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MadsRH
August 6th, 2008, 01:17 PM
Hi :)
Can anyone tell me what the best mediacenter software for linux is?

Things that are important to me:
- Beautiful GUI (I'm love fx like fadeing and slideing)
- Easy to install
- If possible, able to record TV

I've been looking at: MythTV, Mythbuntu, LinuxMCE, XBMC, Elisa

Lod
August 6th, 2008, 01:28 PM
Hi :)
Can anyone tell me what the best mediacenter software for linux is?

Things that are important to me:
- Beautiful GUI (I'm love fx like fadeing and slideing)
- Easy to install
- If possible, able to record TV

I've been looking at: MythTV, Mythbuntu, LinuxMCE, XBMC, Elisa
MythTV and Mythbuntu are basically the same as far as I know. Although I had some trouble with Mythbuntu which I hadn't with Ubuntu + Mythtv.
XBMC isn't that for the XBox?
Elisa looks nice, but it doesn't support TV recording.

How about
- Freevo (http://freevo.sourceforge.net/about/screenshots.php)
- Geexbox (http://www.geexbox.org/en/index.html)

I use Mediaportal (http://www.team-mediaportal.com/) which is meant for Windows. Unfortunately my mediacenter has some weird old videocard with no support in Linux :( .

billgoldberg
August 6th, 2008, 01:32 PM
Linuxmce seems nice enough.

I use elisa, but it can't record tv shows, yet.

There is a new mediacenter up and coming that looks very promising, but it's only in alpha stage right now.

The name slips my mind at the moment.

bash
August 6th, 2008, 01:35 PM
You could also try Elisa Media Center. It's a bit newer than MythTV but catching up nicely. Forget the webseite, so just google it.

MadsRH
August 6th, 2008, 01:37 PM
Thanks



There is a new mediacenter up and coming that looks very promising, but it's only in alpha stage right now.

The name slips my mind at the moment.

Boxee??? http://www.boxee.tv/

Siberia
August 6th, 2008, 02:28 PM
Thanks



Boxee??? http://www.boxee.tv/

I've been using the alpha for a little while now and I can quite safely say that in my opinion it's the best looking and has all the integration and features that I need and for an alpha I've had no problems. I'm going to be building a media system with boxee as the core media centre. I'd advise giving it ago.

armageddon08
August 6th, 2008, 02:31 PM
Anybody tried entertainer?? Can I install linuxMCE directly in my ubuntu install??

MadsRH
August 6th, 2008, 11:09 PM
Entertainer Media Center looks really good - but it's only in alpha version 0.01

tschak909
October 24th, 2008, 07:15 PM
Hello. I am one of the developers for LinuxMCE. I can answer any questions you guys might have about the software.

:)

-Thom

Sealbhach
October 24th, 2008, 07:28 PM
Hello. I am one of the developers for LinuxMCE. I can answer any questions you guys might have about the software.

:)

-Thom

Can I use it in Gnome?


.

geoken
October 24th, 2008, 07:29 PM
I tried Entertainer. It looks nice but is incomplete and seems dead.

I'm using Boxee right now. From a navigation/layout standpoint, it's the best (with Elisa second).

Unlike others, I would also rate it the best for functionality. While it does lack support for TV, it's support for online media is so strong and integrated that it more than makes up for it IMO. With Revision3, YouTube, CNN, CNET, Comedy Central, etc, there is almost no need for me to watch TV.

Also, it has an integrated torrent client that supports RSS torrent feeds so you can get any popular TV show (sometimes before it actually airs in your region)

JohnFH
October 24th, 2008, 08:20 PM
I've been using MythTV now for nearly a year, and have to say it's great! There's good community support for it, it's powerful, got a great web interface so you can set recordings remotely and, well, I could be here all day listing what it can do.

The downside is that there is a lot to configure, although the default settings for a lot of things are just fine.

Here are the MythTV answers to your questions:
1. beautiful GUI? - see the screenshots and judge for yourself: http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Screenshots
2. Easy to install? Yes. Also plenty to configure. Downside to that is I always want to tweak something, and end up spending a long time changing things for the sake of it.
3. Able to record TV? Absolutely, but there's so much more it can do!

A better site for screenshots and features: http://www.mythtv.org/modules.php?name=MythFeatures