Whos got a media pc and what software are you using? I got XP ... apparently vista has media centre software built in?

some versions do, i run ultimate. i have 2 digital free view tuners in it, and it runs all my tv and dvds.

i dont install any other software. its purely a media centre pc.

last edited by mooby at 22:47:00 27/Dec/07

the best freeware Media PC bar none that I've encountered is a standalone cd-bootable-*nix distro called Geexbox.

my better half's laptop has a bug in it atm and I can't be arsed fixing it so I boot this baby up and just leave it running for the kids for a week or so.

it plays dvds/network media/anything on the hd. if it doesn't have the codec it just connects to the net and grabs it whenever it needs too. I haven't found a (home : ) movie this will not play, though there are always new formats.

the only cons I can think of so far are:

- can't easily install it to the hd.. I have no idea how to accomplish this, though I don't doubt some reading this could
- can't utilise every usb tv tuner I've tried
- doesn't like some cheapie onboard video chipsets (nforce 2/3 is good though)
- doesn't like Matrox videocards
- onboard MSHD surround sound support is limited (ie: same as winmodem issues)
- doesn't make full use of available system ram
- and where's the damn Folding client??? it's not as if playing a video file is hard work or anything !@#$%

last edited by koopz at 23:12:32 27/Dec/07

I use media portal. It's really good and runs fast. Lots of plugins that work really well. If you have a collection of TV shows have a look at the plugin that auto collates them and gives plots/images for each show and episode. It fkn rocks.
Link here to have a look:
Media Portal

Also I've heard MythTV is great if you're up for booting linux for your media pc.

+1 mediaportal

Media portal will do for now... cheers.
I think i will go the Linux option but... seems wrong to pay for OS software on a PC which has limitations.

How does media portal go? Is it just an app that runs like TVersity. For some reason the site wont load for me...boo. Does it stream to thinks like an Xbox 360 or does it need to be directly connected?

Is it just an app that runs like TVersity

It's an external app that runs just like media centre for vista
(runs full screen and meant to be for dedicated media pcs). I'm not sure about streaming from xbox but I stream videos and mp3s from other computers in my house no problems through it (if that's what you mean).

I think i will go the Linux option but... seems wrong to pay for OS software on a PC which has limitations.

If you go down the linux path, it might be also worth giving this article a read. Mythdora looks like it could be decent but haven't spent too much time playing with them. I tried media portal a couple years ago but though it was pretty s*** at the time, maybe it's gotten better, might have to give it another try since my pc in the lounge room is running xp atm. The package I've really got my eye on though is the xbmc port to linux, should rock once it's finished.

I was actually working on a media center firefox plugin a while ago but that kinda fell by the wayside as myself and the guy I was working on it with didn't have the time to learn the javascript needed to finish it.