I first started this site to advertise a small buisness venture into videography, and video editing.  Though the venture didn't really take off, I've kept using the name "Mayhem Creations" and continue to use the site to document the many projects I have on the go, or have completed.  I do still enjoy video editing/compositing, they just have taken a backseat to my true love in hobbies: DIY (Do It Yourself) work with electronics and computers.  This passion has unfolded to a deep appreciation for home theater and hi quility audio.  This passion also helped me understand the role in which computers can serve in a home media enviroment.  Main projects that I'm working on, one can view from the links on the left side menu bar on this page.  Some of these major projects have spinoff projects such as: the MayIR and WinLIRC for the HTPC or the MayBALD and Maytrix for the multi-zoning, whole house audio distribution project.

 

Working on these computer based projects also exposed me to different frontend software, which gives everything a nice visual GUI, and background integration to retrieve the relavent media that you want to view, or listen to.  I've tried many frontend packages, but the one that seemed to suit my DIY thirst for the last few years has been XLOBBY.  Xlobby is a very customizable frontend program that alowed an individual to enhance his/hers home theater experience.  Recently another frontend has caught my attention.  MediaPortal has come a long way, and recently I decided to switch over to it.  It was a hard decision to finally switch from Xlobby, and though I still appreciate the software very much below are the reasons for the change:

1) Xlobby was crashing with my increased sized movie database - I would get half way through the movie listings, and Xlobby would crash, display its infamous red "X" screen.
2) Was getting tired of manually updating all the databases across multiple machines.  MediaPortal just seems to be able to handle this better.
3) StreamedMP skin - what can I say, I based my xStreamed skin on this.  But the true skin is just so much more polished.  I also really like the way they did their music screen with the active fanart in the background.  There is no way I would have been able to accomplish this task in the free version of Xlobby, and I wasn't in the position to try and learn V3.
4) Built in TV support - something Xlobby has never had.
5) MediaPortal has a free Android app, which once installed allows you to control the MP machine via phone or tablet - really cool feature.  Yes, Xlobby V3 also has an Android app, but there is such a learning curve to truly take advantage of it.

6) I was just getting to the point, that I just want something that works decently...without too much setup and constant tweaking.   

 

The one thing Xlobby will always hold above the competition is its ability to be so customizable.  It can be customized in the way of skinning different interfaces very easily and effenciently.  I have skinned interfaces for use on the HTPC, my MediaPVR and the music distribution system, and have google pages that support these skins, though no longer actively updating.  Xlobby will always have a fondness in my heart, and will continue to be the defacto standard for me with my music distribution, but for all other aspects, I have seen that Xlobby may not be the program of choice anymore.  MediaPortal is pretty close to being stable enough that it has replaced my Xlobby frontends on my three media machines.

I hope that this site will be a very attractive, informative website.

 

 

Marbles.