HTPC software for music/movie

Meedio!!

- check this thread - http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...php?p=13011391

J. Rivers @ jrmediacenter.com

you can use j. rivers inside Meedio

I found this list about a year ago, there are likely more and less by now. This is in no particular order, except of course with my choice as #1
1) CQC (Charmed Quark Controller)
2) SageTV
3) XLobby
4) Girder/NetRemote
5) Windows MCE/Vista
6) TVedia
7) Showshifter
8) BeyondMedia
9) CTPvr
10) JRMC
11) MainLobby/DVDLobby
12) Welltonway
13) Sesam.tv
14) Nero Home
15) Intervideo WinDVD Media Center
16) Nvidia Purevideo Decoder
17) Sceneo TV Central
18) Yahoo! Go For TV/Meedio
19) GBPvr
20) MediaPortal
21) GotAllMedia
22) GameEx
23) TVoon
24) Theatre@Home
25) myTheatre
26) DVBViewer
27) MythTV
28) Freevo
29) Geexbox
30) MyMediaSystem
31) VDR
32) Apple Front Row
33) Center Stage
34) iTheatre
35) MediaCentral
36) Mac Media Center

the last free XLobby still works fine for me for music/movies/photos

summery: what IVB provided was a list of software options in answer to your question....

and I would second CQC as the best option for movies, and a whole lot more...

but for music, I would have to go with Sonos... (a hardware option, no PC needed)

I'm a J River kinda guy.

I was bummed that JRMC didn't have a PEG or DVR type capability--otherwise I probably would've tried it out. Those of you using it, do you use another app for that, or just don't use your HTPC for DVR-duty?

No, I don't use my HTPC for that.

WHYao,
You are going to get a lot of different opinions. The list covers many of the offerings, some are shareware, some commercial software, some are just media players, some are full boat automation and media software, some concentrate on just backend processing, others on just front end, some do all of the above.

So, it's a matter of what's important to you on what is the top 3.

For example, I would not agree that CQC is the best choice for movies. DVDLobby375 is (to be available this week). But I would agree that CQC is within the top three, but not if you are looking for a 10 minute installation type of install. Both DVDLobby375 and CQC are way more than just movie players and will take more to install than most of the other simpler solutions (that also have much less capability too).

So, no simple answer is correct.

Check out J.River or My Movies 2 both are great. The only problem that I seem to run into with them is that they don't make it easy (very difficult in My Movies) if you have multiple eps. in one folder. These are mainly geared to DVD rips and Cds.

why I am not surprised
of course you are correct about the rest...
also, while both CQC and ML/DVDLobby are both commercial products, and they are both at the upper end of the cost spectrum, they both also offer free trials... you may want to consider trying both of them and seeing what they can do, even if the initial cost does makes you go ...