5 of the best Free HTPC Frontends

Building a HTPC (Home Theatre Personal Computer) has never been more popular but you still need some decent software to accompany your hardware.  A good Media Centre is not just a result of its owners capability but also the functionality of the software chosen to provide the ultimate media experience.  Here are 5 of the best HTPC front-ends available today.  Click the title to go straight to each projects homepage.

Boxee

Boxee is a free, open-source software platform that integrates personal media with Internet media along with social networking. boxee’s social networking component allows users to share information about what they’re listening to or watching with other Boxee users or friends on social networks like twitter, facebook, etc.

Boxee is designed for your TV and use of a remote control. To get Boxee on your TV you’ll need to first connect your computer to the TV screen. You will most likely need an DVI/VGA to HDMI cable (but it depends on the specific input/output on your computer and TV).

Boxee is based on the Award winning open-source project XBMC, and also incorporates the XUL framework (which is the basis for the Mozilla browser).

The social networking aspect makes Boxee truly unique and like XBMC, it currently lacks PVR capability.

Available for Windows, Linux and OSX.

Mediaportal

MediaPortal is an Open Source application ideal for turning your PC in a very advanced Multi-Media Center / HTPC. MediaPortal allows you to listen to your favorite music & radio, watch your video's and DVD's, view, schedule and record live TV and much more.

As Open Source software licensed under the GNU/GPL agreement, you get MediaPortal for free. This means anyone can contribute to MediaPortal or customize for their own needs!

MediaPortal is built on the Microsoft .NET framework using C# and currently has a growing international community of over 60,000 users.

My first venture into a true HTPC system outside of XBMC and XBMP on the original Xbox.  Can be quite powerful if setup correctly.

Available for Windows.

XBMC

Originally named Xbox Media Center, XBMC is now a full featured, award winning free and open source software media-player and entertainment hub for all your digital media.  I have been using XBMC since it's transformation from xbmp (Xbox Media Player) and was the sole reason I purchased the original xbox.  The software turned a standard game machine into a state of the art network media player - better priced and far superior to anything like it on the market at the time.  With the proliferation of High definition content, The original Xbox based XBMC didn't have enough horsepower and thus began the interest in bring Xbox Media Center to the GNU/Linux Operating System.

Currently my personal favourite, it currently lacks PVR capability but if you don't need this feature, XBMC is as slick as it gets.  The community is absolutely fantastic and very knowledgeable.

Currently XBMC supports the following platforms:

• XBMC for Linux
• XBMC for Mac
• XBMC for Windows
• XBMC for Xbox
• XBMC Live (Bootable iso)

Meedios

"MeediOS" or "Project MeediOS" refers to a new free opensource project which aims to provide an excellent alternative to the closedsource Meedio.  Meedios is a very powerful and configurable Home Theatre front-end for your PC.  It was first known as MyHTPC, then Meedio, and finally Yahoo! Go4TV as freeware.

Can be quite difficult achieving a solid working HTPC though development is quite active. An all in one installer is available to help out first timers on the homepage.

Available for Windows.

MythTV

MythTV is a Free Open Source software digital video recorder (DVR) project distributed under the terms of the GNU GPL. It has been under heavy development since 2002, and now contains most features one would expect from a good DVR (and many new ones that you soon won't be able to live without).

Probably the Grandfather of all HTPC frontends, it also has the configuration to match.  Nothing quite beats the satisfaction of creating a MythTV server enabled House.

Available for Linux and OSX.

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