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Media Software Operating Systems Windows IT

Open Source Multimedia Center For Windows 215

Posted by timothy from the not-if-your-windows-are-managed-by-fluxbox dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A new opensourced multimedia center for Windows has been released. Media Portal boasts the ability to turn your PC into an advanced HTPC (Home-Theatre PC) and PVR/DVR (Personal/Digital Video Recorder). It allows you to listen to your favorite music and radio, watch all your video's and DVD's, view, schedule and record live TV and much more. The software is a port of the homebrew Xbox Media Center software which requires a Modded Xbox to run."
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Open Source Multimedia Center For Windows More

Open Source Multimedia Center For Windows

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  • Does it still require the MFC to be compiled ?
    If this is the case I then fail to see the interest of this especially when it requires an Xbox and then Micorsoft to gain alittle money from the operation.
    Geek factor > Open Source interest.

    • Re:Open Source for Windows ? (Score:4, Informative)

      by nosaj72 ( 615582 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @04:50PM (#10967660)
      I've been running this for a while. It just runs on regular Windows, not the XBOX. It is just a port of the XBOX Media Program. Not bad for keeping a nice queue of DIVX movies at the ready for the kids.
    • Does it still require the MFC to be compiled ? If this is the case I then fail to see the interest of this especially when it requires an Xbox and then Micorsoft to gain alittle money from the operation.

      They're saying that it's a port of the XBox app, which has already been around for a while. The new app is a Windows-based product and does not require an XBox
    • The Media Portal software appears to be a port of the media center from the xbox platform to normal Windows. Hence it doesn't require an Xbox. I.e. from the requirements page it specifies WinXP SP1 or SP2.

      t

    • Some people don't read the articles, others don't even read the post.

      Read this part once again and notice the "is a port of the" part then finish off with the "which requires a" part:
      The software is a port of the homebrew Xbox Media Center software which requires a Modded Xbox to run.

    • The software is a port of the homebrew Xbox Media Center software which requires a Modded Xbox to run

      It doesnt' require an XBox. It's a PORT of software that requireD an XBox...

  • media portal page (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @04:46PM (#10967609)
    don't link the home page or anything
    http://mediaportal.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]
  • homepage seems to indicate 0.1.0.0 not 1.0 ... i.e. beta not release ....

    t

    • Re:erm, not 1.0? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Suddenly_Dead ( 656421 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @04:49PM (#10967652)
      From the homepage:

      There are some rumors floating around about MediaPortal 1.0.

      However this is very wrong, because as you can see below we just released 0.1. The current version 0.1 is not considered as the first stable release and it is definitely not final!

      This does not mean the product is an alpha release! The 0.1 is considered a very nice and stable beta release, which everyone can and should test and help out to fix bugs and/or improve the product even further. And remember: it is free forever!

  • The server's already running slow... (Score:5, Informative)

    by rjelks ( 635588 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @04:50PM (#10967667) Homepage
    The project is at SourceForge [sourceforge.net] if you guys want to give maxconsole a break.

  • Um.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by ackthpt ( 218170 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @04:50PM (#10967670) Homepage Journal
    It allows you to listen to your favorite music and radio, watch all your video's and DVD's, view, schedule and record live TV and much more.

    Clearly a threat to Copyrights, Profits and Homeland Security. In certain the authorities (MPAA/RIAA/Microsoft have already been notified and are moving the threat level up from Plaid to Paisley)

    The software is a port of the homebrew Xbox Media Center software which requires a Modded Xbox to run."

    Now I'm certain Microsoft will be activating their Bucket 'o Lawyers* The only people allowed to give away something like that for free must have an ulterior motive, such as locking everyone into mind control or market share...

    *Not to be confused with the toys Bucket o' Soldiers or Barrel o' Monkeys, but toys of their masters all the same.

    • Re:Um.. (Score:5, Funny)

      by panurge ( 573432 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @05:01PM (#10967803)
      Plaid to Paisley? That's worrying. Plaid Cymru just burns down the houses of the English settlers, but the Rev. Ian Paisley shouts stupid things really really loudly.

      So where is that on the Fonda-Rumsfeld threat scale?

      • I thought the only level higher than Blackwatch Plaid was the cover of Rush's seminal album _Moving_Pictures_

        Oh, and I've played with this software, Xbox Media Center is still a better option, even if you have to go buy and mod an Xbox to get it.
      • Actually, no, Paisley et al are far more militant, and Plaid Cymru don't even want independence, just some level of autonomy (like the NAW but more so--say like Scotland) unlike the Wales Independence Party (but I think they've disapparead off the political landscape).
        • Not a brilliant comparison, since Paisley's DUP and the other unionist parties want to maintain closer ties with Britain. I never thought that the Northern Ireland unionist parties wanted significant independence from England ... it might be seen as playing into the hands of the nationalists/republicans.

          Accusing Paisley of being a demagogue is a valid accusation, mind you.

          • Sorry. Paisley obviously doesn't want any independence (although I don't know much about Ireland--they could want some possibly). I wasn't making the comparison--just pointing out it was untrue (as well as a bad comparison anyway). Terribly OT anyway.

      • Plaid Cymru just burns down the houses of the English settlers

        I think you mean 'Mabion Glyndyr' (trans. 'Sons of Glendower') - the lairy idiots who decided a couple of decades ago that burning down holiday cottages was an effective way of striking back at eeevil English invaders (or at least was a diverting way to while away the long winter nights) probably vote Plaid Cymru, but I doubt the PC leadership are overjoyed to be recieving support from such quarters.

        Regards
        Luke

      • In being flippant (and I never expected to be moderated up...) I was unintentionally unfair to Plaid Cymru. Perhaps I should make it clear that:
        • I'm in favor of Welsh Devolution (and I have numerous relatives in South Wales)
        • I think rich Londoners buying houses and driving out locals is inexcusable. Burning down houses is wrong, but so is destroying communities.
        • And, now Sinn Fein has almost completed turned into a legitimate political movement, I hope NI gets its independence from the UK and the likes of Ian

  • Hardware (Score:4, Insightful)

    by hoggoth ( 414195 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @04:52PM (#10967686) Journal
    This could be interesting.
    What is the most inexpensive hardware with enough OOMPH to run this?

    I looked at Mini-ITX systems, and the HUSH grabbed my eye. Then the price grabbed me somewhere else.

    And I don't really want to get an XBOX then modify it, so don't give me the obvious answer...

    • And I don't really want to get an XBOX then modify it, so don't give me the obvious answer...

      So how about the slightly-less-obvious-answer: Find one of the guys that is selling pre-modded XBoxen on the internet, and grab one of those. Usually they can be had for around $250, and have a switch so you can temporarily "unmod" as necessary.

    • Re:Hardware (Score:3, Funny)

      by 74nova ( 737399 )
      hehe, im presently taking a break from coding in C++ and saw the OO in 'OOMPH' and thought to myself,

      'Object Oriented...Multimedia...Player...Hardware?'

      huh? ah well. back to coding...

    • Re:Hardware (Score:3, Informative)

      by kaustik ( 574490 )
      An Xbox will not act as a DVR, as far as I know. I use the XBMP to play media from my Xbox onto my television, but the Xbox does not have a TV card needed to capture the feed from the television. This port is very very cool because it allows you to run the app on hardware that is much more upgradable than the Xbox. I will definitely check this out.

    • Re:Hardware (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Two things you should know. Compared to other HTPC software Media Portal is slow on older systems. In fact in general parts of it are just kinda slow. For example MYHTPC and many other htpc packages run very well on say a PIII700 256MB system, this does not. Second it only supports cards that do mpeg2 in hardware. That obviously made things easier for them but it really let down a ton of users when they dropped support for non-mpeg2 tv cards for recording.

      The one good thing is its acutally opensource. Tha

  • Not 1.0 (Score:3, Informative)

    by Gathers ( 78832 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @04:54PM (#10967721) Homepage
    This just in from http://mediaportal.sourceforge.net/

    Latest News

    01-December 2004

    IMPORTANT NEWS PLEASE READ THIS!

    There are some rumors floating around about MediaPortal 1.0.

    However this is very wrong, because as you can see below we just released 0.1. The current version 0.1 is not considered as the first stable release and it is definitely not final!

    This does not mean the product is an alpha release! The 0.1 is considered a very nice and stable beta release, which everyone can and should test and help out to fix bugs and/or improve the product even further. And remember: it is free forever!

  • Features on the XBOX.... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Aceto3for5 ( 806224 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @04:55PM (#10967737)
    Alot of people also use this as the dashboard, or OS so to speak, of their modded XBOXes. The version I have also has some built in VOIP capabilities. With VOIP locked into a media center, you could simulate the full movie theater experience, with everyone talking to each other during the movie.

    Seriously though, comedies tend to seem funnier in theaters, i think in part to the fact that you are with a bunch of other people laughing. Its like how children, and some adults, look around before or while they are laughing, as if they are looking for approval.

    VOIP in a media center could also be fun and useful for streaming educational videos, sporting events, sales, what have you. I hope they port those options over too. Forgive me if they mentioned that in TFA, but i couldnt seem to connect to it.

  • Does it come with... (Score:5, Funny)

    by noidentity ( 188756 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @04:59PM (#10967783)
    ...an extraneous apostrophe remover?

    • Re:Does it come with... (Score:2, Informative)

      by qute ( 78334 )
      This is a must: Bob's Quick Guide to the Apostrophe [nyud.net]

      non-cached: http://www.angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif
      (My first post was in error :-( )
    • While fully realizing that this is Slashdot, and not the New York Times, I'd just like to share the response I got from the Public Editor at the NYT when I complained about their use of apostrophes in headlines like "NEW DVD'S":

      Dear Graabein,

      Thank you for your message.

      I include The Times stylebook entry on this subject below.

      Sincerely,
      [Name withheld by me]
      Office of the Public Editor
      The New York Times

      Also use the apostrophe for plurals formed from letters or numerals (p's and q's; size 7's; B-52'

      • > I guess I will just have to respectfully disagree...I never heard back

        Perhaps he just didn't want to argue the finer points of grammar with someone who likes splitting infinitives.
        • > with someone who likes splitting infinitives

          And what's wrong with splitting infinitives, pray tell? If all you've got is the "not done in Latin" argument, please don't bother.

          • And what's wrong with the "not done in Latin" argument, pray tell? If all you've got is the "English is a living dynamic language and Latin is dead" response, please don't bother.

  • Slightly on-topic... (Score:5, Informative)

    by blackmonday ( 607916 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @05:08PM (#10967870) Homepage
    I just got my Xbox modded yesterday, and it included the excellent XBMC. Only problem is upgrading it. My version is a few months behind, and you cannot download binaries from Sourceforge, because the project must be compiled with Microsoft's dev kit for the Xbox, and XBMC is an unlicensed project. I still have not figured out how to get binaries!

    This project is compiled with Vanilla .NET, I tried running it on my PC before modding my Xbox and it crashed every time I tried to do anything, I might download and try again.

    Although modding an Xbox isn't for the faint of heart (I just had someone else do it), it's fun and the software you get is very powerful. I was up and running with MP3's burnt on a DVD-R and some Divx TV shows. By the way, you can make XBMC be the default program when you boot the Xbox, if thats all you want to use your console for.

  • I for one (Score:2, Funny)

    by uberjoe ( 726765 )
    welcome our new open source overlords.
  • I remember awhile ago I installed this a long time ago when it first started development, and it still supported my old hauppauge card and my Riva TNT2 video card, Installed it yesterday when I saw 0.1.0.0 was released and it doesnt even open, read the min requirements, and you NEED a mpeg2 hardware encoder, WMP9 which crashes my system so I refuse to install it, and a directx 9 card. After my frusttration yesterday, I convinced myself maybe I should install mythtv, Not sure if I will need a mpeg2 encoder f
    • Will you need an MPEG2 encoder? Depends on your CPU speed. But if you have a P3 1ghz, a decent video capture card and use something like rtjpeg MythTV should run fine with passable disk utilization.

      I'd still recommend an MPEG2 encoder regardless. I use a Hauppage PVR350 for both input and output. While watching and recording simultaneously, I have a net CPU usage of 1% (P4 2.6). When I was running my P3 950, I had a net CPU usage of only between 1% and 2%.

      This card has been well worth the money.

      Brya
    • I used a regular BT8x8 card in a 1400 for a long time as my main Myth machine. I even had that card in a 1ghz machine for a while and they both seemed to handle encoding sufficiently -- although I think the 1ghz was recording at 320x240 for a 19" TV. You can feel the reduction in CPU utilization you get from a hardware encoder in the snappiness of the menus and video searches and such but even a modest machine should be able to software-encode video reasonably.
    • I believe they do support using ATI's All in Wonder from my previous scoping out of the project. But yeah your old hauppauge (wintv go?) card is more than long in the tooth and regardless of which pvr software you choose, I think you'd be better served by getting a hardware based encoding tuner card (pvr250 would be a good choice if you're linux bound - ivtv drivers and all)

      That's not to say you can't use your existing tuner card, just that I think you'll have an easier time of it and better performance w
  • This all sounds great, but I just spent a wad on all new HDTV gear and am distressed to find that you can't easily capture HD to a DVR in a PC. Maybe in a year or two...
    • I'm in the same boat. Realistically, though, most channels are not broadcast in HD, so you're not missing out on much. I do have a few key HD channels that I'm stuck on, but I can live without recording them. Have you had any luck finding a card that works with your HD receiver and component cables?
  • Has anyone tested this out yet? I'd be interested in how it compares with Meedio, WMCE, Sage TV, Snapstream, etc... I guess I'll have to wait until I get home.

    I used myHTPC for a while and it worked pretty good. They moved to a commercial project called Meedio (probably worth the money when they get the TV tuner working), but I've been looking for other solutions.
  • What does this do, besides lack any substantial development history, that MythTV doesn't do?

    That being said, it seems to be working great on my Xbox, that mighty 733MHz P3 w/no hw MPEG capabi...BUFFERING...

    • Re:MythTV clone? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by skadus ( 821655 )
      Well, for one thing it installs a hell of a lot easier.

      I gave up on MythTV after having to fight with it and Fedora (and dependencies, and X, and Y...) at the same time. Why do I need MySQL when I just want a media player with a NES and SNES emulator built-in (no need or space on my media box for PVR)?

      Yeah, PEBKAC, and I'll never profess to be anything but sub-adequate at Linux, but MediaPortal installed and ran fine in about 5 minutes from download to setup.
    • Its slick, pretty easy to install, and I don't have to fight Linux driver issues to get it running. It has a way to go before its as complete at Myth, but as it is, it works pretty well.

    • What does this do that MythTV doesnt? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by billybob ( 18401 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @08:55PM (#10970152)
      I'd say RUNS ON WINDOWS is a pretty damn big feature that MythTV lacks. :P
  • Just because, you know, for the rest of us who want to plug in our systems to our TV sets without having to shill out money for a modded Xbox or a PC.
  • Media Portal is not new, and has been posted on /. before (that's how I read about it first).

    Furthermore, it's not at version 1.0 like the article claims. Read the snip on the website [sourceforge.net] about rumors.

  • Media Portal is nowhere near prime-time (Score:5, Informative)

    by brunes69 ( 86786 ) <slashdot@nOSpam.keirstead.org> on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @05:59PM (#10968358)
    I tried this software a few months back, and I must say, while I was comparing it to an already mature piece of software (MythTV [mythtv.org]), it was certainly not up to snuff. It was incredibly slow to launch from my standpoint (this was on an Athlon 2400XP ), took over 20 seconds for the GUI to launch - probably due to it being in .Net. After launch, only a few functions were usable, and the system frequently crashed.

    On the whole - if you are looking for some free PVR software NOW, get MythTV or Freevo. There are excellent tutorials on the net on how to set up a MythTV system - from scratch - no hardcore Linux skills required.

    • "probably due to it being in .Net"

      On what basis do you ground that hypothosis?

      All versions of VC#.NET require the .NET framework be loaded, but 2002 takes nearly a minute to load where as the 2005 beta loads in less than 3 seconds on my machine. .NET does incur some startup cost (the CLR needs to be initalized) and code needs to be JITed, but this should hardly take 20 seconds!

      There are full featured high performance 3D engines written with .NET, let's have no more FUD about .NET's performance!

      The start
  • from the requirements page:

    WDM compatible TV card or a hardware MPEG2 TV card

    That right there is why I'll be running this and not MythPC.
  • Can anyone in the know compare this to the other Open Source solutions out there? I've been having a MISERABLE time getting MythTV to work. 8( Is this program as good? Easy to install configure? How does it compare to MythTV, Freevo, Meedio/MyHTPC?
    • Why not try SageTV? It's mature, inexpensive, pretty stable, and nicely designed. It's even hackable (via STV modules) to boot. People have already written STV mods for weather, early itunes functionality, and a web interface for it.
      • It costs money, its not open source. with the quality open source options out there, I'd prefer to go with them, since I know they won't be taking away features like TiVo -- I fear SageTV will eventually have to bend under pressure like TiVo if it gets to be too popular.

        Seriously, if the open source community could get a rock-solid instant knoppix/mythtv bundle install solution, they'd have a real Killer App on their hands with how TiVo is going. The current knoppix/mythtv just didnt work at all for me, e
    • Why not try Knoppmyth(http://www.mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html )? It's a package of Knoppix with MythTV already installed.He's made it mucchhh easier for anyone to install mythtv without any hassle. All you need to do is pop the cd in and install. However, you'll need to repartition or wipe clean your hard drive before installing.

  • We could do all this before, what added value is there to running this kind of thing?

    With an XBox it made sense because you didn't actually have a UI to work with. With a PC you don't need this kind of thing at all.

    If you're going to run it on a mini itx and use it like a toaster, why not use movix [sourceforge.net] or something similar that has an operating system with it?

  • Really... Isn't the point of media center is supporting remote, so you can sit in your chair, relax, turn off your brain and push little buttons?
    And.. It seems they will be using winlirc, which doesn't support my remote...
    So I'll stick with my SlyControl (program with macroeing with remote control) forever. It makes everything just easy. Press TV and it launches my tv tuner program. Press Menu and select .avi file, it plays. The same for Pictures and DVD.
    So without good integration with remotes Media Portal

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