An alternative to Front Row
With the release of Front Row, Apple managed to unite your Mac with your living room. XHub Media Center is a very similar application that looks to compete with Apple for your TV screen space. We were impressed with the quality of the application. XHub Media Center is easy to set up and run. You’ll be able to play all sorts of media, from DVDs to photos, radio, news music and more. All settings are easily accessible from System Preferences. There’s alot of skins (21 in total) and sound effects you can choose from to customize XHub. The program will also let you set other details like slideshow transition and photo styles and you’ll be able to set a special action (like Cover Flow) for the music module.
XHub Media Center favorably compares to Front Row, however we did experience some little issues with it. The program does take some time to load and can be known to freeze up. At times it also seemed like the aspect ratio of the videos was wrong.
Overall though, XHUb Media Center is a great application to enjoy any type of media straight from your Mac to your TV screen.
XHub Media Center is one of the most popular alternatives to Apple’s Front Row software. Developed exclusively for Mac OS X Tiger, XHub Media Center is fast, feature-rich and highly customizable, yet amazingly easy to use. Just connect your Mac to your living room TV and enjoy all of your digital media on the big screen from the comfort of your sofa. In addition to the essential music, movies, and photos modules, XHub Media Center also offers internet radio, web browsing, and EyeTV integration.
XHub Media Center has an appealing interface and is fully themable, with a wide range of skins and sound sets to choose from. You can even design your own theme for a truly personalized media center experience!
With built-in support for Salling Clicker, an award-winning software that allows you to use a Bluetooth/WiFi-enabled cell phone or PDA as a high-end remote control, XHub Media Center has the most sophisticated control options available on any system. XHub also supports remotes from Apple, ATI, Keyspan and many other manufacturers.
