Best Media Center Ever

[plurworldinc]

Ever since I converted over to Ubuntu from Windows I have been missing one small feature, a media center. Now I know there is Myth, but I am still trying to figure out how to get Myth to work and it's a little tricky for me to help my other friends I converted over with software I can't even figure out yet. I am really going to have to take a day to figure it all out, because I know it must be amazing.

However, I began messing around with XBMC (X-Box Media Center) and it's perfect for my needs. I can do can manage all of my media file in a very stylish and polished environment that also works as a great stand alone environment.

So now I amm wondering what other media centers are out that that are as good as XBMC. :guitar:

[madjr]

XBMC is a good choice

contrary to it's name, is not an xbox port/clone, but xbox inspired. It has nothing to do with MS


moovida is also very good and in the software center
http://ostatic.com/blog/moovida-a-music-player-for-the-masses


am not sure why XBMC is not in the repos..

[Xelivis]

I have to agree, XBMC is amazing for my needs as well. Just type:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:team-xbmc
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xbmc xbmc-standalone

[wipeout140]

i would highly recommend xbmc aswell, its simple but it can be changed and configure to your liking :)

[cariboo]

I used the XBMC Live CD to install it on my media center pc, it's a minimal Karmic install that boots directly to the XBMC interface.

[Jose Catre-Vandis]

I've been a Geexbox fan for several years, but with the arrival of h264/mkv encodes, its support has dropped away (for me) Version 2 (a working/configurable one) is still some way away.

Sad to say, I have returned to Windows XP (an nlited stripped XPSP3) and MediaPortal as my media centre, which is family centric, highly configurable and plays everything with the SAF codec pack.

I couldn't get on with Myth or XMBC :(

[meho_r]

Boxee (http://www.boxee.tv) is cool too.

[derrick81787]

Boxee (http://www.boxee.tv) is cool too.

I've been trying to get Boxee to work, but for some reason online video won't play at all. I think it has something to do with the fact that I installed a 64 bit minimal install of Ubuntu, and it is having Flash trouble. I'm not sure though.

Boxee definitely looks really awesome. I love how it can get video from Hulu and Youtube and practically anywhere else. I'm going to try and reinstall a 32 bit minimal install and see how it goes tonight.

- Derrick

[LowSky]

MythTV is great because it is so customizable. But its also not for the faint of heart because it is so customizable.

I've been using it for a year, and I'm still learning the in's and ot's of it. Heck this weekend my HTPC is getting upgraded to 10.04. I'm expecting any multitude of things not to work.

[pt123]

can xbmc read myth recordings

[jerenept]

Moovida. I use it. It is a bit heavy on RAM, but, then again, it is a media center and it is very polished and easy to use.

[thatguruguy]

Moovida. I use it. It is a bit heavy on RAM, but, then again, it is a media center and it is very polished and easy to use.

I've been using moovida as well. Unfortunately, the youtube plugin no longer works, and they are no longer doing bug fixes for 1.09. Instead, their focus is now on moovida 2.0, which is intended to be a commercial product.

Moovida 2.0 has two components; 1) "Moovida Core" (the backend) and 2) "Moovida Immersed", the 3d media center interface which will run on top of it. So far, Moovida Core is only available on their website for Windows, but you can download a Linux beta. It's based on (and kinda looks like a souped-up version of) Banshee. The 3-d interface hasn't been released yet, and is a few months away.

On this page (http://www.moovida.com/blog/2010/04/30/moovida-2-0-a-new-beginning/) they are encouraging people to contribute time and effort to Banshee, since Moovida Core is based on it. They are also going to open the UI so that people can contribute time and effort. That way, when they finally release the final product (including the 3d media center interface, which is the only reason it's worth having) as a commercial product, they can benefit from the free labor of others. Quite a deal, really.

[andrewbrown22]

I'll have to agree that XBMC is the best. At least, it's what I prefer. However, unlike others that install it directly, I installed the full Ubuntu and then added the XBMC repository and installed the program, with a nice icon to launch XBMC on the desktop. This way, I can use my Dinovo Mini (http://www.logitech.com/en-us/keyboards/keyboard/devices/3848) to control through the XBMC menus as well as surf the internet via Google Chrome, allowing me to view Youtube, Hulu, etc, and I also run Tweetdeck and a handy conky script to have basically a really large workstation (52in HDTV) + HTPC. :)

[jerenept]

Enna? Seems light but low on features.

[derrick81787]

I've been trying to get Boxee to work, but for some reason online video won't play at all. I think it has something to do with the fact that I installed a 64 bit minimal install of Ubuntu, and it is having Flash trouble. I'm not sure though.

Boxee definitely looks really awesome. I love how it can get video from Hulu and Youtube and practically anywhere else. I'm going to try and reinstall a 32 bit minimal install and see how it goes tonight.

- Derrick

I just figured I'd let everyone know that I found a way to sort of work around this. Everywhere I've looked online says that the latest Boxee build is having trouble running on Lucid, and other people say they are having trouble with 64 bit. Since my computer is just a standalone media center, I downgraded to Karmic 32bit.

I did a minimal install and am running just Openbox with practically nothing else other than Boxee running. It seems to be working well, but I just did this last night, so I haven't used it that much yet.

- Derrick

[_Mark_]

Sad to say, I have returned to Windows XP (an nlited stripped XPSP3) and MediaPortal as my media centre, which is family centric, highly configurable and plays everything with the SAF codec pack.

I couldn't get on with Myth or XMBC :(

I have to agree MediaPortal is about the best out there,(for me anyway)and sadly only for Windows. I run it on my HTPC with Win7

I have wanted to use some flavour of Linux for my HTPC but have not found anything comparable to MP. XBMC lacks the tv server functionality, their are plugins but seem flaky. I may at some point try mythtv but I am guessing linux drivers for my DVB-S card may be a problem.

[jerrrys]

because of computer restraints, moovida was not snappy on my box...me thinks i should be looking at myth...

[pelle.k]

I've been using moovida as well. Unfortunately, the youtube plugin no longer works, and they are no longer doing bug fixes for 1.09. Instead, their focus is now on moovida 2.0, which is intended to be a commercial product.

Moovida 2.0 has two components; 1) "Moovida Core" (the backend) and 2) "Moovida Immersed", the 3d media center interface which will run on top of it. So far, Moovida Core is only available on their website for Windows, but you can download a Linux beta. It's based on (and kinda looks like a souped-up version of) Banshee. The 3-d interface hasn't been released yet, and is a few months away.

On this page (http://www.moovida.com/blog/2010/04/30/moovida-2-0-a-new-beginning/) they are encouraging people to contribute time and effort to Banshee, since Moovida Core is based on it. They are also going to open the UI so that people can contribute time and effort. That way, when they finally release the final product (including the 3d media center interface, which is the only reason it's worth having) as a commercial product, they can benefit from the free labor of others. Quite a deal, really.

Man, that is a shame about the 1.X series being dropped. I just found that out today, having configured my HTPC for moovida. I'm particulary fond of the clean interface, but it's a bit laggy compared to the XBMC still. But i guess i'll have to look in another direction then, with the youtube plugin not working anymore, and the lack of future updates.
Not very keen on the banshee/3d interface model, and the windows focus.
So, i've been trying XBMC out. It's not as "simple" as moovida, but i guess it'll have to do :(

[Shining Arcanine]

Ever since I converted over to Ubuntu from Windows I have been missing one small feature, a media center. Now I know there is Myth, but I am still trying to figure out how to get Myth to work and it's a little tricky for me to help my other friends I converted over with software I can't even figure out yet. I am really going to have to take a day to figure it all out, because I know it must be amazing.

However, I began messing around with XBMC (X-Box Media Center) and it's perfect for my needs. I can do can manage all of my media file in a very stylish and polished environment that also works as a great stand alone environment.

So now I amm wondering what other media centers are out that that are as good as XBMC. :guitar:

Sadly, nothing is better than Windows Media Center on home PCs. This is precisely why I am in the process of building a dedicated computer just for media center. Otherwise, I would lose the ability to use media center extenders.

[Xianath]

I use XBMC on my Windows box, and have an HTPC in the cooking that will be running Ubuntu with XBMC. Contrary to what others' experience, I've found Windows Media Center, Media Portal and Boxee all inferior to XBMC. The way it handles VA collections was only matched by Amarok 1.x but sadly, that's gone now, so it's XBMC for me. It doesn't do *all* I want, but it comes closest.

[TheNerdAL]

Boxee is the best in my opinion.

[Jose Catre-Vandis]

I've just tried out XBMC Live - wow! Shame it doesn't do TV - but I see that's under development. Found my network shares immediately, user/pass and away we went. So I take back what i said earleir about not being able to get on with it (that was on an install to an existing Ubuntu setup.

I have to disagree about WMC - I find it the most unwieldy HTPC software going!

[Jose Catre-Vandis]

A further correction. You can fairly easily get Live TV working (dvb) on XBMC using tvheadend as a tv server - and full pvr is getting close to being stable - the svn's of xbmc and tvheadend are offfering it now