Slashdot Mirror
Xbox Media Player Contest
mliu writes "Xbox Media Player, the GPL application that turns everyone's favorite hackable console (the Xbox) into a set-top-Divx/Xvid-playing-
Shoutcast-radio-streaming-
lean-mean-Mp3/Ogg-music-playing-all-while- sporting-a-pretty-user-interface-machine is holding a contest. They're in desperate need of help in terms of more developers and are holding a giveaway of 25 top of the line X2 Pro modchips for the 25 best patch submissions between now and March 31. If you don't know what Xbox Media Player is and/or feel the need to ask why bother hacking the Xbox, you have definitely gotta check it out. It turns the Xbox from Bill Gates' insidious plot to get into the living room into a set top box that can play practically everything even while sporting a sleek black look that won't stick out in your home theater system, and a user interface that your grandmother could use. And you can even run Linux on it in your spare time. It's no $100,000 but it's for a cause that is both more practical and useful if you ask me." The X-Box has proven itself an entertaining platform for hackers, and the XBMP is really excellent.
When it has visualization plug-ins, I think it'll be a great way to put MP3s in your stereo.
Maybe but if it turns out the developers of XBMP are making a product that the public want, without all that DRM crap, then why shouldn't they take sales away from MS?
I use XBMP daily and it absolutely rocks - the only thing missing is MPC audio support but divx/xvid/mp3/jpg playback is nearly flawless and everyone who sees it is amazed (I even have my home videos I took with my DVCAM on there converted to XVid and its so much nicer than whipping out a VHS videotape)
seany
None of the xboxes come with a 20gb hard drive. When they see the LBA size on the hard drive start with a "20" they think that is the disk size, which it is not. The only hard drives shipping are 10gb.
There are already mpeg2 USB solutions for win32 that could be used for the xbox with an adaptor, including those by hauppauge. You could also put one on the ethernet port though that would need different hardware. I'm personally waiting for hauppauge dec-2000t support, this usb box picks up mpeg2 from digital terrestrial transmissions in the UK and passes them thru USB. It's not impossible and people are already looking at it.
The newer ones do, my friend chips a lot of xboxes and he opened one up on friday fresh from the shop with a 20gb drive. Though to be fair it's irrelevent because you can stream from a PC share anyway making the HD size a non issue.
When it has visualization plug-ins, I think it'll be a great way to put MP3s in your stereo.
I'm working on a dll interface for the viz api. This is one feature that I'm very interested in finding some talented viz programmers, so if you're interested, please feel free to contact me on the xbmp forums.
Thanks
" turns everyone's favorite hackable console (the Xbox) "
Hey! The Dreamcast Scene is just as hot right now, especially now that SDL has been ported!
Although slightly off topic, if you are interested in something like this for your PS2, check out the broadq QCast Tuner for PS2. It too plays MP3s, OGG Vorbis, DiVX/xvid, MPEG-1, etc. It doesn't require a mod chip, which is nice, but it does requre the ~$40 PS2 network adapter. The developers are also extremely active on the forum, making it simple to get help.
And no, I'm not a broadq employee, I'm just a really satisfied customer.
-Steve
and you don't have to mod the xbox to run it. http://www.zdnet.com.au/gamespot/news/story/0,2000 011229,20271141,00.htm
Why? My Xbox is cheap and plays all my media, it also has more horsepower than the rest of those things put together.
I tell you what, when your palmos based handheld can play DVDs, DIVX, XVID, MP3, DVCAM and any of a dozen other formats on my TV with quality as good as a top-end PC then come back to me?
Or was your post nothing more than a barely-disguised advert for Linux without considering what other people want?
By the way you can run Linux on it too.
Slag off MS whenever it's relevent, which isn't here. If you have a better and cheaper way of viewing media and playing games on the living without a big-ugly ass beige PC humming away next to the TV then feel free to enlighten us.
Nope, it's an NForce based chipset, but with a GeForce3.5 GPU and an Intel P3 based processor (It's not quite a celeron, not quite a P3). No Via guts to be found.
BIOS is custom, and there's no legacy support in the chipset.
"You've got an invalid haircut" -Warren Zevon - Life'll Kill Ya
I have been thinking (and I certainly am going to) about building a system out of PC/Linux/Pinnacle DC10 compresor card.
But if I can get a working system for only 300 Euros That'l be cheaper..
My question to anyone who actually has a XBox : Does it make a lot of noise ? A friend lent me his PS2 for a week and it was the loudest piece of hardware in the appartment .. I.e. (IMNSHO) unusable as a movie player.
echo '[q]sa[ln0=aln80~Psnlbx]16isb572CCB9AE9DB03273snlbxq' |dc
ASF files are just butchered AVI files and can be easily converted. You fail it.
ASF files are not butchered AVI's at all. However, libavi has been able to demux an ASF stream for well over three years or so now, so its not like ASFs are a big deal. MPlayer can also handle WMV and WMA files without any trouble. Windows Media? Wassat?
Do you actually do any free software development? Perhaps you're just a good little consumer and don't care about the power struggles "behind the scenes" as long as you get your bread and circuses.
As it happens, if I wanted to play a DVD, I have the choice of my dedicated DVD player (which connects to a 5.1 decoder), my Playstation 2, or my Linux PC (which has my entire CD collection on it), all of which are connected to a decent amp. All three are better quality than an X Box.
What I think is strange is why Bill think's it's OK to sell his X boxes for $100 less than they cost to make, but he won't pay $100 towards my own choice of hardware. I'm not interested in a X Box, but if MS would pay to take $100 off the price of a PS2, that'd be cool. I bought one anyway though, because the games are a lot better.
Does my bum look big in this?