I love messing with settings and geeky file-sharing programs. My spouse doesn’t, but digs Hulu and appreciates free. So I set up a media center that satisfies my geek cravings but is actually easy-to-use for non-nerds. Here’s what I pieced together. More »
Want all your downloads, streaming video, and other techie media stuff on your TV? Wondering which media center works best for you? Here’s a look at the biggies in chart and Venn diagram form, followed by some lengthy breakdowns of each.
New to the idea of TV-connected computers? Head down below the charts for some explainers and deeper comparisons of each system. If you’re already familiar with the HTPC scene, we’ll give you the good stuff first.
We focused on three widely available, and generally popular, media centers for our comparison and review. We’re certainly aware there are many alternatives out there, as free software or stand-alone hardware boxes, but these are the three of the most popular media centers, they receive ongoing development, and they can easily be installed on a wide number of TV-connected computers.
Here’s how we see the three major media centers, in chart list and Venn diagram forms. Note: The chart is based on out-of-the-box features that don’t require the user to install any plug-ins.
What does a media center do? It varies, but it generally takes all the stuff you'd normally enjoy on a computer or portable device—MP3s, video files, Netflix, Hulu, digital photos, and web/social apps—and plays it on a television, through your speakers, and back onto your wireless network, if you'd like. Media centers can be run off of pretty much any capable computer, but are generally intended for small and specialized computers, called Home Theater PCs, or HTPCs. HTPCs have the video and audio ports necessary to hook up to a modern high-definition television, and generally have enough processing power and memory to handle the heavy burden of converting, playing, and sometimes recording high-resolution files. If you’ve got a home network set up with shared files and network-attached storage (NAS), media centers can generally pull their content off other systems and devices, as well as receive files for storage and download them directly off the net.
Put simply, a media center allows you to sit on a couch and do the most fun things you'd do on a computer with a remote. You can fire up a movie from Netflix's streaming service or from a file you've already downloaded, catch the show you missed last night on Hulu, put on background music while you're doing something else, share your Flickr or Picasa photos with visiting relatives—whatever you'd like, really.
Not every media center can do everything, however, and some are much better at certain entertainment jobs than others. The editors at Lifehacker conferred on what each box does best, tried to pin down what each system can and can’t do, and put it together in ways that we hope can help you decide.
Here's a more in-depth look at the media centers—installing and setting them up, and their pros and cons.
Windows Media Center is “free” with Home Premium or Ultimate copies of Windows Vista, all versions of Windows 7 except Starter or Home Basic, and available as a stand-alone, XP-based operating system dubbed “Media Center Edition.” XBMC is a free and open-source media center software that was born as a game-changing XBOX modification, but now runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, and XBOX systems, as well as booting and running off a USB stick. Boxee is based on the same core internal code as XBMC, but focuses on bringing web content—video sites, blog streams, and social apps—into your living room, while XBMC remains oriented toward a download-and-play setup.
Plex, a popular and very eye-pleasing media center for Mac OS X, is certainly a contender in this category. For all intents and purposes, though, it’s a variant of XBMC. Most anything we write or display in this post about XBMC applies to Plex, too, except for matters of looks and interface.
Those would be our definitions in the Lifehacker Dictionary, anyways. Let’s get a bit more encyclopedic on the strengths and weaknesses of each system:
Installation and Setup: Fairly easy. It comes pre-loaded in the higher-end editions of Windows Vista and 7, and assuming your computer or HTPC has the right outputs and plugs, Windows can fairly easily adjust its display to your television. If you’re running other Windows systems on your wireless network, you won’t have to do much configuration to start “sharing” files back and forth from the TV-connected system to your other platforms. If you’re running Mac or Linux computers, you’ll have a good deal more work to do. If your media computer came with a TV tuner card already installed, Windows will recognize it and work with it to record TV shows.
Here’s how Adam turned a Windows PC into a Media Center powerhouse, with a good detail on the installation and setup process.
Strengths
Weaknesses
Note: Windows Media Center doesn’t support Hulu by default, but with the right plug-in it can do the trick.
Installation and Setup: It depends, of course, on the platform and hardware you’re installing on. Getting it running and connected on a modern Windows or Mac system is fairly painless, at least from a software standpoint. Running it as a “live” system from a USB stick isn’t too hard, either, and you can install it from there onto an HTPC hard drive. Plugging it into a Madriva Linux box and hooking it up to your very specialized 1080p plasma setup with optical audio out will likely require hair plugs and years of therapy.
Read up on Adam’s guide to building a silent, standalone XBMC media center on the cheap for a look at the live-USB-to-installation path on a $200 HTPC system.
Strengths
Weaknesses:
Installation and Setup: On Windows and Mac systems, the latest Boxee beta is relatively simple to install, as it uses the built-in video and audio systems to push out content. On Linux, it’s a good deal more complex, but, then again, what on Linux isn’t? Apple TVs require a bit of hacking. In general, Boxee is compatible with the same kind of hardware as XBMC—OpenGL or DirectX-compatible video cards are highly recommended.
Here’s how Kevin set up a cheap but powerful Boxee media center using a brawny $350 HTPC and free copies of Linux and Boxee.
Strengths
Weaknesses
Feel free to also tell us which system has worked best for you, and why, in the comments.
The Boxee team unveiled its upcoming beta release tonight. From the outset, it looks a whole lot more pretty and user friendly. Native search powers, media queues, much improved looks, and easier navigation are coming to computer-connected TVs soon.
Boxee is based on the same core code as the XBMC project, but has differentiated itself with a different (and, in our opinion, not quite as appealing) look and a social, net-connected focus. The new home screen brings a new look and those social/feed aspects front and center.
It’s divided up into three columns of items on the bottom: friend recommendations on the left, featured media from Boxee and its partners in the middle, and items you’ve queued up on the right.
Anywhere you go in Boxee, you can quickly pull up the universal menu, which lets you rate, recommend, and queue an item, shut down or configure the system, and get access to the major media categories. The very bottom is a kind of bookmark bar, filled with shortcuts to your favorite media channels or files.
Whether you’re looking for a TV show episode you’ve downloaded or a show available for streaming anywhere in Boxee’s ecosystem, you can find it by doing a quick search from the sidebar. There’s a tiny keyboard built in for remote users, and quick filtering tools below. In general, Boxee treats your local media and streaming content as pretty much one and the same, in search and in handling.
Beyond being just a media player and Netflix/Hulu portal, Boxee’s photo, video, music, and even social networking apps set it apart. We’ve already thought about the possibilities of Clicker on Boxee, and more apps are likely on the way.
Want even more peeks at what the Boxee beta’s got inside? Check out Gizmodo’s screenshot gallery.
Under the hood, Boxee’s beta will feature a number of bug fixes from the alpha, and will switch from OpenGL to DirectX graphics on Windows, along with enabling DirectX video acceleration, allowing for much speedier and less resource-intensive playback. There’s also going to be baked-in support for NVIDIA’s cheaper-but-powerful Ion graphics chips, likely pointing to the pre-built Boxee box. Coincidentally, this also makes this editor’s homemade Boxee media center an even more badass investment.
Boxee’s beta is rolling out now to approved early access users (you can sign up here if you feel lucky). Next up will be those already using the alpha, and then, on Jan. 7, the general public. Tell us what you think of Boxee’s new look and direction, and what else you think it needs, in the comments.
We’ve labeled Clicker.com as a one-stop shop for streaming television, and it makes great sense as a dedicated app in the media center Boxee. From one interface, you can find nearly everything you can stream to your TV-connected setup.
Clicker’s app doesn’t include everything on the Clicker.com web site—just the stuff that Boxee knows how to handle. That includes content from Hulu, CBS, Comedy Central, and web streaming channels like Autotune the News, The Guild, and many more. The search bar is where the app really shines, but its categorical divisions make sense, too.
Clicker’s a free app for Boxee, and you can install it by heading to the App Box in the left-hand menu. Clicker will be included as a default app in the upcoming new release.
Adam thinks XBMC is the best media center around, but I roll with Boxee for its awesome streaming web content. Here’s how I turned a relatively cheap yet powerful home theater PC into a DIY Boxee Box for my HDTV.
Why go with Boxee? A few reasons, really: it’s free to download, it’s got a ton of great applications and add-ins, and it was, like XMBC, built with a big-screen interface in mind. When I was done installing it on top of a basic Ubuntu desktop, I had a system that could easily handle 720p and even (with some very easy overclocking) 1080p video files, run Hulu streams in full screen with very little glitching, and let me show off Flickr streams, Facebook photos, Pandora or Last.fm music, to name just a few of many content streams.
Plus, with Ubuntu installed and set up, you can easily run any other Linux app on your TV—like Hulu Desktop, a huge-screen Firefox, or whatever you can imagine.
You could, of course, wait for the first official Boxee Box to be unveiled in December, then shipped sometime later. This way, however, you get a seriously powerful HTPC that can run most any media center, and tears up HD video streams while doing so.
Many thanks to the fine posters at the Boxee and Ubuntu forums, where I found needed help and inspiration. This ASRock how-to, and wake-on-LAN tutorial, in particular, were lifesavers.
Setting up Ubuntu is something I’ve done many times, and it’s just as easy on this system. Here’s the quick walk-through:
Ubuntu, like XBMC, can run entirely off a thumb drive, or be installed to a hard drive. We’re going for the latter option here.
1. Create your Ubuntu installation media:
The fastest and quickest installation is to put the Ubuntu 9.04 desktop ISO you downloaded on a thumb drive using the free Unetbootin tool on a Windows or Linux system.
You can also have Unetbootin automatically download Ubuntu 9.04 for you, or burn the ISO to a CD or DVD, but thumb drive installations are much faster and don’t require wasting a disc.
2. Set up your ASRock
Take the unit out of its box, and find a location for it where it can breathe and exhaust a little—not flush against a corner, in other words. Plug in an ethernet cable straight from your router (or Wi-Fi bridge), and connect it to your TV via an HDMI cable. You’ll also need to plug in a USB keyboard and mouse to get through the initial setup. Make sure all the connects are snug and not stretched, then plug in your USB thumb drive, or power it on and insert your CD/DVD.
3. Install Ubuntu
Make sure your TV is switched to the HDMI source your ASRock box is plugged into. After you power on the ASRock, hit F11 immediately on your keyboard to open the boot options, then select your USB drive.
You'll be launched into Ubuntu's setup screen. Choose your language, then select the "Install Ubuntu" option. You'll launch into a bare-bones Ubuntu desktop and then into the installer application. Most U.S. users can hit Next through the first three language/location/keyboard screens. When it comes time to partition your system's hard drive, though, I'd recommend splitting it into three parts: One for the Ubuntu system, one for a swap partition, and another NTFS-formatted drive for your media. Why NTFS? It makes sharing media from your HTPC box to Windows computers easier, and it can hold gigantic files—like the kind of high-resolution videos you'll be viewing. If media sharing isn't a concern for you, go ahead and tell Ubuntu to use your whole hard disk.
Otherwise, choose the “Specify Partitions Manually,” click on the big, unallocated space in the next screen, and hit “Add” at the bottom. Set up Ubuntu’s own partition like so:
Hit “OK,” then create another partition, about 2 GB, or 2,000 MiB in size, and choose “Linux swap” under the “Use As” heading. Finally, add one more partition by hitting “Add,” choose NTFS as its format, and have it use all the rest of your space.
Click through the rest of the setup process, wait for it to finish installing, then reboot your computer and remove your thumb drive or CD when asked to do so.
When your system boots up next time, you'll get a menu asking which system you want to boot into, with a 10-second timer before it heads to default (which we'll fix soon). Log in with the username and password you gave during setup—something else we'll get to optimizing.
One quick little command we have to run before getting started: Hit Alt+F2, check the “Run in Terminal” box, then enter this line and hit Run:
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys CEC06767
That authenticates a repository with some necessary graphics drivers to install software on this system.
Now, down to the real business. Head to the System menu in the upper-left corner, mouse over the Administration sub-menu, then choose Software Sources. On the first tab, check off the “Proprietary drivers for devices” and “Software restricted …” options. Head to the Updates tab, and check the unchecked items. Finally, head to the “Third-Party Software” tab.
We’re going to add in three lines to this list by hitting the “Add” button at bottom-left and pasting in this text. The first is Boxee’s Ubuntu repository for Ubuntu 9.04, and the other two are a Ubuntu repository for the NVIDIA ION chipset inside our HTPC, known as “VDPAU” hardware. Here’s all the lines in one spot:
deb apt.boxee.tv jaunty main
deb ppa.launchpad.net/nvidia-vdpau/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src ppa.launchpad.net/nvidia-vdpau/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
Hit Close, and agree to Reload your software list when prompted. Now head up to System->Administration and select Update Manager. You'll get a list of everything that needs updating, and it might be rather long.
Install the updates, then make a cup of coffee or tea while you’re waiting. When you get back, you should be updated and ready to actually install some new stuff.
Let's do this. Head to System->Administration, then select Synaptic Package Manager. Click the "Search" button at the top right, and in the dialog that pops up, change the "Look in:" to "Maintainer," and search for "Snider."
In the results that come back, check off these packages to install. There might be newer versions of them to try out, but I know these work with this system, on this version of Ubuntu, running this version of Boxee:
Back at the Synaptic main screen, hit “Search” again, change the “Look in:” to Name, and search for mplayer. Check off the version with “+svn2009″ trailing in the “Latest Version” column for installation. Search again for boxee, then check to install it. If you’re looking to use an infrared remote, also search out and install the lirc package and whatever dependencies it asks for. Ubuntu’s own wiki offers a guide to getting set up with LIRC.
Finally, hit “Apply” in the top toolbar to install all these things on your system.
Once Synaptic is done installing those goodies (or while it's running, if it's taking a while), head to the System->Administration menu again, and open Login Window. Head over to the Security tab, and enable timed and automatic login for your username:
Assuming you don’t expect a burglar to break into your house, fire up your HTPC and start watching your Blu-Ray rip of “Up,” you should be fine with these options. They free you from needing a keyboard or mouse to get into Ubuntu, and automatically log you in when resuming from a suspend.
Next up, let’s speed up that boot-up process with a quick GRUB menu edit. Hit Alt+F2, and enter this command:
gksu gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
In the editor that pops up, head down just a bit to the “## timeout sec” section, and change the value there to 0. Just one section down, remove the “#” from in front of “hiddenmenu,” if it’s there.
Two quick fixes, to make HDMI audio work perfectly for both Ubuntu and Boxee. First up, follow this Boxee forum poster’s instructions to set up a .asoundrc file that tells Ubuntu how to route its sound. Next, open up a terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal), type in alsamixer and hit enter.
Hit your right arrow key over to where you see the columns for “IEC958,” and be sure none of them read “MM,” or muted. If they do, hit “M” to unmute them. Hit the escape key when you’re done.
Your second-to-last tweak makes Boxee run right at start-up. Head to System->Preferences, choose "Startup Applications," and hit "Add." Give it a name like, oh, Boxee, and make the command /opt/boxee/run-boxee-desktop. Hit OK on that screen, then close out your Startup Applications.
Now, for the final piece: Remote desktop access from any other computer on your network. Head to the System->Preferences menu, select Remote Desktop, and configure your system to accept remote desktop connections, with a password for safety.
If you’re the geeky type who knows how to remotely administer a system by SSH command line, be sure to install the openssh-server package in your Boxee box.
Finally, if you're using a Microsoft Media Center remote with your Boxee box, and you've plugged in your USB IR Receiver, you should be good to go in Boxee—it automatically works with the Media Center setup. If you're using something different, like a Hauppage remote, this guide might point you in the right direction. Myself, I mainly use the free Boxee Remote applications found in both the Android Market and Apple App Store to control Boxee and type in text with little fuss.
Reboot your system, and you should shoot through Ubuntu’s boot-up process, arriving straight at Boxee’s log in screen.
The only major tweak you’ll need to make is to Boxee’s audio setup. Head to the Settings menu in the lower-left corner, then to Hardware, and then to the audio tab. Set your settings to look like those on the left, or, in text form:
Digital
Off
Off
default
default
From there on out, Boxee should be your multimedia workhorse. You can suspend it and wake it up with the power button (or a wake-on-LAN tool, as detailed at the Ubuntu Forums). You can use it to download torrents, directly drop files into it over SFTP, give it more video feeds, and other tweaks we’ve covered in our Apple TV/Boxee guide, and in Adam’s XBMC guide (the latter mostly for the SFTP guide). If you want to actually use your Ubuntu desktop on your TV, just exit out of Boxee from the log-in screen or the main menu
Streaming video, digital DVD backups, DVR recording—it's all possible from your TV-connected media center, and you don't need a system administrator to pull it off. These 10 apps make filling and controlling your media center PC even easier.
Photo by William Hook.
Your favorite band, assuming it’s not Motörhead, probably spend a good bit of time thinking about their album art. Pay credit to their creative indulgences, and give your media center something to show when their tracks are playing, by embedding album art in your MP3 collection. Rick Broida ran through the basics in his 2007 guide to whipping your MP3 library into shape, and I revisited the best sources and tools for Windows, Mac, and Linux systems in a 2008 album art guide. Whatever tool you use, having album art consistent across your library might feel a bit obsessive, and it is—but there's a certain reassuring payoff when your TV displays the same art as your iPod.
Some commercials are worth their short time commitment, but sometimes you just want to watch exactly 24 minutes of condensed television. Windows Media Center plug-in Lifextender does the job inside your hooked-up PC, while DVRMSToolbox runs through Media-Center-recorded files independently, and can then export them to more generally usable formats than Windows’ somewhat locked-down system. (Original posts: Lifextender, DVRMSToolbox)
Boxee is basically the XBMC media center app with a different look and a more social flair. It also supports a lot of independent content creators and independent developers, whether through the official App Box, through adding repositories of new apps, or through stand-alone RSS feeds. We’ve covered some great sources for Boxee apps and content in a quick Boxee guide. Looking for even more app repositories? Check out Boxee’s list of known repositories and see what strikes your fancy.
Media player apps try their best to figure out exactly what TV shows and movies you’ve got loaded into storage, but they often have a hard time keeping up with the naming schemes used by a variety of applications and fallible humans. Grab an app like MediaRenamer (for movies and television) or TVrename (for shows alone) and whip your files into a shape that XBMC, Boxee, Windows, Plex, or any other media center can easily figure out. For a quick read on what media center apps like to see—XBMC in particular—read Jason's guide halfway through his XMBC add-on guide.
It’s not an officially supported streaming site, like Netflix or CBS, but Hulu’s own Hulu Desktop can be worked into Windows Media Center with a clever little back-and-forth plug-in. Install Hulu Desktop Integration, and you’ll get an icon for Hulu among your video options. Click it, and Windows Media Center closes down, opens up Hulu Desktop; when you’re done watching Hulu, the app shuts that down and re-opens Media Center. Clever, helpful stuff.
Rather than find out halfway through the final disc of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles that your Netflix disc is scratched beyond repair, you could rip the suspect DVD to a digital file and play it from there, with just a minor skip. Adam’s built a tool called DVD Rip to make it a dead-simple process in Windows, but it’s fairly easy to pull off with HandBrake or VLC Media Player on Windows, Mac, or Linux systems.
With a TV tuner installed, Windows Media Center or Home Server makes for a pretty hardcore DVR device, without the monthly fees. Make it easier to catch good TV when you think of it at work with Web Guide, a free scheduling program that shows you what’s on in the future, streams what’s on now, and otherwise delivers your media center’s TV experience to wherever you happen to be at the moment. (Original post)
Sure, you could go the easy route and buy an infrared-based, media-center-friendly physical remote for your TV-attached setup, but if you'd like a bit more functionality—and, more importantly, actual typing input—there's probably a free or cheap remote for your Wi-Fi powered phone or iPod. Gmote turns an Android phone into a multi-system remote, assuming you don’t mind a quick software installation. iPod/iPhone owners have their pick of many XBMC-compatible remotes in the App Store, the free Boxee remote, and MediaMote (iTunes direct link) ably handles your Windows Media Center remote.
Your standard off-the-shelf router treats all net traffic the same, can’t tell you exactly how much you’ve downloaded this month, and is fairly difficult to turn into anything other than an agent of your cable modem. Install DD-WRT or Tomato on your little antenna box, however, and it can be a wireless bridge for your entertainment center, as well as ensure that Hulu and Netflix get all the bandwidth they need with quality of service rules. (Installation guides: DD-WRT, Tomato)
The best media centers can play just about any video or audio format out there, but even the coolest phones and media devices have a fairly limited format range, and only so much space. Among the five best media converters we rounded up, Super and Format Factory can match most devices and file types, while MediaCoder and HandBrake get the job done on any platform. Need help getting the file onto your phone or device? The doubleTwist media manager is the easiest drag & drop solution we've seen.
Windows/Mac/Linux/Apple TV: Now your friends can actually try out Boxee. The open-source app that TV-sizes your files and streaming web content is available in alpha for Windows, and updated on other platforms with neat apps and fixes.
Besides the general advent of a much wider user base being able to get the same kind of wide-screened, media-centric experience that Mac, Linux, and Apple TV users have been enjoying for months, Boxee’s latest version streamlines the left-hand interface, parceling web-based sources into “Applications” and the files on your system into “Local Files.”
The latest release also introduces a handful of attention-getting web apps like MLB.tv, officially supported and offering full access to baseball games around the country. Others, like Current TV, Digg, some clever Twitter/Tumblr mashups and niche video sources, came from the providers themselves or the just-ended dev challenge. But the improvements users will really want to know about include generally improved streaming, M4A and M4V playback, lower CPU usage on Macs, support for Ubuntu 9.04, and DVD playback optimization.
On Windows specifically, a number of enthusiasts were already noting problems with Hulu playback (not completely unexpected, given the two projects’ history) and Netflix streaming (a real bummer), but that may be localized to specific machines. 64-bit platforms aren’t supported, and anyone using Microsoft’s default video drivers instead of their specific hardware drivers is out of luck. Windows 7 seems to install and run Boxee well enough, after a brief test.
Boxee is a free download for Windows, Mac, and Linux (specifically Ubuntu), along with, through an installation previously detailed, Apple TVs. Those with Boxee accounts can grab it here directly, while newcomers should head to the link below to get an account and grab their file.
