Windows Media Centre - Rivals / Competition

All,

What are the rivals to Windows media centre ? I'm looking for PC based software.

Many thanks.

[zeus123]

I was all set to do a media centre with Geexbox but it turns out you cant record tv with it so whether you could call it a rival... No contest imo.
http://geexbox.org/en/index.html
Support isnt bad though the remote control has odd actions for some buttons.

Get a load of the system requirements, I was going to do one with spare parts but now, with XP MCE, its a whole new build.
Its a live cd (boots from the cd then ejects it) but it can be installed on a hdd. I think its 6mb! Its just that record thing.. you can only use one tv card at once too.

[Steve.J.Davies]

It can also be run from a memory stick. it is a great playback tool, you can do a build on a windows system and add commercial codecs to the mix.
as you say recording is out at the mo. Looks like digital recording will come in when the V2 branch blossoms.
Folks playing HD content on this with a (often much) lower spec than windows users - that is its real strength at the moment I believe.
When the recording comes in it could get even more interesting.