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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."

20 of 215 comments (clear)

  1. media portal page by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    don't link the home page or anything
    http://mediaportal.sourceforge.net/

  2. Re:erm, not 1.0? by Suddenly_Dead · · Score: 5, Informative

    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!

  3. Re:Open Source for Windows ? by nosaj72 · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

  4. The server's already running slow... by rjelks · · Score: 4, Informative

    The project is at SourceForge if you guys want to give maxconsole a break.

  5. Um.. by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Funny
    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.

    Clearly a threat to Copyrights, Profits and Homeland Security. In certain the authorities (MPAA/RIAA/Microsoft have already been notified and are moving the threat level up from Plaid to Paisley)

    The software is a port of the homebrew Xbox Media Center software which requires a Modded Xbox to run."

    Now I'm certain Microsoft will be activating their Bucket 'o Lawyers* The only people allowed to give away something like that for free must have an ulterior motive, such as locking everyone into mind control or market share...

    *Not to be confused with the toys Bucket o' Soldiers or Barrel o' Monkeys, but toys of their masters all the same.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    1. Re:Um.. by panurge · · Score: 4, Funny
      Plaid to Paisley? That's worrying. Plaid Cymru just burns down the houses of the English settlers, but the Rev. Ian Paisley shouts stupid things really really loudly.

      So where is that on the Fonda-Rumsfeld threat scale?

      --
      Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
  6. Hardware by hoggoth · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This could be interesting.
    What is the most inexpensive hardware with enough OOMPH to run this?

    I looked at Mini-ITX systems, and the HUSH grabbed my eye. Then the price grabbed me somewhere else.

    And I don't really want to get an XBOX then modify it, so don't give me the obvious answer...

    --
    - For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat /dev/random (may take some time)
    1. Re:Hardware by sepluv · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Or get one of the guys on the "X-Box Chocolate Project" to do it for you.

      You find a local X-box modder on that list and (s)he mods your X-box (hardware or software) or just your memory card and you give them chocolate or their suggsted gift for the service.

      --
      Joe Llywelyn Griffith Blakesley
      [This post is in the public domain (copyright-free) unless otherwise stated]
  7. Re:Open Source for Windows ? by norminator · · Score: 3, Informative

    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

  8. Re:HAHA by ackthpt · · Score: 4, Insightful
    An Open Source solution running on Microsoft branded hardware.

    You're still paying the Micrsoft tax after all.

    Actually, if you buy the Xbox but no games for it you're screwing Microsoft, since the box is a loss-leader. The real revenue is games and services.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  9. Not 1.0 by Gathers · · Score: 3, Informative

    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!

  10. Features on the XBOX.... by Aceto3for5 · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.

  11. Re:Confusing... by bellevueGeek · · Score: 3, Informative


    Well it would be if it was for the fact that it is for xp.

    --

    All ye all ye outs in free!
  12. Does it come with... by noidentity · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...an extraneous apostrophe remover?

  13. Slightly on-topic... by blackmonday · · Score: 4, Informative

    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!

    This project is compiled with Vanilla .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.

    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.

    1. Re:Slightly on-topic... by Vaevictis666 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Xbins runs an FTP that you can download latest XBMC from, join #xbins on efnet. Otherwise, try looking for a torrent of it (there's usually a weekly one on suprnova)

  14. Re:HAHA by plover · · Score: 4, Interesting
    No, the OSS community does not need to "get rid of him." But they do need to understand that not everyone is going 100% open source. I'm running Windows at home because the games and apps I want are Win32 platform based. I'm a developer whose day job is programming on a Win32 app, and so I need to use Windows all day long. Does that mean I'm opposed to open source? Of course not, I run several open source apps, and have contributed to a few.

    I usually ignore both sides of the OSS / Microsoft debate, but in this case the attitude of "trow da bums out" is just too divisive. If you're OK with paying Microsoft dues, then fine. If Robyanetta is avoiding it, that's fine too. Just both of you should recognize the other point of view isn't going away, and you should learn to cooperate on the common ground that exists between you.

    --
    John
  15. Re:DO NOT CLICK CACHE OF GOAT.CX by sploo22 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Except that the destination part of the URL can be trivially spoofed. The base64 hash is what really determines the page you get.

    Demonstration: http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:zhool8dxBV4J: www.microsoft.com/+&hl=en This takes you to google's cache of its own home page, not to Microsoft.

    --
    Karma: Segmentation fault (tried to dereference a null post)
  16. Media Portal is nowhere near prime-time by brunes69 · · Score: 4, Informative
    I tried this software a few months back, and I must say, while I was comparing it to an already mature piece of software (MythTV), it was certainly not up to snuff. It was incredibly slow to launch from my standpoint (this was on an Athlon 2400XP ), took over 20 seconds for the GUI to launch - probably due to it being in .Net. After launch, only a few functions were usable, and the system frequently crashed.

    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.

  17. What does this do that MythTV doesnt? by billybob · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'd say RUNS ON WINDOWS is a pretty damn big feature that MythTV lacks. :P

    --
    Joseph?