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Imitation Is The Sincerest Form of Flattery - Chris Lanier's Blog

Imitation Is The Sincerest Form of Flattery

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I guess that stays true for LinuxMCE.  This has got to be one of the funniest videos that I have never seen, even though I didn’t watch the whole thing.  Niall put together a good overview relating to Media Center.

"LinuxMCE is a free, open source add-on to Ubuntu including a 10' UI, complete whole-house media solution with pvr + distributed media, and the most advanced smarthome solution available. It is stable, easy to use, and requires no knowledge of Linux and only basic computer skills"

Great concept, too bad it falls short from what they want it to be.  It’s to bad today is not April 1st, because if it was this post would be titled “Switching to LinuxMCE”

Published Wed, Mar 21 2007 11:16 by chrisl
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Comments

# re: Imitation Is The Sincerest Form of Flattery

So many problems. Does it actually require a pointing device?  That UI looks really quite complicated to me.

And what's with the small UI text, and crowding all those buttons in - is this the invention of the 4' interface?

And does anyone really look through 10,000 hours worth of guide data manually?  That's what search is for, isn't it?

There were some nice ideas in there, but lost in the amateurish execution.

I promise not to complain about the MCE team using CAPITAL LETTERS for things for at least a week.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007 1:25 PM by Tim

# re: Imitation Is The Sincerest Form of Flattery

I'm not so sure what all the heckling about Linux MCE is. I saw this ealier today and was very impressed with what it is capable of doing already.

I'll concede the point without having tried it myself, that it does look more like a 2' interface than a 10' interface. But I'll give them mega kudos for getting Linux MCE to where it is already. I was throughly impressed.

And no, I'm not an MCE basher, MCE2005 has solely powered my AV system for over two years now.

Randy

Wednesday, March 21, 2007 11:15 PM by Randy Harris

# re: Imitation Is The Sincerest Form of Flattery

LinuxMCE looks great, but the fact is there is a ton they don't tell you in the video on both sides (Linux and Windows).

Plus, some of the comparison's are way off base.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007 11:35 PM by chrisl

# LinuxMCE, tu Media Center Open Source

PingBack from http://www.javipas.com/2007/03/22/linuxmce-tu-media-center-open-source/

Thursday, March 22, 2007 10:31 AM by LinuxMCE, tu Media Center Open Source

# re: Imitation Is The Sincerest Form of Flattery

My favorite part is how the guy is apparently comparing "out of the box" functionality between the two applications.  Then the first thing he demos is DVD functionality.

But looking at the LinuxMCE install instructions it seems that DVD playback is not installed on LinuxMCE by default!

http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/Installation_Guide

"(Optional) Ubuntu and Linux MCE won't install by default software needed to play DVD or some other restricted media formats that might be illegal in some countries. You can follow the Restricted Software Installation Guide if the restrictions don't apply to your country."

Whoops!

Saturday, March 24, 2007 10:46 PM by Aaron

# re: Imitation Is The Sincerest Form of Flattery

Actually, having just played with it, I am very very impressed. The functionality blows MCE out of the water, in fact, it's almost wrong to compare them it is so far advanced. It is however very rough still, and needs some serious work on the install, however for such an early release it's very impressive. It basically does everything you whish MCE would do + more.

Friday, April 06, 2007 1:59 AM by John

# re: Imitation Is The Sincerest Form of Flattery

So it turns on and off your TV without configuration?  Can I ask what display you have?

Does it allow for capture of HDTV other than OTA and unencrypted QAM?

Does your family/friends understand the UI enough for daily use?

Does it rip and manage your DVD collection?

Does it have a multi-room setup?

Friday, April 06, 2007 11:34 AM by chrisl