I've been doing a great deal with media centers the past few weeks, and I've come to one conclusion: they all need a better networked database setup. In my opinion, Mediaportal does it best. MP unfortunately runs on Windows, but it runs extremely well and there is an excellent community that develops skins and plugins for it. My two favorite plugins are the MP-TVSeries and Moving Pictures.
MP-TVSeries allows you to select certain folders on your local machine or network that contain TV shows. If they are named in a coherent manner (i.e. [series name].S[season number]E[episode number] or [series name] - S[season number]E[episode number] ), MP-TVSeries will grab a snapshot of the data from thetvdb.com. What makes this really great is that my wife watches episodes of Jon & Kate Plus 8. She loves it. But when she goes to list the episodes in the plugin, there is no art or episode pictures. Well, thetvdb.com allows me to create an account and upload art and episode pictures... problem solved! So now my TV shows are displayed in a functional, aesthetic manner.
Moving Pictures is a plugin very similar to MP-TVSeries, except that it is for movies instead. The setup is similar, and the way the plugin functions is great as well. The real benefit is the ability to customize the plugin with a custom movie intro. In other words, I can create a trailer or pre-movie clip to display before every movie plays. This allows for better customization and a more "look what I have" feel. Sweet, huh?
-Steve
