Slashdot Mirror
Modded XBox The Ultimate Multimedia PC?
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.
Not only does it already have standard PC hardware, letting Linux coders use their previous experience, but it's got some other special things that are also perfect.
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.
- Sherman
I think one of the great advantages of XBox Media Center is that it also doubles as an excellent shell/launcher (especially with its built-in FTP support) and replaces both applications like EvolutionX which was a dedicated launcher and the now defunct XBox Media Player. No other dedicated media device offers such integration between shell/player... on Windows they're two seperate applications which don't seem to integrate particularly well.
XBox Media Center's page (googe cache)
There's my karma whoring for the month.
Here is a better link to the article. The one in the original post bypassws the RR-mirror selection and goes directly to www6...
You may want to keep tabs on CXBX, the Xbox Emulator. See this 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
Have you read the Moderator Guidelines
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 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
Treat me like a marketing stat, and I'll treat your movie like a series of ones and zeros
Yes, you can build your own or use something called an "IR Blaster". I use a small circuit (found at lirc.org) with lircd to change channels on my sat receiver box for my MythTV setup. Works like a charm just from a serial connection.
--- witty signature
If you kept up with the latest builds and news, you'd know that they had to remove the Windows MCE skin because of the usual MS licensing issues. It has beenreplaced with the Dell Media Center look (whose license doesn't have any restrictions on copying it) for quite a few CVS builds now.
Mine can read DVD+R.
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)
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
If you couple this with the WinTV-250btv/BeynondTV bundle for $139 (often on sale for $129) from SnapStream SnapStream Store, you've got quite a nice little setup for under $250 that supports one television, and numerous computers doing playback.....
The CPU and GPU on the xbox share memory, and not in a cheap pc onboard video "8 megs of RAM used as VRAM" way, they can both access the same memory. It can thus do some really cool shit for a PC as "weak" as it is.
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.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
That's not to mention the fact that a $20 box buys you HDTV component video output as well
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.
Actually, you can flash the onboard TSOP or do some other type of software based mod; both don't require a modchip. I don't know if you can do a software based mod (boot off a CD all the time?) and have an upgraded HD. The TSOP mod should work fine but then you can't disbale the mod to play on Live.
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.
It's not the DVD Drive that determines if a system supports progressive scan or not, it's just a data delivery device - it's the output from the video encoder chip.
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.
"Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence." - Charles de Gaulle
The best thing you can get is a model 50001 PS2 with network adaptor, a memory card, and GameShark MP3 player (a licenced form of the BroadQ QCast software easily available at video game stores).
:)
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.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
This nets you the ability to play progressive scan DVDs,
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 ($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.
Yeah. That would be, well, all of them. Every software DVD player outputs progressive (hint: your monitor is a "progressive scan" device). The key, of course, is the output from the PC to a [HD]TV. I don't know about Nvidia, but ATI's cards (at least the ones with an option for component output - of particular interest would be the All-In-Wonders) support the various HDTV signals (480p/720p/1080i).