I first started building a media center PC about a year ago. I had all the hardware ready to go, but then quickly realized that I had no clue what to do about software. It seems there are approximately eight billion media center apps out there, but only a half-dozen or so decent ones. I now present you with a rough summary of the last year of media center hunting.
What were my original goals?
- Be able to watch my Region 2 edition of Spaced (the greatest show ever).
- Be able to organize and quickly access a number of DivX movies that I've dumped from old VHS tapes over the years.
- Be able to organize and quickly access MP3 rips of my ~1,000 CDs.
- Have an interface with a shine to it. A snazzy-sweet media center, IMHO, should have a snazzy-sweet 3d-accelerated interface.
- Preferably, the media center and OS should be one piece and as easy to set up as possible.
- I have an old HP iPAQ PocketPC device that I don't use anymore. It would be hot to be able to use it as a remote.
What options did I try? Answer: A lot!
It's a Ubuntu install with MythTV integrated into it. Great if you like MythTV, but their stock interfaces aren't very pretty and configuration is a pain in the butt.
Another Ubuntu distro that integrates MythTV. The desktop interface is nice and integrates a Mac OSX-style dock bar, but all media is still through MythTV (see above). On top of that, I don't like the fact that they sell a separate "Enterprise" version.
One of my early favorites. It's Ubuntu + MythtV + a bunch of home automation software and an all customized interface designed to work with a mouse's range of movement instead of the limited functionality of a media center remote. I have a wireless air mouse by Gyration, so this would have been perfect. It also acts as a server and has clients for Linux/Windows/PocketPC/phones so you can control and/or view your media anywhere in the house.
In the end, LinuxMCE showed me that MythTV can be nice if you've got a custom interface on top of it, but it's too convoluted for what I'm trying to do. Just installing it is a pain, and I never could get it to correctly display output on my TV without any overscan or underscan ruining things. Another year or two of development, though, and I can see LinuxMCE being huge.
This one is not its own OS, but an app that's available from the Ubuntu repositories. The interface in Elisa is gorgeous. It's all 3d-accelerated with smooth animations, and the menus are well organized with no needless clutter. This can be a great app for a lot of people, but it's currently missing DVD playback capabilities.
Surprisingly enough, I've found myself becoming a big fan of Windows Vista Media Center. Their interface is supremely swanky and can be controlled with either a mouse or media center remote. However, and this is a big however, it is Windows Vista, and it seems that its reputation is well-earned. This was my first experience using Vista, and will probably be my last after never quite figuring out how or why all audio starts skipping once the nVidia graphics drivers are installed. What the hell!?!
I eventually gave up on finding an all-in-one solution that'll do everything I want. There doesn't seem to be any good way to compensate for overscan in Linux (even in LinuxMCE which attempts to do so) and Windows is...well...Windows. So I came up with a combination of the following instead:
- Base OS - Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron - I know Ubuntu and know that it works. It's never done me wrong.
- Audio - MPD - MusicPlayerDaemon is a music server app with a database back-end that you control remotely from any client app. Clients are available for Windows, Linux, and (woot!) PocketPC devices. Plus there's an mpdscribble program to upload MPD's played songs to a Last.fm account. Probably the neatest part is that your playlists and settings are stored on the server itself. So, I could start a playlist and put it on shuffle mode from my PocketPC downstairs but still be able to switch tracks or do whatever from any client anywhere in the house. <3 MPD.
- Video - PS3 via Mediatomb - Not sure why I didn't think of this sooner. Both the PS3 and Xbox 360 can act as DLNA media receivers. Mediatomb was the first DLNA server I tried and it works great. Now I can use the PS3's interface to browse videos and don't need to worry about the overscan issues with connecting the PC straight to the TV. There are some formats that the PS3 won't play, but I'm satisfied that it seems okay with the vast majority of what I have.
- Foreign region-locked DVDs - It makes me a tiny bit sad, but I'm letting this requirement slide. There are so many cheap, region-hackable DVD players out there, it's just not worth the annoyance of finding another way.
If anyone reading this is looking for a close-to-all-in-one media center solution, I'd recommend Elisa if you don't need to play DVDs or Windows Vista if you don't have an nVidia GeForce 8xxx (other cards seem to not have the skipping audio issue) series video card, have beefy enough hardware to run it, and don't mind laying down a couple hundred dollars for it.