Media Centre / Media Players!

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MrWireless

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Hi Guys!

Wonder if you can give me some advice.

I have alot of content I would easily like to be able to play directly on my TV. TV is rather far from my PC, so I need to look at another way to do it.

Option 1 is a media centre system:
Problem 1 - TV-out on most graphic cards always seem to leave a border around my TV screen, which can get rather annoying. Advantage though is that it would probably be cheaper to setup as I can use a cheapish PC to do this. Anyone have any experiences with media centre and how convenient it is to use? Would like to stream my movies via wireless, though wired network would be an option!

Option 2 is a media player:
Mvix seems pretty good:
www.mvix.co.za
or perhaps a Dlink:
http://www.sybaritic.co.za/store/product_info.php?cPath=219&products_id=7907
Or a Pinnacle:
http://www.digitalplanet.co.za/shop/product.asp?stockID=102124

But this seems to be the best price: R1000 from NGR Computers
http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_mediamvp.html

Like this option in the sense that its been dedicated for this use, but not sure what I should be looking out for - and what the quality is like on the above devices?

Any suggestions?
 
Why don't you just buy a media gateway. Can stream everything from your PC to your TV wirelessly.
 
Must it be wireless? Almost every review of every wireless media center I've read complained about the wireless aspect. With wired there's usually no problem, but that's not always very practical.

A poster on this site referred me to this link - I bought it this weekend - works brilliant!

http://www.zioncom.net/products/multi/hv0102a.htm

It's available under different names in SA Zioncom, ipTime or PlayTime.
 
I wasn't to impressed by mythtv, It might have a lot of features I didn't try,but it's butt ugly. Unfortunately so are most other linux media center applications. I've tried mythtv, freevo, mms, elisa and oxine, neither of which comes close to mediaportal, which is windows only:(
I'm currently still using mms.
 
Sorry don't want to hijack the thread but can anyone recommend a good media portal? (IE. good price :) )
 
Na - does not need to be wireless. Cheapest option would be the best. Priority is playing movies nicely on the TV.

Looking into those MytV things....no-one have any experience with the items above though?
 
Do yourself a favour and download a copy of Media Portal. It is a 32mb download, and is Open Source Media Centre software for Windows.

I use it, on a very old (1.7 Celeron, 384mb ram, 9gb drive, Geforce2 with Video Out) with a basic installation of XP, and nothing more to stream content from two linux servers at the other end of the house. I have put a cat5 cable from my main network in the study, through the roof, to my bedroom.

The system boots up, autologins, and launches the Media Portal software - all configured with mapped drives to access my two servers. It's working perfectly with an old Microsoft MCE remote, and I could not ask for more!

Check it out!
 
Hi, I use the wired MediaMVP.

It was cheap and it plays DivX and that was the main deciding factors for me. I ditched the Hauppauge software and downloaded GBPVR (free at www.gbpvr.com) with the ZProcess plugin and viola, streaming video with the aspect ratio as I like it. With a TV tuner in your server PC it even turns into a PVR. I use a dedicated audio streamer for audio so I cannot comment on the MVP's abilities to play audio.

There is a huge MVP following on the web with various forums dedicated to improving its software and user interface. There are various software packages downloadable for free should you not like the Hauppauge version.

I would not recommend it for anybody who is a bit computer illiterate as I would not describe it to be plug and play. It need some hands on to set it up (depending on your personal requirements and how full of stront you are - I'm full of it so it took me a while), but once you got it going it works well - all depending on the interface you choose to run it from.
 
Last edited:
Ryder_JHB said:
Do yourself a favour and download a copy of Media Portal. It is a 32mb download, and is Open Source Media Centre software for Windows.

I use it, on a very old (1.7 Celeron, 384mb ram, 9gb drive, Geforce2 with Video Out) with a basic installation of XP, and nothing more to stream content from two linux servers at the other end of the house. I have put a cat5 cable from my main network in the study, through the roof, to my bedroom.

The system boots up, autologins, and launches the Media Portal software - all configured with mapped drives to access my two servers. It's working perfectly with an old Microsoft MCE remote, and I could not ask for more!

Check it out!
Click to expand...

This looks pretty good! Busy downloading the software....anyone in Durban looking to get rid of their older PC?
 
Goobie said:
Hi, I use the wired MediaMVP.
Click to expand...

Goobie --

Where did you purchase the unit?

I was about to buy an MVP when the importers - Pinnacle - pulled the plug ...
 
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