Whats the best media shell?

[jayfella]

Hi all,

So ok, we've seen Media Centre, which is a bit restrictive to say the least, then there is Cyberlink Power Studio, which i didnt like very much, seemed more of a rip-off than anything else, but what are you lot using on your HTPC?

I am hoping in the next few months to construct a nice little PC:

low-end mobo
e7200 (taking from current pc when i get a quad)
4670 (or something similar)
a load of drives/blue-ray/etc..
Hi-Def TV card

Basically im going to put it under the TV, hook up a remote, keep it on 24/7 and use it as a media box (connected to my HD-TV), Video player, etc... basically an all-in-one media centre.

What im struggling with is what software to use to integrate it all together so when i switch the TV on, im presented with a nice little list of what i want to do. So i could choose to:

Watch TV, Pause TV, Rewind TV, Record TV
Listen to Digital Radio
Watch Movies Recorded on the computer
Listen to MP3's i have on the computer

Any ideas as to what the best program is for this?

 

[smokie mcpott]

www.team-mediaportal.com


i have tried nearly EVERY htpc frontend out there and media portal has provided me with everything i want

 

[jayfella]

Free! no way! cool!


@MoD
Thanks for moving the post btw. I didnt even know this area existed!

 

[jayfella]

seems a little buggy huh.. it just "stops" for (+/-) 10 seconds every now and again when i choose to do something..

 

[smokie mcpott]

seems a little buggy huh.. it just "stops" for (+/-) 10 seconds every now and again when i choose to do something..

??

 

[jayfella]

I really like it - fantastic shell. I love the way you can download imdb for your movies, etc..

Does it crash sometimes for you when you click on things maybe a little too fast? Its a shame, cos i would happily pay for this program if it would stop 90% of the crashes.

Im gonna keep trying with it and see if i can iron a few of the crashes out..

 

[jayfella]

media portal is really really buggy. "unpolished" would be a polite way to say it, as someone said.

Are there any others that implement the "IMDB download" thing? I really like that. I just cant live with the crashes every five minutes. Its driving me nuts.

EDIT: is it just 64bit windows that causes all these crashes? is 32bit any better? i get crashes all over the place whenever i click something.

 

[smokie mcpott]

i run mine in 32bit xp and havent noticed any crashing that you speak of....
the only time i have trouble with it is when i want it to do something it doesnt do

 

[jayfella]

Guess i can put XP on the HTPC. No big deal, its not like i need DX10 for movies

Thanks for your help, smokie. Muchas gracias.

 

[LandShark]

another alternative, www.MeediOS.com which is also free and I must say one of the best movie/tv shows organizer front end! you can search youtube for Meedio to see some video in action.

 

[jayfella]

i'll check it out now, thanks landshark

 

[Bios24]

I've been rocking GB-PVR for a few years now, I like it. http://www.gbpvr.com/

 

[tgxiii]

media portal is really really buggy. "unpolished" would be a polite way to say it, as someone said.

Are there any others that implement the "IMDB download" thing? I really like that. I just cant live with the crashes every five minutes. Its driving me nuts.

EDIT: is it just 64bit windows that causes all these crashes? is 32bit any better? i get crashes all over the place whenever i click something.

I haven't had any problems with it yet. I have it installed on two machines: XP 32-bit and Vista 32-bit.

I've tried it on my Vista 64 machine, but that's my main rig so I never kept it on there. I just wanted to test it out before using it. I didn't have any problems on that machine either.

Try using this guide to set up MediaPortal: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1092168