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emdawgz1
Joined: 14 Mar 2006
Posts: 7949
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| Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 5:59 pm Post subject: What do you HTPC guys use as a Front End GUI |
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I mentioned in another thread that i was at my old Shop WW stereo in Ardmore... the guy demo'ed the projector using a Kaliedescape... It was really neat. all the media, on a server... scroll thru the menu..2 seconds later you are watching the movie.
So, I'd like to do a htpc.. what do you guys use... i have seen Twonky media.
I have seen the microsoft stuff... i dont like it...
What else is there?
Thanks
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Zebu Fellenz
Joined: 21 Dec 2006
Posts: 2567
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| Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 7:38 pm Post subject: |
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What don't you like about Media Center? I have it setup with a custom blue on black interface, and use Media Browser for my movies, looks great to me!
What exactly are you looking for?
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emdawgz1
Joined: 14 Mar 2006
Posts: 7949
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| Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 7:46 pm Post subject: |
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a. Speed... It's slow as hell
b. The TV Tuner SUCKS!!!
c. It always has issues w/ DRM...
So i dont like it.
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Sparky015
Joined: 12 May 2009
Posts: 1185
Location: Cleveland / Akron, OH
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| Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 7:58 pm Post subject: |
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There have been a few that mentioned they use WMC and Media Browser. Here is a link wiht some screen shots. Very impressive. The last I saw of WMC was in XP, and I agree, it was slow and clunky. I have not seen Vista or 7, but I've not heard many complaints.
https://www.curtpalme.com/forum_archived/viewtopic.php@t=20701.html
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michael k
Joined: 28 Dec 2008
Posts: 18
Location: sweden
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| Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 8:48 pm Post subject: |
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xbmc
is a killer prog
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Zebu Fellenz
Joined: 21 Dec 2006
Posts: 2567
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| Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 9:30 pm Post subject: |
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| emdawgz1 wrote: | a. Speed... It's slow as hell
b. The TV Tuner SUCKS!!!
c. It always has issues w/ DRM...
So i dont like it. |
Fair enough, I don't notice speed problems, but I'm running a 3.4 Ghz quad core in a pretty fast computer. I did notice it was a little slow on my last HTPC. I don't watch TV, or have any media with DRM so I can't comment on your other issues.
Have you looked at MeediOS? I played with it a year or so ago, the interface was nice looking, and it was pretty fast and responsive, but the configurations options were more than I wanted to deal with so I never got it all setup. I'll have to try it again and see if it's any better.
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akajester
Joined: 09 Jul 2008
Posts: 934
Location: Wisconsin
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| Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 2:40 am Post subject: |
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I use Media Portal. Very Very customizable but takes some time to learn. I heard that meedios was bought out and isn't free anymore. XBMC is very limited. If you install Media Portal and StreamedMP skin you basically have XBMC with a bajillion more options. 
http://www.team-mediaportal.com/
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greg_mitch
Joined: 03 May 2006
Posts: 5320
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| Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 3:12 am Post subject: |
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| emdawgz1 wrote: | a. Speed... It's slow as hell
b. The TV Tuner SUCKS!!!
c. It always has issues w/ DRM...
So i dont like it. |
Not sure what you are comparing it to...but it is just as fast or faster than my cable companies STB at tuning....
Speed may be dependent on the machine so I won't address that.
What sort of media are you playing that has DRM issues?
I agree that the music interface and linking it to a NAS with thousands of songs or videos takes a bit of time to get the library up to speed.
Give a look at 7MC...it is very slick and fast. I just figured out how to get the MKV's to integrate into the "Movie" tab so now I have movies that I DVR'd or ripped all in one slick interface with all sorts of meta data.
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Zebu Fellenz
Joined: 21 Dec 2006
Posts: 2567
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| Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 12:04 pm Post subject: |
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| akajester wrote: | | I heard that meedios was bought out and isn't free anymore. |
MeediOS is an opensource project.
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Willie
Joined: 13 May 2006
Posts: 169
Location: Green Bay
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| Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 6:32 pm Post subject: |
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Yup. Look at 7MC with MediaBrowser. As a DVR even my wife can operate it. (This is of no small consequence)
Willie
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beun
Joined: 28 Jun 2006
Posts: 676
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emdawgz1
Joined: 14 Mar 2006
Posts: 7949
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| Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 6:58 pm Post subject: |
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I didn't know Xlobby was still around... I'll check it out. 
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beun
Joined: 28 Jun 2006
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akajester
Joined: 09 Jul 2008
Posts: 934
Location: Wisconsin
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| Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 8:26 pm Post subject: |
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| Zebu Fellenz wrote: | | akajester wrote: | | I heard that meedios was bought out and isn't free anymore. |
MeediOS is an opensource project. |
Sorry, Meedio was bought out by Yahoo and turned into gotv or something goofy like that. Thanks.
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LOTREE
Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 401
Location: Paradise, Newfoundland
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| Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2010 1:19 am Post subject: |
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So far I've been kicking it rather basic, just XP and loading ZoomPlayer but I'd like to make it more streamlined also. Reading this thread and the other before it got OT was interesting.
I don't want to pull this thread off course but is it possible with the software listed for it to display correctly in a 16:9 screen? Clicking the start menu projected on the wall is rather annoying and just looks bad. I'm just wondering what everyone is using to just have the computer turn on and display within my 84" 16:9 screen perfectly.
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Zebu Fellenz
Joined: 21 Dec 2006
Posts: 2567
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| Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2010 1:37 am Post subject: |
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| LOTREE wrote: | | I'm just wondering what everyone is using to just have the computer turn on and display within my 84" 16:9 screen perfectly. |
I believe all of the Media Center programs being discussed will display fine on a 16:9 screen.
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LOTREE
Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 401
Location: Paradise, Newfoundland
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| Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2010 3:10 am Post subject: |
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MeediOS looks really cool, freaking AWESOME actually. I'll wait for that to come back online for download. And the FREE price tag is a bonus plus it integrates with ZoomPlayer.
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Fredrik
Joined: 03 Jul 2007
Posts: 49
Location: Stockholm
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| Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 4:21 pm Post subject: |
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I use right now VMC and MediaBrowser, then using ZoomPlayer as an "external player", so VMC+Mediabrowser is just the front end, not the player.
Will upgrade soon to Win7MC.
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LOTREE
Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 401
Location: Paradise, Newfoundland
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| Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 9:11 am Post subject: |
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I installed MeediOS a few hours ago on the HTPC and I must say it's the most aggravating software I have ever used.
How do you guys get it to run 16:9 without being left with boarders and seeing the desktop? I can click fullscreen but then it's the size of the wall and not what I want.
I have yet to figure out how it pulls the movie info and poster based on the multiple plugins I've found thus far. Same goes for updating the movie library - I let it do the scan thinking I finally figured something out only it imported every VOB file for that movie to which I have to delete after. Then when it does finally play it loops at the beginning unless I click to the next chapter. When closing Zoom Player MeediOS just sits there with a black screen and I have to shut it down and launch it again. 
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Jester
Joined: 27 Jan 2008
Posts: 90
Location: Villa Park Ilinois
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| Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 1:53 pm Post subject: |
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I use WMC7 and the my movies plug in with a few other supporting programs. It plays anything img, video ts folders,iso, etc. it mounts and dis-mounts automatically. I have a $100 hauppage dvr tuner and it all runs really more stable and quicker than my Comcast STB ever did. Plus i love the FREE OTA HD, instead of paying extra for it. The my movies addin i use for my Windows Home Server (where all the data is stored ,6 TB ) is awesome, I Rip on a separate PC then transfer to the server, while it is still transferring to the server my movies will have found the move and retrieved all the pertinent data. (its about 80% accurate) The cool thing about my movies is that it gets the info based on the folder name, not contents. So you could create 10 movie named empty folders and it would populate the info based on that. Plus its free.
One of these days I need to setup a website detailing my whole house setup, that I put together.
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