BTV with other front-ends

[cfaslave]

Does anyone know a good way to launch BTV from Media Portal? I own Beyond Media, but am looking at using Media Portal for the front-end along with BTV for the TV functionality.

Brent

[RenegadeELEN]

Well they have an EasyApps plugin that might be able to do it. I know that after that Beyond Media thread declaring a longer integration drought I know others will be looking in the same direction.

I haven't tried getting BTV to launch from MediaPortal but let me know if it works.

[cfaslave]

Thanks,

I'll give it a try.

Brent

[queonda]

yeah, let me know how you like that front end. I'm also looking into a front end. I tried Xlobby awhile back and looked promising but had my computer drive fail and havn't re-installed. it.

[cfaslave]

I've watched Xlobby and Media Portal as they've evolved. I think both of them are probably inferior to Beyond Media only because of the plugins available in Beyond Media. That could change over time and I need to spend some time looking. Right now, I'm just looking at all of my options. I'll let you know how it goes.

Brent

[RenegadeELEN]

Tvedia also looks good as a front end but it also costs money.

[RenegadeELEN]

I've tried out MediaPortal for a little while now and there are ways to have BTV as an option to be opened. MediaPortal does have its quirks but so far there aren't any big problems I run into.

[cncb]

Originally Posted by RenegadeELEN

Tvedia also looks good as a front end but it also costs money.

I have never heard of this one before but it looks like it has a lot of potential.

[RenegadeELEN]

Yeah I have the trial for TVedia but haven't installed because I want to give one program at a time a try. Especially since the trial is only 15 days.

It looks nice and clean though and most, if not everything, can be setup through the 10ft display unlike MediaPortal.

[RenegadeELEN]

So far MediaPortal hasn't been too bad. Except for the configuration that has to be done outside of the main screen all seems to work well.

I do have to say that I like DVD Library plugin for BM better than the DVD library function in Media Portal. Just the simple fact that I don't have to all of my DVD's on one drive makes me like the plugin for BM more.

My wife though was hooked on MediaPortal by the cute, animated "mascot" in one skin and was excited to hear she could play Tetris in it with the remote.

[cfaslave]

Originally Posted by cfaslave

I've watched Xlobby and Media Portal as they've evolved. I think both of them are probably inferior to Beyond Media only because of the plugins available in Beyond Media. That could change over time and I need to spend some time looking. Right now, I'm just looking at all of my options. I'll let you know how it goes.
Brent

Let me apologize in advance for another long post

Well I've spent the past few weeks trying out several alternative front-ends. I've tried out Media Portal, Xlobby and Tvedia. As I promised, I am letting the forum readers know what I've found out in my search for the perfect HTPC front-end. Thus far, I've not found a suitable replacement for Beyond Media at least in the way I use it today. Here's my short summary of what I've experienced with these three:

Media Portal: I think this one has great potential. Big plus is that it is open source and free. It is advancing quickly, has a lot of contributing plug-in writers and a lot of features. Unfortunately, It really doesn't have anything that compares with BM's DVD Library plug-in. It has a My Movies plug-in, but it just doesn't compare. I can't get it to play both Mpegs and online DVD's and it isn't nearly as advanced in my opinion. The TV function is moving along, but has a long way to go to compare to BTV's stability and functionality for now. Stability isn't as good and it uses a lot of resources. I will be checking MP out again in the future, but it isn't for me yet....

Xlobby: I like the main interface a little better on Xlobby than on MP. Xlobby is also free. However it suffers from the same fact that it doesn't have a suitable replacement for BM's DVD Library plug-in. In addition, I think development for Xlobby is slow and there isn't as large of a community on the forums at least. It also has potential, but I'll just have to wait and see.

Tvedia: I've been checking this one out just for the past few days. I am looking at this one simply because that is what Craig (cncb) is trying out. First disadvantage is the fact is a small software company and obviously not free or open source. While this sounds like Snapstream, I'm not eager to pay more money to start down another path without being totally happy with the plug-in and functionality right out of the box. Tvedia again lacks some of the features I like on Beyond Media so I probably wouldn't switch to it until it is a lot further along. I just don't want to drop more money for my HTPC on software I'm not sure of today.

Others:
I could try out MCE, but don't want to. I don't like the DRM and I don't like the feature set on the TV/PVR portion of MCE vs. BTV. Sage is another one I could try, but haven't really liked the TV/PVR portion in comparison to BTV at least in the past. I also think Sage suffers from many of the same shortcomings as BTV right now.

Back to Beyond Media. I’ll continue using BM along with many plugins including the ones Craig pulled. To make it worth my while, I use three external programs (PSE, Zoomplayer & JRIVER) that I paid additional money for, but it is still the best solution for me currently. I know Rakesh is now saying SS will be working on it soon (sounds familiar, but one can only hope). It is obvious SS is struggling with what they want to do with Beyond Media. Others as well as I have complained about the promises or at least suggestions made on SS's forums and blogs regarding the lack of BM's updates and integration (probably a bad word in the SS offices these days).

After looking around at what is out there, I still think it is in SS's best interest to put some resources towards BM. If SS continues working on BM and makes the needed bug fixes and eventually better integration with BTV, they will have a VERY marketable product. It can compete with MCE and Sage's functionality and it can win over the open source competitors just by being easier to set up and more stability. DVD Library alone is worth the money I paid for Beyond Media. Alternatively, they could release it to open source. It is integral for SS to do one of the two here or they would be ceding the front-end business to inferior products (in my opinion). I’ll continue to keep my eyes open on the other offerings out there, but for now must admit that Beyond Media works best for me today.
Brent

[Jon Hancock]

I have recently uninstalled BM and installed a copy of Meedio 1.41 (available free I believe as a bittorrent). Yes I know that Meedio is now defunct and is soon to be released in a different guise but I had a registered copy laying around and needed to get away from the slow music browsing in BM. After two weeks of config (a lot more taxing than BM) I have (currently) a setup that I am very happy with. The HDeeTV theme is excellent even on my 28" CRT and is highly configurable. I am using JRMC for music playback through the excellent plugins. This allows lyrics and visualisations at the touch of a button. The DVD library is OK and performs everything I need it to including ratDVD playback through WMP10 with full menu control from my firefly. All the other functionality I had with BM is reproducable in Meedio, even down to the trailers in movie showtimes stuttering (Ha Ha!). I have access to email and can send new mails from the interface. BTV integration is adequate with the addition of the exit viewscape option. Hitting the firely button takes me back to Meedio but I get the odd focus problem. Using Meedio also gives me DVB-T support. The TV plugin is not a patch on BTV however and records in DVR-M$. For DVB-T recording however it serves a purpose. The current community and plugin support is good but obviously this may decrease over time. All in all I'm happy with Meedio but I will always remain a fan of SS (have been since the PVS days) and if they do pull something out of the bag in the future I'll be back faster than a Cheetah in a Ferrari.

Cheers,
Jon.

[cfaslave]

Jon,
Thanks for the info. I actually left Meedio a while back before they sold out to Yahoo. I liked Meedio for the customization, but it was never all that stable. WAF was much lower back then. The plugin I used for DVD Library was pretty good, but still not as good as BM's DVD Library. Is there much of a community supporting plugins and such for the old Meedio program any more?

Brent

[merrypig]

www.meedios.com

It's gone opensource evidently.

[ZetaVu]

Sad to say that you have to go to multiple programs to get the functionality we want, butthen everybody seems to want something different.

Here's what I do, and there should be a simpler way to do it.

BTV - I use for all tv and most recorded videos. It is the best for tv and I like the interface for videos. It lacks key functions to make it my only video player, no video playlist, does not play dvd's on hard drive, and limited in desplay details and options (like sort) for videos.

BM - useless for audio anymore, weather lacks doppler, no video playlist, inferior video playback quality to btv and MP, and startup takes too long. I am reconfiguring to remove everything but the PSE photo plugin (let me organize photo slideshows on Photoshop element tags) and DVD library. I'll probably keep comics and showtimes as well and drinks, maybe stripped down it will load faster and not freee up resources.

MediaPortal - superior (but not perfect) audio, and with mpblue I can control audio with my pda (and have it display both my audio library and song info on my pda so I don't need a tv to select or navigate music). Weather has multiple cities and multi0ple animate maps. I can setup video playlists and navigate through multiple clips like chapters ina DVD, great for home movies. I also use their internet radio and recipe plugins. They have a good trailer pprogram but the BM version has better theater info. THey also have a lyrics program, I'm working with the dev to try and get it to read id3 lyrics when available.

Neither program has a good built in web browser, I use Opera because it is the best when controlled by keyboard shortcuts (sent via remote through girder). I use the programmed buttons on the remote to launch and switch between apps. I do not have a good on screen keyboard (that uses the arrow keys and enter button vs remote), that is what the webbrowser really needs.

I also have Xronox total commander which lets my pda control remaining remote functions.

Now what the ultimate goal should be is to turn these six programs (btv, bm, mp, opera (or Firefox) girder, xronox) into one completely integrated program. Do that, and no one will be able to compete, not even MCE. Throw in full server ability to link boxes, over the web (reduced resolution) and to media extender boxes, we have a winner.