The Perfect Media Center Software

Does the perfect Media Center software exist? I think I can safely speak for the entire HTPC community when I say NO! Over the past several years we have had to put up with instabilities, tweaking, building, resintalling, and worst of all, complaints from the significant other. If it wasn't for the almighty WAF, I think a lot of us would still be using the software that came with our very first software based capture cards so many years ago. I'll share my thoughts with what we have seen in the past and what I expect from the perfect Media Center software

Where It All Started.

As near as I can tell, the HTPC revolution started a couple of different events. First down the line was ATI releasing the TV Wonder line in the mid to late 1990's. Simply the TV wonder was a TV card very similar to the ones we see today. The chips and tuners have changed but the basic concept is there. 

The second was the ability for computers to play DVDs without requiring an extra hardware decoding board. Finally, the CPU and video card had enough horsepower to play a DVD, which led to the next step of videophiles using a computer as an upscaling DVD player. I recall trying to squeeze every last bit of video performance from my trust GF2MX and Celeron 900. 

Combining these two 

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  • rdm_steve
    March 11, 2011 4:29 am

    I gotta say, Boxee is moving

    I gotta say, Boxee is moving fast to get my vote for best media center software.  I still use and love my WM7 but I hate that Microsoft isn’t putting the time, attention or effort that they put into their other products.  Even the redheaded step child known as Zune seems to get more attention.  Let’s see some built in Blu-Ray support instead of dropping out of WM7 to Total Media Theater or whatever 3rd party software you are using.  If Microsoft could get on the ball, open up the app more to the community builders out there and get vendors like Hulu, Amazon Instant, and Vudu, built in we could really have something special.

     

    Steven

    http://www.reddwarfmedia.com

    Life is what happens while I am watching movies.