I don't believe it - I have it all working!

Newbie here - I decided in October to build an HTPC. Spent days, researching the hardware and finally made my decision and put it together.

Then, what I thought would be the easiest part, the software - turned out to be the most difficult. I bought XPMCE, thinking it would be a piece of cake - after all, I done tons of installs on MS SQL Server, All the NT variations up to W2k3, Exchange etc etc. Plus the interface had a nice look to it

What a mistake! A product so locked down, that I might have well had an embedded "CE" os! Couldn't even join a domain!!

Then, went through all the trials of the others, meedio, sage, btv,etc - a lot better, but still I did not have the ability to customize.

Then I loaded MediaPortal - spent hours here on the forum, reading reading, reading and reading!

Bottom line - I spent about 2 hours, configured MediaPortal - learned how to configure xmltv, catalog my music, play my Divx, load a virtual CDrom, and the weather - (Was surprised when I went to Sat view, how close Massachusetts is to Stuttgart-LOL).

This is what open source is all about, volunteers helping us newbies and the wife is thrilled too! Yes, I do have some refinements to do, which Codec is better for what etc and refining my Niveus Remote

Thanks to you all! :mrgreen:
ChuckInMass


Intel 365perl
p4 3.0
1 gb ddr 400
AIW 9800 pro
PVR 250
Silverstone 360 psu
Lascala LC03
250GB SATA (media)
60 GB (OS and Apps)
Prodigy 7.1

It's nice to hear that it went smoothly for you, Mediaportal is the way to go if your into HTPC. I had similar experiences in the past. I tried mediabox, myhtpc (aka meedio),xpMCE , xpMCE2004 and 2005, any others that I already forgotten... In other words this program is the best by far :wink:

Sounds AWESOME, glad MPortal worked out for you. I hope to build such a nice system for myself oneday. ATM I only build systems like that for my clients. College is taking its toll on my wallet for years to come. :cry:


OH! And thanks for the heads-up on XPMCE, man woud I have been PO'ed

[MrMario64]

I was in desperate need of a post like this.
Your are my dream user!

Someone actually reading and reading and reading the forums etc

If you have any questions left don't be affraid to ask,
if you have a desperate missing feature or fine tune, do ask

I'll help you out for sure.

Thanx for the good news.