Earlier this year I upgraded my old media center running Ubuntu 8 on a single core 1.7Ghz processor to one running Ubuntu 9 on a 2.6Ghz processor with Hyper-Threading enabled.  I am currently still looking at a better Media Center to replace the software on that one.  The current software I use is MythTV. While MythTV is a very capable and decent media center, it’s primary focus seems to be more on the PVR/DVR side of the house as well as having various plugins. I have tried many media centers and all seem to focus on the wrong things.  The wrong thing being things I don’t need. I’m going to attempt to list what I want in a system tha I am looking for, as well as where the other systems fall short.

What I am Looking For:

• A system that plays video files that are stored locally.
• A system that can distinguish between movies and TV shows.
• Support some pretty graphics but doesn’t need to go overboard nor high end graphics requirements.
• Support a remote control
• Be able to pull video and media from online sources.
• Be able to rip a DVD and store it locally.
• Be able to stream a video, regardless of source to another system.

MythTV

MythTV is a decent all around system. It lets you play videos you store locally as well as shows that you have recorded if you have a capture card. It can stream recorded TV shows, but not regular videos.  MythTV can also stream TV or input from a capture card to other systems.  However, while MythTV is nice, I no longer use a capture card. I also would prefer aht MythTV handle local media better as well as seperate TV shows from movies stored locally.  MythTVs interface is not overly exciting, but it does get the job done. MythTV also has a nice array of plugins that are useful. However, it’s larger focus on the PVR side leaves me annoyed.

LinuxMCE

This is a slighty newer system that has some nice designs and ideas.  However, it’s current implementation is not what I’m looking for.  The system wants to override and do DHCP, provide a BootP server, and an Asterisk PBX, none of which I need. While this system has alot of nice feature, like being able to transfer the movie or show around to which ever room you are in, it’s setup is a bit cumbersome. In this case, the system is to much and not what I’m ready for.

Those two are at the top of my list, and I’ve also checked out Boxee, but it’s focus seems to be more about making things pretty and videos from the Internet rather then the local thing videos I’m looking for.

Anyway, the point is that at this point, I almost don’t need anything beyond VLC these days.  I just want a better interface and maybe something that automatically tags my videos and tv shows for me. It looks like, that as one of my adventures in .NET I am going to build an interface into VLC since there is a .NET library for it and link some of my social things like Twitter and news headlines as well as include some home automation.

I don’t expect this to take me far since I don’t really have alot of time to work on it and maybe the other systems will actually have things that I want before I get anywhere near being done. The main focus will be though to learn the API and get more practice with the .NET framework as well as throw down my thoughts.