MediaCentral v2

Microsoft has had its Media Center Edition (MCE) version of Windows for a few years now. Just recently, Microsoft has been pushing it on more machines from Dell, Gateway, and HP sporting the video center from Redmond, Washington. All one has to do is walk into a Best Buy and try out one of the demo boxes sitting in the large noisy electronics supermarket to get an immediate understanding that Microsoft made a sorry excuse for a media box.

Apple, on the other hand, has put together a great package with a wonderful-looking interface that anyone anywhere could easily figure out and use within seconds of picking up a white, Apple-built remote. But it lacks the power of Microsoft’s Windows MCE. In enters Equinux.

When I attempted to watch a DiVX movie some months ago in Front Row, I was rudely awakened to the fact that I couldn’t. (You now can). I also couldn’t do Xvid. Ugh. So I started searching for a hack to Front Row and tripped over Equinux’s MediaCentral. It was just a youngin’ as Version 1, but it did what I needed and in the familiar looking Front Row theme of black background and easy iPod-like menu navigation. I was soon watching Xvid and DiVX movies and enjoying life on my Mac. Heck, MediaCentral gave my retired PowerBook an all-new use!

I was perfectly happy with 1.0, so 2.0 really didn’t interest me - especially since Equinux was now charging for the new version. Why bother? But when I looked at the long list of added features, I thought, “Wow, this thing is beyond a media center. It is the center!” Man, it now did IPTV, the newest and most cutting edge way of doing television, online clips (Google video and YouTube, for example), digital TV (DVB-T), Internet radio, picture feeds from flickr, and even video games. Do you see why I was excited enough to download it on the spot?

Equinux was kind enough to furnish SvenOnTech with a license so we could review this incredible upgrade and not be hampered by the ten-minute demo time out. Activating the software requires you to log into Equinux’s site through a System Preference panel that you’ll find in the Other section at the bottom of the panel. In here, besides the registration area, you’ll find general, online content, sounds, and module options. Ranging from disabling energy saving settings to enabling and configuring remotes to removing modules, such as Radio for example, from the main menu, you can accomplish a lot in these preferences. One nice thing about the registration is, like iTunes, you can de-authorize a Mac and use the license on another one if you desire to watch a movie or whatever on another Mac. This is a great feature to show a friend just how good this software is to get you past the ten-minute limit of the demo.

I couldn’t test the digital TV aspect of MediaCentral since we don’t have DVB-T here in the States, but I’m sure it’s pretty darn snazzy with its EPG (Electronic Program Guide) and all. The long list of other features packed into MediaCentral was tested, and testing was what I did for nearly two months. I used the Movies feature the most since that’s what I had become accustomed to using in the first version; however, I’m glad that I tried out the other features because they all really round out this product.

Most of the modules all work in a similar fashion via the keyboard or a remote. The navigation is pretty limited, however, in both the DVD and Movie module. You can basically only “scroll” forward or backward (Movie and DVD modules with the addition of chapter skip in DVD) and toggle play to pause or back again to play. There is sub-title support, aspect ratio toggle, and audio support if your movies or DVDs have these features. That’s about it. I would have liked to have seen a bit more control of the scroll forward and backward feature in the movies as watching TV recorded programs, aka DVR, makes it difficult to skip the commercials just right. In the older version, the skip time was about 30 seconds yet with the updated version it is now a bit over two minutes. I found myself always skipping too far and then going back a “click” and suffering through some really bad commercials. A 30 second time option or the ability to change the current skip time would have been really nice. For the most part, both movies and DVDs are a breeze to watch and with support for DiVX, Xvid, Windows Media (with a free Flip4Mac plug-in), and everything in your iTunes Library, there really is no need to use anything else but MediaCentral for movies.

Speaking of iTunes, you can listen to your music from your library seamlessly while using the same smooth interface that MediaCentral uses for the movies. If your iTunes catalog is lacking something, then try some Internet radio and select from one of the many listed stations that Equinux populates the selection with. Me? I like the smooth jazz channel. My wife doesn’t.

Pictures from your iPhoto or streams from flickr or even stuff on a disc in your SuperDrive can all be viewed in MediaCentral. There are some pretty interesting things to browse in the flickr streams. (”You see Bob, it’s not that I’m lazy, it’s that I just don’t care.”) Other streams you can view things from are Google Video and YouTube. Man, I blew a lot of time viewing some of the Google TV and various other feeds. That David Hasselhoff video is classic. Man, I was laughing so hard! Good times.

Hey, are you one of the five-million plus Skype users in the world? Me, too. So to find Skype integration in the latest version of MediaCentral (free upgrade to current 2.0 users), I had to give it a try - pronto! Like all the other sections, Skype enters into Skype mode by selecting it from the menu. Once in, you get a list of your contacts. Choose one and select it like a movie and your call is initiated. Once your caller picks up, you’re in audio business. Now I was using the hard-to-find Skype Video Preview for the Mac and there was no image of Roger before me when he picked up. Of course I couldn’t expect Equinux to support a beta feature, but I’m sure that when Skype goes gold with this feature, you’ll be seeing video right before your eyes in no time.

Last, you can use MediaCentral for playing games. Yup, good ol’ games, baby. MediaCentral so thoughtfully added the ability to play any Flash-based game that does not require mouse-only control. If the game allows for keyboard control, such as many games found on Apple’s Widget site, then you can slap them into My Games folder found in your MediaCentral folder. In fact, you’ll find a lot of “My” named folders in here that allow for you to really customize MediaCentral. With so many SWF game files out on the Web, it’ll be only a matter of a few seconds after searching Google that you’ll be playing Pac Man on your Mac!

One nice feature that I want to quickly point out is that you can now view MediaCentral in window mode. This is nice if you have to “work” while viewing some content. Other times, there really just is a need to be in a window and this new feature really helps. On the other end of that spectrum is the removal of supporting multiple displays. Version 1 allowed for the TV, for example, to be the display for MediaCentral and it would leave your Mac’s screen alone (though the Finder went away). This was nice as your current high-resolution setting wouldn’t be all tweaked since you have to use mirror mode in a low resolution. Now my PowerBook sits in a really yucky low-res state since it pretty much acts as my media center computer. I long for the old way back.

If you have the new Intel-based Mac with a remote, then your remote will work with MediaCentral. If you want a bit more power or are using a Mac without such a remote, then you can grab an ATI Remote Wonder I or II. I used the ATI Remote Wonder II for the review and was able to navigate through everything in MediaCentral via the remote…from across the room. You can even tell the remote (both ATI and Apple) to start MediaCentral with a push of a button. Nice.

Overall
When I sit down and try to figure out what I’m going to say in this section, the first thing I think of is the value. Does what I’ve just reviewed command respect for the price it asks for? In this case, it is a tougher question since early users were teased with a free version previously. But ignoring that fact, the answer becomes much easier to answer.

On it’s own, as in version 2, MediaCentral is well worth the $30 price tag. It offers so much and puts it into such an easy to use package that $30 isn’t too much relatively speaking. I feel $25 would be the sweet spot but five more dollars isn’t a deal killer, either. With the ability to watch DVDs, movies (Xvid, DiVX, TS_VIDEO, iMovie, etc.), play tunes from either the Internet or from your iTunes itself, as well as waste hours of your valuable time with video streams, all wrapped up with Flash games and Skype, well then, why wouldn’t you want this?

I started off this review stating that Front Row didn’t have the power of Microsoft’s Media Center but saved this next statement for the end. Windows Media Center doesn’t have the power of MediaCentral. One should pity the poor PC user.

Pros
Multifaceted and savvy way to watch movies, IPTV, photos, listen to music, Skype friends, and even play games.

Cons
No way to configure “commercial” skip amount. Limited amount of games.

The Bottom Line
Equinux brings a true media center to your Mac and picks up where Apple left off with Front Row. Giving the casual user ease of use to extreme power to the die-hard media center patron, MediaCentral v2 is really the only piece of software any computer owner will need to bring it all together for an amazing media experience.

Overall: 5/5
Ease of Use: 5/5
Usefulness: 5/5
Versatility: 5/5
Price: 4/5

Recommended
Yes

Price: $29.95

Product information

[tags]windows,mac,os x,osx,google,control,video,iptv,games,remote,trailer,media,center,mediacentral,you,tube[/tags]