Switching from XBMC to GameEX

[djfourmoney]

Okay, I really like XBMC but a few things cropped up that bug me

• Some of my TV Show episodes don't show up despite having the same naming structure the other files have. It also messed up the order of episodes so now TVDB sees one thing but the actuall file is something else.
• MKV's don't default to the language of the machine, so Gundam Wing plays in Japanese and not English
• Advance Launcher doesn't work properly and Rom Collector doesn't either. Neither play PSX iso files from my server they have to be locally on the machine XBMC is one.
• The XBMC You Tube app doesn't allow for Mature Content, IE: I can't watch Dirty Pair, it says "URL not located". If I use You Tube Leanback in Chrome, it appears no problem and I can watch anything I want

I became interested in GameEX awhile back, but decided to try Media Browser since it supported the eye candy for TV series and Movies I wanted and there was a nice emulator plug-in for it. Of course to get the advanced features in MB you now have to pay for it. I am fine with that, but being unemployed and with no income at the time, I decided to give XBMC a try and have used it since.

I want to finish my media project as I really don't want to tweak it any more I just want to enjoy it. So I was considering installed Game EX for emulators only since it creates a Windows Media Center plug-in but the problems with XBMC have lead me to possibly using Game EX exclusively for my TV series, Movies and Emulated games, while WMC does all the DVR work.

What I wanted to know is -

Does all the fan art and other information from TVDB show up inside Game EX?

Does Game EX support IMDB and other databases for cover art, fan art and the like?

Does the You Tube app support Mature Content?

I already have Hulu Desktop with Integration support with an icon for WMC

If you have any screen caps please share, thanks!

[djfourmoney]

I wanted to bump this because this is very much a Media Center issue as it is a emulator issue. I may move over to My Movies and My Movies for Windows Home Server (2011 in this case) since it pretty much the same but with matching WMC themes/graphics/menus. As I said I am interested in GameEX for emulator use, maybe PlayOn/TubeCore for You Tube.

All these things cost money and I am on a limited budget but I would like some input, are you all really saying you only use GameEX just for gaming and nothing else????

[naborneo]

I think Game EX is one of the best MAME/Emulator FrontEnds out there, but XBMC is by far the best Media Center out there.

TV Show issues, I use a piece of software called TheRenamer that auto searches my TV episode download folder and renames and moves each file to it's proper folder which XBMC auto scans (This is all an automated process, just have to set it all up).

MKV audio... Is it really hard to switch the language with a single push of a button. Any software is going to default to whatever the #1 on the list audio language is.

Advanced Launcher sucks, use the GameEX plugin to switch to GameEx when you want to play games.

YouTube app will not allow for mature content if you don't put your username and password into the setting to allow for mature content, just as if you are on the website and are not logged in.

Newest XBMC supports TV Tuners and DVR fuction.

-Does all the fan art and other information from TVDB show up inside Game EX? - XBMC Does

-Does Game EX support IMDB and other databases for cover art, fan art and the like? - XBMC Does

Again, I love GameEX for gaming, but XBMC is the clear winner as a Media Center, the extended amount of other features that XBMC has... Why try and recreate the wheel.

Just my 2 cents.

[Tom Speirs]

I have to agree, GameEx can't compete with XBMC on htpc features but just launch GameEx from XBMC. Installing GameEx even creates an addon for easy acces. It works great.

[DJoneK]

I wonder how does it affect resources if at all. Launching XBMC, then GameEx, then Emulators. Anyone ever done a test to see how much resources would XBMC/GameEx both use when launching in this fashion?

[AlphaUMi]

I wonder how does it affect resources if at all. Launching XBMC, then GameEx, then Emulators. Anyone ever done a test to see how much resources would XBMC/GameEx both use when launching in this fashion?

Obviously it all depends on your system specs. I found XBMC not low-demanding on resources, so I decided to switch to MediaPortal. Emulators... again, it depends on which emulator and, mainly, on which system it emulates...

[djfourmoney]

I think Game EX is one of the best MAME/Emulator FrontEnds out there, but XBMC is by far the best Media Center out there.

TV Show issues, I use a piece of software called TheRenamer that auto searches my TV episode download folder and renames and moves each file to it's proper folder which XBMC auto scans (This is all an automated process, just have to set it all up).

MKV audio... Is it really hard to switch the language with a single push of a button. Any software is going to default to whatever the #1 on the list audio language is.

Advanced Launcher sucks, use the GameEX plugin to switch to GameEx when you want to play games.

YouTube app will not allow for mature content if you don't put your username and password into the setting to allow for mature content, just as if you are on the website and are not logged in.

Newest XBMC supports TV Tuners and DVR fuction.

-Does all the fan art and other information from TVDB show up inside Game EX? - XBMC Does

-Does Game EX support IMDB and other databases for cover art, fan art and the like? - XBMC Does

Again, I love GameEX for gaming, but XBMC is the clear winner as a Media Center, the extended amount of other features that XBMC has... Why try and recreate the wheel.

Just my 2 cents.

I used The Renamer to put the file names in the right order. XBMC doesn't see some of the files, I do not know what would cause this. I used The Renamer for all the files I added to the server. I can only assume its a issue with the way XBMC sees Windows networking or something. All my Capt Scarlet's got messed up as well, again used Renamer for all of them.

One would think the player in XBMC would default to English but it doesn't. VLC does however. I can load all the files into that and they all playback in English but without setting up XBMC to use an external player, my only other option is to strip out the Japanese audio by Demuxing but its the only set of files I have a problem with. There's a few other ways but we'll see what I decide.

Renaming files and Remuxing files is time consuming and I tend to do them with my laptop. I am not adding enough content to use Renamer to automatically monitor folders, since most files are miss-named anyway. I am of course talking about downloaded content which is not done in SxSEx format but uses file names.

I am logged into You Tube, that's how I access my subscribed channels. I can watch anything else in Magna's channel but Dirty Pair and Dirty Pair Flash, I haven't tried any other mature content. If I go to the HTML site or Leanback, it works, sort of strange.

Yeah I agree, I am not trying to re-invent the wheel, XBMC does work well. I am Frodo by the way not Eden. Some of the add-ons are broken now, like Internet Archive. Its not officially broken but when I try to watch a video, it freezes the video but plays the audio from it. I have to exit XBMC and restart it to get it back to normal.

ESPN3 by far is the biggest concern because that's how I watch the American Le Mans Series. But I can get that through Playon, for a one-time cost use on the standard media center strip.

I know the newest build of XBMC support tuners but not my Cat's Eye which is no longer made or updated and no Linux drivers. Plus if its not broke, why fix it? WMC as a DVR isn't broken... Its just not as pretty as XBMC though My Movies and My TV access the same fan art and information from TVDB and IMDB.

Thanks for the input.

[djfourmoney]

I have to agree, GameEx can't compete with XBMC on htpc features but just launch GameEx from XBMC. Installing GameEx even creates an addon for easy acces. It works great.

Well that makes sense, but GameEX claims to be a HTPC solution. I know its history as a Mame/Emulator plug-in for Windows Media Center that has evolved into adding multimedia features while still keeping its emulator core.

As I said, all the emulator options with XBMC don't function well with Windows file system in that I can't share files from a remote PC/Server for game files. I will use GameEX, I just wanted to know if there was any value in using it for my other media functions.

I may test My Movies because I have a feeling it would see all my files that are named properly that for some reason XBMC doesn't wanna see no matter how many times, I flush/reset the library.

[Draco1962]

I would recommend trying out some of the features of GameEx. XBMC is a very robust HTPC solution and has quite a few features that GameEx does not.

GameEx, like XBMC and any other "front end" (yes, it is a front end application for other softwares and scripts), will require exploration, configuring, testing to get things to your liking. Do not expect it to "automagically" do it all without some investment in time, sweat, and sometimes, tears.

If you have any questions or issues that arise, our community is here to help!