What are the best operating systems for a Home Theatre PC?

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8

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74

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The Best 1 of 8 OptionsWhy?

8 Options Considered	Price	Last Updated
92 OpenELEC	-	Jun 18, 2018
-- Geexbox	-	Mar 27, 2018
-- Kodibuntu	-	Jun 10, 2018
-- Mythbuntu	-	Oct 14, 2017
-- LinHES	-	Jul 22, 2017

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7 Other Options Considered

74 Community Recommendations

+48

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PoisedCastor

Contributor for 3 months

1

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LibreELEC

Recommended 3 months ago

It is faster to accommodate for the newer Kodi version. It is smoother too.

FriendlyEnkimdu

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OpenELEC

Recommended 15 minutes ago

FriendlyEnkimdu hasn’t added their experience, pros or cons to their recommendation.

MeticulousKarkinos

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OpenELEC

Recommended 6 days ago

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HonorableRaedieahkka

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OpenELEC

Recommended 6 days ago

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FriendlySobek

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OpenELEC

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FantasticIdiyanale

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OpenELEC

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DevotedAernus

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OpenELEC

Recommended 2 months ago

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ReverentTlaltecuhtli

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OpenELEC

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OpenELEC

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OpenELEC

Recommended 2 months ago

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score 32 · Answer 1

OpenELEC

Top Pro

Ease of use of XMBC that is easy to install

Very easy to setup through XBMC Live which is a very easy to setup distribution. See More

Top Con

The online installation guide is very convoluted

The online guide on installing OpenELEC is very convoluted and practically makes something very simple look like it's difficult. For example, the installation bundle comes with a script that is used to prepare the SD card, but then according to the guide you have to manually copy it to the device. While it can just tell you to wget the image and then write it to the target media in just a simple command. See More

Top Pro

Great support

It's very easy to find support for any problems you may run into with OpenELEC. See More

score 12 · Answer 2

Geexbox

Top Pro

Lightning fast booting

The booting process is very fast, it only has a brief splash screen between POST and when the XBMC menu loads up. See More

Top Con

Issues with the Wifi driver

There have been several issues reported related to the WiFi driver adapter when using Geexbox. See More

Top Pro

Simple installation

Installing Geexbox into a hard drive is very simple. Just select the install option from the boot menu and it will automatically take you to a screen where you can select your hard drive. It needs very little involvement and it's done in a matter of minutes. See More

Top Pro

Extremely portable

Geexbox has an ISO that is optimized to run on both USB and SD cards and of course all of them have the option to be installed on a hard drive. This makes them extremely portable, plus there are various ISOs for different systems which are about 150MB apiece. See More

See All

score 12 · Answer 3

Kodibuntu

Top Pro

Updates can be run remotely

Using a Linux distro (not only Ubuntu) with Kodi allows you to run system and software updates remotely through SSH. Not only that, it's also very easy to update the system because only a couple of commands are needed. See More

Top Con

Sub-par graphic drivers support

Support for graphic drivers is not the best. For example, if you want to do any gaming on Kodibuntu you need an Nvidia card and install the proprietary drivers. Though for Kodi alone the Open Source drivers are good enough. See More

Top Pro

Open source

Both Kodi and Ubuntu are free and open source. See More

See All

score 2 · Answer 4

Mythbuntu

Top Pro

Free and open source

Mythbuntu is an Ubuntu flavor of MythTV. Both MythTV and Ubuntu are completely free and open source, so by extension Mythbuntu is open source as well. See More

Top Con

Dated UI

The UI is dated and not very pleasing to the eye. See More

Top Pro

Customizable

MythTV (and by extension Mythbuntu) has plenty of modules that allow users to display photos, listen to music and watch movies. All of this is done from the main menu. See More

See All

score 2 · Answer 5

LinHES

Top Pro

Seamless setup

The first time LinHES is launched, you are prompted by the configuration tool which is built using the same toolkit as MythTV itself. This allows for a seamless setup experience since LinHES automatically detects and configures the necessary settings correctly. This means that things like recording hardware, infrared receivers and remote controls are all configured automatically. See More

Top Con

Support only for 64-bit Intel architecture

The latest releases of LinHES only have support for 64-bit Intel architectures. While it's not worth it to worry about 32-bit Intel systems it's worth noting that the absence of an ARM release is problematic. See More

Top Pro

Great functionality out of the box

LinHES comes with a suite of programs already preconfigured to make it function as a media-centric appliance. Stuff like NFS and Samba are included for sharing files, Webmin and VNC provide remote administration capabilities, furthermore there are various remote system monitoring tools and packages for supporting file-transfer methods (one of them is Bittorrent). See More

See All

score 1 · Answer 6

LibreELEC

Add Video or Image

score 1 · Answer 7

LinuxMCE

Top Pro

Easy installation

The installation wizard automatically finds and detects all your hardware details and adds the configurations accordingly. It also asks for your permission before each step and then carries on the next screen. Everything is completed in 5 minutes. See More

Top Con

Lots of bugs

Unfortunately LinuxMCE has some very annoying bugs. For example there are some things that will not work with the default settings, and that's a real downside for beginners. It's also rather complicated to get a weborbiter working. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use

Even with multiple features and options, LinuxMCE is still very easy to use; everything is very intuitive and dead simple to find your way around with everything being available through a point and click UI. See More

Top Pro

10 foot UI

See All

score 3 · Answer 8

Windows 8.1

Top Con

Expensive

You will need to purchase a Windows license. See More

Top Pro

Hardware Compatibility

Windows has excellent x86-based compatibility, and has recently announced ARM compatibility as well. See More

Top Con

Resource Intensive

In contrast to many dedicated solutions which can run on nearly anything, running a full Windows install requires decent hardware. This is not a lightweight solution. See More

Top Pro

Familiar Windows Interface

As opposed to unfamiliar and purpose-built Linux distros, Windows still reigns supreme for sheer usability and ease of use. See More

Top Pro

Customizable UI

There are many that can be used to customize the MetroTile screen and add custom tiles. Then, by adding custom tiles you can configure them to open any application or web page that you need. For example: Netflix, HBOGo or Steam. See More

See All

What are the best operating systems for a Home Theatre PC?

The Best 1 of 8 OptionsWhy?

OpenELEC

Ease of use of XMBC that is easy to install

The online installation guide is very convoluted

Great support

7 Other Options Considered

Geexbox

Lightning fast booting

Issues with the Wifi driver

Simple installation

Extremely portable

Kodibuntu

Updates can be run remotely

Sub-par graphic drivers support

Open source

Mythbuntu

Free and open source

Dated UI

Customizable

LinHES

Seamless setup

Support only for 64-bit Intel architecture

Great functionality out of the box

LibreELEC

LinuxMCE

Easy installation

Lots of bugs

Easy to use

10 foot UI

Windows 8.1

Expensive

Hardware Compatibility

Resource Intensive

Familiar Windows Interface

Customizable UI

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74 Community Recommendations

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