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MeediOS: A promising HTPC frontend.

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superboyac:
with a (huge ugly) headless storage server in a back room.
-Stoic Joker (September 25, 2010, 12:16 PM)
--- End quote ---
I'm going to have to do that one day.  You'll see me ask about it here.  I'm going to eventually set up a server at home with several hard drives, RAID?, and whatever else it takes.

Stoic Joker:
with a (huge ugly) headless storage server in a back room.
-Stoic Joker (September 25, 2010, 12:16 PM)
--- End quote ---
I'm going to have to do that one day.  You'll see me ask about it here.  I'm going to eventually set up a server at home with several hard drives, RAID?, and whatever else it takes.
-superboyac (September 25, 2010, 12:32 PM)
--- End quote ---
Hardware RAID is manditory, and fairly cheap with one of the server referb companies that are popping up these days. I've delt with these guys several times in the past and their service is excellent. If what you want isn't listed on the website, call them - You'll get fast friendly service the likes of which haven't been seen since the 50s.

MrCrispy:
Another good one to consider is MediaPortal (www.team-mediaportal.com).

XBMC is the granddaddy of them all. It started on the original Xbox (which is no longer supported) and was years ahead of its time. That code was then forked off into many other projects (such as media portal, Plex, Boxee) and some of those (such as MP, Plex) have rewritten large parts to suit their needs.

For someone setting up an HTPC today, the important question is - do you want DVR? Are you on Windows? If so the best best is MediaBrowser (which adds into WMC). If you don't need dvr, XBMC is far and away the best choice. A few reasons why -

- its the fastest UI.
- the best skins (everyone else copies xbmc skins). MediaPortal v2 and Meedios use WPF so their skins can do more (once its finished)
- the easiest setup - this is very critical. Just try and setup Meedios and you'll know. A novie can be up and running in 15min
- the most active community, and thus development
- everything you need (codecs etc) is builtin

Meedios is very flexible (almost too much) and you can have it behave just so, but its not for the average user or anyone who deosn't want to devote a lot of time tinkering with it.

superboyac:
MrCrispy, thanks so much for the helpful comments.  I was under the impression that XBMC was a linux only thing, but it's not.  That puts it into the mix.  To answer your question: NO, I do NOT need DVR.  So that means I don't need to look at MediaBrowser right now.  Thanks for saying it so clearly, I'm looking for strong opinions like that when I come here.

I haven't played around with anything so far, so I don't quite know what my exact needs are right now.  It sounds like XBMC is going to be the one.  One thing I am adamant about: I will NOT be using Windows Media Player.  I will not use anything that I can't use my preferred players with (KMPlayer, Light Alloy).  And I need to be able to choose different players for different type of media.  KMPlayer for video.  Foobar for audio.  Zoomplayer for non-converted DVD images.  I am very particular about my media player software.  I don't want any kind of browsing interface locking me into a specific player.  I frown on that. >:(

OK, I'm going to check out XMBC.

superboyac:
Holy crap!  I love XMBC!!  I just love it.  you know what...I think I'm going to let go of the whole external player thing.  That interface is just too slick.  If it's as popular and developed as you say it is, I'm sure I'll be able to tweak it just the way i like.  The only things I'm really picky about is being able to customize what happens on single-click, double-click...and what the mouse wheel is assigned to do.  Then I may get picky about certain OSD issues, and I may get picky about how I want controls to slide in and out when the pointer goes to the edges and stuff.  But XMBC is probably going to be the thing for me.  That is good stuff.  Man, I can't wait until I have a nice projector setup with that running.  i wonder how fast it can run on my old 2002 computer that I have hooked up right now?

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