Not everyone is happy with Front Row’s performance as a media center app. And certainly not everyone is willing to wait for Front Row 2.0, so what other options are there?

Media Central. The most advanced of all Front Row alternatives — that’s the power of money to you, since this one will cost you. It features some pretty impressive features such as Skype integration, picture feeds, online videos such as from YouTube, games, iTunes compatibility, IP TV, and DVB-T TV compatibility (that last one seems to be for Europeans only). Media Central packs start at $30.

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CenterStage. This open source project is the most promising: already at version 0.6.1, iTunes compatibility, video playback, photos module, and a “plugin architecture”. That last part is just what Front Row needs. It also features BackStage, which allows you to easily organize and tag your movie collection. CenterStage is already a neat download to play with at this stage — but it’s still away from a proper release.

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iTheater. Just after the introduction of the Mac mini, this became the very first media center project for the Mac. The problem was that its slow development led it to become the last one in this list to release its first build. Right now, build 0.1.2 of the project features video playback (including DVD and Video_TS files), iTunes compatibility, photos module, widgets, and Apple Remote support. I wonder what would another year of development do to iTheater?

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Of all the apps mentioned, I’d have to say CenterStage is my favorite because of its price (free!) and features. Although, iTheater is showing tons of potential if they carry on the project properly. And if Media Central were to add support for US DVRs such as ElGato’s, it would be a perfect app and well worth its price.

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[tags]Apple,Mac,iTunes,Media[/tags]