Primary HTPC Software Results and New Poll!

[mikinho]

Thanks for everyone who did respond.  I found both the number of responses and breakup very helpful and interesting.

[Andrew Van Til]

My 2 cents: MissingRemote.com is one of the only places where you’ll get a full perspective on connected home theater devices (which includes HTPC, streamers and as other CE devices get smarter they will get love too) and the surrounding software ecosystem – and this is reflected in the experience and preferences of the staff and surrounding community.  Where else can MC, Sage and Myth folk gather w/o hate 😉

I’ve used (and continue to use) Media Center for forever (started playing with the 2002 release – thx MSDN :)), and SageTV for about two years.  I use SageTV currently as my primary SW solution because I think it’s the best available now in most areas, but there are clearly some gaps or I wouldn’t need to keep using MC/PDVD/TMT/WDVD.

[autoboy]

I missed the poll too!  Not sure how I did that, but I haven’t been that active on here lately.  1 more vote for SageTV to offset Jennyfur.

I’ve used MC but just for windows XP and it had way too many limitations.  I’ve been with SageTV ever since.  I tried boxee and found it didn’t add anything over SageTV and didn’t support recording.  XBMC I use on my laptop but just for the occasional movie when traveling. 

“Other” may be CE devices like the popcorn hour and other media streamers

On a side note, I think entirely too much attention is paid to the UI of these solutions.  I can learn the UI in a day of using the product and after a week I don’t even pay any attention to the UI.  MUCH more important is the functionality of the software / hardware.  Boxee and XBMC are just media player UIs and offer me nothing more than a pretty face.  They have great UIs and are nice to use, but I need more out of my HTPC.

[Adidas4275]

[quote=”Naylia”]
I’m intrigued by the fact that you consider us Sage centric. At least half if not more of the editors (including the boss) are on W7.
[/quote]

interesting, I know i run W7 and all the editors I have ever communicated with use W7 or at a minimum have a positive view of 7MC

for me the lack of HD cable card content keeps me away from sagetv

[George L. Schmauch Jr.]

I’ve never used MC, in any form, so I can’t offer any opinion.  But, I know that when I started looking to build an HTPC, MC never entered the picture, due to what I was reading about it.  (At this point, I don’t recall what that was.)

[Mike Garcen]

blame Mikinho for it only running 1 week, he couldn’t wait to get the Blu-ray survey out there!!! 😀

[Lothar]

I’m glad I got my vote in 1st.  It was nice to see Mythtv at 100% for at least a little while.  🙂  If there are people out there that feel the site might be Sage-centric (and see I saw the clarification) then obviously I need to push my propaganda harder.  :p

[captain_video]

I missed it as well.  I used to use BeyondTV and have never tried SageTV.  I’d probably still be using BTV and a couple of Tivos if I hadn’t gotten a Ceton card.  I only started using Win 7 MC a couple of months ago and I’m glad I made the switch.  It’s still a bit buggy when it comes to recording TV, but it could just be the learning curve on my part.  Overall I’m quite pleased with it.

[Meester.Rip]

[quote=”shadymg”]
lol, no worries Sik!

btw…anyone else amused that 2 of our most avid forum members, Meester and Jennyfur both missed the poll?!?!

okok, so no excuses…everyone knows there’s a new Blu-ray poll on the homepage now, right? 🙂

[/quote]

I usually go to a link that takes me unread posts since last visit, then if there is a thread discussing an article that sounds interesting I follow the original article link. Yesterday I was looking for the newegg link so I could click through and order my new NIC. I never found it. It was then I noticed there are no ads in side frames on the forums.

[George L. Schmauch Jr.]

I just checked and Newegg’s still there.  Going down the right side of the home page, there’s the QNAP review, an “interests” box, followed by the Amazon search box, then another “interests” box, followed by the Newegg link.

Do you have NoScript of ABP installed?  If so, in NS, you need to unblock Newegg and any other ad domains you want to be able to see.  In ABP, you’d need to “disable on missingremote.com”.

On a related note, do you not find the front page news interesting?  Or, is there another reason you skip to the unread posts, such as a lack of time?  It’d be interesting to have this kind of info from our visitors.

[erikt]

I’m still using Meedio!  Main reason is its ability to have a single DVD library containing both my DVDs and BluRays and then launching a different player depending on which kind it is.  I don’t think that can be done in any other front-end (other than maybe Xlobby?).

ET

[mikinho]

[quote=”erikt”]
I’m still using Meedio!  Main reason is its ability to have a single DVD library containing both my DVDs and BluRays and then launching a different player depending on which kind it is.  I don’t think that can be done in any other front-end (other than maybe Xlobby?).

ET
[/quote]

It can be done in Media Center (natively for Blu-ray and in almost all the different gallery front-ends), SageTV via plug-ins, MythTV, XBMC and Plex for sure.

Or when you say “depending on which kind it is” do you mean resolution, NTSC vs PAL, ?

[Meester.Rip]

There are news readers and there are forum posters. I tend to come most for answers to my issues and see what other issue people are running into. I check the home page every couple days but was the post only on the side or was it listed as news in addition to being on the side. I don’t pay much attention to the side bar. And I did find the Newegg ad but it is kind of buried. I’d suggest a link up top to take us to a page listing all the vendors.

As far as news items and polls how hard would it be to get a daily dump of links in an email. And/or is there an RSS feed? I have Dailytech’s feed setup in outlook so I can see new items as they come in.

[erikt]

[quote=”Mikinho”]
[quote=”erikt”]
I’m still using Meedio!  Main reason is its ability to have a single DVD library containing both my DVDs and BluRays and then launching a different player depending on which kind it is.  I don’t think that can be done in any other front-end (other than maybe Xlobby?).

ET
[/quote]

It can be done in Media Center (natively for Blu-ray and in almost all the different gallery front-ends), SageTV via plug-ins, MythTV, XBMC and Plex for sure.

Or when you say “depending on which kind it is” do you mean resolution, NTSC vs PAL, ?
[/quote]
Nope, I mean DVD vs Blu-Ray.  I have it launch WMP-HC for DVDs and TMT for Blu-Ray.

So you’re saying that 7MC can mix DVDs and Blu-Ray discs in the same library now?  That’s good to know, thanks!

ET

[Meester.Rip]

I think the free version of MyMovies will do it.

[Author]

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