OK, so I want a Media Centre software for my old PC which is being turned into an HTPC. I've been using my xbox with XBMC for a few years now, and I love it, particularly the library mode function - going back to browsing by file names seems so last-century now. For those not familiar with XBMC, it basically scrapes info based on your file names, and then downloads episode names / blurb / ratings etc. Requirements: 1. A library mode that can scrape from IMDB / TheTVdb. 2. Support for recording / timeshifting with one (or possibly two) Hauppauge USB Freeview tuner(s). 3. Windows underneath so I can bob out and do other things 4. Support for my NAS (are there any that won't support this?) PC is an Athlon 64 3200+ with 1Gb Ram if that makes a difference. XBMC would be perfect if it supported tuners, I'm not sure if there is anything with such a fully-featured library mode as XBMC though? Or perhaps someone could point me in the direction of a table explaining the features of various media centre programs? There are so many now it's a total minefield.
Media Portal should do you fine i think it ticks the box for all that you need they have recently finished version 1 and have started on 2.0
I was under the impression that there was no support for TV tuners in XBMC? Otherwise I absolutely would. I've googled but couldn't find much info about it - only people complaining that there is no support. MediaPortal sounds good, will definitely have to check that out, although if XBMC has support for tuners I think I'd rather stick with what I know.