#Best media center os 2015 mac os x
#Best media center os 2015 movie
#Best media center os 2015 archive
#Best media center os 2015 upgrade

MediaCentral promises to turn your Mac into a full-blown media center, complete with live and timeshifted TV.Macintosh users have choices as well, though theyвЂ™re a bit limited in TV and DVR features. ItвЂ™s compatible with Windows XP and Vista. It can timeshift and record TV, play videos and music, run fancy slide shows, tune in radio stations (both FM and Internet), and even play games such as Tetris. ItвЂ™s a full-featured program, and itвЂ™s free.If youвЂ™d rather dip a toe in the media-center waters without spending any money, check out MediaPortal, a free application thatвЂ™s every bit as powerful as WMC. If you donвЂ™t want to spend any money on media-center software, check out MediaPortal. Pair it with the $30 SageTV Placeshifter add-on, and you can stream all your media (including live and recorded TV) to any PC with a broadband Internet connection. The $80 SageTV Media Center for Windows offers a more TV-centric experience than Windows Media Center, including an integrated Google Video viewer and instant commercial-skipping. One of the many media-center tricks up SageTVвЂ™s sleeve is built-in access to Google Video (but not YouTube, alas). Of course, not everyone has Vista Home Premium or Vista Ultimate, and even folks who do might want to check out the alternatives.

#Best media center os 2015 archive

WMC also supports up to four TV tuners for DVR-like viewing and recording, and it can archive recorded shows to DVD. With it you can view photo slide shows (complete with Ken Burns-style pan and zoom effects), watch DVDs and videos, browse your music library by cover art, and connect to various online services (including movie-download stores CinemaNow and Movielink). Windows Media Center, a standard component of Vista Home Premium and Vista Platinum, offers a free electronic program guide (EPG) for users who add a TV tuner.The most obvious choice is Windows Media Center (WMC), whichвЂ“despite being a Vista-bundled freebieвЂ“offers a rich feature set and a dazzling interface.

Step one is to choose a media-center programвЂ“though as noted previously, you may already have one. For a complete guide to assembling a media center PC from the ground up, see Zack SternвЂ™s excellent вЂњ Build Your Own High-Def PC.вЂќ Note: In this guide, IвЂ™ll focus exclusively on ways that you can turn your existing computer into a media center.

So when we talk about turning your PC into a media center, we mean installing software that finds, catalogs, and plays your media filesвЂ“and looks good while doing it. And Linux users have several free options, including Freevo and LinuxMCE.ДЄll of those applications scan your PC for photos, music, videos, and the like, and then present them inside an oversize, TV-friendly interface (commonly known as a 10-foot interface, meaning itвЂ™s easily viewable from the couch).

#Best media center os 2015 mac os x

Mac OS X Leopard users already have basic media-center software in the form of AppleвЂ™s Front Row, though third-party alternatives are also available. In fact, if youвЂ™re running Windows Vista Home Premium or Vista Ultimate, youвЂ™re set: Microsoft baked Windows Media Center right into the OS.

#Best media center os 2015 upgrade

The open-source Freevo is one of several great no-cost media-center applications for Linux.You donвЂ™t necessarily need to buy new hardware, and the software part of this upgrade could be easier than you think.

#Best media center os 2015 movie

All you need is the right software, and possibly some extra hardware, to give your machine new life as a jukebox, a high-def digital photo frame, a movie theater, and a TiVo clone. You can do all that and more by transforming your PC into a self-contained media center.