MythTV vs Windows Media Center

[lordofduct]

that is the great thing about Myth... it is so customizeable.

MCE is hardly customizeable, I don't know of any skins (but I know someone has had to of figured some kind of hack for it), and for adding programs I'm not sure. It comes with DVD makers and other stuff already placed in a "Other Programs" section, and I'm figuring there must be a way to add stuff to it, but I haven't played around with it to find out how.

As I said before, MythTV is amazing. It has so freaking much you can do with it. MCE falls short in the customizeable area. But again, setting up all the stuff in MythTV and customizing it is very time consuming and to some may be difficult (requires writing scripts and other stuff in the background of it... no point and click pretty stuff going on. Just like Linux is... thinks back to the Linux conversation Mozgus and I got at each other over). MythTV really is the diving into the complex side of Linux. It isn't like how I was talking about Ubuntu and its user friendliness... this bad boy works on the inside of the pretty shell Ubuntu paints for you. Which is one of the big reasons geeks alike (like myself) rave about it, but so many rarely inform you about how difficult it is.

They are the type that go on about oh.... this is simple, and jeez scripts aren't hard.

Like in the thread on Linux... I posted very simple (for lin users) Linux bash commands and people commented how it wasn't as easy as I thought. Well these are a bit more difficult... so if you found that annoying, then stay away.

If your looking for adventure then dive right in. Your hard labor will reap you MANY rewards over MCE and Windows all together. The many MANY things you can do in MythTV make it prime choice meat!

[racketboy]

Can you take a look a GameEx and let me know what its disadvantages to MythTV is?
I've been playing around with it some more and it doesn't seem too bad.

[lordofduct]

SWEET!

Now that looks COOL... I never heard of this plug-in for MCE.

I thought there was a way to add new stuff to the "Other Programs" section. I'm gonna check this out, but it'll have to hold out till this weekend, I leave town in an hour.


[EDIT]
I had a little extra time actually... we aren't leaving for 3 or so hours now.

I just installed the thing and it injects itself directly into the start screen of MCE. Very nice, the default theme/skin looks like a low res version of MCE (it may seem closer on your side, but I runn MCE at 2560X1600 so it's a big jump for me). Really though, all it is is a direct link to their software that just closes MCE and opens GameEx... but the look similar enough that it feels very inuitive. I'm gonna go locate all my emulators now and configure them into the thing (I haven't installed any except SSF for saturn).

Cool part is it still utilizes the MCE remote control (which is a MUST have when you use MCE). All the configurations though are done outside of MCE, but it uses very simple GUI point and click ways of doing it. It is very nice.

Downside to the lower res theme and everything means that everytime I start it up my video card has to reset its resolution. Blinking to a black screen and then back to GameEx at what looks like 800X600. Of course the configuration screen allows you to up the resolution, the MCE glossy theme utilizes the preexisting MCE theme so it scales nicely. But some of the none MCE images (pics that pop up for your emulators and stuff) don't scale as nicely.

[racketboy]

GameEX is also a standalone program that runs on top of any version of Windows post 95.
But yes, it can be used as a add-on to MCE.

[racketboy]

Well, I've been using MCE 2005 for a while and I'm liking it.
My machine won't ever come out of sleep, but the remote is great.
It would be nice if I could find a inexpensive universal remote that would do all of its functions easily and do my TV and cable box.

Also, I've played around with the interface of Vista's Media Center at my local stores and some things seem nicer (music and photo browsing), but I don't know if I like the rest of the layout (like for videos)

[Jubal]

4) the extender support... yes, no outrageousily over priced God damn MCE extenders. Even the XBOX works so much better with MythTV. Using XBMC and the MythTV frontend you get access to everything. Best part is unlike XBOX MCE extender, Myth hands over all the video rendering over to the XBOX so it doesn't tax the backend server! This is a lot better then you think as if you use XBOX MCE extender you'll notice it's sluggishness... especially when you have more then one attatched to it.

ok so I have heard mythtv talked about in whispered tones before, but this thread is getting me to actually take a look at it. I had considered getting tivo soon, seeing as how I have xbmc running I want to figure this out on the xbox

I found this page
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Xbox_Frontend

but its a bit over my head, havent done any scripting yet

lordofduct, have you gone the xbmc route your self then? where should I start? any changes needed to my hardware beyond a normal hardmod w/ 300g HDD?

i dont remember seeing this in #xbins, did I miss it, or do i need to look somewhere else?

*runs off to frantically search the net*

-Jubal-