How to make a media center out of an old pc

How to make a media center out of an old pc.Best Four Programs To Turn Your PC Into a Streaming Media Center.

Windows offered media center software that gave users a central place to organize all of their videos, pictures, and music to create a home theater.

Unfortunately, support for Windows Media Center has ended and Windows 10 and Windows 11 users must use an external program to have Media Center. It is important to note, however, that media center software is not the same as media players.

If you want a program to organize all your media files that can turn your PC into a media center and connect to your home theater, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, you will find the best apps to turn your PC into a streaming media hub. All four programs are completely free. Some advanced features are paid or require a subscription.

1. MediaMonkey

If you don’t have time to organize your videos and music, MediaMonkey is your best bet. It doesn’t matter how messy and disorganized your music, TV and movie folders are; this software will allow you to tag and classify your files.

Features:

Automatic detection of movies and tracks, information about which is missing, whose tags are not synchronized or duplicated somewhere else. Easily switch from Windows Media Player to iTunes, allowing you to import playlists and selections from MediaMonkey and use them seamlessly with any media player. The app also allows you to customize the look and feel to personalize your lists with albums, musicians, tracks, genres, and more. Quickly share your files from MediaMonkey with any TV, DVD player and other UPnP / DLNA devices … It allows you to watch your favorite videos and listen to your favorite music in a few clicks.

You can install MediaMonkey on Windows 7, 8, 10 devices without any problem, and it is fully optimized for these Windows versions. It is also available in 15 languages â€‹â€‹and will not affect your computer’s performance.

2. Plex

If you are looking for a more advanced media center, Plex is the perfect choice. It is a unique media center software that operates on a client-server model. For this reason, Plex Media Server software is required as well as the Plex front-end application that can be downloaded on a Windows 10 device.

Features:

The free version limits media playback to one minute. You need to unlock it with an in-app purchase or monthly Plex Pass for $ 4.99. Plex is great software for organizing images, videos and music collections. It supports almost all music and video formats. The library user interface also shows your media files with biographies, story summaries, images, and more. Plex allows you to create multiple user accounts and impose restrictions on inappropriate content. Includes DVR recording with access to 86 of Nielsen’s most popular shows. Plus, you get online content from sources like Spike, NPR, and Comedy Central. With a Plex Pass subscription, users can sync their media library across multiple devices, including phones, tablets, game consoles, and digital media players.

You can also sync your library with various cloud storage services such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and Box. So, if you have pictures, videos, and music on two other devices, you can open all your files on both with Plex apps.

3. Emby

Another media center offering a centralized database is Emby. Like Plex, it has its own server and can serve multiple clients. There are also applications for various operating systems and devices.

You can even easily add Emby Theater to newer Windows devices via this download page. Alternatively, you can download the app from the Windows Store.

Note. Emby is not a streaming service and does not provide you with any content. Instead, it’s a personal media server platform so you can access your music, videos, and pictures on the go.

Features:

To play any media, you need to pay $ 49.99 per year for an Emby Premiere subscription. The Emby home theater application provides support for recording TV and live programs. With it, you can record your favorite TV shows and save them directly to your server. The Emby library displays skins and metadata, and a graphical user interface allows you to quickly browse files using advanced search tools. The home theater app includes Live TV Guide and Emby DVR for scheduling TV recordings. Emby includes plugins that can enhance your overall viewing experience, such as a cover art and a plugin that provides support for a game called GameBrowser. Enables centralized database management that users can use with web tools. It has 20 apps for Android and iOS devices, game consoles and digital media players like Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, and Android TV.

You can compile media files on a variety of devices. Emby allows you to sync and back up your videos, photos and music to the cloud storage.

4. Kodi

Originally known as Xbox Media Center (XBMC), Kodi is one of the most popular media center software on the market today. This is because it is compatible with a variety of devices and platforms.

Kodi is open source software and you can install it by clicking the OS you want on this page. It is currently compatible with many OS including Windows 10, Linux, macOS, iOS, Android, Apple TV OS, and Raspberry Pi. It also supports all major audio and video file formats for playback and allows users to stream content from various online media streaming services.

Features:

Access to a variety of TV shows and media libraries, including their banners, documents and posters, with minimal configuration. Through the Kodi GUI, you can watch and record live TV. The software offers extensive GUI configuration options allowing you to customize Kodi themes or skins, splash screen, background wallpapers, home page buttons, GUI sound effects, font, add-on shortcuts, and more. Includes stunning music rendering effects to make music playback visually interesting. Kodi includes many add-ons for audio, video, screensavers, games, weather, programs, images, and more to improve the software to better suit your needs.

Which Media Center Software Will You Choose?

With these programs, you can now turn your PC into a media streaming hub, allowing you to access all your music, photos and videos on other devices. Therefore, if you don’t like different streaming platforms, you can use these apps to meet your multimedia needs.

Best Four Programs To Turn Your PC Into a Streaming Media Center

How to make a media center out of an old pc

media center pc