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Top-5 free software downloads for HTPC's?  

post #1 of 28
4/12/02 at 10:51am
Thread Starter 
What are the top-5 free (100% legal) downloads of software for HTPC's? (Feel free to add inexpensive or "must-have" honorable mentions.)

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post #2 of 28
4/12/02 at 11:35am
Here a 3 quick ones:

- Dscaler
- Winamp
- Zoomplayer
post #3 of 28
4/12/02 at 11:36am
Girder!
post #4 of 28
4/12/02 at 11:38am
Dohhh! Forgot about Girder! :p
post #5 of 28
4/12/02 at 11:41am
Top 5? I don't know about the others, but Sourceforge shows DScaler at about 3,000 downloads per day.
post #6 of 28
4/12/02 at 11:41am
if you have a Pronto then add supernudelist
post #7 of 28
4/12/02 at 11:48am
Digital Theater is a nice user interface for HTPC.

DVD Lobby is a nice interface to page through your DVD collection. But it costs $15 if you want to really use it.
post #8 of 28
4/12/02 at 11:56am
I can't believe PowerStrip is not mentioned! It's a must for me.

tixin.
post #9 of 28
4/12/02 at 1:46pm
powerstrip is not free
post #10 of 28
4/12/02 at 1:55pm
Check first line of my signature.


Reading this thread, looks like I'm missing some stuff...
post #11 of 28
4/12/02 at 1:58pm
Here's my input:

DScaler - vital
ZoomPlayer - vital for best picture and sound quality with out buying Theatertech
WinAmp - Great for music
YXY - Vital if you don't use TheaterTech or ZoomPlayer
SmartRipper - especially useful for keeping those unused Gigs of hard drive space warm.
post #12 of 28
4/12/02 at 11:51pm
DVD Profiler

Marcel
post #13 of 28
4/13/02 at 6:41am
Winamp- now has 24/96 playback
Girder - gives me a headache
YxY - aspect ratio control program (if your DVD player doesn't have it built-in)
Icon Hider - bye bye icons & taskbar
BZ hider - mouse hider

Namlemez: I've attached Icon Hider to add to your file store and when I fire up the HTPC I'll post BZ mouse hider as well.

 

iconhider.zip 33.78515625k . file
post #14 of 28
4/13/02 at 7:40am
BZ mouse hide program attached

 

bzhider.zip 80.9619140625k . file
post #15 of 28
4/13/02 at 8:14am
Karnis,

Is mouse hiding a biggie? If so, it wouldn't be too hard to put it right into IconHider. It mgith save a bit of hassle...

Mark
post #16 of 28
4/13/02 at 8:43am
big bigger biggest!
post #17 of 28
4/13/02 at 6:23pm
Hi Mark,
Great little prog' please if you get the time add a mouse hider to iconhider.
I use a mouse hider prog now but it's a pain in the ars* to use.:D
Cheers
Tim
post #18 of 28
4/13/02 at 10:30pm
mitrepooc,

Give BZhider a try. It has been extremely benign on my system. Win98se, AMD, A7V mobo.

Mark,

This was discussed before. I guess you now want us to beg. OK. Please! Please! Add the mouse hider option. It completes the goal of the function - make all signs of PC invisible. :D

If you are in the code anyway, it would be even better if during bootup you can disable the flashing of the icons. It's not a big deal but no harm in asking, right?
post #19 of 28
4/15/02 at 2:30am
Daemon Tools
Since I've got ton of HD space, I normally create an image of my DVD files and use www.daemon-tools.com (D-Tools is freeware) to mount the DVD movies. It also supports ISO,Svcd's,Vcd's, and a whole lot of other formats.

PS: DVDIdle is also great, but it's shareware.



:cool:
post #20 of 28
4/18/02 at 8:15am
Thread Starter 
This is the total list of recommendations I've seen so far. Now, out of these, are there any software programs that people recommend NOT using?

MicroSoft Windows XP
PowerDVD XP
PowerStrip 3.15
MusicMatch JukeBox
Nero
Dscaler 3.1 (Dscaler 4 Alpha)
WinAmp
Girder
Digital Theater
DVD Lobby
Vidomi .442
IuVCR
VirtualDub 1.4
Nimo Codec Pack
ZoomPlayer 2.50 Final
ATI MMC DVD Player 7.5 (or 7.6)
DVD Genie 4.05
YXY
SmartRipper
DVD Profiler
Icon Hider
BZ Hider
DVDIdle
ACDSee
Sach's Serenescreen Marine Aquarium
ATi Multimedia Center 7.1
Daemon Tools
post #21 of 28
4/30/03 at 1:19pm
Note about IconHider (great program, by the way)...

If you're using ZoomPlayer (or any other sw player that allows the program to forcibly hide the taskbar), turn of this feature if you're using iconhider.

when playback stops, the program will "unhide" the taskbar...iconhider or not.

Took me a while to figure this one out :p

Rich
post #22 of 28
4/30/03 at 1:51pm
Another nifty utility for batch downloading of album and DVD covers is Gotcha Covered, which is still in beta - but is pretty functional. It isn't hard to figure out, and it got about 80% of my 200 albums in about 7 minutes (broadband is a must!). Works great if you use 4AM Music Console or something and need cover art...

RDaneel
post #23 of 28
4/30/03 at 3:12pm
Can't believe neither myHTPC (www.myHTPC.net) or Netremote (www.netremote.net) are on this list!

My favorites:
-myHTPC
-Girder (and plugins)
-Powerstrip
-Netremote
-Deamon Tools
-DVDcrypter
-DVHSTools
-MPEGtoTS (or rather TS to MPEG?)
-XMLTV
-DVDProfiler (maybe not top 5, though)

There are so many great HTPC tools which are available free (or for a small donation)... wonder how they make do!
post #24 of 28
6/9/03 at 4:09pm
bump for R. Wang
post #25 of 28
6/9/03 at 4:13pm
Eiffel I can't believe that no one mentioned myHTPC either. Program is easy to use it isn't even funny.
post #26 of 28
6/9/03 at 5:28pm
For those of you linux (and PVR) inclined, I nominate MythTV. No personal experience with Freevo, but I 'd imagine similar functionality as MythTV.

And of course the above wouldn't be possible w/o XMLTV.
post #27 of 28
6/9/03 at 10:14pm
Since I saw that a codec-pack was mentioned on the first page, I want to add ReClock. If you want to get "a giant leap" near judder-free playback (if you have judder-problems at all) than this is the prog to go for.
post #28 of 28
6/10/03 at 2:01am
-myHTPC ->fanatastic and easy to use frontend
-Zoom Player->enough said
-Girder ->for total control
-DVDdecrypter->if you want ISO files, this is the program
-Daemon Tools ->no use having ISO files without it

Honourable Mentions
-Powerstrip ->didn't make top 5 because it's really shareware not free...
-Winamp ->didn't make top 5 because, well technically, it's not for hometheater, it's for home media!
-NetRemote -> not in top5 because the setup isn't that easy...
-dScaler

hjackson
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