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<blockquote data-quote="Anonymous" data-source="post: 7062">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 itWhat a mistake!&nbsp; A product so locked down, that I might have well had an embedded &quot;CE&quot; 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!&nbsp; Yes, I do have some refinements to do, which Codec is better for what etc and refining my Niveus RemoteThanks to you all!&nbsp; :mrgreen: ChuckInMassIntel 365perlp4 3.01 gb ddr 400AIW 9800 proPVR 250Silverstone 360 psuLascala LC03250GB SATA (media)60 GB (OS and Apps)Prodigy 7.1</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Anonymous, post: 7062"] 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 [/QUOTE]

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