Decent Media Center?

[paulbeers]

Has anyone created a decent media center? I want the original look of Sage (WAF) but with a decent Jutebox. After spending several hours today ripping MP3's, it was a bit irritating to realise that Sage pretty much bites when it comes to reading tags and setting things up right. I ripped all of my cd's using iTunes, and xlobby has no problem with them, but *sigh*, sage doesn't get it right at all! I need it to work right with sage rather than thru xlobby, because of my MediaMVP's. Oy.

[big boi]

it's incredibly frustrating, but i think the only way to get a decent music player out of sage is to use an STV that allows you to use external players, and use a seperate one.

[mightyt]

Hmmm ... this has been a question asked over and over for a very long time ... Not sure why, but everyone seems to have just settled for the fact that Sage is an awesome PVR and mediocre Media Center music-wise.

Wonder why none of the excellent Studio dudes around here never took the challenge to just create an alternate Music Plugin?? After seeing some of the great work done before I can't imagine it would not be doable.

Personally, I'd like to see one that does not require using specific custom STV ... A simple plugin, similar to what Nielm, Salsbst and Deria have provided in the past would be GREAT ...

Oh ... but ... it's probably only just a dream of mine ...

T.


EDIT : Wait a minute ... At first I thought this was just a way to add better visualizations to Sage, but appears to be a plugin replacement for Sage audio?!? Have not tried it, but may be tempted if I read on that is is solid ...

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14403

[jhh]

Hi,

Yes there is a mediaplayer plugin from Deria - I downloaded it but still need to finish installation. (not that it is too complicated - just something else got hold of me).

Problem is that this will not help you with an MVP as it starts an external program. The MVP cannot do that.

Jan

[GbrNole]

music is still sorted by sage as far as tags go. the plugin only provides for a means of playback.

use MMJB to rip your files. that way sage will read them perfectly and will also embed album art - plus you can batch revise your existing ripped mp3's.

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by GbrNole

music is still sorted by sage as far as tags go. the plugin only provides for a means of playback.

use MMJB to rip your files. that way sage will read them perfectly and will also embed album art - plus you can batch revise your existing ripped mp3's.

Music support is poor, even for mp3's as the OP mentioned. Media Portal is a WAY better media center, not just for music, but photos and other functions too. But it's quite poor as a PVR and not quite ready for prime time.

I suspect most of the folks who do a lot of work on Sage aren't hardcore music or photo enthusiasts, or figure that the Sage folks will get there soon enough.

Deria's plug in is great, but as folks have mentioned, it has limits...

Thanks,
mike

[Wheemer]

Buy neilm a cd, more reason for him to want to make a plugin that fixes everything...

[paulbeers]

I would love to be able to sort all of my mp3's the way itunes does it right now. i love how it creates folders by artists and then in the folders are the different albums. To me this makes more sense then just having a single folder with thousands of mp3's OR having to import each and every folder as a seperate music folder into sage (yes i realise sage will see subfolders but then it lists it as artist/song title). Guess I am just expecting too much!

[GbrNole]

just use mlbdude's sagemc stv and the folder view for music rather than the standard arrangement.

[paulbeers]

No offense to mlbdude's sagemc, but I don't like the interface. Well I don't care about the interface but my wife doesn't. She has grown accustomed to Sage stanrdard and that just won't do.If someone made a standard sage w/ his mediacenter then I would be in business!

[something fishy]

there was a three panel juke box interface (artist, album and then songs ir 2/3 of the itunes interface) posted a when Studio was first made available that may do what you want. Search back in this forum.

I would really like a four panel one (genre, artist, album and songs) to fully emulate itunes (and JR media centre for that matter) available for the SageMC interface if any studio programmers are reading (I know I should learn and do it myself).

Cheers
Eric

[paulbeers]

What I would ultimately love is the way Xlobby handles Mp3's (okay maybe not quite as many menus). It handles my ripped music from Itunes perfectly. Guess I should have taken those java classes!

[lovingHDTV]

There is an xlobby skin for Sage, but it is based on the SageMC stv, which is the only stv that I know of that has a descent jukebox. The irony

[paulbeers]

Just my luck! I guess I will just have to deal with the horrible sage media center.

[Naylia]

Originally Posted by lovingHDTV

There is an xlobby skin for Sage, but it is based on the SageMC stv, which is the only stv that I know of that has a descent jukebox. The irony

I know...so many of the things I use XLobby for mlbdude ended up integrating into his skin

[lovingHDTV]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

Just my luck! I guess I will just have to deal with the horrible sage media center.

You could always convert the Xlobby skin to use graphics that match Sage default skin and get what you want.

I don't know how much effort that would be, maybe Naylia could guess?

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by Naylia

I know...so many of the things I use XLobby for mlbdude ended up integrating into his skin

XLobby MC is great for one system, but doesn't work for client connections, just like Deria's plugin. Right now I solve that problem by using XBMC clients, but it doesn't work for live TV.

I am beginning to think the most straightforward way of getting what I want is to stick a PCI video card in the HTPC and a 2nd sound card and just run two different software systems in one box. Let Sage do DVD and PVR work, and JRMC or Xlobby for Music. I may even give media portal another try as I love XBMC but never could get previous versions to work right on the HTPC. My harmony can switch the reciever inputs around when going from Music playback to PVR/DVD viewing.

My wife is still complaining about losing multizone audio when I
converted over from the old CD Jukebox to the Digital system, though she is feeling a lot happier since I got her a new iPod for Christmas and turned on Yahoo's Music unlimited service on her system. :-)

I just want one media center product that does everything really well. I guess I still have to wiat for that.

Thanks,
Mike

[Jesse]

Hi,

I dont use sage for music. I have not looked at the music interface so I cannot comment on any shortcomings it may or may not have.

I have eight music zones in my home. With eight zones control is an issue. I could not have a sage client in each zone (four zones with no tv to use as an interface). That is why I never considered any of the media center (except J River Media Center) apps I looked at for music control. I dont know if sage, or any of the other app (Win MCE, Media Portal, Medio, etc.) can control eight zones.

What if, for instance, the boss or the kids are watching tv and I want music in the shop, or out on the deck. Do I tell them to hold on while I get the music going? This did not seem like a good option to me. A pc, conveniently located, that could control output to each zone, seemed like a better way to go. Better yet, throw in control by pocket pc or tablet pc. I ended up with Cinemar's Music Lobby and two m-audio delta 410 soundcards. Music Lobby is a really pretty front end for J River Media Center, and it can be run via pc, tablet, or ppc. If control via your tv and remote is what you really want you could just use JRMC. It does have an interface for tv/remote control use. You could just set up sage to launch it as an external app and go from there. I know, you dont get the nice unified interface for all media types, but if you have several zones without a tv then your options are pretty limited.

Jesse

[mikesm]

I have Russound keypads in several rooms that send IR commands to help control the audio and selecting which source to use. Driving multiple zones centrally as you describe is what I am after. Mediaportal like XBMC offers web control of music functions, which can often be good enough when I'm entertaining, but poor multizone support.

I have some rooms without builtin speakers are equipped with Netgear MP101's that have a 4 line display on them. They can access any audio content via the on the fly transcoding from Twonkyserver, and support streaming audio too. They are cheap (I got two for $19 AR each one day at Fry's) and have decent sound quality. For nice speakers you want something with better audio though.

Solving the whole problem today requires a boatload of seperate technology, at least for me. I have hopes that eventually Sage will put together a more comprehensive solution, but until then I had to kludge things.

Thanks,
Mike

[Jesse]

Solving the whole problem today requires a boatload of seperate technology

You said it Mike.

Jesse