Which HTPC Front End?

[Chimera]

Hey guys,

Right now I'm using BTV for my PVR needs, and Meedio for the HTPC front end (playing DVDs, DVD rips etc). I'm looking to replace Meedio with something that's still supported, all I need to do is have a fancy looking menu controllable by remote, the ability to launch Viewscape and a nice interface for playing movies with the cover art/description etc. Meedio does this well, but as I said it's not supported and sometimes has issues (like one of my boxes won't play DVDs right now and I can't figure out why).

Thanks for any suggestions

Grahame

[rbblue]

http://www.meedio.com/forum/

is no help for your issue?

[Chimera]

Originally Posted by rbblue

http://www.meedio.com/forum/

is no help for your issue?

Sure, but I was looking for different opinions from different places. People here are much more likely to be using BTV and therefore I'll avoid the "use MythTV" responses you see quite a lot of elsewhere.

[Voxelflinger]

Do you really need a front end? You can program Firefly to run PowerDVD, MediaMonkey for audio, BTV and whatever program you like to display photos all from your remote.

You could also configure BM to launch the programs you need.

[cfaslave]

Originally Posted by Chimera

I'm looking to replace Meedio with something that's still supported, all I need to do is have a fancy looking menu controllable by remote, the ability to launch Viewscape and a nice interface for playing movies with the cover art/description etc. Meedio does this well, but as I said it's not supported and sometimes has issues (like one of my boxes won't play DVDs right now and I can't figure out why).

Options I can think of:

Media Portal: Used by many other BTV users, free, still supported although the team is working on a new version that will be a total overhaul of the interface.

Beyond Media: Not free, not supported, doesn't work well unless you use a bunch of other programs behind the scenes.

GBPVR: still supported, free, not as widely used and I don't know as much about it.

SageTV: costs $$$, supported well by the company as well as it's user/developers, wouldn't need BTV if you went this route though.

Vista Media Center: costs $$$, supported by Msoft and by user/developers, wouldn't need BTV but could still use BTV if you wanted to , would have to deal with microsofts drm baggage.

JRiver Media Center: costs $$$, supported, not used as widely and I don't know much about it other than my limited use of it behind the scenes with Beyond Media in the past.

Apple: There are solutions, but I don't know much about them

Anyone know of any I'm missing?

I would recommend you try MediaPortal first if you want to stay with BTV. If you want to pay for a new, integrated HTPC you could try SageTV or Vista Media Center as alternatives.

[Chimera]

I was thinking about MCE, does it have the ability to play back ripped DVDs (VOBs/IFOs) with cover art etc? Can you add menu items to launch BTV instead of using the MCE PVR??

[cfaslave]

Originally Posted by Chimera

I was thinking about MCE, does it have the ability to play back ripped DVDs (VOBs/IFOs) with cover art etc? Can you add menu items to launch BTV instead of using the MCE PVR??

I think there is a way and I remember a thread on these forums explaining how to launch BTV within MCE, but can't find it at the moment.

[Zaap]

Originally Posted by Chimera

I was thinking about MCE, does it have the ability to play back ripped DVDs (VOBs/IFOs) with cover art etc?

Natively, no. But just add the free MyMovies plugin, and configure it. It's a little confusing at first, since it works in two parts. The Collection Manager has to be set up and DVDs added outside of Media Center. Add titles by name (or by UPC code) under "online", IE: the location on your drives/network. The program downloads cover art and information. It's actually a very nice DVD cataloging app by itself.

Once movies are in the catalog, MyMovies is available from the MCE menu. I use MCE/MyMovies on one of my non-BTV machines and really like it.

Can you add menu items to launch BTV instead of using the MCE PVR??

When you install BTV on any machine with MCE, BTV automatically becomes an option from the 'More Programs' menu inside Media Center. (At least this is true of XP MCE- I haven't used Vista MCE and BTV). You also can put BTV on the main menu.

Also, I don't believe you can use the MCE PVR on the same machine as BTV, because in order for BTV to function some MCE services have to be turned off. But if you don't plan on using MCE as a PVR, this is no problem for both to co-exist.

[Chimera]

Thanks Zaap, very helpful. I might give MCE a shot, I have an MS Technet account so can bring up a test box of Vista Home Premium and give it a try....

[Fickey]

Info on a Media Portal option:

Originally Posted by jerimiah797

I tracked down this info in another forum....

<snip>

BeyondTV is still, in my opinion, the best, most easily configured tvr
out there. Currently I have it set up to record ATSC, standard cable,
and directly from the cable box using firewire to change channels. It
works flawlessly. To setup BeyondTV under MP...

First, after installing and configuring BTV, remove the BTV shortcut
from your Programs => Startup folder. Next, browse to where BTV is
installed and run the BTVServiceInstaller.exe. This will setup BTV to
run as a true service which I found works much better with MP.

Secondly, install the MultiShortcut for MP. The latest can be found
here... https://sourceforge.net/tracker/inde...21&atid=851496

This will create a BeyondTV menu item under MP and you can specify to
have MP minimize while BTV is running. Just make sure that you stop
any currently playing media files in MP before you open BTV or things
can get wonky.

</snip>

-Jerimiah

[blaze818]

dont forget about xlobby, geexbox great front ends

[SmokeWatcher]

Thanks to Fickey and Jerimiah797!
I thought running BTV as a service was a myth...not an option! That trick still works with both the newer versions of BTV and MP. Anything for more stability!

[dhrandy]

XBMC for PC is what I use. You can make XBMC launch whatever you want with a keyboard shortcut. All you have to do is go in and edit the keyboard commands.

Some screenies.

[blaze818]

fickey,

should i do that even if i dont use mp? will that make my BTV rig more stable?

[Zaap]

dhrandy- very nice! I'm running Plex in OSX which is also just XBMC for Mac.