Weekly Roundup Episode 8 Media Center Software: 1. Windows Media Center PC users like having Windows Media Center (WMC) inside their home theatre PC. Whether you may have a trip for; music videos, vintage classics, tv-series, and anything you may want to watch online. With this single software program you can almost watch everything. WMC is among the most well-known media center because of Microsoft’s advertising campaigns and combining endeavors. There’s nothing overly technical about Windows Media Center, and it also plays nearly all media formats available. Windows Media Center is pre-equipped on all Windows 7 platforms, you just have to activate it. RATE: 3/5 2. JRiver Media Center JRiver Media Center is a jukebox-style media center similar to that of Windows Media Player, or iTunes. Regardless, it is costumed with an optimized interface Theater View, which works perfectly along with your HDTV’s. The best thing about JRiver is it supports, including the sophisticated codecs from recorded clips, and it’s also recognized to playback music with overall excellent audio quality. It even is sold with Netflix, Hulu and YouTube services integrated, so it will be suited to playing video recording content, too. It’s a perfect match for you, particularly if you are an audiophile and enjoy playing lossless formats of audio like, FLAC, APE, ALAC, WM, and WAV files. RATE: 3/5 3. Plex Plex Media Center is a media center substitute for Mac OS X which is integrated with iTunes; if you are being well experienced in using iTunes for syncing music and videos, then this application will be well suited for you. The interface is visually stunning and contains an excellent integration together with the iTunes media library. RATE: 4/5 4. Media Portal Another great media center with its own TV tunner support is Media Portal. Media Portal viably converts your PC to a highly advanced media center. It is a free application much like XBMC. The benefits of having this application is that you may turn your computer or laptop to a PVR (Personal Video Recorder). PVR is a program that will enable you to record videos to watch later on for your viewing pleasure. RATE: 3/5 5. Hulu Desktop Hulu Desktop has an outstanding interface that can easily navigate to your highly sought after video streams. Hulu has the latest shows, classic movies and a lot more out of its wide range of categories. Hulu Desktop works together with your WMC. Handheld controls, or Apple’s handheld remote control, making it a breeze to chop the cable with this particular software. Just give it a shot if you haven’t already! Hulu is only available on selected countries so far due to copyrights and legal terms. RATE: 4/5 6. Boxee Boxee brings the social side towards the media center. It offers some improvements like integrating video footage content plus a user recommendation system. You can share, recommend your movies with other users, you can also watch them both online. Boxee has now released some hardware around their platform referred to as the D-Link Boxee Box. In which it optimizes your viewing pleasure more by giving you direct access to their site. You could also watch box from your tablet PC’s and smatphone capable devices. RATE: 3/5 7. XBMC Media Center XBMC Media Center was originally designed like a media center interface for an XBOX gaming console. Today, they have evolved to be an authoritative media center for Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows which is able to play most available media file types. XBMC is a well established and robust software for more additional advanced users which lots of people regards as being the best media center available. XBMC continues to be the inspiration for most alternative media centers. The consumer interface looks very elegant even with no customization. RATE: 5/5 8. MythTV MythTV is the PVR (Personal Video Recorder) for the Linux media center. You’ll be able to record your shows and play it well whenever you want. It’s a fantastic option to TiVo should you keep not having enough space for your Television shows. This is designed for advanced users trying to create their apartment theater from and link their computer to their television. Once linked, you’ll be able to record and capture live television programs stored unto your computer for later view. You will then be capable of playing them whenever you want. MythTV has several variations a variety of Linux distributions say for instance; Mythbuntu and MythDora. RATE: 3/5 9. Enna Enna the Media Center for Linux may perhaps be the center of promising entertainment among several competitions. Enna is usually a GUI for your popular Linux distribution GeeXbox. It offers rather basic features, so don’t over expect too much, yet it is transportable and works even by using an older computer. The advantage of Enna and GeeXbox is you can simply make use of them within the Live Linux CD to determine if you like it before installing it on a computer. RATE: 3/5 10. Moovida Moovida is a free media center much like Plex as well as several media centers probing TV to Internet acess. Moovida has two distinct interfaces, they are called “Core” and “Immersed”. The Core is for the desktop computer usage even though the Immersed is optimized for ones on the TV. The Immersed interface supplies a visually stunning 3D engine that may be worth looking over. A rich 3D interface lets you browse videos, letting you get an overview of what movies there are. Media Center Hardware Apple TV: Easy to Use, Perfect for Apple Users Full size The $99 Apple TV is a tiny little device that fits anywhere in your living room. The remote is very basic, but extremely easy to use— something a lot of living room remotes lack these days. It feels very solid, and the buttons respond nicely, making the whole product pleasant to use. Setup is a snap: just plug it in, link it up with your iTunes library and Apple ID, and you're ready to go. Typing in your credentials is kind of annoying due to the lack of keyboard. I wish I could set up things like Netflix and Hulu in iTunes from my computer, but for now you'll have to trudge through the remote-driven setup. The interface is great. It's fast, smooth, and incredibly simple. You have all your basic channels on the front page in a grid, letting you access your movies, TV shows, and music from iTunes, as well as streaming channels like Netflix, Hulu Plus, and sports sites like MLB.tv, NBA, and NHL. It even has a list of recent and popular movies along the top if you aren't sure what you want to watch, which is kind of fun. Anything else you want to play can be shot to the Apple TV through AirPlay on an iOS device, or via AirPlay mirroring on a Mac. It isn't ideal, but it'll get the job done for just about anything you want to watch. Unfortunately, beyond that, its streaming abilities are limited. The Apple TV was really built around iTunes, which means you need to buy and download your content from the iTunes store. On one hand, iTunes' selection is amazing. You have tons of movies and TV shows at your fingertips, to rent or to buy. On the other hand, it can get expensive quickly. HD movies cost $15-20, while a full season of a TV show ranges from $40-50 on average. Watch more than a few movies or shows, and the iTunes store becomes much more expensive than $10 a month for Netflix or Hulu Plus. Sure, you "own" those movies, but they all have heavy DRM and are only watchable on Apple devices...so let's be honest, you don't really own them. List of Apple TV Streaming Channels The Good: 1 Remarkably easy-to-use interface and remote 2 A vast library of movies and TV shows available for download 3 Inexpensive The Bad: 1 iTunes store can get costly, and everything has DRM 2 Not very many streaming channels, lacks Amazon Verdict: The Apple TV definitely seems like the most polished of the bunch, and the easiest to use for most people. It's great for users who have a lot of other Apple products, and prefer buying and downloading content to subscribing and streaming content (and have the wallet to support that preference). Google TV: A Little Clunky, But Highly Configurable Full size Google TV is, quite literally, the Android of streaming boxes. It's available on a number of different devices from different manufacturers, in different price ranges, and with different remotes. As such, we can't talk too much about the hardware here (though the VIZIO Co-Star, shown at the right, is a great looking model available for preorder now). The software, however, is very reminiscent of an Android tablet...because that's exactly what it is. You have a wall of icons representing your media, live TV, apps like Netflix and Amazon, and others. You can download Google TV-optimized Android apps from the Google Play store and put them on your home screen. Unfortunately, its similarities to Android do it more harm than good. Some apps are clearly ports of tablet apps that don't work very well with a remote, and you'll need to control them with the clunky trackpad or control stick on your remote.