HTPC software?

R

ragedriven

n00b
Joined
Nov 28, 2006
Messages
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which htpc software/OS do i try? i've only briefly tried vista media center/vista with mixed results, and i'm wondering if the grass is greener... PVR list from wiki - which do you use and why?

my most important need is it must be kid/wife friendly (everything by remote with no mouse/keyboard). i have 2 hauppauge cards, blu-ray drive w/powerdvd, 1TB hdd w/music, pics, ripped dvds and blu-rays. i don't need gaming, no internet other than a connection for the tv guide to update, just a full time media center that my wife/kids won't be scared of.

VMC likes
it had an easy setup, my 2 tv cards were auto detected, all my pics and music were a non-issue. the general layout/eye candy.

VMC no-likey
-the lack of dvd library... activated the dvd library through the registry after some googling.

-no search through recordings, no tv suggestions.

-i did not like the blu-ray, powerdvd was cumbersome, i kept having to put down the remote and walk over to the mouse, added a button to launch powerdvd in the menu, but it wouldn't change back to vmc without a mouse click. arcsoft blu-ray?

-no auto-commercial detection/deletion in recordings, not the best sorting of recordings.

-towards the end of my vmc test drive i started getting funny behaviors whilst bringing the htpc out of sleep hanging/lagging channel changing.
 
Well, heres one fix for your VMC problems: http://www.missingremote.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2560&Itemid=232

Only SageTV does the TV suggestion/Tivo style thing. No idea what you mean by "not the best sort of recordings" but it's easy and trivial to add com detection and deletion to VMC (unless your using TV Pack and/or a CC tuner). Arcsoft's TMT already is setup to do this though out of the box.

DVRMS toolbox is one for comskip.

While I adore and love SageTV it is not easy to setup and it's not exactly WAF friendly either until you switch out the default skin. Honestly, anyone that says otherwise is a liar.
 
If you are just worried about one machine, just get VMC. It has enough pluggins to solve 99% of what you want. If you need a central hub with the ability to distribute...SageTV. I've worked it both ways for multiple people. This is usually where I land up every time.
 
I started off with MythTV, and though a Linux admin/programmer for 15 years, I wanted to slit my wrists just to get it to work. I eventually gave up and went to SageTV. Two years of Sage and still loving it. Though, VMC is also very nice now.
 
I finally moved from BeyondTV to SageTV, and I can't say I miss Beyond. The fact that that BeyondTV wouldn't interface with my x264 mkv movies was reason enough for me to shell out another $80; the slicker interface, weather tool, and pandora plugin are just gravy on top.
 
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