Friday, July 6, 2007

MediaCentral


I mentioned previously that I have been pretty frustrated with FrontRow.  MediaCentral looks like it will do pretty much everthing that I want, and does things that FrontRow doesn't do.


MediaCentral has some pretty cool features:


  • Presents a catalog and can play IPTV streams

  • Plays TV for DVB-T broadcasts

  • Plays various video formats, both from iTunes and accessible in an mounted file system

  • Plays DVDs and DVD VIDEO_TS files

  • Plays music from CDs or iPods

  • Plays music from iTunes Library or files accessible on mounted file systems

  • Plays internet radio stations

  • Skype integration

  • Plays classic video games

  • Views photos from iPhoto or on a mounted filesystem

  • Plays photostreams from .Mac or flickr.





There are a few things that it doesn't seem to do well:


  • Doesn't play protected purchased videos from iTunes

  • Many of the controls are not accessible with the Apple Remote


I am fine with those limitations, so now I am getting my media organized so it can be accessible from MediaCentral.  Luckily there is a fully functional demo (5 minute run limit) where I can make sure things will work, before paying for it.


There is one request that I will make to the developer is to support arbitrary rss feeds of photos.  If that can't be support, I will see about writing a plugin for Gallery2 to generate a photostream.

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