Library

I have ripped all my exercise DVD’s to my computer and have it hooked up to my 50" hi def TV. What’s the snazziest video player/library organizer software out there? I’d love any opinions, even if it’s the standard Windows Media Player or iTunes. When I go to choose my workout for the day, I want it to be fun, let me see the details/large cover of each video (maybe even preview the video) and generally be impressive looking. I’d prefer something that will download the DVD information/album cover from the internet, launch the video, maybe allow me to add a few details or pictures, but just be as visually fun and pleasing as possible while still being intuitive and functional. Is that too much to ask? Think Disneyland or Pixar on Steroids with professional graphics, not Windows 3.1 with a bunch of catalog text boxes of useless columns and recycled ugly generic icons in bad colors. Thanks!

XBMC. Hands down. It’s completely free and open source and works on mac, windows and linux. Once you set it up to scan the movies folder, it will catalog them and download info from IMDB.com (the largest movie info site on the internet). It downloads promo shots, DVD covers, plot summaries, actors, genres, etc.

However, your workout movies might not be cataogged on IMDB, so many of those features might not work. You can still load your own DVD covers and pictures though.

If you do use it, make sure you use the mediastream skin. I like it better.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 2:33 am and is filed under library software. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.