Comments on: Name That Tune/Video (Center)

Question: Name That Tune/Video (Center)

ill3 — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:13:45 -0800

Naming Filter: Hive mind, please help us name our open source OS X media center application!

I have been impressed by the hive mind's creativity when it comes to naming things, most recently the Lawyer Golf Team.

Sorry for the long explanation that follows, however, I think coming up with the best name is going to require a little bit of context.

I'm currently working on an open source project (free as in beer and speech) that is a recent fork of the well known and highly regarded XBMC project. In fact, I shamelessly plugged it here in an ask.mefi answer earlier. As many of you may know XBMC originally was called XBox Media Center. It was an app that could be run on a hacked XBox that allowed you to play media on your XBox (divx, h.264, mp3s, etc) pulling the media either from local disks or across the network using windows shares, ftp, etc. What made it a media center, rather than just a media player (like the excellent VLC and Mplayer) the application also has a great skinnable navigation and metadata system. XBMC will scan your media library (which in most cases would be located on a computer somewhere else in the house) automatically guess what piece of media the particular file was, and download and associate the appropriate meta-data. This would allow you to look for movies or songs based on Genre, Year, etc, all while flipping through the DVD's or CD's cover art. The interface is also optimized for use with a remote control, to make it easier to use from the couch than say QuickTime. It's easier seen than explained, here is YT video of it in action running the xTV skin (a skin inspired by Apple Tv).
A little over a year ago the core XBMC.org team decided to start porting what many consider to be the best media center application ever written, to other platforms starting with Linux. They have made great progress and they have already have a highly usable application for Linux. About 6 months ago myself and a few others decided to embark on an OS X port of the application, based on some amazing progress that the head of the new OS X port had made in just a few weeks. There was already quite a bit of pent up demand, as many thought the Mac Mini was an ideal HTPC (Home Theater PC) platform, again discussed here. We started out as a part of the larger XBMC team until very recently, both teams decided that we had enough philosophical differences that it made sense to amicably split up. Up until the project had been called XBMC on OSX and/or OSXBMC. We have currently been using the OSXBMC name as a place holder until we come up with a better name. There are a few reasons for wanting a name change, the big ones are :
- Having XBMC in the name does not differentiate us enough from the original XBMC.org project (the original XBMC guys have politely asked us to make our name a little more distinct) and it perhaps it makes it seem like an XBox is required to use the application.
- Something a little less "acronymy" would be nice, more in the tradition of Mac apps.
- It's possible that someday we will release versions of our (keeping in mind that at this point "our" software is 98% composed of XBMC's code) on platforms other than OS X, so we would like to get away from having the platform in the name.

The project's home page is http://www.osxbmc.com if anyone could possibly want or need any more information.

Thanks very much!

By: trondant

trondant — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 05:58:37 -0800

Ported Media Center?

By: adamrice

adamrice — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 06:33:16 -0800

Media Buffet
Lazy Susan
Ozzie the Funputer
Medioctopus / Mediasquid
Tendril

By: browse

browse — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 06:55:05 -0800

Tenacious MC. (OS X (Ten), geddit?)

By: nfg

nfg — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 07:03:12 -0800

What about "Watch"? Simple and to the point — use Watch to watch. Maybe it's a little hard to google for...?

By: caution live frogs

caution live frogs — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 07:13:19 -0800

CouchPotato? I like the name but it might be a bit negative.

Medialicious sounds nice too, but seems to be in use by a (currently empty?) website so may be spoken for.

It seems similar to FrontRow in some ways; maybe keep the concert connotation with:
BackStage / Backstage Pass
AllAccess
HotTicket
~~CenterStage~~ Damn, in use... by a Mac media center program, no less!
LimeLight? I kind of like that one.
MainEvent
BoxSeat(s)
MoshPit - too audio-specific?

(follow any of the above with "Media Center" if necessary for a longer or full name)

Or go for boring-but-informative like:
Open Media Center
MediaCentered
MediaCentral
HomeTheatre / HomeTheater (Media Center)? Doesn't necessarily indicate audio too, but the alternate spelling might make it a usable name...
HomeVenue

Or go classical:
Theatron (Greek for "watching place" and conveniently electronic-sounding), again follow with "Media Center" if necessary for full name
Amphitheatre (again alternale spelling might be useful if naming rights already taken)
OpenAmphitheatre - too long?

That's all I have for now I guess.

By: dinger

dinger — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:04:12 -0800

Cinemac (has this been used before?)

By: nomad

nomad — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:07:18 -0800

Media Orchard
Log-on-ny Appleseed
Doctor Away
Doghouse (for when you have to sleep on the couch)
Tree of Letharge

Slogans:
Show Your Bits!
T.V.'s best friend... with benefits
Media's babymomma

By: nomad

nomad — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:11:50 -0800

Times Square (Flashy block of the small apple)

By: nomad

nomad — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:22:00 -0800

Hot Box (although the other definitions may kill this idea)

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:47:48 -0800

XBTV

By: caution live frogs

caution live frogs — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:59:24 -0800

Also, a few more, video-centric ones:
Cinematic
Cinerama
Synesthesia (or Cinesthesia) Works on several levels I guess.

Riffing on "media" again:
Meteor
Mediator

But you probably want to stay away from "Mediocre" if possible.

By: sero_venientibus_ossa

sero_venientibus_ossa — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 11:23:33 -0800

MediaMaverick

By: tksh

tksh — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:44:51 -0800

I like the suggestions Amphitheatre and Appleseed.

Easy enough to be in pretty much everyone's vocabulary but also unique enough to create an identity. Seriously, all my favourite Mac programs follow the same philosophy and I think it works well.

By: ill3

ill3 — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 11:05:43 -0800

Thanks for all the great suggestions! We are mulling over these names - I personally like Meteor.

By: ill3

ill3 — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 23:17:27 -0800

It's been a long time since there has been activity in this thread. We came up with Plex :

http://www.plexapp.com