Free media center PC software which runs on Windows XP

Is there something which may:

Play music, at the very least in MP3-format
Play video in various codec's
Helps in recording video of shows from TV through a TV-in card
Helps in organizing music and videos
Works with a keyboard and mouse

Additional pluses are:

If it also is possible to browse the web through it, or at least start the web browser
Has some games. Maybe through MAME or some other emulation like SNES or something.
If it's also possible to control it through a game pad.

Deleted

Posted 2009-08-11T10:57:13.903

Reputation: 3 548

Answers

Media Poral got plugins, one where it's possible to start other apps, like browser, emulator/games etc. Can do (i think all) your reqeirments and maybe more. Can also handle timeshifting (right word?) and pause the tv-program you are watching etc.

As grapefrukt mentiond it's not trivial to setup, but probably what you are looking for.

Joakim Elofsson

Posted 2009-08-11T10:57:13.903

Reputation: 2 056

XBMC (the software formerly known as Xbox Media Center) can do most of your requirements except for the recording. MediaPortal is it's bigger and slightly wonkier relative, it can do recording but is in my opinion a bit trickier to set up.

grapefrukt

Posted 2009-08-11T10:57:13.903

Reputation: 215

1XBMC is pretty fantastic. – Electrons_Ahoy – 2009-08-11T20:57:46.343

1XBMC kicks ass. Also, as a nitpick, it is no longer called "Xbox Media Center". They did away with that when they started designing their builds explicitly for Ubuntu, and now it's just XBMC. – Jared Harley – 2009-08-11T23:27:50.223

fixed it! – grapefrukt – 2009-08-14T11:51:58.853

Just be aware recent versions need a moderately recent video card with good OpenGL support. – TRS-80 – 2009-08-14T15:08:35.147

I've used Tversity. I don't think it allows TV recording, but it excels at transcoding on-the-fly and streaming to UPnP AV/DLNA devices. Then there's XBMC, and Boxee (an XBMC fork).

Look through this Lifehacker article for a roundup of media centre options. There's a separate roundup of DVR applications for your TV-watching needs, with some apps featuring in both lists.

user4358

Posted 2009-08-11T10:57:13.903

Reputation:

MediaPortal has been my best choice so far, and has worked well for most all of my uses. Unlike some of the other responses, I found it fairly easily to set up and almost negligible to maintain. I primarily use it to watch recorded or downloaded TV shows and movies, and it works like a charm.

MattGWagner

Posted 2009-08-11T10:57:13.903

Reputation: 191

GBPVR is a free pvr for windows. It allows you to record TV shows and play them back using a TV Tuner card. It also allows you to view photos and play MP3s back using a single interface. In addition it allows for plugins. More information is available at the link at the beginning of the answer.

scheibk

Posted 2009-08-11T10:57:13.903

Reputation: 1 198