The term Media Center may be defined either as a dedicated computer appliance or a specialized application software designed to run on standard personal computer hardware which then becomes a so called “HTPC” (“Home Theater PC”, also sometimes referred to as a “Media PC”), both of which are adapted for playing various kinds of media (music, movies,photos etc.), and it usually has a GUI (Graphical User Interface) . A Media Center typically allows watching movies (DVD, BluRay, and other digital video formats) and watching and recording television broadcasts, playing audio (CD as well as MP3,WMA, and other audio formats) & watching pictures and making galleries to manage them properly.
For Ubuntu , we have three awesome Media Centers lined up namely – XBMC, Enna Media Center and MOOVIDA .
1) XBMC :- XBMC Media Center (formerly named Xbox Media Center) is an award winning free and open source cross-platform media player and home entertainment software . XBMC is available for Linux, OSX, Windows, and the original Xbox. Created in 2003 , XBMC is a non-profit project run and developed by volunteers from different parts of the world. XBMC is available in more than 30 languages. Isn’t it great ! Its graphical user interface allows the user to easily manage video, photos, podcasts, and music from a computer, optical disk, local network, and the internet using a remote control/mouse.
It is a popular alternative to Microsoft’s Windows Media Center and Apple’s Front Row, & has a skinnable and user-configurable interface and plugin support.
