How to Choose the Perfect Media Center

If you're like us, the idea of an OS-powered TV couldn't come any sooner. Unfortunately, we're just going to have to wait a little longer for hard drives and CPUs to be implanted into our large screens, or you can take a used Xbox or old PC and turn that screen into sexy download hub for all of your streaming media across your network. And Lifehacker has done most of the leg-work for us to help make the right choice a piece of cake.

By following the chart on the left from Lifehacker (click on image to see full image), it's almost guaranteed you'll find a working solution for your home setup. Personally, we love Boxee to death since we can easily share links with our friends on Facebook and it works seamlessly with our Mac Mini. Oh, and it has Hulu and Netflix (Yes!).

If you're looking for full reviews of each and every one of the media servers featured above, check out the link below. We think they've done an excellent job pointing out many of the points we've brought up in the past, but brings up many new ones that we haven't even thought about.

And for those of you looking for even more options, check out MythTV, GB-PVR, and MediaPortal.

[Via Lifehacker]

Comments (5)

Apparently the writers at Lifehacker don't know what they're talking about. I'm an adamant Plex supporter, which is based on XBMC. One of the article's biggest gripes about XBMC is its lack of Netflix and Hulu support, which, at least as far as Plex is concerned, is absolutely untrue. In fact, I use Netflix and Hulu through Plex on a nearly daily basis. If anything, Boxee has had the most run-ins with Hulu -- there have been big chunks of time that Hulu has intentionally thwarted Boxee.

posted by owlicks on February 4th 2010 at 2:00pm
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I think the writers are just referring to the XBMC standard install. Not the distributed variants--Plex, etc.

I myself love XBMC. Installed the Live version on a cheap, $200 Acer Revo. It plays anything I throw at it (1080p MKV's) without a hiccup. I don't need the Hulu, Youtube, or Netflix jazz. Bought a cheap remote and it worked right out of the box.

posted by gas0line7 on February 4th 2010 at 2:11pm
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From my point of view i use, XBMC for usual media support and Vista MCE for TV support, but as soon as XBMC will get Tv support, it will blow mce.

Look at the AEON skin it's really amazing, even if for my setupi still stick to the classic one.

posted by ichrocke on February 4th 2010 at 2:38pm
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i am running plex on a hackintosh. it was cheaper to build a solution with lots of storage, than daisy chain hard drives to a mini. it runs seamlessly though on both. i set it up on a mini for my brother. i also programmed my logitech remote to run all the functions. i have used boxxee, but it was geared too much for social networking. i don't facebook or twitter, so i didn't really need those features. the plex interface is very slick, and best of all, its free.

posted by nelsorp on February 4th 2010 at 7:15pm
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I use Boxee pretty much for the same reasons as @nelsorp mentioned.. for the social networking aspect. It's also free in case ppl are wondering.

posted by ekoshyun on February 4th 2010 at 7:58pm
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