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HTPC playback - what do you use? Boxee, WMC, XBMC, etc?

Which Media Player do you use?

  • WMC (7 or Vista)

  • XBMC

  • Boxee

  • Other (see post)

Results are only viewable after voting.
G

Geofram

Member
Hey all,

I've got a general question for the HTPC crowd here - which of the media playback software do you use to run your HTPC?

I've been playing with all of them that I can find over the last few days, and none of them seem perfect to me. For the last few years I used W7MC, which was fine - but then I wanted to save space by converting from VIDEO_TS files to .mkv, which W7MC doesn't support easily (yes, you can use the Sharky Codec, but I've run into issues there...)

I tried Boxee next, and liked it, but it's super picky about having your files named exactly right, or it won't detect them, which threw me off.

Last I tried XBMC, which seems to be better about file names (somewhat) but isn't as flat out easy to set up and use, which is a problem since my wife and children will be using this too. It seemed to have the steepest "learning curve" so to speak.

So what do you guys use, and why?
 
WMC + Mediabrowser. I play MKVs no problem forever. I do use Shark's but there are other ways to get MKV to work. It's really not that hard at all and WMC/Mediabrowser don't require a lot of set up imo.
 
XBMC. It's been very stable and will play anything I throw at it.

It does take a little bit of time to get set up, but once everything is configured it's really not that hard to use? My 5yr old son can navigate the movie library and select a movie to play. Not sure how much easier it could be? You select the menu item, select the movie and play.

I use skin AEON MQ2 and it looks great.
 
I use XBMC and it's really not too bad to set up. I had a lot of problems getting WMC7 to work with MKVs (even with Sharky), so I just gave up on it.

I wanted to use the AEON skin in XBMC, but I couldn't get that to work either. Although, I haven't tried since the Dharma RCs.
 
I voted boxee, but today was my day to retry xbmc. The android remote was what made me want to give xbmc another try, but it's playing a vc-1 encoded bluray rip right now which is something that sends boxee on the same pc into spasms.

So, I'd change my vote! ha!

The first time I tried XBMC setting up the library was a nightmare, and I found boxee worked MUCH better. I don't think this is the case any longer...
 
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I forgot to mention one little thing;

I've got a Windows Media remote (well, technically a Logitech harmony remote) and it doesn't like working with Boxee. Parts work (up, down, etc) but important things don't (pause, play, fast forward). Haven't tried it with XBMC yet, but it would be a big ++ if it's easy to get that remote going.

I'd like to revise my thoughts on XBMC a bit - it's not necessarily hard to USE, but it gave me a few fits setting up. Picking up which movies I had, which I didn't, and some of things Boxee did automatically (separate the TV shows and the Movies, based on names/content) XBMC didn't do. I eventually got it to read my media by using MyMovies to generate info files for XBMC to read, but then it wouldn't show the jpgs in the folder. I was trying to avoid going back and re-naming all my media, but it's looking like that won't be an option.
 
Been using MediaPortal for the last couple of years. Tried XBMC a while back and it seemed fairly primative. Last time I used WMC it did not cope well with large folders containing TV series. Boxee I haven't seen.
 
W7 Media Center with Media Browser plugin. I then set Media Browser to use Media Player Home Cinema to actually play the files instead of using the internal MC player. MPHC supports DXVA hardware acceleration and bitstreaming (if you have a compatible video card). You can achieve these with the internal MC player too but it's more involved and doesn't always work.
 
Geofram said:
I forgot to mention one little thing;

I've got a Windows Media remote (well, technically a Logitech harmony remote) and it doesn't like working with Boxee. Parts work (up, down, etc) but important things don't (pause, play, fast forward). Haven't tried it with XBMC yet, but it would be a big ++ if it's easy to get that remote going.

I'd like to revise my thoughts on XBMC a bit - it's not necessarily hard to USE, but it gave me a few fits setting up. Picking up which movies I had, which I didn't, and some of things Boxee did automatically (separate the TV shows and the Movies, based on names/content) XBMC didn't do. I eventually got it to read my media by using MyMovies to generate info files for XBMC to read, but then it wouldn't show the jpgs in the folder. I was trying to avoid going back and re-naming all my media, but it's looking like that won't be an option.
Click to expand...

Boxee is nothing but a modded XBMC. The reason why your remote doesn't work is you need to program it using the logitech software and with the keymap.xml in XBMC.

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=77519

That forum is a wealth of information and you can ask any question and they are quick to respond.

The "picking which movies I had" is all in the naming of the files. Once you set your source in the video/movies part, you need to set the content type (i.e. movies for movies, music for music) and then allow it to scan. I had maybe a handful of movies that picked up the wrong name or title, but mostly it was my fault or because It was a movie that was a remake of an original. If you sort your media right, it will find it from themoviedb.org and imdb very easy.
 
7MC, MS remote for it (as well as the wireless MS MC Keyboard from a few years ago if needed). MyMovies running on the WHS, HDHR for tv. Couple Linksys MCX's as well. Works out nicely for me.
 
I use XBMC on two boxes with synced libraries (pause in one room, play in another from same spot). Content is tons of acquired stuff on two Unraid servers. XBMC is great for my very large library.
 
Haali media splitter + ac3filter = working mkv playback in 7MC for me. Though I don't often deal with subs (would need vsfilter I think) or multiple audio tracks.

So long as the audio is ac3, they'll also playback in the xbox's media center extender.
 
I think the thing I've learned the most in the last few days of wrestling with this, is that you need to pick your media player first and then build your setup around it.

Converting from WMC with MyMovies to XBMC can be quite a jump, depending on what you initially did while extracting and building your library, and how you named your files.

As an example- for MyMovies to work right, you need a sub-folder for each movie, preferably named the same thing that your DVD's 'folder' name is. After that is can be VIDEO_TS just fine, and run without any problems. Where, if you're going to use something like XBMC, if you want it to be detected right, you probably don't want to use VIDEO_TS, you don't need things to be in separate folders, and you want to make sure your naming convention matches the title.(year).mkv way of naming files.
 
Geofram said:
I think the thing I've learned the most in the last few days of wrestling with this, is that you need to pick your media player first and then build your setup around it.

Converting from WMC with MyMovies to XBMC can be quite a jump, depending on what you initially did while extracting and building your library, and how you named your files.

As an example- for MyMovies to work right, you need a sub-folder for each movie, preferably named the same thing that your DVD's 'folder' name is. After that is can be VIDEO_TS just fine, and run without any problems. Where, if you're going to use something like XBMC, if you want it to be detected right, you probably don't want to use VIDEO_TS, you don't need things to be in separate folders, and you want to make sure your naming convention matches the title.(year).mkv way of naming files.
Click to expand...

Well, I do not keep my videos in separate folders. XBMC forums actually recommends that you keep each video file in a separate folder that is the title of the movie. I do not have any Video_TS folders because all of my videos are converted to mkv or avi files. So as long as my files are named correctly, it doesn't really matter. XBMC has the ability to use the folder name or not when it scans for information. I leave it set as off, but if you have your files in folders, you would leave it on.

The biggest thing is making sure your files are named correctly.

There's a thread going on about it.
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=95230
 
My current HTPC is still running XP so I am using XBMC to play back my content. I am using a media center remote which works great to move around XBMC after I load it up.
 
Geofram said:
I think the thing I've learned the most in the last few days of wrestling with this, is that you need to pick your media player first and then build your setup around it.
Click to expand...

This for sure.

We had been using VMC for a couple years, and eventually upgraded to 7MC, plus the HDHR for tuning. I ended up building a WHS and decided the DVD collection would be nice to have stored on it. I did read up on the various options and tried a couple different methods ahead of time.

The one thing I truly wanted to avoid was ending up with my process being obsoleted halfway through. Ended up going with MyMovies and AnyDVD, wasn't a free solution but it has made things simple and (mostly) painless. I also liked the idea of the DVD menus accessible, as well as being able to playback on the MCX's.

I have my DVD's rip to folder format, about the only thing I will need to do someday is go through and fix the folder names (and the corresponding links in MyMovies). Many of the labels are a bit "off", especially in multiple disc sets.

Overall the system works well, easy for the family to use, and it fits our needs well. Which is probably the best way to start out--what do you want the system to do for you (including future capabilities) and see what meets those requirements. Good luck.
 
MediaPortal + TMT3 + AnyDVDHD

I also use the Moving Pictures, StreamedMP, and TvSeries plugins for MediaPortal. These allow a LOT of great eye candy and functionality improvements.

MediaPortal is really just the glue that makes everything work. It is a really nice front-end which is truely fully customizable. Want to use WMP when you open a wmv file, but want to use MediaPlayer Classic, when you open an avi? MediaPortal can do that. It also has a very good built in player (which I believe is based on VMC). The only reason I use TMT3 is so that I can get bitstreamed blu-ray audio to my audio pre-processor, and AnyDVDHD is pretty much a requirement for anyone wanting to use a HTPC for DVD or Blu-ray playback without needing to get up and put the disc in...

Some screenshots I took a while ago showing the way I navigate through my movie collection:

Movie Listings:
movies.jpg


Movie Information Page (happens after you click on the movie name from the listing):
movies2.jpg


Movie opens up if I select it again, or goes back to the movie page if I hit my back button.

You can change a lot of how things look. For instance, I prefer browsing my movies based on the movie poster (or similar image). You can simply have it with scrolling list of names with a small thumbnail, or any of dozens of other options depending on plugins.
 
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So far I'm just using iTunes and Hulu on a Mac Mini. Is there any reason to do anything different? (If I Handbrake my dvd collection, the movies play fine in iTunes.)
 
WMC7
Firefox (for those web-videos that are not on Hulu or available via a channel-plugin; eg: The Daily Show)
Hulu Desktop (with the plugin to make it accessible from WMC7 and a mod to make it work with my Hauppauge tv tuner remote)
Cyberlink PowerDVD 8 OEM (for Blu-ray)

I don't really download many videos or rip my movies to the computer, so no real need to use exotic programs.
 
mediabrowser for me. handles my collection just fine. Right now my movie folder is 230 movies and tv section has like 10 different shows. Works just fine for me.
 
MCE7 + TMT5 + Mediabrowser. I'm still working on trying to get a good process for ripping BD's to MKV's and playing properly with MCE7 but for me MCE is the way to go (mostly becaues I use a ceton quadtuner). Try out the different programs and see which one fits your needs then build your collection around that. MCE can be very effective, just needs a lot of 3rd party support.
 
50 said:
MCE7 + TMT5 + Mediabrowser. I'm still working on trying to get a good process for ripping BD's to MKV's and playing properly with MCE7 but for me MCE is the way to go (mostly becaues I use a ceton quadtuner). Try out the different programs and see which one fits your needs then build your collection around that. MCE can be very effective, just needs a lot of 3rd party support.
Click to expand...

make mkv. So simple. How i ripped all my blu rays to just untouched video and untouched HD audio track
 
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