2005, the My Movies 2 plugin and a plugin that allows me to browse music by folder (although can't remember the name of that off hand).

Used to use Meedio previously and before that MyHTPC but MCE is just so simple straight from the off.
 
Anyone got any experience with Vistas Media Centre yet? I'm quite happy with my MCE2005 performance at the minute but I'm considering rebuilding the hardware in the summer so if it's worth it it might be a good oppertunity to move to Vistas.
 
Xlobby all the way. Best front end by far and still free (at the moment).

If you're needing a PVR then GBPVR is very good and can be linked into the Xlobby frontend.

The only drawback to Xlobby is that its not the easiest program to get into straight away but it is the most versatile and there are some great skins around for it.
 
I have MCE 2005 on my HTPC and have been using it for a couple of years and loved it tbh. I'd tried MediaPortal a couple of times but on an SD widescreen TV it was pretty much useless, none of the skins looked any good at all.
Since I just bought a new HD LCD TV I thought i'd try it again and it's far better, the plugins for TV series and the like are brilliant, the only problem I have is still the skins, it seems they are nearly all designed for people sitting a couple of feet from the monitor, text is often too small, also the stability can be a bit of an issue.
 
Mediaportal definately.

Tons of development goin on at the moment, especially skin development (check out Spinsafe Resolve :cool: )

Only problem with Mediaportal is the configuration is a bit complex/confusing at first.
 
I like Media portal apart from I can't get it to full screen on my secondary monitor. :(

If all it is going to be doing is HTPC stuff than MythTV is a good option on top of a linux distro.
 
I've used MP on windows xp but now im just using vista mce

Advantages are that it looks better and loads up faster and much more stable.

Disadvantages are that you can't skip through music/avis fast enough,

Also the entire music library is messed up because its assigned wrong covers to albums. (something im still unable to fix)

Apart from that, no complaints tbh, I don't have a tv tuner so can't check how good that is.

sid
 
GSXRMovistar said:
I'm happy with MCE 2005, the My Movies 2 plugin and a plugin that allows me to browse music by folder (although can't remember the name of that off hand).

Used to use Meedio previously and before that MyHTPC but MCE is just so simple straight from the off.
Click to expand...

If you remember the name of the music plugin, can you post it here?
 
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