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Open Source Multimedia Center For Windows
An anonymous reader writes "A new opensourced multimedia center for Windows has been released. Media Portal boasts the ability to turn your PC into an advanced HTPC (Home-Theatre PC) and PVR/DVR (Personal/Digital Video Recorder). It allows you to listen to your favorite music and radio, watch all your video's and DVD's, view, schedule
and record live TV and much more. The software is a port of the homebrew Xbox Media Center software which requires a Modded Xbox to run."
don't link the home page or anything
http://mediaportal.sourceforge.net/
From the homepage:
There are some rumors floating around about MediaPortal 1.0.
However this is very wrong, because as you can see below we just released 0.1. The current version 0.1 is not considered as the first stable release and it is definitely not final!
This does not mean the product is an alpha release! The 0.1 is considered a very nice and stable beta release, which everyone can and should test and help out to fix bugs and/or improve the product even further. And remember: it is free forever!
I've been running this for a while. It just runs on regular Windows, not the XBOX. It is just a port of the XBOX Media Program. Not bad for keeping a nice queue of DIVX movies at the ready for the kids.
The project is at SourceForge if you guys want to give maxconsole a break.
Tech News, Reviews and Tutorials
Ummm.... yeah... Linky!
Does it still require the MFC to be compiled ? If this is the case I then fail to see the interest of this especially when it requires an Xbox and then Micorsoft to gain alittle money from the operation.
They're saying that it's a port of the XBox app, which has already been around for a while. The new app is a Windows-based product and does not require an XBox
The Media Portal software appears to be a port of the media center from the xbox platform to normal Windows. Hence it doesn't require an Xbox. I.e. from the requirements page it specifies WinXP SP1 or SP2.
t
Some people don't read the articles, others don't even read the post.
Read this part once again and notice the "is a port of the" part then finish off with the "which requires a" part:
The software is a port of the homebrew Xbox Media Center software which requires a Modded Xbox to run.
This just in from http://mediaportal.sourceforge.net/
Latest News
01-December 2004
IMPORTANT NEWS PLEASE READ THIS!
There are some rumors floating around about MediaPortal 1.0.
However this is very wrong, because as you can see below we just released 0.1. The current version 0.1 is not considered as the first stable release and it is definitely not final!
This does not mean the product is an alpha release! The 0.1 is considered a very nice and stable beta release, which everyone can and should test and help out to fix bugs and/or improve the product even further. And remember: it is free forever!
Alot of people also use this as the dashboard, or OS so to speak, of their modded XBOXes. The version I have also has some built in VOIP capabilities. With VOIP locked into a media center, you could simulate the full movie theater experience, with everyone talking to each other during the movie.
Seriously though, comedies tend to seem funnier in theaters, i think in part to the fact that you are with a bunch of other people laughing. Its like how children, and some adults, look around before or while they are laughing, as if they are looking for approval.
VOIP in a media center could also be fun and useful for streaming educational videos, sporting events, sales, what have you. I hope they port those options over too. Forgive me if they mentioned that in TFA, but i couldnt seem to connect to it.
Well it would be if it was for the fact that it is for xp.
All ye all ye outs in free!
If you read the summary correctly, you'd see that it's a PORT of Xbox Media Center, which does require a modded Xbox. Media Portal however, runs on Windows PC's.
- Mike
An Xbox will not act as a DVR, as far as I know. I use the XBMP to play media from my Xbox onto my television, but the Xbox does not have a TV card needed to capture the feed from the television. This port is very very cool because it allows you to run the app on hardware that is much more upgradable than the Xbox. I will definitely check this out.
I just got my Xbox modded yesterday, and it included the excellent XBMC. Only problem is upgrading it. My version is a few months behind, and you cannot download binaries from Sourceforge, because the project must be compiled with Microsoft's dev kit for the Xbox, and XBMC is an unlicensed project. I still have not figured out how to get binaries!
.NET, I tried running it on my PC before modding my Xbox and it crashed every time I tried to do anything, I might download and try again.
This project is compiled with Vanilla
Although modding an Xbox isn't for the faint of heart (I just had someone else do it), it's fun and the software you get is very powerful. I was up and running with MP3's burnt on a DVD-R and some Divx TV shows. By the way, you can make XBMC be the default program when you boot the Xbox, if thats all you want to use your console for.
I remember awhile ago I installed this a long time ago when it first started development, and it still supported my old hauppauge card and my Riva TNT2 video card, Installed it yesterday when I saw 0.1.0.0 was released and it doesnt even open, read the min requirements, and you NEED a mpeg2 hardware encoder, WMP9 which crashes my system so I refuse to install it, and a directx 9 card. After my frusttration yesterday, I convinced myself maybe I should install mythtv, Not sure if I will need a mpeg2 encoder for time shifting, but it will be a fun project over the break.
On the whole - if you are looking for some free PVR software NOW, get MythTV or Freevo. There are excellent tutorials on the net on how to set up a MythTV system - from scratch - no hardcore Linux skills required.
Two things you should know. Compared to other HTPC software Media Portal is slow on older systems. In fact in general parts of it are just kinda slow. For example MYHTPC and many other htpc packages run very well on say a PIII700 256MB system, this does not. Second it only supports cards that do mpeg2 in hardware. That obviously made things easier for them but it really let down a ton of users when they dropped support for non-mpeg2 tv cards for recording.
:( Most people just don't want to code open HTPC software except on linux.
The one good thing is its acutally opensource. That doesn't mean the original devs won't leave to make their own commercial proprietary htpc programs but at least the project can live on unlike myhtpc which I had mentioned above. Considering the current glut of htpc frontends etc on win32 these days it is a little worrying that this is the only truly open one.
Another decent option is GotAllMedia which is coming along nicely. Its also Free but as in beer. I highly suggest you check it out. http://www.gottvpvr.com/
Why not try SageTV? It's mature, inexpensive, pretty stable, and nicely designed. It's even hackable (via STV modules) to boot. People have already written STV mods for weather, early itunes functionality, and a web interface for it.
Right now the best PVR-type software you can get, open source or closed source, is Mythtv.
.NET, the guy learned the mythtv protocols and built a front end that will work on Windows with a backend that runs on Linux.
Very flexible, you can have multiple front ends work with multiple back ends and have many many different tv tuner cards and have it all work in concert together.
Now this is all Linux stuff, of course, however you can get a front end for Mythtv that will work in Windows.
It's called WinMyth and is written in
Basicly the backend serves the data in mpeg2 or mpeg4 or mjpeg type streams to the frontend over a network. And the frontend is also what you use to scedual recordings and play games and stuff like that.
You can find the home page of the product at
http://winmyth.sourceforge.net/
Why not try Knoppmyth(http://www.mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html )? It's a package of Knoppix with MythTV already installed.He's made it mucchhh easier for anyone to install mythtv without any hassle. All you need to do is pop the cd in and install. However, you'll need to repartition or wipe clean your hard drive before installing.
This is a must: Bob's Quick Guide to the Apostrophe
:-( )
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(My first post was in error
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