wsu99999 Posted July 23, 2009 Share Posted July 23, 2009 Hey guys- I wanted to see if anyone here uses media centers in their home theater. I built a HTPC recently and planned on just running the Vista Media Center for my home made video and music server, but it didn't do everything I needed. I downloaded a program called "moovidia" and it has most of the features I want, but still lacks a few (ie, being able to find info on rare movies and cd's - it only has about 90% of the movies out there and doesn't have rare films such as "Trick or Treat" or "Night of the Creeps". What do you use? How do you like it? This may be the wrong area of the forum, but I figured I'd see what you guys use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Combat_SAMBO_Guy Posted July 24, 2009 Share Posted July 24, 2009 I have tried two alternatives. I now have a Linux server which can stream to any client through VLC. I also take the brute force approach and broadcast SMB shares from the Linux machine, so the Vista machines can mount the shares. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wsu99999 Posted July 27, 2009 Author Share Posted July 27, 2009 Not that anyone cares but I found 2 great programs for running a media server and both do everything and more that I need! One is MediaPortal. This program is extremely easy to setup and has 99% of the flexibility I need to get the job done. All of my DVD's, Xvid/Avi/etc all show up as their actual movie poster. Click on the box and it takes you to a screen with trivia for the movie, all the actors, a bio on the film, and essentially any other info found in the internet about the movie. All laid out in a clear, easy to read and understand format that makes viewing enjoyable. On top of that, it does the same thing with all of my cd's and mp3's. Basically a screen where you can scan CD covers and click on the disc you want to play and then learn more about the artist/lyrics/whatever you want. Really cool stuff! It also has an "Online Video's" plugin that pulls in popular vidoes from sites like Youtube/Yahoo Music Videos/Hulu/Youporn/whatever your into. Really cool and easy to operate. The other, and clearly the better of the two programs I tried is Meedio. This program is 100% flexible - you can make it do absolutely anything you want. It is extremely hard to setup and not for someone that doesn't understand how to create basic scripts and doesn't understand basic computer programming. I'm fluent with PC's and it took me a day to understand how the program works. Either will get the job done, but if you aren't a computer science graduate, get Mediaportal - way easier to work with but not as good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eq_shadimar Posted July 27, 2009 Share Posted July 27, 2009 If you are running a HTPC and you are just looking for a frontend take a look at Xbox Media Center for PC's ( http://www.xbmc.org/ ). Yes this software started out for modded Xbox's but there is a version for PC's now. It is free and it is considered one of the best frontend's around. I have that running on a older notebook. Other than that I have given up on having HTPC's and I now use my Xbox 360 and Popcorn Hour media streamers to access all of my stored content on a 4 TB Network Attached Storage device (Promise SmartStor). Laters, Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wsu99999 Posted July 28, 2009 Author Share Posted July 28, 2009 I tried XBMC, and actually still run it on my original modded xbox - I really prefer the two that I listed - if you haven't you should check them out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgoreck Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 I got feed up with doing the HTPC thing. Once i got my PS3, all I had to do was enabled streaming services off my NAS, and done. No hassle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eq_shadimar Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 I tried XBMC, and actually still run it on my original modded xbox - I really prefer the two that I listed - if you haven't you should check them out. Yup I have tried them out. Good thing there are options out there for every taste [] Laters, Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toddvj Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 I used to use a HTPC, but now I have a TiVo, so I don't need it anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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