The XBox as the Home Entertainment Media Hub

bigcitymike writes "Well it might be vaporware, but it appears Dreamix is trying to turn the Xbox into a PVR with a TV guide like scheduler. They also state PC as well as Mac/Linux support down the road. " Project Dreamix will turn the Microsoft Xbox into the ultimate home entertainment center." I presume it requires a mod-chip installed." The xbox media player really goes a long way towards this goal already. MSFT may not be the friendliest of companies, but for $200, the x-box makes a helluva stereo component.

Comments

Body of the article

[Angry White Guy]

For when it gets slashdotted...

Overview

Project Dreamix will turn the Microsoft Xbox into the ultimate home entertainment center. Right now we are in the alpha phase of course, but below is what we plan to complete before Beta release: -

* PVR Features (Scheduled recording, fast forward, rewind, pause Live TV)
* Video Playback (Based on Linux MPlayer - all popular file formats)
* Audio/Music Playback (Based on Linux MPlayer - all popular file formats)
* Image Viewer (Slideshow + Photo album)
* Setup Menu (All configuration will be done with the Xbox controller and/or DVD Remote with the use of a graphical keypad)

Although Dreamix will be based on Debian Xbox-Linux, all necessary libraries will be included in the distribution of the CD image and will auto-excecute upon being inserted into the Xbox DVD drive. This will allow for a friendly install by the average user.

Note: There will be a need to purchase a hardware add-on for video input since the Xbox gaming console does not currently have video inputs etc.

Why Dreamix?

"For a very long time, I had been developing software called VWare, 2 years ago the project was going well but found myself losing interest, and not having enough time. Now with the Xbox supplying the hardware power needed to take my old VWare project into a new realm, the Dreamix team had the idea, why not Personal Video Recording on Xbox? Ill be honest, I can not stand Tivos, ReplayTVs,Dish Network, DirecTV TV guide systems, menus and what not. I am a very picky person who wants my entertainment and system to give me a feel of power, worth my money. I have spent too many years watching the industry do things wrong and only 'hoping' more would be added. They are slowly getting there but I am personally tired of waiting and the impatient person I am, I am going to do it myself." - Lenn0x

My God!

[Omkar]

That hideous thing barely fits in my living room! Not that it lives there, of course - my trusty GC sits next to the TV.

XBox as a media hub? That's MS's stated goal. And they're being thwomped by everyone worldwide (although they compete with Nintendo in the US and Europe, they're outsold by PS1 in Japan).

Private Beta release link..

[Angry White Guy]

A little more Karma Whoring
Their beta signup form.

Unfortunately

[glrotate]

Easybuy2000, the exclusive distributor of the MAtrix no-solder modchip got busted a few days ago. That will be a major stumbling block for people trying to mod their Xboxen.

Re:Unfortunately

[Troed]

pogo-pins aren't meant for long-term use. Solder "crawls" over time, and you _will_ get the red/green-flashing problem and then you'll have to re-align your Matrix. Again, and again, and again.

All that, while the chip is really a $4 cheapmod. You'd been a lot better of buying one of those and solder it in.

How could this work?

[I Am The Owl]

Doesn't the XBox only come with something like a 10GB hard drive? How in the world would that work out for PVRs? Last I checked, you needed a serious amount of storage space in order to make a decent PVR (along the lines of 60 to 80GB). Also, apparently, you are required to purchase seperate hardware and add it in somehow in order to get video input.

Wouldn't a TiVO or Replay TV be much cheaper than this? Not just adding in hardware costs, but all the time required to get all this working. It seems to me that the XBox just wasn't designed for this kind of usage.

Re:How could this work?

[Troed]

The Xbox takes standard 3.5" IDE drives, and replacing the built in drive takes about a minute or so, and can be done by anyone with a Torx 20 + 15 + 10 screwdriver.

120Gb works just nicely.

Re:How could this work?

[sardonic2]

Works great you just need to copy a KEY on the drive over, other than that it is standard pc/except the dvd rom drive. If you have a XBox thats modded and all that, well then for another 100$ you can have a PVR fuck tivo.

Might work

[Anonymous Coward]

I know some of the people who are working on the Dreamix, one person is doing the graphics (they look awesome) and another is doing some of the coding (he's a little prodigy). You dont need a mod chip, they're going to be selling a piece of hardware (less than $100) that connects to the box via ethernet. Cable plugs into the small box, is encoded into mpeg2 in real time, and send to the xbox. The software will be free to download and burn. Because the hardware is ethernet-based, it could be used for a PC.. but there just isnt software. Also, they're using linux and under the GPL microsoft can't toucht them, especialy since the software is free.

Re:Might work

[Troed]

Complete rubbish - you need software running on the Xbox and for that software to run you need a modchip.

No you can't.

[glrotate]

Their site says their backordered. Easybuy was the EXCLUSIVE distributor. Everyone else bought from them.

is XBox the way to go ?

[thomasvs]

Personally I don't think the XBox is the way to go. Sure, it is readily available. Sure, it is cheap. Sure, Microsoft is selling them at HUGE loss.

But I really don't want to be limited by the limited hardware. In two years' time, how are you going to upgrade the box ?

I'm working on a similar project myself (A href="http://davedina.apestaart.org/">The Dave/Dina Project), which is a distribution (based on Red Hat) to turn a PC into a media hub. It works, it's in our living room, it has 200 GB of storage space (the 550 albums it has encoded to Ogg to date take about 35 GB of those), it records video (we record about 15 shows each week, all through a web interface), it plays emulator games and even Doom, it shows photos, and s on.

It isn't the prettiest thing in the world (WE NEED ARTISTS !), but it's open, you can swap out components, tinker with it, and help us improve it.

I don't want to be tied to any hardware at all, especially not Microsoft's. How long before a cease-and-desist order is issued ?

Just don't buy an Xbox to watch DVDs

[haggar]

Unless you have been sleeping under a rock for the last 12 months, you would certainly know that there are DVD players of comparable quality to the Xbox, at half the price. Also, they don't require a mod-chip to play Divx, MP3, SVCD and VCD in addition to DVD.They also have less moving parts (the Xbox has two fans and a hard disk, in addition to the DVD mechanics) and is therefore more reliable and dissipates less.

Also, the DVD players available today are all multi-region enable-able through the remote. Some will even remove Macrovision with a remote hack. For the Xbox, you will need a modchip to achieve the same.

Oh, and the DVD player comes with a remote, unlike the Xbox.

Re:PVR ability?

[neonstz]

Someone is (or was) working on PVR support for XBox Mediaplayer using the WinTV PVR USB. The X-Box got 4 USB inputs (controller ports), so using one of them for this device shouldn't be a problem.

Re:PVR ability?

[mschoolbus]

I was reading that they are looking for people to help produce an adapter that would more than likely go through the ethernet port they said. They have the design basically done, just need someone to make it real.

I would prefer it to use a controller port... What if I want my home entertainment media hub to access a network to play movies and music?