Media Center alternative?

June 27, 2007 12:27 PM

Is there an alternative to Windows Media Center?

I want to use iTunes, Picasa, and VLC to play my media on my living room PC, and Media Center won't let me (AFAIK). I don't have a TV signal coming into the box, so I don't care about DVR functionality. All I want is an alternative 10ft "media center" GUI that lets me configuire my own helper apps and that will interact with the WMC remote in a way that lets me invoke the GUI when, for example, the whole screen is showing a movie, the way the Media Center remote's green button does.

Does such thing exist? I'm running XP.

posted by stupidsexyFlanders to computers & internet (7 comments total)

There are many to choose from, just google HTPC. BeyondTV, Sage, Meedio (now bought by Yahoo), gb-pvr, and many more!
posted by Cosine at 12:38 PM on June 27, 2007

I've used BeyondTv and Beyond Media happily for a while.
posted by null terminated at 12:40 PM on June 27, 2007

Some HP Media Center boxes have the "HP exclusive" ability to play itunes stuff via windows media center (well, mine does). There may be third-party apps to do the same. Like MCETunes.
posted by GuyZero at 12:45 PM on June 27, 2007

I hate to point to Wiki, but the HTPC article there is actually quite useful, and contains many links that will help you zero in on what you want to do.
posted by rush at 12:46 PM on June 27, 2007

Everything linked here plays back media with its own proprietary player. And I don't have a TV tuner in the PC, so no need for PVR functionality.

As noted above, I want to use iTunes for music, Picasa for photos, and VLC for video. Anybody know of a 10 ft. GUI overlay that lets you access third party helper applications?
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 3:03 PM on June 27, 2007

Media Portal. It comes with an ITunes plugin, you can configure it to play video through VLC, it can be configured to use flickr, picasa, etc as well as youtube.
posted by Pastabagel at 3:47 PM on June 27, 2007

I should also mention that it's preconfigured to work with the MCE remote.
posted by Pastabagel at 3:48 PM on June 27, 2007