thank you doc.

really nice application ... the "my weather" thing is indeed quite cool

Glad you like, Amit...  

I'll be checking this one out for sure. Thanx Doc.

Welcome, Uvah.

Nice. I've been messing with a very old laptop, trying to turn it into a media center that I could stream from my desktop PC. KMPlayer is what I was using. It's very nice but doesn't have the ability to customize. I'll be checking this out.

Very interesting.....

Well, "media portal" is a fork of "XBMC" ( http://xbmc.org/ , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XBMC )...

Media portal can only run on Windows OS with x86 and x86-64 processor...

XBMC can run on the following OS : Linux, BSD, Mac OS X ( Snow Leopard, Leopard, Tiger ), Apple TV OS, Windows, iOS, first-generation Xbox, and MeeGo ( in development )... with the following architecture : ARM, PPC (PowerPC), x86, x86-64, and MIPS architecture ( in development )... "XBMC live" is fun : a boot CD or USB memory stick for have it with you everywhere...

Not sure that "media portal" or "XBMC" will run smoothly on your old laptop... but you have plenty of XBMC fork... by example, OpenELEC ( http://www.openelec.tv/home/menu/what-is-openelec )  is more for light end computer... only a basic OS with the Media center... not other application...

For next year, a other fork is plannet to be released for light end system... it is called "iConsole" ( http://www.iconsole.vg/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/iConsole-MeeGoSF.pdf )...

For the curious, two other XBMC fork :

- Plex : http://www.plexapp.com/

- Boxee : http://www.boxee.tv/ ( click the "make a boxee" )

The only problem with open source is that you have to much choice ( and bad documentation )... but if you seek something very specific, you have more chance to find it that with commercial software... pretty sure that there is somewhere a open source geek who try to find a way for play movies on the tiny LCD screen from his high end washing machine !!! 

I love Open Source but the documentation for it is usually horribly incomplete.  Devs make terrible instructors. If you ask a developer if he can recommend a good book his/her answer is usually something like, "Why don't you go back to college, get a degree in writing and then write your own?".

I kept looking at Myth TV (also Open source) myself (TV-DVR)but it's always been more of an art than a science setting it up properly with different hardware and I am no Linux guru.

Interesting suggestions from both of you Doc and Thoumsin.

Me either. That's why I originally started with KMPlayer. It's lite and has an interface similar to MediaCenter.

So far it's been a bust. It's a very old laptop. I've tried lubuntu on it and went back to xp but it's just terribly slow. I put eBoost on it and it helps a little. Trying to go through and tweak some stuff to see If I can speed it up. It has a good graphics card and for what I want, which is basically to stream movies off my home network, it would be good. Biggest problem I am having is getting to work with my wireless router.

Have it installed but setting it up is a pain in the rear. I'm trying for the TV part and so far nothing.

I thought this looked like XMBC.  anyone get the weather to work?  I added 3 cities and every one says "invalid license key" when I select it in the app.

Awesome find again Doc. 

I like the skins, and the software itself is pretty good. I don't like the loss of my cursor, with and without CFX.

I've had this installed for a few hours now and have managed to set up pretty much everything that's relevant to me.  So far I'm impressed and like the way it handles music, video and photos.  Windows Media Center spat the dummy [pacifier] when I asked it to handle my music collection, which is quite extensice.  Yeah, damned thing froze and wouldn't do a damned thing... had to use Task Manager to exit it and I never went back. 

That was not the case with Media Portal, however.  It mapped my music and video drive without a hiccup and I'm pleased with its handing of everything so far.  I have yet to view TV through it, but I know that it works as the setup went without a hitch, so all should be honky dory there

Glad you're happy, old friend.

Yeah, thanks for the tip, Doc, it's a fine piece of software and I appreciate your posting the heads up.

I haven't gotten around to customising it as yet, but I will, not that it's a bad looking app to begin with.

'Ere, and enuff of the "old", OLD matey.  Arrrrrggghhh.

For some odd reason ("OLD") I feel this twitch developing in my Ps trigger finger....

Dealbreaker question: Does the music library recognize the 'Album Artist' and 'Track Artist' ID3 tags as being two different things, and which does it organize with?