XBMC
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OS: Windows, Linux, OS X
My top choice is currently XBMC and is what I myself currently use for all my multimedia needs. It is a free, open source application and runs on Windows, Linux and mac and you can even make a standalone cd that doesnt require an operating system to run. It comes built in with scrapers for sites such as themoviedb or thetvdb allowing you to instantly add video or music files and have XBMC find the required artwork and infomation for them.
VIDEO
The main use I use XBMC for is its video playing and organising features. I first loaded up XMBC and added my videos to its sources and it instantly began to find the correct names and info for my files and silently working in the background downloaded all the required fan art. From 'go' XBMC had no problems playing any of the various different file formats used in my collection, i didnt require any extra codecs or instalation, it just played them straight out of the box. Another great feature of the program is its ability to sort your libary by many different catagories such as Year, Genre, Rating and many others, allowing you to find video for any mood or quickly find something your looking for.
MUSIC
Music is also another thing XBMC does well, it adds you music, downloads album artwork, band artwork and album info and then you can sort and play much like you can in Video. As you would expect XBMC provides visualisations much like any other music player but with the quick download of the milkdrop addon you now have access to 100's of visualisations, something that can cause me sometimes to get lost in the unique visuals and mindbending effects.
SKINS/INERFACE
The program comes with a few skins but many more are avaliable from its in program addon browser which is very easy to use. Each skin has different ways of presenting media information and I tryed a few before I found one that I liked the best but no matter what skin you select the result is still the same - a visually stunning collection of media. The interface is also very intuitive and easy to use and is completly compatable with remotes/keyboards which is a very import factor in a home media center setup.
PLUGINS
XBMC also has a wide range of plugins that can extend the functionality greatly. Some of my favourite are the subtitles and lyrics plugins as the name suggests it allows you to download the subtitles or lyrics for any file by searching the internet. It also has a multitude of game, video, music and program plugins allowing you do do anything from watch youtube videos to playing space invaders. There are also some launcher plugins which are very handy as they allow you to easily and quickly launch external programs from the XBMC interface.
OTHER
If your interested theres also a display for the weather to give you upto date forcasts. And theres a photo browser as well, all in all XBMC offers alot of functionality for a very cheap price - Free.
TV
What about TV your asking? Well currently the main releases dont support it (at time of writing) but there do exist alternative versions that have built in plugins for loading TV from different TV Servers like the MediaPortal TV Server. When I tryed the TV functionality, it worked quite well but as you can expect from a non main release it does need improving abit, also some skins dont work with TV, failing to provide a tv guide but this will change with time. So all in all if you want a really good media browser and player choose XBMC but if you want to view TV I recommend one of the more specilised softwares like MediaPortal. But rememeber these programs are all free, theres nothing stopping you having both.
Visit XBMC's Site - Visit XBMC's Download Page
