Alternatives to Media Center

[mminghella]

Hello all,

to be blunt, Media Center on my PC doesn't want to work. I get component registration failures whenever I want to watch live TV. I've re-installed countless times but with no success.

Now, I do like Vista, so can anyone recommend any software (free if possible) that will do the same or better than vista MC? Basically, I want to be able to:

1. use the live/recorded TV
2. access my music collection
3. watch DVDs

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

[bcopping]

Could give mediaportal a try, its free:
http://www.team-mediaportal.com

I have only just started using it and have never tried MS MCE software so dont know how it will compare

[Br0ken]

[FONT="Trebuchet MS"]mediaportal compared to mce05 and vistaMCE is clunky and buggy.[/FONT]

[willsy2]

Try GBPVR it works great, only thing is you need to use XMLTV to keep the TV guide up to date. You'd also need to check your TV card is supported.

[tinners]

http://www.snapstream.com/ BeyondTV
http://www.sagetv.com/
http://sites.mobile.yahoo.com/go/tv

[mjn]

Originally Posted by viru.doshi

[FONT="Trebuchet MS"]mediaportal compared to mce05 and vistaMCE is clunky and buggy.[/FONT]

To be fair, one has had millions of dollars spent on it, the other is free....

I like mediaportal.

[mminghella]

I've just had a play with PowerCinema as it came with my card and I'm really impressed. While the display of Sky+ through S-Video looks a bit ropey in real-time, when its saved and then replayed through Media Player (MC still throws a fit), it looks superb.

Definitely a keeper.