I'm running on Vista, using Mediaportal as my media center. so far no real complaints, is able to pull info from IMBD and some other sites for my movies/series.

But was wanting to try Ubuntu or any other open source OS and media centers.

can anyone recommend some easy to install and operate OS and media center, open source of course.

my pc was bought last year, so its pretty ok to run anything i guess. thanks guys.

You means 7MC are better than XBMC?

As far as I know, both XBMC and MC7 has its strength and weaknesses.

From my experience, I have tried both, but in both account I haven't tried scraping for movie info etc as yet. There are lots of online info about how it can be done for both software, so I won't go into it.

For me, I eventually go back to MC7 (Tried MC7 initially, then XBMC, now switched back to MC7 again) for the following reasons:

1. Its easier to set up, esp those non-geek like me.
2. While playing musics, it can configure to play photo show as the music background. This is done by default. I have lots of family photos & it works very well. My daughter actually loves it.
3. It can be equally flexible. For eg, I have configure it to deploy MPC-HT whenever we click on MKV file. So I kind of getting the best of both world.
4. MC7 can fully utilise the generic remote controller meant for HTPC. I got one of this. And by default I can control most of the MC7 by remote without further tinkling with the remote controller. By pressing the <home> button on the remote, I can deploy MC7 straight away.

What I would do now is to try to get more online support to make the MC7 better. Eg.. getting it to play Flac, Ape file etc.. (with addins), theme changes... and already it can easily recognise a home server that runs Window HOme Server by clicking of a button.

For those who has the capacity and knowledge to tweek a software, perhaps XBMC is a better bet.

Another advantage which may not be apparent in this part of the world, MC7 can be configured to play, record and manage TV programmes, of course we will need a TV tuner in our PC to do so. XBMC lacks that feature it seems.

This post has been edited by peter32: Aug 16 2010, 04:56 PM

Right now my XBMC have videos, movies and tv show. Try to setup music video if can.

actually, we can configure xbmc to play using MPC-HC too...
just that cannot resume as mentioned here before.

I think 7MC don't have scapper which is nessesary for me.
7MC just display meaningless black thumbnail for video file.

BTW, I no doubt that 7MC are great and nice for photo & music.

This post has been edited by minimize: Aug 17 2010, 07:40 AM

Minimise, during my present time to figure out how to use MC7, I found this fabulous website for the MC7, just to share
Click Here

I installed Media Center Master a few days back, but tried to use my iphone tethering for online access and for the first time it tried to scrap for movie info. it works well really. Just select the movie folder and up it goes on its own.

You can have additional categories in XBMC by using the smart playlist though some XML editing is required. I have only try this on Aeon Auriga, but it should work for other skin as well as long as they have submenu.

with mediabowser, 7mc can show file type (mkv, avi..), video type (mkv/xvid/1080/720, bitrate...), audio type (dts, dd, aac...),folder art, backdrop, movie summary, imdb rating, director, actors.

Can someone post me a screenshot for TV series in 7MC. Just want to compare it interface with XBMC
Below is my TV series XBMC screen

where can i find nice HTPC Casing in Malaysia?
its really very difficult to find nice HTPC casing here~~~

i spotted a few nice ones in plaza lowyat.
garage sales also got selling. used to think it's hard to find in malaysia, turns out they're not that rare.

I think for most major pc case maker, you can find in Garage Sales. You'll have some nice casing there.

taobao.com has a lot of nice htpc casing, but not sure they can ship overseas or not..

Dear all, thank you for all the opinions and suggestions.. after much consideration, I've decided to convert the Spec 1 PC to HTPC.. the system already fitted into XQBOX 800 HTPC casing.. I've plan to buy TV capture card later.. since my home only have old standard TV, plan to plug in the TV through to the S-Video port connection on the graphic card..

I plan to pair up Windows XP SP3 + XBMC 9.11 (it's old computer though, don't think it can install Vista/7).. as for the issue of playing HD content on old machine, I bump into this website :

http://mymediaexperience.com/play-hd-video-on-slow-pc/

I've tried it and it do works.. thank God, no need to fork out more money for this HTPC setup.. XBMC can use external player, therefore I plan to install XBMC and use KMPlayer as the default media player.

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW-T..._media_playback

By the way, right now I'm using this software : Media Center Master (http://www.mediacentermaster.com/) to manage my video libraries. This piece of software is really great. Install it, add the location of your movie collection, and all the metadata (cast info,rating,playback time,etc) will be downloaded either through themoviedb.org or imdb.com. The good thing is the metadata is stored internally in the movie folder. You can set the metadata to be recognized by both Windows Media Center or XBMC. The thing can also automatically rename the files and folder for you, eg:

Transformers.DvDRip.2007.SecretKingdom --> folder which contains
Transformers.DvDRip.2007.SecretKingdom.avi
Transformers.DvDRip.2007.SecretKingdom.srt

Using this piece of software, once the info is downloaded from themovie.db or imdb.com, automatically the folder and filename will transform to something like :

Transformers (2007) --> folder which contains
Transformers (2007).avi
Transformers (2007).srt

It will also automatically download to the folder the movie poster, fanart and background which is compatible with XBMC or MCE. Great isn't it?? Read more here :

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/20690/add-c...-center-master/

As for the HTPC casing, I do agree there's not much seller in Msia selling that kind of casing.. maybe people still skeptical about putting a PC in the living room.. for mine one I bought from Modernopc.com.. maybe u can check there..

cheers!!!

This post has been edited by azwandy: Aug 21 2010, 05:59 AM

can pentium 4 even play mkv or those 720/1080p movies properly?

For 720p I think no problem.
To play 1080p u need graphic card that can support it

need help...


http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...post&p=35843093

Hi,

I'm starting to use HTPC + XBMC also. Now is consolidating all my movies from ripping my previous VCDs , DVDs and Blu Rays

Got some questions. Hopefully can get some answer here

1) I'm using XMBC to scrape the movies info. No problem for English movies but i have some obcure foreign international movies and lots of old HK movies. Those IMDB and some Chinese scrappers doesn't give enough / correct movie

Can i add a scrapper site on XBMC and how? Or can i manually insert those info (fan arts, actors, ratings etc) for XBMC?


2) XBMC can scrape movie info. Can I know why some choose to use Ember also? How does ember complement or do that XBMC alone can't?

Can this XMBC support external subtitle like .srt, .ssa with time sync function?