XBCM 10 Dharma

Long time XBMC users - and everyone else looking for one of the most complete and useful media center software for their living rooms - can now see what the XBMC development team has been working on so hard for the past months: XBMC 10.0 Dharma.

There are many new features: such as the easy to use add-on system that allows you to enhance your media center experience with just a few clicks; new codec support (including WebM/VP8); improved ahrdware acceleration in both windows (DXVA2) and Linux/OS X (CrystalHD); blu-ray support; and much more.

Media Center Software Compared

If you're thinking of using a computer as a media center, you'll need a software up to the task - something like: XBMC, Boxee, or Windows Media Center.

Of course, while using Windows Media Center restricts you to using Windows, XBMC and Boxee can happily run in any other OS you have - you can even run XBMC from a Live CD or a USB stick.

So... go ahead and see its pros and cons in this media center software comparison and find the best one for you. My bets are you'll choose either one of these:

 Boxee

XBMC

You can even use XBMC to play high-definition 720/1080p content in your Apple TV. :)

Glide TV Navigator Remote

Are you still looking for the perfect remote control for your media center PC?

If you haven't found a suitable remote/keyboard/mouse, how about giving this GlideTV Navigator remote controller a try?

It's a pity it costs $149/€129/£119... but it sure will look trendy in any home theater room, that's for sure.

XBMC Transparency v2 Theme

Looking for a drop-dead-gorgeous Media Center? Look no further!
Watch the amazing XBMC with this incredible Transparency v2 theme.




I dare you to resist it!

Boxee Media Center

If you haven't found a Media Center software that made you forget about all the others - and it's no secret there are too many to mention out there - I'd recommend you try this Boxee.

As always, it's free and open-source, as most software should be.
Here's a short video highlighting the basics:


quick intro to boxee from boxee on Vimeo.

And if you happen to have an iPhone, just grab the Boxee Free App and you won't even need an extra remote to control everything from your couch.

Popcorn Hour A110 - now with WiFi .N

My favourite media player, the Popcorn Hour A110 (sorry, portuguese links - you can autotranslate it using the google link in there) just got even better. Though I've been very happy with it - they even added DTS downmix recently - there was one thing missing: WiFi.


Sure, 1TB internal storage is a lot - but most of the time its boring to copy stuff over just to watch it downstairs... away from an ethernet connection.
Also, streaming 1080p content over WiFi .G isn't enough for high bitrate movies, so... the ideal would be to have a WiFi .N (up to 270Mbps) connection to it.

Well, maybe it's our Christmas present... Popcorn Hour now has a WiFi.N USB dongle: the WN-100.
So, every A100/A110 can now definitely be considered the best there is, allowing you to watch HD movies and TV series no matter where you are, over ethernet, using its internal hard drive, or over WiFi.

Elisa Media Center

There are a lot of good Linux Media Centers, like Entertainer and Linux MCE; but there's no such thing as too much of a good thing.

Ben pointed me to a very interesting project called Elisa:

What is Elisa?

Elisa is an open source cross-platform media center connecting the Internet to an all-in-one media player.

And it looks very good too. Just check out the video:



The "browsable" Internet videos feature is certainly handy.
And extra points for showing a Brian Yuzna movie playing... :)

And because everyone hates using a keyboard/mouse... it can be controlled with an Wiimote as well! :)



Here's a "How To" video showing you how to install Elisa on Ubuntu.
(But don't forget it's also available for Windows as well.)

Entertainer 0.1

Entertainer 0.1 is out.

If you want a good looking, open source, *free* media center, then you should give Entertainer a try.

Sure, there's still some bits and pieces missing, but hey - everything has to start somewhere.

Give it a try and let them now your thoughts about it. Or give them a helping hand if you know your way through Python.

Entertainer - Linux Media Center

If you're considering assembling your own HTPC (Home Theater PC) but don't want to use Windows Media Center Editions, you'll love Entertainer. This project is a complete multimedia solution for Gnome and XFce environments written in Python. For its multimedia functions it uses the well known GStreamer and its interface is coded using Clutter, allowing smooth UI animations via OpenGL. Entertainer also uses some other interesting projects like SQLite, pyIMDBb and iNotify .

If you're interested in supporting the project than head to Entertainer and drop them an email.

After recently having discovered LinuxMCE, the Media Center solutions for linux are looking better than ever.

Here's a short YouTube video showing how nice its interface looks and behaves:

LinuxMCE - The Perfect Media Center, and More!

If you think you can't live without Windows MCE in your living room, just have a look at what you can do with LinuxMCE.
Not only can you do all the common "media center" stuff, like watching and recording videos and TV, access it from all rooms in your house - but you can also use it to control your home lighting, phones (including voice mail,) and even alarms and surveillance cameras.

It's amazing what you can do with this LinuxMCE!

I didn't know about it, but I'll be keeping a close eye on it from now on.

For a high-definition video, visit: http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/Video