5 Best Home Theater and Media Center Software [Review]
This blog is about the top 5 home theater and media center software. We will do our best for you to understand this guide. I hope you will like this blog 5 Best Home Theater and Media Center Software . If your answer is yes, please share after reading this.
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If you want to turn your PC or big-screen TV into a low-cost home theater system or movie server, I’ve got the best free media center apps for your favorite project. Home theater and media center software allows people to store, distribute, manage and enjoy Photos, music and videos with your friends and family on the big screen.
Some of these media center tools also have mobile apps for Android and iOS devices, allowing people to stream live music and video on your mobile phones or tablets directly into the home cinema system; However, this second feature may not be free.
Kodi
Kodi is an award-winning cross-platform media center app that supports playing music and videos, games, and more. Its interface works with all televisions, and users can play digital media files from local storage solutions or online storage.
Kodi plays everything major music and movie formats like MP3, AAC, WAV, etc. and lets you take full control of your media collection. You can also watch live TV and pictures and do a lot more with its community-created plugins.
After your initial setup, you can sit back and enjoy your favorite videos or shows, and you can also play CDs/DVDs. The software also includes supplements and accessories such as skins, games, screensavers, web interface, etc. which can help improve your overall experience.
Advantages):
- Supports over 20 popular music and movie formats, including AAC, MP3, FLAC, OGG and WAV
- Stream content from the most popular online audio/video streaming services like Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, etc.
- It allows access to library of thousands of TV shows as well as episode and season views with posters and banners
- Provides a series of additional means or functions like Movie Quiz Program (asks questions about a particular movie), Last Episode (shows a list of the latest episodes with their numbers and names), etc.
- It offers a collection of plugins to customize as needed, for example, Navi-X makes all content accessible from live TV, Project Free TV provides sections like calendar and search to easily navigate collections, etc
The inconvenients):
- Initial setup takes a long time due to adding plugins and other options
- His functions and options are a bit complex compared to some of its competitors
- This only works in fullscreenmaking other apps inaccessible at the same time
MediaPortal
MediaPortal is an all-in-one multimedia solution for your PC that connects directly to your TV and displays your favorite soap operas, music, videos and movies, etc. The app also lets you record and schedule live tv and it even supports Blu-ray disc playback for watching movies.
You can improve your appearance by using thousands of skins and accessories to control your HTPC (Home Theater PC), view sports scores, local movie times, and more. Stream media and radio over any network that supports HTPC and use a remote control to control it.
Compared to Kodi, MediaPortal carries the progress in media control and allows you to access your favorite movies and watch them in a personalized way. His plugins can be easily configured in the app and you can enable/disable them whenever you want.
Advantages):
- It allows remotely access media from Android and iOS devices
- Offer a large selection of channels (and its list of programs) from portals such as Sky Cinema HD, Sky Sport HD, Kultur HD, etc.
- Provides a wide range of leather collectionssuch as Titan, aMPed, Avalon HD, Black Glass, etc. to improve the user interface and user experience of MediaPortal
- It offers many add-ons such as News and Information (displays news media from the web), Games (offers games that can be played from the couch), etc.
The inconvenients):
- His the interface is very slow compared to other home theater players
- He is hard to open custom media (browse and play a video file manually)
Complex
Plex is a media player app that can play your favorite music and videos from anywhere, on (almost) any device and provides full control over the media. Compatible devices include TV, computer, mobile or tablet and lets you enjoy videos in HD quality without any problem.
The app consists of a simple interface that enhances your media organization by adding descriptions, frame summaries, and more. and even offers recommendations for new content. It allows you to create custom playlists and easily share your media with others.
Plex supports automatic image uploads which can be synced wirelessly and also optimize your media for different devices and screens. Plex guarantees the encryption of your multimedia content and supports SSL encryption to provide end-to-end data protection.
Advantages):
- Supports more music and video formats
- Save any online media to “Watch Later” list for offline viewing
- Compile online or third-party streaming channels to provide additional content, e.g. TED Talks, Vimeo, Soundcloud, etc.
- Allows you to enjoy multimedia content on mobile thanks to its Mobile Sync function when traveling to a remote or inaccessible place (premium)
The inconvenients):
- Unfortunately, this does not work with Apple TV
- Few of its features are premium like previews, mobile sync, cloud sync, etc.
Emby
Emby server automatic conversion and playback your favorite videos and media files on most devices. It offers an easy to use interface and allows you to broadcast live television and organize your media by editing metadata and images, searching for captions, and more.
Emby presents your media in a beautiful way that makes your videos exceptionally beautiful. You can easily stream media and live TV to Chromecast. Emby too offers parental controls (free unlike Plex) that helps you limit media access for your kids.
Automatically track DLNA services on your network for easy access to content and remote control. Emby supports cloud sync for easy backup (premium) and also convert and optimize your content to stream on any device (but it’s premium, unlike Plex).
Advantages):
- It allows online video recording and live tv shows to watch offline or watch later with recordings library management support (same as Plex)
- It offers a wide range of add-ons such as Google Drive (sync content with the cloud), Game Browser (allows you to play a variety of online games), etc.
- Offers mobile apps to take your content anywhere and offline with Emby Mobile Sync (this is a premium feature)
The inconvenients):
- known to be less friendly than Kodi and Plex
- Its older versions missing fast forward and rewind buttons
- Reported as unable to detect Chromecast in some cases
Myth TV
MythTV is an open-source digital video recorder and media player that lets you view and record HDTV-compatible digital media. The player allows easy rewind, pause and skip options that allow seamless playback of any media content.
It’s compatible automatic transaction detection Yes skip all these commercials (magically) and even manually using its advanced cut list editor. With MythTV you can schedule recording and even set parental controls to allow limited access to your children.
MythTV can help manage its features from a browser himself. Its interface comes with a number of official and third-party features. theme packages to help you customize the user interface of the program according to your mood and needs.
Advantages):
- Supports most audio/video formats (like others above)
- Integrates with NES, MAME and other emulators using their MythGame plugin, allowing you to play your favorite classic games directly
- It offers a number of plugins such as MythWeather (displays weather information in your locality), MythFlix (helps you manage your NetFlix queue from MythTV), MythMovies (presents local movie times), etc.
- Take advantage of MythExtras which contains a number of development tools like Perl Bindings (writes Perl scripts that interact with MythTV) and Python Bindings (writes Python scripts) but is strictly for developers
The inconvenients):
- Not so good UI like your competitors above
- Your commercial detection may not always work for all ad types.
- It does not offer support for mobile devices and online synchronization.not like the others
If you ask me, I love Kodi and Plex for their awesome set of user interfaces and powerful features to suit everyone from beginners to advanced users. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t choose the rest.
I suggest you compare features from these offers with your set of requirements and choose the one that best suits your requirements. Good viewing.
Final Words: 5 Best Home Theater and Media Center Software
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