Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 16 of 47

Thread: Windows Media Center - Alternative?

  1. #1
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Posts
    337
    Thanks
    3
    Thanked
    2 times in 2 posts

    Windows Media Center - Alternative?

    I just got me a usb freeview stick - working quite well, well it was.

    Then the bundled software - ArcSoft Total Media 3 gave up on the EPG - really annoying! - and a Google offers no solutions - any ideas?

    As an alternative, because I wasn't getting anywhere with the above I thought I'd give WMC a go - I don't like the interface as much as ArcSoft (I got used to it even if it is a bit budget), most irritatingly when using a multi monitor setup one has to press the windows key to switch between monitors! Grr! - I didn't have to do that with ArcSoft!

    So... are there any decent alternatives to WMC - must offer an EPG and a recording facility. Preferably free, or v cheap - WMC is free after all (when bundled with Vista like I have it)... or should I just try to stick with WMC?

    (Also, if anyone has a fix for the EPG in ArcSoft Total Media it would be much appreciated!)

  2. #2
    Oh Crumbs.... Biscuit's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    N. Yorkshire
    Posts
    11,193
    Thanks
    1,394
    Thanked
    1,091 times in 833 posts
    • Biscuit's system
      • Motherboard:
      • MSI B450M Mortar
      • CPU:
      • AMD 2700X (Be Quiet! Dark Rock 3)
      • Memory:
      • 16GB Patriot Viper 2 @ 3466MHz
      • Storage:
      • 500GB WD Black
      • Graphics card(s):
      • Sapphire R9 290X Vapor-X
      • PSU:
      • Seasonic Focus Gold 750W
      • Case:
      • Lian Li PC-V359
      • Operating System:
      • Windows 10 x64
      • Internet:
      • BT Infinity 80/20

    Re: Windows Media Center - Alternative?

    Now i havent tried them so i cant say a lot about them but there is media portal and XBMC
    The one i have tried is J River Media Centre. Its is an I-Tunes like media player but it also has a media centre interface similar to the WMC. Its not free but its very good!

  3. #3
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Posts
    337
    Thanks
    3
    Thanked
    2 times in 2 posts

    Re: Windows Media Center - Alternative?

    I've actually stuck with WMC since the time of the post, and I'm slowly getting to like it a bit more.

    I'll give those suggestions a look, but perhaps I was a bit harsh on it earlier!

  4. #4
    Does he need a reason? Funkstar's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    Aberdeen
    Posts
    19,874
    Thanks
    629
    Thanked
    962 times in 813 posts
    • Funkstar's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Gigabyte EG45M-DS2H
      • CPU:
      • Intel Core2Quad Q9550 (2.83GHz)
      • Memory:
      • 8GB OCZ PC2-6400C5 800MHz Quad Channel
      • Storage:
      • 650GB Western Digital Caviar Blue
      • Graphics card(s):
      • 512MB ATI Radeon HD4550
      • PSU:
      • Antec 350W 80+ Efficient PSU
      • Case:
      • Antec NSK1480 Slim Mini Desktop Case
      • Operating System:
      • Vista Ultimate 64bit
      • Monitor(s):
      • Dell 2407 + 2408 monitors
      • Internet:
      • Zen 8mb

    Re: Windows Media Center - Alternative?

    I like MediaPortal.

    It's far from perfect, but is an incredible piece of software and far more feature rich than MCE. It has matured very nicely over the last couple of years I've been using it.

  5. #5
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Leeds
    Posts
    2,599
    Thanks
    80
    Thanked
    106 times in 94 posts

    Re: Windows Media Center - Alternative?

    Media Portal is excellent from a functionality point of view, far more versatile than WMC will ever be. The only problem with it is the rather dated and clunky menu system when compared to Vista MC.

    However, Media Portal 2 is in development and from the preview release is looks to have made a large step towards solving this.

  6. #6
    Seething Cauldron of Hatred TheAnimus's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Posts
    17,168
    Thanks
    803
    Thanked
    2,152 times in 1,408 posts

    Re: Windows Media Center - Alternative?

    Media Portal just dosen't feel right.

    MCE is very extenible via a really nice API (which practices seperation of concerns VERY well) Media Portals API is very reminisant of ideas from the early 90s.

    The only thing MCE lacks out of the box, are added by the addin of MyMovies.
    throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)

  7. #7
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Posts
    337
    Thanks
    3
    Thanked
    2 times in 2 posts

    Re: Windows Media Center - Alternative?

    Media portal looks cool - I'm downloading it now.

    I'm not impressed by jazzy looking software with fancy graphics and buttons, so hopefully the clunky interface wont bother me much

  8. #8
    Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2003
    Location
    Oxfordshire
    Posts
    137
    Thanks
    9
    Thanked
    4 times in 3 posts

    Re: Windows Media Center - Alternative?

    Try GB-PVR - I've used it for a few years and it really is good.

    Couple of the very nice features are: the ability to record multiple programs on DVB-T using a single tuner (this only works if they are on the same multiplex). Setup a client/server setup where recorded & live TV are transfered to the client over a network, great if you want to have an identical interface on multiple computers/TVs.

    Very good and definitely worth checking out.

  9. Received thanks from:

    Salazaar (09-06-2009)

  10. #9
    Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Posts
    106
    Thanks
    3
    Thanked
    6 times in 6 posts

    Re: Windows Media Center - Alternative?

    MCE with Media Browser plugin





  11. #10
    sp3n
    Guest

    Re: Windows Media Center - Alternative?

    Quote Originally Posted by easyrider View Post
    MCE with Media Browser plugin




    Wow... what version of MCE is that? And where can I get that plugin? :O

  12. Received thanks from:

    confusingcircle (04-04-2009)

  13. #11
    Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2003
    Location
    Oxfordshire
    Posts
    137
    Thanks
    9
    Thanked
    4 times in 3 posts

    Re: Windows Media Center - Alternative?

    that looks very nice, is the information collected automatically and displayed like that or does it have to be tweaked for each film?

  14. #12
    Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Posts
    106
    Thanks
    3
    Thanked
    6 times in 6 posts

    Re: Windows Media Center - Alternative?

    Quote Originally Posted by sp3n View Post
    Wow... what version of MCE is that? And where can I get that plugin? :O
    MCE Vista

    http://www.mediabrowser.tv/viewforum.php?f=10


  15. #13
    Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Posts
    106
    Thanks
    3
    Thanked
    6 times in 6 posts

    Re: Windows Media Center - Alternative?

    Quote Originally Posted by fray_bentos View Post
    that looks very nice, is the information collected automatically and displayed like that or does it have to be tweaked for each film?
    Gets the Meta Data automatically if your films are named correctly.

  16. #14
    Member
    Join Date
    Jul 2004
    Posts
    170
    Thanks
    1
    Thanked
    6 times in 6 posts
    • aceuk's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Asus Maximus VIII GENE
      • CPU:
      • Intel Core i7-6700K
      • Memory:
      • 64GB (4x16GB) Corsair Vengeance LPX 3,333MHz DDR4 RAM (CMK64GX4M4B3333C16)
      • Storage:
      • 480GB Intel 750 PCIe NVMe SSD + 1TB Samsung 850 EVO
      • Graphics card(s):
      • EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti SC
      • PSU:
      • EVGA Supernova 750 G2
      • Case:
      • Fractal Design Define Mini C
      • Operating System:
      • Windows 10 Pro (x64)
      • Monitor(s):
      • Dell U2711 (27")
      • Internet:
      • 19Mb

    Re: Windows Media Center - Alternative?

    I vote for XBMC with the brand new Aeon skin. Looks fantastic once you've added the 1080p backdrops. There's a trailer on YouTube if you want to see it in action. It's really cool.






  17. #15
    Registered+
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Posts
    28
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked
    1 time in 1 post
    • Lord Filbuster's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Gigabyte p35
      • CPU:
      • Q9450
      • Memory:
      • 8GB 800MHz
      • Storage:
      • 2TB Samsung f4
      • Graphics card(s):
      • EVGA 460 GTX EE
      • Case:
      • Antec p182
      • Operating System:
      • Win 7 64

    Re: Windows Media Center - Alternative?

    How is media portal these days? Last time i used it it was buggy as hell, it would crash every time it was maximised, and couldn't timeshoft properly. I never did find an alternative to WMC.

  18. #16
    Does he need a reason? Funkstar's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    Aberdeen
    Posts
    19,874
    Thanks
    629
    Thanked
    962 times in 813 posts
    • Funkstar's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Gigabyte EG45M-DS2H
      • CPU:
      • Intel Core2Quad Q9550 (2.83GHz)
      • Memory:
      • 8GB OCZ PC2-6400C5 800MHz Quad Channel
      • Storage:
      • 650GB Western Digital Caviar Blue
      • Graphics card(s):
      • 512MB ATI Radeon HD4550
      • PSU:
      • Antec 350W 80+ Efficient PSU
      • Case:
      • Antec NSK1480 Slim Mini Desktop Case
      • Operating System:
      • Vista Ultimate 64bit
      • Monitor(s):
      • Dell 2407 + 2408 monitors
      • Internet:
      • Zen 8mb

    Re: Windows Media Center - Alternative?

    When did you try it?

    MediaPortal v1 is final and 1.0.1 is on it's way fairly soon (only 7 issues in Mantis still to be resolved).

    I've used it on and off for a long time now, and yes it was very buggy at times, but now, with a nice skin (StreamedMP is my currect favourite) it is a very slick setup.

    One massive benefit over WMC, if you have a house, is it's client/server nature. You can have a large TVServer box tucked away out of site with all your storage and tuners, then small, quiet/silent clients connected to TVs to actualy play back content.

    edit as always with these projects, if you have problems, report them. Bugs won't get fixed as if by magic is no-one reports them for the developers. If the devs were having these problems, they would get fixed

Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads

  1. TV Tuner, Windows Media Centre and Windows Vista Home Premium.
    By oimi in forum Help! Quick Relief From Tech Headaches
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 17-11-2008, 05:16 PM
  2. Windows Vista retail doomed unless Microsoft cuts prices?
    By Bob Crabtree in forum HEXUS News
    Replies: 132
    Last Post: 02-04-2007, 01:05 PM
  3. Windows XP Media Center 2005 OEM?
    By krazy_olie in forum Retail Therapy and Bargains
    Replies: 9
    Last Post: 29-08-2006, 11:20 PM
  4. Windows Media Center 2005 machine - advice/comments required!
    By Tobeman in forum PC Hardware and Components
    Replies: 11
    Last Post: 23-01-2006, 09:55 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •