Media Center Guide - Software
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This is what makes the difference between a computer and a media center. A good media center application should provide a simple yet comprehensive interface. Navigation should be simple, and should have some kind of style or theme. Picking a program is like picking a new car. Everyone will have their own favorite car, but there will be your Ferraris and your Pintos. Let’s take a look at a few of the options available.
I’m going to begin with Microsoft’s Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE). This is the most expensive option, but is fully integrated into the OS. This software is fairly robust. It offers the ability to capture video, and listen to audio from both radio and downloaded music.
What sets MCE apart from the others is its robustness. It offers many other features that its competitors do not. Some of these features may benefit you, but most are novel at best. The most useful of these is the syncing for portable devices. This helps extend the use of media centers. You can carry the most recent show of “Numb3rs” or a new music album with you.
Unfortunately there are many programs that haven’t proven their worthiness yet. Microsoft has integrated Messenger into MCE. Most people don’t want to be watching TV and see messages popping up when they are talking to a friend. The biggest downside is the effort required to get the videos off the Microsoft format and onto something you can put on DVD for set top boxes.
The next program I want to point out is SnapStream’s Beyond TV. This is a third party alternative to built in applications like MCE and Myth TV. It doesn’t have games or messenger programs in it. It records and converts video files. It is a popular choice because MCE costs so much and many users don’t want to fuss with Linux to record videos. It fits somewhere in between Myth TV, which lets you do basically whatever you want it to do, and in whatever format you want, and MCE, where everything is chosen for you. It offers a built in video converter for those who may want video on their Pocket PC or other portable device.
A survey of media center software wouldn’t be complete without discussing Myth TV. Myth TV is the Linux solution for MCE. Unlike MCE, Myth is free, and doesn’t include too many extra features. It does everything MCE does, but without the bloat. Since it is open source, you can modify it to your liking. There are a lot of great modules in MythTV. You can get RSS feed, weather, and even Voice Over IP. One of the highlights is that it doesn’t have any kind of protection on the recorded media. The music is ripped in unprotected MP3 format; DVDs and recorded video are the same way. Once you record it, you can do what you want with it. The other solutions require third party applications to convert them.
These are just a few of the popular solutions for user interfaces with recording TV shows. There are many more you could use. Nearly all TV tuner cards come bundled with some application similar to the ones mentioned above. I know my TV tuner card came with CyberLink’s PowerCinema. It falls between MCE and Beyond TV. I personally like all of these programs; each offers something different. As with picking a car, everyone can find something to suit his or her own tastes.
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