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Productive Geek Forums » Forum: Media Centers - Recent Topics http://productivegeek.com/forums/ The Geeky Way to Get Things Done en Thu, 09 Sep 2010 13:01:54 +0000 applejuice77 on "would like a chinese character supported Media Center" http://productivegeek.com/forums/topic/would-like-a-chinese-character-supported-media-center#post-1732 Fri, 21 May 2010 13:21:17 +0000 applejuice77 1732@http://productivegeek.com/forums/ Hello all, I would like to thank you all for all your computer knowledge so I can help my non geek family members with their technical stuff. Here, I'd like to discuss about setting up a media center for them. I've tried lifehacker's xmbc setup on the revo, and it really failed on me. Let's just say there's too much weird detail about the font and character set not working. I've tried asking for hlep on the xmbc, but no help. So I ask if you have any alternatives any of you may have in mind? I will tell you I have all the hardware listed on lifehacker's xmbc setup, remote + hdmi cable+ acer revo (cheap one) so I hope hardware/resources isn't a problem? You see, if I play the videos on VLC player, the subs will display correctly with the right characters. This SAME font I loaded onto xmbc failed to display the right ones (displayed japanese characters too...) So I hope I can link up vlc player with this new media center? Unless there are some open softwares that are like vlc player? I might try boxee later if it comes to it.. I was thinking of using the windows media center loaded on revo and launch it from there, except I'm not sure if the player can support holding subs or even chinese sub files. I have the right font for it... Thank you very much alexward1981 on "Ripping movies easily using DVDFab" http://productivegeek.com/forums/topic/ripping-movies-easily-using-dvdfab#post-1716 Wed, 05 May 2010 15:44:42 +0000 alexward1981 1716@http://productivegeek.com/forums/ Hi Guys, Just put an article on Digital Fusion that I think you guys might like, its about how you can rip a DVD in 2 clicks (including opening the program) using DVDFab. <a href="http://dfmag.me/s/4x77">http://dfmag.me/s/4x77</a> alexajo89 on "Media Center Remotes" http://productivegeek.com/forums/topic/media-center-remotes#post-1692 Wed, 14 Apr 2010 23:35:49 +0000 alexajo89 1692@http://productivegeek.com/forums/ So, I hooked my laptop up to my TV to use as a media center machine. It came with a remote and I've been loving it, but it's kinda wimpy, small and very little features (play, pause, volume.) So, I've been thinking about picking up a nice media center remote, but, I've recently lost the remote to my TV. Rather than buying a new universal remote and a media remote I was wondering if anyone knew of a cheap universal remote with media center functionality. I'd like to keep it around $20.00, any more I'll just live with my small remote and buy a cheap universal one for my TV. Also, my TV is a new LG so it shouldn't be hard to get the remote to work with it. Thanks in advance! kashell on "Media Center Shopping Guide [Opinion]" http://productivegeek.com/forums/topic/media-center-shopping-guide-opinion#post-1618 Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:59:02 +0000 kashell 1618@http://productivegeek.com/forums/ There are quite a few media center solutions out there, and it's difficult to figure out which one is best. So I've done a little research for you. This guide covers Windows Media Center 7, Boxee, XBMC, and Hulu Desktop. Recommendation: Windows 7 Media Center with plugins for Boxee, XBMC, and Hulu desktop. This will future proof your setup, and allow you to make a seemless transition to another product if it dramatically improves beyond the others. Quick and Dirty Summary: Windows Media Center 7 - $$$(Windows 7), Lots of features, good interface, bad format support, some killer bugs. Boxee - Free, Web media giant (relatively), good local media support, decent format support. XBMC - Free, Good format support, GUI is pretty but not fluid, fast. Hulu Desktop - Free, Crashes alot, Free content, Ugly, Probably needs to die and serve content to the other 3. Windows Media Center 7 - Overall 7/10 (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Media_Center">wiki article</a>) [attach=b634b5d343930326] Out of the box, Windows Media Center 7 isn't that fancy. Its true power is how customizable it is and how well it interacts with other platforms. It is by far the most popular of the media centers, and most feature full. Format Support 4/10 Media Center is really disappointing in the formats it gives support to. It doesn't have native support for flac, ogg, mkv, avi, and iso a handful of other formats. The good news is that there are codec packs out there to get everything working. In this geek's opinion, however, it's probably easier to settle on a common format that's compatible with many applications - especially if you've got your media on a server and it's being piped to multiple TVs / consoles / computers. On the other hand, Media Center is one of the few media centers with support for some DRM'd media. If you're the type that owns this kind of media, you might find Media Center a better solution for you in the short term. (Geek's note: DRM'd media is extremely likely to lose support over the years as providers and companies move to new and better formats. It's better to stick with a high quality non-drm'd format for future-proofing your media.) Look/Feel, Gui, responsiveness 9/10 [attach=0e5024c2468557fc] Media Center is the winner in this category. Every piece of GUI is really well thought out and intuitive. When you've got a video playing and you go back to the home screen, it's nicely playing transparently in the background. Little things such as this really make Media Center a beautiful interface. Search is well integrated in to each piece of media center, as well as resuming playback from videos you've stopped previously. The music section is especially well done -- Media Center understands that you want to experience your *music*, not some random visualization. When you're playing music, an album art moasic fills the background and your album art and information is displayed large on the screen. In an incredible smart move, the waterfall and information move around now and then to reduce burn-in on plasma TVs. Brilliant. [attach=7f01f60cee64d46d] One of the great things in the gui is the ability to continue playing a video where you last stopped it. It's all automatic, so if you're in a hurry, stop your video, head off to work, and come back, you'll find it saved where you were and you can simply resume. Customization 9/10 Again, Media Center takes it away here. Don't like the default look or want to link to windows emulators or other programs? You can customize it with <a href="http://www.adventmediacenter.com/">Media Center Studio</a>. Don't like the default movies view? Check out <a href="http://www.mymovies.dk/">MyMovies</a> or <a href="http://www.mediabrowser.tv/">Media Browser</a>. Hell, do you just want to have all the media center solutions on this list? Well you can add <a href="http://xbmcwmc.teknowebworks.com/">XBMC</a>, <a href="http://huluwmc.teknowebworks.com/">Hulu</a>, and <a href="http://boxeewmc.teknowebworks.com/">Boxee</a> from right in Media Center. (Full Disclosure: I use media center and use Hulu and Boxee for web viewing.) Web Media (out of the box) 4/10 (customized) 8/10 Out of the box you've got "Internet TV", a selection of flash-based videos, complete with ads. It's decent, but not updated that often, and the selection is lacking. (Of course, you add Boxee and Hulu, and you've got yourself lots of web based video ready to go). DVR/TV Tuner - 8/10 Out of all the media solutions here, Media Center is the only one with this option. I've never used it, so I can't comment on it, but I've heard HDTV fans swear by it. Based on my research, I give it a decent rating. Extenders 5/10 Media Center is the only solution to support extenders (which let you use the media center box from other compatible device, like an XBox 360), but the functionality is really lacking here. It's better than nothing. Bugs: (-2)/10 Replaces Album Art: There's a <a href="http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/p/48510/218092.aspx">really killer bug</a> if you decide on media center where it replaces your album art. My solution is to always have two copies of your album cover artwork -- a Folder.jpg, and a Albumname_Front.jpg. Refreshes Albums for no reason: I find that when opening music that it can refresh (ie: recache all the album art) upon reboot of my HTPC, and this can be a big pain when I just want to listen to some music. You'll have to sit there and wait for it to finish refreshing first. Wishlist for Windows Media Center 7: Fix above bugs. Format support. Highly expanded extender functionality. Removal of some of the "buy online" links in places. (Umm...I already have it, why would I want to buy it again?) Boxee - Overall 6/10 (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxee">wiki article</a>) [attach=bfdb6a75e22741e4] Boxee is a beast out of the box, and lets you gain the benefits of web based media sources, apps, and your home media sources. It's not very customizable though, and is lacking some really key features. It gets an extra point for social media services and the ability to login as different users. Format Support 8/10 (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XBMC#Format_support">wiki article</a>) Boxee (based on XBMC) naturally gets a great score here, but has some trouble with offline media that XBMC doesn't have for some reason. Boxee seemed to have some hiccups trying to play and show some files in my tests. Look/Feel, Gui, responsiveness 6/10 The new Boxee beta has a great gui that works well for nativating the menus, but is severly lacking in the look/feel of when media is actually playing. The controls are pretty small during playback. Music uses some fancy visualizations, but really, that's missing the whole point of lettting you enjoy your music (though it does display your music artwork in a small block at the top of the screen). In general, everything is in unformatted blocks and columns. And while this works, for say, the apps part of Boxee, it doesn't make too much sense for movies or TV Customization 1/10 Unless you want to get your hands dirty with some code, there's not much to customize. All the "customization" is just system setup for the most part. Web Media 8/10 [attach=bfc3f3de5f3356e0] Out of the box Boxee is a web media giant. You can play huge amount of apps and get your fill on almost any web media you can imagine, short of a web browser (although I actually find *more* media on Boxee than I usually run across with a regular browser). There are the regular issues with commercials and flash, but you'd have that in any browser. DVR/TV Tuner - 0/10 None. This sucks. Extenders 0/10 None. This sucks. Wishlist for Boxee: Partner with content providers for tighter integration of online media Better music experience (see XBMC) Multiroom (extenders, whatever) DVR (For pre-downloading online media for offline watching, not cable tuner) XBMC - Overall 7.5/10 (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XBMC">wiki article</a>) [attach=11aae1bd96fedf9a] XBMC is a great alternative to Windows Media Center 7. For one thing, it's free, but it also is faster and support more formats. The interface looks really great, and big improvements have been made to make it fluid. From the dramatic improvements that XBMC has had in the past years, it has the potential to really become a kick ass media center platform. Format Support 9.5/10 (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XBMC#Format_support">wiki article</a>) XBMC really shines here, and the format support is the best available in a media center. If you're all about quality of your media (.mkv, .flac formats), then XBMC is your best friend. XBMC really has improved format support, and can play (almost) anything you throw at it. It's a beast. Look/Feel, Gui, responsiveness 7/10 The interesting thing about XBMC is that the interface is extensible. So if you don't like the default one, you're welcome to switch. I highly recommend <a href="http://www.aeonproject.com/">Aeon</a>, but XBMC's recent default change over to Confluence makes the default interface attractive as well. [attach=e2e6adfedabdcb52] Confluence Interface [attach=479b7d32a7cf5c14] Aeon Stark Interface XBMC's strong point is how it integrates data into browsing media. It's awesome to see summaries of your favorite TV show's episodes, fan art, IMDB ratings, and even format labels (such as h.264, xvid, etc). Some of the sizes of these icons could probably be optimized, but overall the experience is good. The problem with all of these interfaces is that they can be a bit clunky. It's vastly improved over the past few years, but it doesn't quite flow like Media Center 7's water-esque interface. It's yet to be seen, but because XBMC's interface is so customizable, it's possible an amazing skin will be released that does everything we love. You can find amazing skins out there that really put XBMC on top of the GUI game, like <a href="http://github.com/HitcherUK/Alaska">Alaska</a>. Of course, then there's stuff like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG2HudEpBGk">Surface</a> (not released) or <a href="http://vimeo.com/6311316">Xperience</a> (<a href="http://www.teamblackbolt.co.uk/projdetails.php?id=4">Beta2</a>). So the future looks very bright for the XBMC gui. Customization 6/10 XBMC has a bunch of potential here, and a good system for customizing the system with plugins and the like. Unfortunately, the ecosystem of plugins out there isn't huge yet, but you can get quite a few features not found in the base install. Web Media 0/10 (With customizations) 2/10 None. This sucks. The available plugins that give you web media suck. DVR/TV Tuner - 0/10 (customized) ?/10 It looks like it's possible that there's a plugin that gives DVR functionality using MythTV as a front-end. Researching. Extenders 0/10 None. This sucks. Wishlist for XBMC: A better way to experience music (visualizations are great for background noise and glitter, but people want to see stuff about their music while it's playing. Media Center 7 has a decent way of doing this, but I think XBMC with Last.FM and other metadata could really take this to the next level.) Extenders/Multiroom Better built-in language support Web Media (hi there Boxee!) Hulu Desktop - Overall 2/10 [attach=3a32be4adc3c07ac] Hulu Desktop is a great alternative for people who just need to watch some shows and don't care about anything else. It crashes a bunch, and has locked up my Windows 7 Media Center HTPC on many occations. It doesn't do local media or music or anything else except hulu. The real winner for Hulu Desktop is the amount of content available. Format Support 0/10 Yeah, it runs flash. Look/Feel, Gui, responsiveness 5/10 It's flash (it's slow), but it's easy to use. It's fun to find shows by popularity or just search. The interface is surprisingly fluid, but it isn't pretty at all. The black color can be pretty depressing. Customization 0/10 You're a funny guy. Next! Web Media 6/10 This is Hulu's raison d'etre. Hulu has tons of free content, and that's what most people are looking for. Of course, there are ads, and it's also a slow flash-based product, so it loses points for this. DVR/TV Tuner - 0/10 None. This sucks. Extenders 0/10 None. This sucks. Wishlist for Hulu Desktop: I wish Hulu would let this program die and refocus any resources to making their online offerings better. They would do much better as a dumb pipe that serves ads to other front-ends, like Boxee, Media Center, or XBMC, for example. adampash on "Has anyone upgraded their Acer AspireRevo to XBMC 9.11?" http://productivegeek.com/forums/topic/has-anyone-upgraded-their-acer-aspirerevo-to-xbmc-911#post-533 Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:56:58 +0000 adampash 533@http://productivegeek.com/forums/ <img src="http://productivegeek.com/forums/attachments/xbmc_vs_xbox360_1_1263427000.png" alt="" />I want to put together an update for my guide over at Lifehacker for <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5391308/build-a-silent-standalone-xbmc-media-center-on-the-cheap">building a silent, standalone XBMC media center on the cheap</a>, but so far haven't had a lot of luck finding the right tweaked installation to do the job. Anyone who followed my original guide or covered this ground themselves know how to find the right upgrade installation? (Also, when will the NVIDIA Ion chips get native support so we won't need custom builds???) Klemmottin on "What video format is the most CPU friendly?" http://productivegeek.com/forums/topic/what-video-format-is-the-most-cpu-friendly#post-1513 Sun, 21 Feb 2010 11:43:02 +0000 Klemmottin 1513@http://productivegeek.com/forums/ I have been using some MKV videos and they really seem to spike the CPU. What format should I use if I want to minimize procesor usage? ejf071189 on "Automated TV Show Organization" http://productivegeek.com/forums/topic/automated-tv-show-organization#post-1423 Wed, 10 Feb 2010 02:11:58 +0000 ejf071189 1423@http://productivegeek.com/forums/ I used to use utorrent's RSS feature to automatically download shows via <a href="http://ezrss.it/faq/">this</a> guide (see "How do I use the RSS feed in my client ?"). This allowed me to automatically have shows downloaded into appropriate folders, which are monitored by XMBC which scrapes thetvdb.com to add the shows to its own library. While XBMC was able to identify episode information with the naming system the torrents used, I preferred to have the episodes better organized using <a href="http://www.tvrename.com/">TVRename</a>. Every so often I would run TVRename and scan my library for files that had to be renamed and rename them. There were problems with this method, though. The obvious problem was that I would have to remember to run TVRename, which really wasn't that big a deal. The bigger problem was that depending on when XBMC scanned my TV folder for new media, if the files were renamed with TVRename, XBMC would then have to rescan the file with the new name, leading to dead files and dupes in library view. Here's the method I used to resolve the issue: 1. Download TVRename 2.1.1a6 <a href="http://tvrename.com/Versions/alphabeta/TVRename2.1.1a6.exe">here</a>. The 2.1.1 line of TVRename is the only one that supports <a href="http://tvrename.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=116">command line arguments</a>. The 2.2 alphas are supposed to have this feature reimplemented but development is currently on hiatus. 2. Reconfigure utorrent's RSS feature to download all shows to a folder outside of the folders XBMC monitors. This could be a generic download folder or a subfolder called "Unsorted TV Shows," for example. 3. In the "Finding and Organising" tab of TVRename, add the same folder that you set utorrent to download your shows to as a search folder. 4. Add your shows to TVRename with settings like <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/37252112@N06/4339956824/">this</a>. 5. Create a batch script in the C:\Program Files\TVRename directory called "rename.bat" with the following command: tvrename.exe /renamingcheck /renamingdo /missingcheck /fnocheck /fnodo /quit From the TVRename forum: "That will make it check for files needing to be renamed, then rename them, then check for missing files, do a finding&organising check for them, move/copy the files found, then quit. Add "/hide" if you want it all to happen without the window coming up" 6. Go into the task scheduler or other scheduling app and add a new task that runs this batch file at intervals to your liking. Now files that go into your downloads folder will periodically be sorted into your library with appropriate names and in the corresponding season folders (TVRename should create a season folder when necessary), and will only be scanned into XBMC with the correct name. alexward1981 on "HOW TO: The Fully Automated Media Centre" http://productivegeek.com/forums/topic/how-to-the-fully-automated-media-centre#post-1474 Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:04:20 +0000 alexward1981 1474@http://productivegeek.com/forums/ As promised here is the guide to setting up a fully automatic media centre PC. Hope you find it useful :) <a href="http://www.clockworkcity.co.uk/2010/02/the-fully-automated-media-centre-windows-only/">http://www.clockworkcity.co.uk/2010/02/the-fully-automated-media-centre-windows-only/</a> howtogeek on "Best XBMC Plugins? Need Suggestions!" http://productivegeek.com/forums/topic/best-xbmc-plugins#post-1192 Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:42:03 +0000 howtogeek 1192@http://productivegeek.com/forums/ So I've got my XBMC perfectly configured on my Mac Mini, connected over the network to my media library running off my Linux server (running Samba). The question is, what are some great plugins I should check out? howtogeek on "Need help with XBMC on Mac Mini - Problems with Display Overscan" http://productivegeek.com/forums/topic/need-help-with-xbmc-on-mac-mini-problems-with-display-overscan#post-1060 Fri, 22 Jan 2010 04:16:26 +0000 howtogeek 1060@http://productivegeek.com/forums/ Alright, so here's the deal. I've recently (5 minutes ago) migrated from Boxee over to XBMC instead (because Boxee Beta won't stop crashing). Unfortunately, XBMC doesn't seem to have an option to tweak the overscan on the display like Boxee does, and my HDMI -> DVI adapter plugged into my 1080p panasonic viera isn't using up the entire size of the screen. In the Mac System Preferences, I've disabled the overscan mode because it stretches out past the size of the display and cuts off all 4 sides. So how can I make it fit the screen properly? alexward1981 on "Poll: 3DTV - Will you be getting one?" http://productivegeek.com/forums/topic/poll-3dtv-will-you-be-getting-one#post-968 Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:22:31 +0000 alexward1981 968@http://productivegeek.com/forums/ There has been a lot of fuss from the TV manufacturers lately that 3DTV will be the next big thing, now whilst I totally admit that I was blown away by Avatar in 3D, there was not enough of a 'wow' factor to cope with the downsides, I'm still amazed at really good HD transfers on my blu-ray player (like wall-e for example). I'm a complete media-geek and I always make sure I buy the latest technology but this is one technological step I won't bother taking. At least not for a while. Its just not good enough yet if you ask me. What about you? Will you be getting a 3DTV? alexajo89 on "Media Center Application or File Browser?" http://productivegeek.com/forums/topic/media-center-application-or-file-browser#post-604 Thu, 14 Jan 2010 01:43:30 +0000 alexajo89 604@http://productivegeek.com/forums/ One thing I see a lot of is people talking about which media center application is the best. Personally, I've always found it easiest and quickest to just open videos from whatever the default file browser is (Windows Explorer, Finder, etc) and use VLC to watch the videos. Right now I have my Powermac hooked up to my TV via HDMI and I watch videos off my shared folder from my old rig. Works fine for me. Every time I've used a media center application I've had trouble with not being able to play videos, not seeing shared folders or external drives, or just not working. So what media center application do you use and what's your argument for it? Or do you just do what I do and use your standard file browser? RobHale on "Building an HTPC" http://productivegeek.com/forums/topic/building-an-htpc#post-786 Fri, 15 Jan 2010 07:59:04 +0000 RobHale 786@http://productivegeek.com/forums/ I'm considering building an HTPC soon and was hoping some people here may have some advice. My requirements are currently: <ul> <li>Device must use very little power</li> <li>Device must be quiet (Pref fanless)</li> <li>Device must boot/wake up quickly</li> <li>Device must be capable of acting as a NAS with ~ 2TB of storage</li> </ul> The above list makes no assumptions about operating system or Media Center software. I'm used to Windows Media Center as I currently use my 360 as an extender however I'd be interested in hearing opinions on XBMC as well. Especially if you have experience with training non-techy family members how to use them. The device will also be used as a central media server for all the computers in our house. I considered plunking down for a separate NAS but came to the conclusion that if I'm going to build a PC to stream media from the NAS I may as well save some money and make the PC the media server. Blu Ray playback would be desirable but isn't a requirement as I don't yet have any Blu Ray discs and only bought HD-DVD movies because they were going for less than regular DVDs at the time. Oh and the device will be outputting to a 32" Sony Bravia KDL32W5500U so full 1080p is a must. Brady on "TV on an Eee?" http://productivegeek.com/forums/topic/tv-on-an-eee#post-689 Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:47:32 +0000 Brady 689@http://productivegeek.com/forums/ So my fiancé wants to catch up on some of her shows that she's missed over the past few weeks, but we're having trouble getting her netbook, an Eee 1005HA, to stream movies adequately from the websites of the major networks. I'm not sure if its a failure of the meek video processing power of the netbook, or jsut that the networks use crappy plugins to watch shows on their sites, or what. What recommendations do you have for us to stream major tv shows on a netbook? (Not very interested in the torrent aspect - too slow, to unreliable, and to large of a file size)