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.