Meedio Essentials 1.15.22.0, Part 1 - A Sleek and Clean HTPC Interface

After waddling through BeyondTV 3 and SageTV 2.0, we feel that in terms of design, it is really going to be a matter of preference rather than one being superior over the other. For those new to the scene, the loyalty to one or the other shouldn't be too unfamiliar, since we have the ATI/NVIDIA and AMD/Intel that more of us are familiar with. Granted, SageTV 2.0 is the only one that really can be considered a real substitute for MCE to the full functionality extent: TV, music, photos, videos, and the rest of the knick knacks. SnapStream won't hit this mark until they release Beyond Media, which is still a bit away.

Recently, some of you have been requesting reviews of two software solutions: Meedio and MythTV. The latter may be a stretch for us, since we have been accustomed to looking at Windows-based HTPC applications, and MythTV requires Linux. So that may be something for our Linux editor, Kris Kubicki, to investigate in the near future. But whatever beef you have with Windows, you have to admit that there is a greater variety of multimedia applications and options with Windows, particularly since you need to consider that an HTPC, in all likelihood, is going to function as a personal computer and a home theater base.

Meedio is one of the newest up-and-comers to the HTPC field and have already released Meedio Essentials, something kind of like MCE minus the radio and TV functions. They should be releasing another software title that either supplies TV function, Meedio TV, some time this month, apparently. This is kind of the opposite approach taken by SnapStream, where they did the major software design (TV functionality) first and are now working on the rest of the knick knacks. For now, Meedio Essentials is the less of the two "sister components" that would comprise the full HTPC functionally from Meedio.

Remember the glory days of MyHTPC, the free HTPC software that had a big user base? Meedio is basically based on that same user base. For those unfamiliar with the story of MyHTPC and Meedio, MyHTPC was basically a grassroots freeware program that was a shell UI, and participating forum members or users back in 2003 (last release in Aug 2003, first release in Feb 2003) created their own modules for additional functionality.

The creator, Pablo Pissanetzky, was working for Enron back then, and when that whole fiasco went down, he had to decide if he wanted to find another job or make a homebrewed project that he enjoyed working on into his job. As a result, Meedio LLC was created with a few of the forum members making up the core staff, and the rest as they say "is history." Obviously, the software has come a long way since its MyHTPC roots. Let's see where it is now...