Review: MediaCentral
- Article 12 of 89
- MacFormat, April 2006
Everything Front Row can do and more - on any Mac
Although Steve Jobs long ago declared the Mac the centre of our digital lifestyles, it wasn't until Apple began bundling Front Row with the iMac G5 that there was a single application to be that centre. Front Row can play your DVDs, music, movies and photo slideshows, but it has two big problems. Firstly, it's only available on newer iMacs and the latest Mac minis, although there are various hacks to get it working on unsupported Macs. Secondly, it's somewhat limited in its capabilities compared to say Windows Media Center.
Fortunately, there's an alternative available from equinux called MediaCentral. MediaCentral offers virtually all the same functions as Front Row, but provides a number of new functions. The best feature is the TV component, which allows you to play TV programming from many of the eyeTV family of TV tuners as well as various preset Internet video streams. Most of these are from the BBC, but there are foreign language programmes as well.
Music and photo support are pretty much identical to Front Row's, but video support is better: MediaCentral can use Spotlight to find any video files on your hard drive; it also installs the DivX codec so you can play DivXs. MediaCentral also has a far wider range of keyboard shortcuts than Front Row, so you won't need a remote control to use it. Coupled with its support for non-Apple remotes, that means greater flexibility in everyday use.
Although MediaCentral did have a clear lead over Front Row in terms of functions, the recent Front Row update has cleared up many of Front Row's bugs and given it Bonjour sharing, making MediaCentral far less appealing. MediaCentral's uglier interface is still a let down but the program works flawlessly, unlike Front Row and other alternatives such as Center Stage, all of which often have hiccoughs. It also doesn't require you to play around with system files to make it work on unsupported Macs. If you already have Front Row and don't need or want these extra features, stick with what you've got. But for everyone else, Media Central is the easiest and safest way to get your own Mac media centre.