Recommendations?

[Mike]

I've been reading through this and am trying to plan the next additions to my system... it sounds like Elk M1G for security/HA, Homeseer for control of it, which leaves the HTPC/PVR scenario.

I have two Tivo's currently, but would like to integrate a PC, possibly with PVR (I have another cable box, happens to be HD but I'm not sure if you can record anything but OTA on a PC based PVR for HD.) Music with album covers, ripped DVD's, PVR (as noted above) and the like. And of course to be able to bring up a browser on the big screen...

What is the recommendation on this kind of scenario, it seems like some use MCE, meedio seems interesting, but there are a bunch of others too?

Not to start a war, but what is considered 'the best' right now?

 

[electron]

Until a few weeks ago, my answer would be MCE, simply because the TV functionality is rock solid. Meedio just released their TV add-on, but I don't know how stable it is, so I can't tell you for sure if MCE is still the better choice (to me personally it always will be). I believe they do have a trial version, so you could take a look at it without having to invest any money.

There are many addons for MCE, such as HA control software, DVD movie storage (start movie by clicking the DVD cover), and much more. Check out TheGreenButton.com for more info on what plugins are available. Getting started with MCE can be a little bit more expensive since it requires certain hardware, and a MCE is based on XP Pro, so you can't just buy the application, you need to buy the entire OS.

Check out this list for some more tips on what's out there:
http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=1390