Corralling Media: Overview
You may or may not know that I am really into media center stuff as a hobby. I just hate putting a DVD or CD in the drive. I want it all on demand. Additionally, I hate paying big bucks for it. I love Front Row on the Macs for simplicity and think Media Center on Vista Home Premium is current best of breed in Home Theater PC software. I love watching Netflix through Media Center.
A new application, Plex at http://plexapp.com, has captured my heart at the moment. The more I work with it, the more I just love its features and most importantly, it’s aesthetics. I did have this
Dell server at the core of my home theater at one point, but have since swapped it for a Mac Mini. (The Dell is going to do much more important work for webslingerz.) I have now switched back from Vista to Mac OS running this new Plex. Wow.
I am currently building a low budget, small footprint, and low power media system. I have put together the Apple Extreme Wireless Router, Mac Mini, Sony Soundbar, Drobo, XBox 360, Playstation 3, and Toshiba HD-DVD all controlled by the Logitech Harmony remote.
I am still deciding between Windows Media Center, Plex, and Front Row. Each clearly have their strong points and each have significant weaknesses. The screenshot on the right is Plex showing the list of movies I have stored on my network hard drive. I prefer to rip my DVD’s to disk and then store them safely away. Every movie I have, I own! Music, is the same way. Either I bought it through iTunes, Amazon, or CD and stored it digitally on the Drobo.
I am going to publish this tonight, just to get me jump started as this is going to be quite a long series, I believe. I will go through and add links into this article over the next couple days. Good night.
