Filed under: Audio, Software, Video, Internet Tools
MediaCentral 2
We blogged MediaCentral back in November when it was just a fledgling beta, offering but a glimpse of what was to come. Now, it's all growed up into version 2, which is (typically) the age when an app begins to show maturity and solidifies into its true form, and mature it has - MediaCentral has added a serious batch of new features that are simply too lengthy to cover in their entirety. Highlights include: IP TV, Google Video and YouTube integration, DVB-T support (a wireless TV standard in Europe, Asia and Africa), Windows Media codec support (with Flip4Mac installed), bookmarking in media files for easy resuming, interactive classic arcade games that support the Apple Remote and ATI Remote Wonder, network streaming/storage support and much more.
MedialCentral 2 requires Mac OS X 10.4, and a demo is available. A single licenses costs $29.95, with a 3-pack selling for $39.95, and a 5-pack for $59.95.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
andy said 1:30PM on 7-09-2006
still no alchemy tv support though :( maybe i should get TwinHan DTV, or stick with front row hack and alchemy seperate
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Alex said 1:34PM on 7-09-2006
It does NOT support Dolby Digital or DTS, so if your Mac is connected to an audio/visual receiver don't expect surround sound. This is a huge oversight in my opinion. Excusable when MediaCentral was a beta app, but for $30 you MUST include surround support in a media center application.
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Richard said 1:38PM on 7-09-2006
I thought it was pretty poor myself. Cheap clone of Front Row with some extra features, hideous background music (why did they think this would be a good idea?) and it crashed after a few minutes of use.
Waste of time.
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Chip said 2:19PM on 7-09-2006
During the 1.X series, it would prompt you at startup for what screen you wanted to start it in (with multiple monitors). I have my quad connected to my monitor and my 50" Fujitsu. This is missing in 2.0. Now I have to drag the window and then launch it fullscreen. A PAIN.
Also, the Dolby and DTS support is a major drawback.
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Aaron said 2:28PM on 7-09-2006
I agree that the lack of no DTS or Dolby Digital support puts this in the pretty much useless category for me. Right now the only way I know to get AC3 pass through on my intel iMac is through DVD Player or VLC. It still says they are working on adding this to a future release but I guess 2.0 wasn't what they meant by a future release.
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Dave said 2:34PM on 7-09-2006
No screenshots??? WTF Mate? And no surround? To Quote the famous words of Futurama's Alcoholic robot, Bender, "YOU ARE OOUUTTAAA HERE!"
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Chris said 3:52PM on 7-09-2006
The demo crashed every time I tried it on my machine (PPC G5, 10.4.7), as soon as the main menu screen came up. Am I going to shell out $30 based on that? What do you think?
Wasn't version 1 free as well?
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ICU said 8:15PM on 7-09-2006
And what's with the 5min eval mode. What can you test in 5 minutes ? plus the app takes nearly 1 min to startup..
No DD or DTS ?
Start again guys.
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Wojtek said 10:12PM on 7-09-2006
Also a no go from my side [5 minute demo, come on !!]
- music is annoying [other sound choices if you open preferences for the App are worse]
- Pictures [cool idea linking to Flickr, but why can't I add my own feeds/friends, is this due to the trial or due to limitations of the software]
- Trailers [where are my HD trailers, they're there on the Apple site, why can't I play them here]
-IPTV [take a video that looks horrible in a YouTube window and scale is up 400$, what do you end up with .... nothing but random pixels]
Lets get to a mature version on the product boys before you start charging.
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Philip said 8:00AM on 7-10-2006
Media Central is great, but I won't buy without Support for EyeTV or at least the Hardware...
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KrazzyBone said 3:41PM on 7-10-2006
I cannot believe I just bought the CRAP. This has got to be the buggiest piece of Comercial Software ever!!!
- IPTV - CRASH
- TV - Says I can use Terratec D-TV tuner...NOT SO!
- MOVIES - Crashes when you rewind
- DVD - Says you can save photos in the folder containing Video_TS file and that the pic will be used as a preview ...NOT SO!
- GAMES - GOT TO BE KIDDING (8 year old cellular phones have beter games)!!!
- Radio - NOT working!!!
And I paid 30 euros??? ... Even the FREEWARE 1.2.1 ver. is more stable.
CAN ANYBODY GET EVEN HALF OF THE FUNCTIONALITY TO WORK...WITHOUT CRASHING???
What a Complete letdown!!!
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