Windows media center

mantis

I just gotta say it's mental to use , it's mental to have and the trouble you have to go through to set it up is mental.

I'm so glad I switched to Mac all those years ago.

I watched complete failure of a Xbox 360 and a Ps3 trying to just stream pictures and music with Media center from Windows 7. WOW. On a Mac I can get that done on a Apple Tv in seconds.

AsSiMiLaTeD

I also hate media center with a passion. Although a bit limited in terms of playable formats, the Apple TV is infinitely more easy and intuitive to use. If apple ever comes up with a solution where you don't need iTunes running to stream content from your network then they could really have a winner on their hands, the formats supported are actually fine for me though I'm sure some would like to see mkv support added.

fatchowmein

Windows Media Center by itself = Zzz... Media Center + Media Browser (or your favorite flavor of media app sittiing on top of media center) = Amazing. WMC frontend + MB + Windows Home Server backend = AWESOME. Yes, the early days were extremely mental trying to get every codec in the world to play nice with your entertainment system and TV. But, and this is a BIG BUT, once you get it where you want it, remove Internet access, prevent updates, and keep it running on a private network with no WAN access. Ghost that front end. LOCK it down tight.

But, yes, not intuitive nor user friendly until you make it user friendly. Extremely high WAF once it all works.

TurboGTU

I'll take my xbmc (xbmcbuntu) frontend with my freenas server over media center any day. I used to use media center, but had quite a few issues with it, mainly format problems (really wish xbox 360 could play .mkv files since that's what my whole movie collection is in). Never tried the apple stuff, not a big apple fan I guess (aside from I can't afford it). To each their own though, I have a friend with WMC set up and it works great for him.

disneyjoe7

fatchowmein wrote: »

Windows Media Center by itself = Zzz... Media Center + Media Browser (or your favorite flavor of media app sittiing on top of media center) = Amazing. WMC frontend + MB + Windows Home Server backend = AWESOME. Yes, the early days were extremely mental trying to get every codec in the world to play nice with your entertainment system and TV. But, and this is a BIG BUT, once you get it where you want it, remove Internet access, prevent updates, and keep it running on a private network with no WAN access. Ghost that front end. LOCK it down tight.

But, yes, not intuitive nor user friendly until you make it user friendly. Extremely high WAF once it all works.

Most of what you stated I be honest is a bit over my head... But most of done something right because I going on 3 years with it and very happy with it.

Syndil

I paid the extra $10 to have WMC added to Windows 8. I don't know what your guys' problem was with it, but... You must have been doing it wrong.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Why do I have to be doing something wrong to not like it? That's silly. I never said I couldn't figure it out, I said I hated it, two completely different things.

mantis

I really felt the intense amount of setup was mental. Really All you want to do is stream your content to a end point like a Xbox or Ps3 and they make it very complicated to do so.

With apple it's setup your user name and password with home share and your done. It's so made for the end user and windows is made for the Engineer.
Personally I hope Windows 8 and everything it's supposed to bring to the table is correct. You Windows people need a break from the madness.

WilliamM2

Syndil wrote: »

I paid the extra $10 to have WMC added to Windows 8. I don't know what your guys' problem was with it, but... You must have been doing it wrong.

Did you miss the free Media Center offer? It was included with Win 7, and a free add on for Win 8 until Jan 31.

I've been using it for years, works great for me as well. Haven't found any formats it won't play with the simple addition of the K-lite codec pack.

Syndil

Yeah I did miss the free offer. I had known about it but procrastinated too long. No biggy, was just $10.

mystik610

mantis wrote: »

With apple it's setup your user name and password with home share and your done. It's so made for the end user and windows is made for the Engineer.

Even simpler:

enable airplay. Play media from idevice. click icon on airplay idevice to stream media to Apple TV. Enjoy media on your HT system.

or if you want flexibility

enable airplay. make two mouse clicks to mirror desktop from apple computer. boot into windows via parallels if wanted/needed. wirelessly play whatever the hell you want on your HT System via Apple TV

Syndil

It's the whole closed ecosystem versus universal standards. Apple doesn't give a hoot about standards because they want everyone to buy into their closed ecosystem. Actually they do care about them, as they intentionally avoid them to try and force people into their ecosystem. Meanwhile a Windows machine can stream to just about anything via DLNA. DLNA on a Mac? HA! Not without 3rd-party software.

When you control the entire system (hardware, software, protocols, etc.) endpoint-to-endpoint a la Apple it's easy to make things simple. But when you strive to allow your device to play nice with a slew of other devices from other manufacturers then it's not as easy to make things simple. Which is more preferable? That's up to you to decide. I'm no engineer, but I'm not an idiot either, and I like all my devices to play well with each other.

j1mmy

+1 for XBMC... 12.2 Frodo on a HTPC w/ internal storage and then AppleTV Gen1 160GB running chrystalUbuntu attached to each TV and streaming content from HTPC. I have a raspberry Pi but do not have that setup yet.