Ideas please!!

[DRIVAR]

OK

At the moment I have a very unstable pc running windows media center. It's slow, crashes etc, and this needs to be replaced ASAP

Basically I'm wondering what my options are..
I want to access my music, tv shows, movies as well as watch and record live tv on my plasma tv.

I've been told the apple tv does not do this? If this is so is there anything out there that can do all that? I don't really want to buy a pc just to do all that.

Thanks
Brendan

 

[azdunerat]

Mac Mini. Expensive, yes! Worth it, Hell YES! I absolutely love my mini and it has made one hell of a HTPC. I just hooked up at 1TB external to my wireless network and now can stream all of my music and movies throught my house to several mac clients. Very very stable and I really love how wife friendly it is.

 

[DRIVAR]

thanks for the reply, what do you use to watch and record live tv on mac mini?

 

[Hot Snowboarder]

To watch and record TV I use an elgato eyeTV diversity stick.
www.elgato.com

To keep all my media in one place I use Plex.
www.plexapp.com

Plex is especially good for a library of TV shows.

 

[DRIVAR]

that looks cool, but is there any software that will incorporate both the tv recording and stored media music and movies in the one program so I can use a remote and there is no screwing around?

 

[DRIVAR]

Nice

EYEtv does a front row plugin so all i would need is to use front row

 

[azdunerat]

I used front row in the begining but now that I have learned the joys of plex it is my go to app. Do yourslef a favor and download it and watch the included how to video. Your life will be much better.

 

[DRIVAR]

after a lot of reading up i'm going to stick with a pc and windows media center.. I'll just get something more reliable this time.

It's the only thing I can find that will do the job I want, also I can watch blu ray which mac is still lacking

 

[Bye Bye Baby]

Front row with elgato plug-in is a nice simple option. I am unconvinced about plex.