Ok, what everyone has to remember is that the User Interface of whatever is presenting you with your 1,000 DVD library has to not just be good, but has to be GREAT. The only GREAT interface I've found is from http://www.kaleidascape.com/ but sadly that's only inside their $20k media server. :( In looking at the Niveus and Escient screenshots, they look like rejected 80s MTV visuals... Although not much better, I am very happy with (as bleze mentioned) Xbox running Xbox Media Center. I have my 2TB library ripped to my file-server and the XBMC software is by far the most friendly for access. However, even this isn't a match to the Kaleidascape UIs. Frankly, I've settled for writing my own interface in Flex (www.macromedia.com). Not sure when I'll get it finished, but it'll definitely be free when it's done. :) Just thought I'd add my thoughts and remind people that a 1,000 DVD library is really pretty unfriendly when you can only see ~9 covers on screen at a time... Oh and the Sony XL-1 Digital Living System (as MikeM referenced) does look quite impressive, but is still bound by the Microsoft MCE2005 limitations. Sony did have some UI screenshots of a different media server but I can't seem to locate them right now - more on that later.
“An engineer explained to us that hundreds of ear impressions were gathered in the name of research, and while each one obviously boasted its own unique shape and size, one single characteristic remained uniform across the board: the entrance into the ear canal is not a perfect circle, it's an oval.”
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Ok, what everyone has to remember is that the User Interface of whatever is presenting you with your 1,000 DVD library has to not just be good, but has to be GREAT. The only GREAT interface I've found is from http://www.kaleidascape.com/ but sadly that's only inside their $20k media server. :( In looking at the Niveus and Escient screenshots, they look like rejected 80s MTV visuals... Although not much better, I am very happy with (as bleze mentioned) Xbox running Xbox Media Center. I have my 2TB library ripped to my file-server and the XBMC software is by far the most friendly for access. However, even this isn't a match to the Kaleidascape UIs. Frankly, I've settled for writing my own interface in Flex (www.macromedia.com). Not sure when I'll get it finished, but it'll definitely be free when it's done. :) Just thought I'd add my thoughts and remind people that a 1,000 DVD library is really pretty unfriendly when you can only see ~9 covers on screen at a time... Oh and the Sony XL-1 Digital Living System (as MikeM referenced) does look quite impressive, but is still bound by the Microsoft MCE2005 limitations. Sony did have some UI screenshots of a different media server but I can't seem to locate them right now - more on that later.