After reading one of two threads here, it seems the biggest converse point is DRM.  Since I'm not "schooled" in the whole DRM issue, I'm going to stay out of that arena.

Here's what I want to know. I love the cosmetic look of MCE, its ease of use - mainly for my family. The wife can use it without needing to get me on the phone or in the room.  Now I saw alot of talk about Media Portal, and I have used Xbox Media Center which is supposedly the Xbox version of Media Portal, and it is actually pretty amazing (the xbox version).  especially for guys like me, who have a huge LAN (5+ computers) with lots of content spread all over the place... pictures, music and yes even movies . The network control of XBMC, file browser, etc ALL VIA REMOTE CONTROL is awesome! You can search ANYTHING on your shared network from the remote with extreme ease... I really wish MCE did that! Also, XBMC (possibly Media portal?) can and will play files from within .zip/.rar/.bin/.iso (& more) formats - thats terrific! One of the things that troubles me about MCE is, I would like to record stuff for my parents and move it to DVD.... This is no easy task with MCE - especially if the source is VIDEO TAPE.   TO MY KNOWLEDGE, Mce doesnt support aux inputs - which is just plain stupid - and I'm shocked this feature has not been hacked in by someone somewhere.  Like the ability to map channel 999 (for example) to be AUX INPUT1 on one of the 4 tuners which ALL have aux inputs!  If the source is digital cable channel, higher than the NTSC tuner can tune-in, MCE can't record it.  It seems the only way around this is to use an external application.

So: I'm re-building my main livingroom "media center" right now, but at the end of this "upgrade" process I'm going to have enough extra pieces to build a second box - most likely for my bedroom. And I would like to explore the MCE ALTERNATIVES available.  Now, before I discovered MCE - I used Beyond TV which was impressive at the time... That and MyHTPC front end which controlled my old ATI AIW (which I no longer use obviously).  I've seen the screen shots of Media Portal - and while it looks amazing, how easy it is to actually use and setup?

My ideal requirements would be to easily record USING A GUIDE of somekind, stuff from an analog ntsc tuner card, hdtv from an atsc ota tuner card PLUS from an external source like a VHS player.  All to preferably an MPG format of somekind, where I could easily author a DVD - Maybe even from within the application, kind of turning the media pc into a pseudo DVD RECORD STB, my wife would love that..  Of course all the other basic stuff that people think of when building a "media pc", stream/play .mp3 and other downloaded music. Pictures of course. Movies in multiple formats would be nice... MPG/AVI/DVR-MS/WMV/VCD/SVCD/DVD/DiVX/Xvid//ETC/MP4 and 3GP... The last two are important as we have high end cell phones that take video, and I have little nephews - who we take ALOT of video's of. So seeing those special captured moments on TV are important to us. I would also like to stream content from online sources, like Internet Radio, Video's, browse the web or easily access common found stuff online.. Phone numbers, movie times, basic news info, weahter... junk like that.

I'm sure there are users here who are more skilled than me, with a better understanding of the hardware and software - and making it all co-exist in harmony.  I was hoping to read some good alternatives and advice. WHEN I do finally build the 2nd "MCE" box, I plan on installing MCE on it - and as I understand so long as you kill all the "eh*.*" processes, its basically windows xp at that point, and running any other pvr apps should be fine - I'm sure there is a way to disable the "media center" (eh*.*) portions of MCE from loading everytime?

Last question: Are the MCE remotes/keyboard compatible with any other apps besides MCE? That just more of a FYI I'd like to know. Most of the tuner cards people buy nowadays all come with a remote of somekind.

I mostly use GB-PVR instead of MCE. It looks nice as well, is easier to configure, I can browse my music in the folders I have them sorted in, I can add all the video folders I want to without problem (I too have them all over the LAN). I don't know if you can do all the tasks you wish but I do know that there are a lot of plug-ins for GB-pvr.

I tried MediaPortal earlier but never liked it.

The best part; GB-PVR is totally freeware!

Ihave tried Media portal several times at different stages of it's production (last time was 2 weeks ago) and find it is just too clunky and unstable for me to use. It does everything i want it to do though so if they make it more fluid to use and alot more stable then i might switch, but until then no chance. Also most none MS MCE software has diffecult to configure guides using something called xmltv, Media portal also has something called webepg that is similar xmltv but is much much easier to configure:)

The microsoft remote works with media portal, and to my knowledge most of the other alternatives

I've found Media Portal to be better than MCE overall. Some of the plug-ins are a bit unstable but the core product is pretty solid for me. MP runs on my MCE XP machine 24hrs/day with no issues.

The biggest shortfall of MP is the setup which can be tedious. Especially the program guide. But once it's up and running it's pretty good overall.

And you don't need to supply your own MPEG-2 decoders, it comes with them built-in.

MP 0.2 is very good overall. Transitions and effects are a bit sluggish compared to MCE but MP has fare more features, more media type support and it seems that MP development is going ahead really fast whereas MCE seems to be "stalled". MP offers new features that MCE just doesn't have at this moment. Things like a skype plug-in. Or the ability to play DVDs from the hard disk (ripped DVDs).

Even as a beta product, which you should expect problems (that's what beta means... a test version), it's just as stable as MCE overall.

Not trying to poo on you, Zeuserx, so please don't think that I am. 

There has been a Skype plug-in for Media Center for a long time now.

Media Center supports native VIDEO_TS (aka Ripped DVD) playback.  Also, the My Movies plug-in offers ISO mounting and better display and information.

Chris - Moderator:

Not trying to poo on you, Zeuserx, so please don't think that I am. 

There has been a Skype plug-in for Media Center for a long time now.

Media Center supports native VIDEO_TS (aka Ripped DVD) playback.  Also, the My Movies plug-in offers ISO mounting and better display and information.

I stand corrected.

If only I could get the damn MPEG-2 decoder to work, I could give MCE a good head to head compare against MP. I would prefer to be using MCE over MP, especially since I've got a Linksys extender.

Just let me know if you would like some more troubleshooting methods for getting those MPEG-2 decoders.  I'm pretty good at troubleshooting DirectShow issues.

Well, you were right, the nVidia decoders are in fact the only ones that work. Kinda pisses me off since I already paid for MCE and now I have to pay extra for the decoders as well.

Oh and about the skype plugin for MCE? It's only a 30 day trial version. You have to pay extra.

 

So I guess it comes down to:

1 - get MCE and pay for everything (decoders, plug-ins, main app) or

2 - Get Media Portal and get everything for free.

True.  One good thing about most open source projects is that they are free.

However, no pay for decoders there is a story behind it.  MCE is an OEM product, thus an OEM would provide decoders.  Clearly, if you are purchasing an OEM copy of MCE alone you are not going by how it was designed.  This will change with Vista, as it will be sold retail and will include MPEG-2 decoders in the box. 

Well, that's a good thing. And hopefully open source projects like Media Portal will motivate the folks at Microsoft to better MCE. I'm pretty sure they're looking at MP's source code in their office.

I'm still on the fence with both products. I like the integration of MCE with other windows apps and my Linksys media extender. But I like the free and "it simply works" nature of Media Portal. I just can't decide which one I'll run permanently.

Just to add my two cents:

I have been running MCE2005 for a little over a year now. I have had tremendous problems getting it stable, it has been on verge of being kicked out the living room several times. Also much functionality is missing or poor (radio ...). Much can be added with some very good plug-ins avaible (MyMovies, MyWeather, ...), but the possibilities to eliminate the MS functions and replace with plug-in functions are limited (max four plug-ins on the main menu). All in all MCE has been barable, but I was never enthusiastic.

Last weekend I tried MediaPortal (on my home office machine to start with). It did have a little bit of a learning curve and it did show some stability issues, but with all the possibilities in view I never lost my enthusiasme for it. Configuration possibilities are enormous and very logical. I can actually make it look and do the way I want, not just the way Bill wants it. By Sunday afternoon I was ready to put it on the living room MCE machine. It is now up and running and configured (TV stations with EPG, radio stations, shared media files, skin, ...). . Beautiful. Much higher WAF too. I can still run MCE, but MP is the default.

The verdict isn't out yet, stability has to be proven over time. But so far WOW!

And then there is the continuous development, much more is to come. OK MCE is also being further developped, the Vista reviews mention that the background color has changed!

Just an example; My hardware was only available in France, could only be bought with MCE installed in French!, If I want English I have to buy a new license. That's MS. With MP I can change user interface language on the fly ...

Continued:

I'm running MP two weeks now. Haven't turned back to MCE even once. It's simply excellent, and it is still improving continuously. I'm converted. Bye Bye MCE.

I have tried a lot to get the tv stuff to work in media portal, j.river media center and tvedia, it's just to difficult.

I can never get the tv channels to scan correctly with these software via my wow internet settop cable box.

MCE 2005 does it all perfectly and easy, and thats why i am sticking with it.

TC