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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
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
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!
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.
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.