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Why can't I pick a front end??? (Boxee v. Vanilla MCE v. MediaBrowser)

2901 Views 22 Replies 14 Participants Last post by joikd, Feb 26, 2010

LTParis

Discussion Starter · Feb 10, 2010

I am in the middle of my DVD ripping project (ripping to ISO) and I have been toggling between different front ends for my collection. My requirements have not been that strict but they seem to be fulfilled by a couple front ends.

1. Ability to play ISO, MKV, AVI, etc.

2. TV Show support

3. Ability to display metadata from movies, TV shows

Boxee. It's in beta, but it looks pretty good. Some playback issues (memory leaks) and they are on the path to for a paid service model down the road. Like that they integrate Hulu and other sources.
W7MCE + MediaBrowser. After doing some tweaks it's not bad. Seems more responsive, imagery is amazing, and is customizable. While it supports ISO seems buggy (enough I may go lossless MKV).
W7MCE + MyMovies. I like that it has a separate database where data is customizable. But lacks solid TV Show support.
W7MCE (Vanilla). Does not support ISO. Recorded TV only shows DVR-MS or WTV file extentions and really only catalogs by shows, not seasons, etc.

I am just unsure what to do at this point. Some feedback would be greatly appreciated.

1 - 20 of 23 Posts

kalex

· #2 · Feb 10, 2010

I'm going to suggest something else

I also had the same decision to make when i built my media center pc. What I ended up doing is using W7MCE for Live and Recorded TV and XBMC for everything else. For me it seems easier especially since XBMC supports pretty much everything. Also its a self contained application which doesn't require you to hunt down codecs, splitters, muxers and plugins for MCE. It has pretty good support for metadata. It plays ISOs native. There are also GPU accelerated version of XBMC.

I use both and very happy with results as my W7MCE is stock with no additions to it to break things. I also programmed my Logitech remote to exit out of MCE and start XBMC so I don't need to use keyboard/mouse

Something to think about

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2

LTParis

Discussion Starter · #3 · Feb 10, 2010

I gave XMBC a brief whirl but was more impressed with Boxee (which is code based off of XMBC). Maybe I'll take another look.

Oh and as for some less needed requirements:

Record Live TV. I know Boxee does not, but it's something to consider. Right now we have an old school S2 Tivo
Remote and Family friendly.

ScoHo

· #4 · Feb 10, 2010

Another vote for XBMC. But if recording of live TV is important, it might not be the way to go. Although I believe some of the developers have started to experiment with PVR functionality so it might not be far off.

ne0ngreen4

· #5 · Feb 10, 2010

Another vote for XBMC although I like the slickness of My Movies 3

LTParis

Discussion Starter · #6 · Feb 10, 2010

Yeah I liked My Movies 3, but I am disappointed they don't have a TV equivalent up yet (supposed to be this Summer). Plus to get some of the more beautiful features like the fan art it costs points or money.

Gave XMBC another whirl and just seems to be, lacking a little over the polish of Boxee. Although having the customization capabilities are quite nice. For some reason I could only get a "file level" view of the TV series and movies, instead of having the synopsis without additional clicks (right click on a movie or episode and select more info). Not sure why that was happening. Maybe I need to tweak it more. [Never mind, user error]

Seems I need to bastardize a little bit of this and that from every app.

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steelman1991

· #7 · Feb 10, 2010

Another vote for XBMC. Having tried most if not all of the various apps out there, I find it is the one with the least playback/scraping issues. It is also now almost perfect with the release of support for DXVA.

All of the apps have a learning curve and are definitely not 'plug and play' - yet. Tried Boxee myself, and agree it does seem slicker and more polished, but prefer XBMC's customisation levels - oh and its eye candy.

Pick one and enjoy - I really spend far too much time, tweaking and not enough time watching

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LTParis

Discussion Starter · #8 · Feb 10, 2010

Well I gave XBMC another go last night and it seems the first time around trying it I had some install issues. This time around the experience far exceeded my expectations.

cdru

· #9 · Feb 10, 2010

Quote:
Originally Posted by kalex /forum/post/18104800

Also its a self contained application which doesn't require you to hunt down codecs, splitters, muxers and plugins for MCE.

It comes at a price though. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe that XBMC will offload decoding to your GPU. It's all done with your main CPU. So if you use the PC for other things, have a marginal processor but a better video card, or otherwise want a "greener" HTPC, you could have issues where other video players don't.

LTParis

Discussion Starter · #10 · Feb 10, 2010

XBMC does have DXVA2 in the pipeline so that may help out some for those running W7.

k2lounge

· #11 · Feb 10, 2010

i have to choose your W7MCE + MediaBrowser option.

my htpc is my dvr, so i need the tv functionality.

sriramc

· #12 · Feb 10, 2010

Quote:
Originally Posted by k2lounge /forum/post/18109419

i have to choose your W7MCE + MediaBrowser option.

my htpc is my dvr, so i need the tv functionality.

Same here, use htpc as a dvr, media browser works great.

ditch-digger

· #13 · Feb 10, 2010

media browser all the way, rip all blu ray to iso, and works great..not to mention looks awesome

justinm0424

· #14 · Feb 10, 2010

I use w7mce with mymovies...works great and looks amazing. Also it transcodes on the fly to the 360 in my daughters room without problems. What do you mean about win7 not having solid tv support? I don't see any problems with mine.

LTParis

Discussion Starter · #15 · Feb 10, 2010

The only way you can get videos to show in the Recorded TV folder is for it to be in DVR-MS or WTV formats. Since I was looking for a solution that displayed the metadata for that show/season/episode I had to go to a 3rd party solution.

ditch-digger

· #16 · Feb 11, 2010

here are some shots of my mediabrowser...front end..

they are on my 106" pj screen....

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5

kalex

· #17 · Feb 25, 2010

Quote:
Originally Posted by cdru /forum/post/18109178

It comes at a price though. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe that XBMC will offload decoding to your GPU. It's all done with your main CPU. So if you use the PC for other things, have a marginal processor but a better video card, or otherwise want a "greener" HTPC, you could have issues where other video players don't.

Not true. there are variations of XBMC builds. one has DSPlayer build that supports ATI/Nvidia GPUs and another one built for intel i3. I used both and they worked flawlessly. 1080p blueray rip of a movie played perfectly while using 4% of CPU. on both of my systems one with ATI card and one with built in i3 GPU

Sno Crash

· #18 · Feb 25, 2010

Quote:
Originally Posted by LTParis /forum/post/18104759

I am in the middle of my DVD ripping project (ripping to ISO) and I have been toggling between different front ends for my collection. My requirements have not been that strict but they seem to be fulfilled by a couple front ends.

1. Ability to play ISO, MKV, AVI, etc.

2. TV Show support

3. Ability to display metadata from movies, TV shows

Boxee. It's in beta, but it looks pretty good. Some playback issues (memory leaks) and they are on the path to for a paid service model down the road. Like that they integrate Hulu and other sources.

W7MCE + MediaBrowser. After doing some tweaks it's not bad. Seems more responsive, imagery is amazing, and is customizable. While it supports ISO seems buggy (enough I may go lossless MKV).

W7MCE + MyMovies. I like that it has a separate database where data is customizable. But lacks solid TV Show support.

W7MCE (Vanilla). Does not support ISO. Recorded TV only shows DVR-MS or WTV file extentions and really only catalogs by shows, not seasons, etc.

I am just unsure what to do at this point. Some feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Both XBMC and MediaPortal are great options. Both use scrapers that pull from IMDB.com, TheMovieDB.org, TheTVDB.com, and more. Both use databases to manage Movies, Music and TV Shows. These are kept as distinct categories with their own nomenclatures: TV Shows are grouped by Show / Season / Episode instead of being treated like a "movie". You can automate the library updates, or manually override and edit the databases. Metadata and artwork is incredibly rich, and these tie into the interface and navigation of the libraries. The metadata and artwork is also community driven - each of those scraper sites get contributed to on a regular basis by fellow movie / tv show fans. A variety of skin choices in these front ends make it an even nicer experience.

I've posted in a different post some of the advantages of using XBMC or Mediaportal as it relates to media formats and codecs. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1230021

Install and try them all to see which you like better. Generally speaking, I've found that XBMC runs awesome on low-end hardware, while MediaPortal really needs more juice to run the GUI (though RC1 might change that). Both offer huge support for wide-range of media formats. But do the research before diving head-first into either. Learning curve is steep at first, but worth it.

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Sno Crash

· #19 · Feb 25, 2010

Quote:
Originally Posted by kalex /forum/post/18205094

Not true. there are variations of XBMC builds. one has DSPlayer build that supports ATI/Nvidia GPUs and another one built for intel i3. I used both and they worked flawlessly. 1080p blueray rip of a movie played perfectly while using 4% of CPU. on both of my systems one with ATI card and one with built in i3 GPU

More importantly, XBMC and MediaPortal allow you to use the new Broadcom Crystal HD card, which means the "green" HTPCs with puny Intel Atoms can become BluRay playback monsters.

joikd

· #20 · Feb 25, 2010

I've tried many of the free ones including Media Browser--XBMC with MPC-HC as external player beats them all. Simple install, lightning fast, scrapes and updates library automatically. Finally, I don't have to constantly screw around with the front end, and can just enjoy my TV shows and movies!

1 - 20 of 23 Posts

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