XBMC vs Plex with Aeon Skin

[xxMACxx]

I've recently got my new mini setup and I've been playing around with getting my HTPC configured and I'm trying to figure out which direction to go here. I really love the Aeon skin, but it works with XBMC and mostly works with Plex, so is there an advantage with going with one vs the other? My new TV hasn't arrived yet, so I've mostly been playing around with the interface and customization. Things like Weather work on XBMC, but not Plex. I used Plex with my other TV and had success playing 1080 movies, but haven't tried this with XBMC yet. I've been perusing both forums and the XBMC one seems a bit more active. Anyone played around with both of these a lot that has come across some differences and/or reasons they chose one vs the other?

Thanks
Michael

 

[supafly99]

I'm also interested in this discussion as well, does anyone have any insight on this?

 

[mamruoc]

Hi,

I've been using both for under a week, but other HTPC/PVR system a lot longer.
The big difference in Plex vs XBMC, for me, is:

Plex:
+ Add movies to library in background
+ Better integration with Mac OS X
+ Update within Plex (perfect for HTPC)
- Aeon is not used to the max
- Not so good in name stripping as XBMC (eg First.Love.Xvid.Somebody => First Love)
- Advanced settings stripped away in menu
- No way to set pin code/password to menu items like settings to avoid reconfiguration

XBMC
+ Better Aeon support
+ Advanced settings available
+ Pin code / password possible on menu/settings
+ Better filename stripping
- XBMC hangs when updating library
- Must update using keyboard/mouse

Aeon is for me not perfect either, but it is the best of out there, so some XML modding is required to get it 100% your way.

My $0.02

 

[Chris Rogers]

Aeon? What is that?

I'm interested in this discussion as well, perhaps compare/contrast Boxee along with? I JUST got Plex yesterday and can't add any comments on it just yet. But up until then, I've been living off of Boxee on my computers and apple TV.

One thing I like better is the smoothness of Plex's UI over Boxee.

 

[TuckBodi]

Aeon/Auriga blows Boxee's interface outa the water!

I tried Plex with an older Aeon/Stark version and there were a lot of quirks and Plex would die a lot. My issue with XBMC at the moment is the lack of AC3 with my receiver (10 yr old Yamaha) which won't be getting fixed until the next major release of XBMC (9.10) or hopefully an SVN soon after 9.04 is released (currently in feature freeze).

I have seen some posts up on the Plex forums where DJH (author of Aeon) has offered limited help (answer questions) if the dev's there want to adapt it like they did with MediaStream. The dev's also sounded interested in getting this to work, just not on the top of the priority list at the moment, but hopefully soon.

On a sidenote, there's also been some killer mod's to this skin which I also wonder how they'll work with Plex. Will be playing around with these soon...

http://www.xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=47937

And somebody did an optimized version for the TV which works pretty well:

http://www.xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=49567

Aeon/Auriga w/movie trailer mod:

 

[xxMACxx]

Hi,

I've been using both for under a week, but other HTPC/PVR system a lot longer.
The big difference in Plex vs XBMC, for me, is:

Plex:
+ Add movies to library in background
+ Better integration with Mac OS X
+ Update within Plex (perfect for HTPC)
- Aeon is not used to the max
- Not so good in name stripping as XBMC (eg First.Love.Xvid.Somebody => First Love)
- Advanced settings stripped away in menu
- No way to set pin code/password to menu items like settings to avoid reconfiguration

XBMC
+ Better Aeon support
+ Advanced settings available
+ Pin code / password possible on menu/settings
+ Better filename stripping
- XBMC hangs when updating library
- Must update using keyboard/mouse

Aeon is for me not perfect either, but it is the best of out there, so some XML modding is required to get it 100% your way.

My $0.02

Thanks for the feedback... which one have you decided to stay with?

My TV is still in it's burn-in period and I haven't really hooked up the mini to it yet, but should be in the next couple of days. This will give me the opportunity compare the two. Right now I'm just messing around with both on my MBP.

When playing movies with PLEX it played everything that I threw at it...

Thanks again for the feedback.

 

[xxMACxx]

Aeon/Auriga blows Boxee's interface outa the water!

I tried Plex with an older Aeon/Stark version and there were a lot of quirks and Plex would die a lot. My issue with XBMC at the moment is the lack of AC3 with my receiver (10 yr old Yamaha) which won't be getting fixed until the next major release of XBMC (9.10) or hopefully an SVN soon after 9.04 is released (currently in feature freeze).

I have seen some posts up on the Plex forums where DJH (author of Aeon) has offered limited help (answer questions) if the dev's there want to adapt it like they did with MediaStream. The dev's also sounded interested in getting this to work, just not on the top of the priority list at the moment, but hopefully soon.

On a sidenote, there's also been some killer mod's to this skin which I also wonder how they'll work with Plex. Will be playing around with these soon...

http://www.xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=47937

And somebody did an optimized version for the TV which works pretty well:

http://www.xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=49567

Aeon/Auriga w/movie trailer mod:

Wow... that is a pretty cool mod. I've been looking thru all the mods that have come out and trying some. I got the weather mod with the changing backdrops working.

Thanks for the info!