Modded XBox The Ultimate Multimedia PC? 358
Anonymous writes "Can a modded Xbox running homebrew software really beat all existing
designed-for-the-living-room multimedia devices hands down?! Tom's Hardware
Guide seems to think so. They reviewed Xbox Media Center
(XBMC) and say the free open source software turn an Xbox into The Ultimate Multimedia Center, the ideal home
playback system for audio and video.
(Apparently there is a PC software version available too:
Media Portal)" The article also explains some of the more convoluted issues surrounding XBMC. But I definitely agree that this is a great system.
It makes sense (Score:5, Informative)
It has HD TV-Out (Or RCA cables), and a DVD-ROM drive. A spacious 250GB HD can be installed to save everything under the sun, and after all that, you can still play games on it and not have to worry about viruses and worms, and most importantly, cheaters, playing online. It's cheaper than any hardware of that class should be. Cheap cheap cheap! That's why this is so popular.
Plus, you get the added bonus that you got to do something that Microsoft doesn't want, all while MS makes a loss on the XBox.
Launcher/Media Player integration is a big win (Score:5, Informative)
Sony PSX is better... (Score:0, Informative)
Xbox doesn't have Gran Turismo, GTA:VC, nor will it have the new one.
PSX is pretty bad ass, I must say.
Re:It makes sense (Score:-1, Informative)
Also, one major thing keeping this from being a great HTPC is the fact that there is no video input.
Alternate links (Score:5, Informative)
XBox Media Center's page (googe cache) [66.102.7.104]
There's my karma whoring for the month.
I modded my xbox... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:It makes sense (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Sony PSX is better... (Score:3, Informative)
Better link (Score:5, Informative)
Re:XBOX os (Score:5, Informative)
You may want to keep tabs on CXBX, the Xbox Emulator. See this [slashdot.org] story for more details. My computer is not much faster than my XBox and only runs Linux so it is of no use to me.
the_crowbar
Yes, and MythTV (Score:3, Informative)
However, I'll have to put in the required plug for MythTV [mythtv.org]. It does PVR stuff (TiVo), music, videos, weather, etc. I run mine in a little Shuttle XPC that integrates well into my home theater (doesn't look like an obvious computer). I run HDTV resolution out to my Sony TV and get a really stunning GUI.
I'm running Xebian on my xbox (Score:3, Informative)
I'm still really new to linux, and can't wait to move to linux. But there are still a few things holding me back.
So to get my feet wet with Linux and also to have fun, I installed Ed's Xebian [xbox-linux.org] on my xbox. I can boot up the xbox and play all of my normal xbox games. Then if I want to watch a video, I just boot up linux (which is now in the main xbox menu), run mplayer, and off I go.
Although I have had problems playing back certain videos. If the screen get's really complex, like if it's raining, and the video was compressed using dvix, or xvid, it can get pretty chunky.
It's not really a problem, but it happens every once and a while.
The only thing I've lost with running linux on the xbox is that I can no longer use xbox live.
Other then that I love it.
-asoap
UK: Sainsburys Have Remaindered Xboxes (Score:3, Informative)
Readers in the UK should note that Sainsburys (one of the UK's major supermarket chains) are currently selling the old Sega GT/Jet Set Radio Xbox bundle for GBP 75, not bad when you consider that Amazon.co.uk are currently selling the console for GBP 120 without bundled software.
No idea if this applies to all branches of Sainsburys, my local one in Edinburgh had them, phone ahead.
You can also your Xbox on the high street from Game, Dixons etc bundled with more recent games for more money but, hey, if you are going to mod your box, who needs to buy games.
Re:Question on Using a PC as a PVR (Score:4, Informative)
XBMC is a great piece of work (Score:1, Informative)
Pictures: check
DVDs: check
Divx: check
Samba support: check
and the check list goes on.
I love the inclusion of smb support since I can access audio/video files from my linux boxes. If really does provode the most bang for the buck IMO.
Re:doesn't work (Score:3, Informative)
What you're experiencing there is a card that MPEGs the video with an A-to-D conversion that's taking far too long. My ATI All In Wonder Radeon card can manage to take in audio/video without a noticiable delay.
Don't try to use any DVR-ish features while playing video games. Simply having the pause button available sometimes indicates that the software is saving the video to the HD and then playing it... and there's your 2-3 second lag right there!
XMBC is great (Score:1, Informative)
Considering for $149 and $5 to rent Mech Assault you can have your Xbox softmodded and run virtually any media (streaming over the network with several different sharing methods, playing locally off the hard drive, or off DVD/DVDRW/CDRW) it's hard to beat.
Re:Another Rip Off (Score:3, Informative)
Re:It makes sense (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Dolby Digital output? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Its great (Score:3, Informative)
There once were 3 main dvd-players in the Xbox, Thompson Phillips and Samsung (ordering from crappiest to best), but now there are several flavors out there.
Newer xboxes (1.6 recently hacked last week) come with a newer Phillips that reads everything.
I have a first run Xbox with a Thompson which is supposed to suck, but reads DVD-R(W), DVD+R(W), CD-RW but chokes on CD-Rs most of the time.
Of course, it's childs play to replace the DVD-ROM with a PC DVDROM and install a switch. PC DVD-ROMs performance is soooo much better than an XBoxes (16x vs 8x, etc)
Cheaper solution (Score:3, Informative)
If you couple this with the WinTV-250btv/BeynondTV bundle for $139 (often on sale for $129) from SnapStream SnapStream Store [snapstream.com], you've got quite a nice little setup for under $250 that supports one television, and numerous computers doing playback.....
Re:mod - 10000 Unintelligent (Score:5, Informative)
All those cool pixel shader effects and bumpmapping in Halo, for instance. The most expensive PCs from falcon northwest choke a little on that stuff, even at 640x480. Because the XBOX cpu can compute textures in RAM, and use them instantly without having to push them over an AGP bus.
The long and short of it is, you'd need an AGP/PCIX bus at least as fast as the Xboxes RAM bus to simulate this.
You could probably get close on current hardware, less taxing games may be emulated more easily.
It's not as simple as porting the "xbox OS", though I do forsee an Xbox emu before a PS2 or GCN emu.
Re:no question... (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah, but in all honestly the video quality of the XBox is not that great. It'll do for a lot of people that don't really care too much, but to call it the ultimate machine for video playback is absolute bullshit.
I've had it playing the same DVD, using the component video out, onto a 53" HD rear projector, next to a Toshiba DVD drive. The difference was, well, enough for me to get the hell back to Frys to return the XBox.
Seriously, there's no need to start a flamewar over this, just if you plan to use this as your DVD player you may want to check out the quality before the 'no questions asked return policy' expires.
It's just a suggestion, do with it as you please.
Re:no question... (Score:1, Informative)
Not a player to recommend because of it's crapy dual-disk tray which is very prone to breaking. In any case, it's outdated now so you probably won't be buying one anyway.
Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)
Re:no question... (Score:5, Informative)
I would add the following costs though:
- larger HD. 120GB costs ~$60 after rebate
- IR remote control: $30 (not needed but nice)
- Samsung DVD-ROM ~$50 (not needed but nice)
A note about the DVD-ROM. The XBox can have one of the following type of DVD-ROMs: Samsung, Philips, or Thomson. Only the Samsung will read CD-R's though. You can either try to trade someone $50 plus a Philips or Thomson drive, or there is a retial Samsung drive that can be flashed to work in the Xbox. Details of this are at xbox-scene.com [xbox-scene.com].
Re:Ummm, no (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/
"overlooked" no more
Or you can buy an Xbox and Mod it for less the $20 (Score:1, Informative)
Re:no question... (Score:3, Informative)
XBMC was a little flaky a few months ago when it first came out, but they have made leaps and bounds lately. Kudos to the team that's working on the project, because they are constantly and actively working on it.
I still haven't really found much that I can throw at it that it won't play!
It just kicks ass
Re:XBOX os (Score:3, Informative)
Re:no question... (Score:2, Informative)
To mod your xbox all you need is a copy of mechassault/splinter cell/007 agent under fire (you could rent it if you dont have it), a memory card, and some means of copying a saved game from your PC to the memory card. I just spliced an old USB plug into my controller cable (it can now be used on the PC and XBOX).
Once you've got those things, modding your box is a simple matter of copying the saved game to your xbox's hard drive and opening it from within the corrolating game.
Check out http://www.xbox-scene.com for all the details (the forumsn are a great help too, look under gamesave and dashboard exploits).
Re:XBOX os (Score:3, Informative)
Probably for the following reasons:
- TV's nice to play on.
- Games can potentially be 9 gigs.
- You lose the controller, and ya kinda need it.
- XBOX's are only $150.
- Emulators are fun to tinker with, but it takes a a long time to make one work that is relatively reliable. They don't really get interesting until the system's out of production.
Re:no question... (Score:3, Informative)
On my DLP set, the XBox does very well on divx playback. I use XBMP instead of XBMC most of the time, because it seems slightly more stable. The only issues I've run into are sync issues in a few movies, which seems to happen in both players.
Either way, anyone playing back downloaded movies on their XBox will find it to be a very pleasing experience compared to sitting in front of a monitor. Yeah, it's not "the ultimate", but it's chick-friendly easy and is a whole lot less hassle and cost compared to setting up a media PC. Oh, and it is free with a modded Xbox.
Re:Biggest issue (Score:1, Informative)
Re:no question... (Score:5, Informative)
If you hook a component video cable to the Xbox, it does indeed drive a 480p display.
XBMC is the newer version of XBMP - it's not quite as stable, but new builds are released VERY often, and it gets better and more stable with every release.
Modding my Xbox was the best possible thing I could've done for it. Microsoft is incredibly foolish not getting on-board with an "official" application like XBMC for people who wish to have run it on Xboxes that aren't modded. It would be very popular.
N.
Re:no question... (Score:1, Informative)
No. The Xbox is the wrong answer. (Score:4, Informative)
This nets you the ability to play progressive scan DVDs, a remote that can power on and eject the drive on your media device, the ability to play back MP3, OGG Vorbis, OGM, DivX (3.11, 4.x, 5.x), AC3 audio, JPEG, PNG, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and more via updates. The PS2 itself will play burnt backup DVDs. The server-side software's in Java and runs on Mac OS X, Linux, and even Windows!
The total cost for this is way less than your Xbox, with no modding required, and gives you a much quiter machine that can be controlled via a simple remote (I use my Sony RM-VL700 which "learned" the PS2 remote's signals).
Spend an extra couple of dollars on a PS1 memory card, and suddenly you can play PS1 in addition PS2 games as well. The only thing you're missing out on is Xbox Live!, but you can't use that with a modded Xbox anyways
The config is way cheaper, quiter, and lower maintenance than my old Windows PC setup. The only thing I really miss is the ability to play VCDs directly, but I can rip those onto a media share in seconds with xreadvcd. It's just so quiter and easier to use, I don't know why you'd go to the hassle of an Xbox that doesn't let you completely control every by IR remote, and also requires you mod it.
you need the prog scan patch for the ms dash! (Score:1, Informative)
otherwise it will run interlaced.
also, xbmp runs native HD, so it'll look great.
you're stupid
Re:no question... (Score:2, Informative)
The cables included in the Microsoft HD pack are light gauge cables. However, unlike the Monster solutions I've seen, the cables aren't important. The A/V box is separate, allowing you to use whatever high-quality cables you please. Microsoft did the Right Thing (tm) here, compared to Nintendo's integrated component cables (GC adaptor on one end, YPrPb RCA plugs on the other, light gauge crappy wire). The price would be much more than $20 if they had included good cables, but if you care you can simply go and buy a better set of cables.
Also, if you're going to spend $80 on cables, at least go to a good Hi Fi store (ie, not Circuit City, Best Buy, CompUSA, etc) and buy a good set of cables (Monster cables are typically overpriced for the quality; I personally prefer Audioquest/Cinemaquest [audioquest.com] cables). And don't forget to get a good optical audio cable while you're at it. DD 5.1 is a must-have feature for games, IMHO!
Re:No. The Xbox is the wrong answer. (Score:5, Informative)
The Xbox can do this easily. There is a one bit flag in the dvd player executable that turns it to progressive.
a remote that can power on and eject the drive on your media device
You can power off (or reset) the xbox via remote thru XBMC also. And eject implies that you'll have to get up and switch/insert discs anyways, so why do you need it on your remote?
the ability to play back MP3, OGG Vorbis, OGM, DivX (3.11, 4.x, 5.x), AC3 audio, JPEG, PNG, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4
so XBMC can play all that, and more. XVID, QT5, AAC, etc. etc. ad nauseum. Did you even RTFA?
The total cost for this is way less than your Xbox
Wrong. I bought a new xbox ($150), modded it with a homemade cheapmod [warmcat.com] ($7.50) and simply use the stock hard drive since I stream all my media from my fileserver anyways, thru Samba. I bought a cheap 3rd party remote, ($15) which brings my total to $172.50. Oh, and a simple switch to turn off the mod chip, and I play xbox live games till the cows come home.
I don't know why you'd go to the hassle of an Xbox that doesn't let you completely control every by IR remote, and also requires you mod it.
I dont know why you think this- I can do everything I need thru the xbox remote.
Get your facts straight next time.
Re:no question... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:no question... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:mod - 10000 Unintelligent (Score:3, Informative)
If you don't want to buy it, go to the local Borders and read it in the cafe'. :)
Re:no question... (Score:3, Informative)