Tag: Media Center
Get Ready For The Showdown
by Adam Thursby on Mar.10, 2009, under Podcast, Software
You’ve heard Tim and I go back and forth about SageTV vs. Windows Media Center. Believe me when I tell you that we’re not the only people out there who are passionate about which HTPC software they use or the reasons behind it.
On Friday, March 13th, you’ll get to hear it hashed out for real as Tim and I are joined by Josh Pollard, co-host of Entertainment 2.0, Brent Evans of Geektonic and Josh, the Minnesota Maven in a two-on-two grudge match between software.
With Tim and Brent taking up the cause for SageTV and Josh and I taking up for Media Center, Josh Pollard be stuck in the middle trying to moderate. While I don’t think anyone will change their mind about which software they use, You’ll get a chance to hear people with a lot of knowledge on the subject help you make a decision.
Again, the show will be posted on Friday, March 13th. We look forward to hearing your questions and comments.
So Many Choices
by Adam Thursby on Feb.10, 2009, under General Info
While I won’t pretend that I’ve used every one of the methods you’re going to find listed in this post, I thought it a good idea to take time to help people thinking of getting into the use of an HTPC by listing some of the software options you have.
Each software choice has different qualities. I doubt there’s one that will do everything which is why it can be such a hard choice. You have to look at each system, see if it has the features you want and go from there. I’m going to try and compare each one and tell you exactly how they can benefit you as well as hold you back. Let’s get started!
Windows Media Center
Sure, I’m going to cover this first. It’s probably the best known and not only that, it’s included with ever PC running Vista Premium/Ultimate and with the new Windows 7 Beta. With no extra software to buy, almost anyone with a PC fast enough to run it has an HTPC in their home already.
Media Center (MCE) will provide you with the following features:
- DVR-with an added TV tuner, you can use Media Center to replace your cable/sat company’s DVR and stop paying monthly fees.
- Program guide-MCE has a built in program guide you can set up if you have a tuner installed. You can use it to schedule recordings, see what’s on, etc. just like your provider’s guide. Especially helpful if you get OTA signals.
- Access to your other media-MCE allows you to bring pictures, music and video files right to the TV.
- The use of MCE Extenders to access your media across your home network-Attach one of several MCE Extenders (Xbox 360, Linksys DMA-21/2200) and you can stream your media to other TVs.
While MCE is great, (I use it in my home) it does have its limitations. For one, if you know anything about video codecs, you’ll need the knowledge. Extenders won’t play every video file type out there so you have to watch what you download/record your content in. Also, to really get extra functionality out of it, you may need to purchase third party applications.
Overall I’m very happy with Media Center. It doesn’t do everything I want it to but it’s family friendly and if you don’t need more than DVR as well as access to music and pictures, it should be perfect for you.
SageTV
SageTV is what Tim uses. Sage has been around for awhile now and it shows. With proprietary extenders that play nice with almost any file type you throw at them, built in DVR (with a tuner of course) as well as Placeshifter software that allows you to access your content outside of your home network, this is some great software.
While the UI isn’t as pretty as Windows Media Center, it is customizable and the community has come up with some great designs and layouts.
The same goes with add-ons. Sage has a huge community of users who develop new apps for the core product. Movie, TV, Music and picture add-ons can make Sage into whatever you want it to be.
Here are some of SageTV’s features:
Watch shows on your TV, PC or both.
You can find more listed here.
Something else that SageTV offers is it’s Placeshifter software. With this, you can access the Sage UI and all of your home content from any internet connected computer. This is great for people who travel a lot and want to be able to watch their content anywhere.
BeyondTV
Next on the list is BeyondTV. Both BeyondTV and the below mentioned MythTV have much smaller communities but both provide generally the same features as SageTV and Media Center. Beyond is produced by SnapStream Media. Offering features very similar to SageTV, Beyond supplies you with DVR, access to your media files across the network to other PCs and Placeshifting software as well. While with SageTV and Media Center, you can purchase exenders that will cost less and give you access to your content on other TVs, BeyondTV can only be streamed to other PCs. This of course means having a PC at every TV you want to use the software on. If I had to guess, I’d say that this is a hindrance which is holding BeyondTV behind other solutions.
Since I don’t know much about the software, I’ll let their own video explain:
Snapstream has been nice enough to include a nice little chart on their site comparing BeyondTV to Media Center. It looks a little out of date, or just plain wrong to me, but you can view it here.
MythTV
Myth is an open source media solution meant to compete with the likes of SageTV and Media Center. Again, this is a system that I don’t know a lot about but that’s why it’s so nice that they list the features on the website for me:
- Watch and record analog and/or digital TV, including HDTV.
- Pause, skip, and rewind live TV shows.
- Completely automatic commercial detection/skipping, with manual correction via an intuitive cutlist editor.
- Intelligently schedules recordings to avoid conflicts.
- Parental controls to keep your kids out of the good shows.
- Watch and archive DVDs.
- Listen to your digital music collection.
- Schedule and administer many functions remotely via a web browser.
- Flexible client/server architecture allows multiple frontend client machines to access content served by one or more backend servers (although the most common installation consists of a single computer running both the client and server together).
- Many more…
One advantage that MythTV has over something like SageTV is that it’s open source and therefore, free. While that doesn’t make it better, it does certainly make it worth it to test it. Like BeyondTV though, you’re going to need a PC at each TV you want to use the UI on. It’ll share your content but there aren’t any extenders.
Myth also offers a small collection of add-ons which provide access to your music and picture collections as well as TV to DVD burning.
Tivo
You might be asking yourself why I’m including Tivo in this little lineup. While it’s really only a set-top box and not an HTPC, Tivo and Nero recently released their Liquid TV application. This allows you to watch your Tivo recordings on your PC. As well, from listening to Tim’s experience, Tivo will allow you to move and watch your media files located on your computer on any Tivo connected TV in your home. This tells me that they’re trying to compete in this arena so I should include them.
Tivo, as everyone knows, is a DVR system which you can connect to your cable/sat system and record your programming. The one thing that Tivo has which you won’t find with these other systems is a subscription fee. This, coupled with the price of the box makes me wonder why anyone uses this systems other than the fact that it’s a bit easier to implement if you’re not interested in computer stored content.
Some of Tivo’s features:
- Pause live or recorded shows (live TV can stay paused for 30 minutes)
- Rewind (3 different speeds)
- Fast forward (3 different speeds)
- Instant replay
- Slow motion
- Frame forward
- Frame reverse
- Skip-to-tick (jump ahead or back in 15 minute increments in recorded shows)
- Jump to the beginning of a show, the end of a show, or the point being broadcast live at that moment
As stated on the site, Tivo will also talk to other Tivos on your network and allow you to share content. Music and picture files stored on your PC are also accessible.
I have to say that between $300 for an HD box (20 hours!) $400 for lifetime subscription ($12.95/month) and $125 for Liquid TV, you might as well build or buy a computer and go with one of the above solutions. At least with those you have some options for customization and you can get the content anywhere in your home.
That concludes my little HTPC option round up. There are other solutions out there but these are a few of the bigger players. What software do you use or what are you considering for your HTPC setup? People reading know that I love my Media Center and Tim is hooked on SageTV. What’s your favorite?
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