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Recommendations for Desktop DivX Players?

Posted by Cliff on from the hassle-free-hardware dept.

Gheesh asks: "Early this year I was thinking on buying a desktop DVD/DivX player. When the KISS issue with MPlayer arose, I decided to postpone the purchase until things cleared up. Six months have gone by and there is not much useful information around on the licensing and hacker-friendly capabilities of the various hardware players that have appeared since then. Can anybody provide some insight into this subject?" Are there any hardware players out there that aren't mired in licensing fights that actually are worth the money?

5 of 28 comments (clear)

  1. Xbox by Vaevictis666 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Not for everybody, but I went the modded xbox route. Using a soft mod you can get XBMC on it running divx (or xvid, ogm, whatever) off of the DVDRom, hard disk, or even over the network. No remote control unless you get the DVD remote addon or a wireless controller, but it does work quite well. And it sure beats bringing the PC out from the other room :P

    1. Re:Xbox by sycotic · · Score: 4, Informative

      amen brother!

      http://www.xboxmediacenter.com

      cheap and effective with the added bonus of being able to play games too (and linux for all you loonie linus lovers ;-)

      and of course if you actually want to download XBMC you will be needing none other than XBINS http://www.xbins.org - the definitive homebrew software archive for XBOX enthusiasts!

      just to keep you in the loop once you're interested you also can't go past _the_ modding/homebrew news source http://www.xbox-scene.com

      --
      -- If I were a fish, I'd be wet
    2. Re:Xbox by Vaevictis666 · · Score: 4, Informative
      Soft mod being a software mod. This is using a special save game. Instructions and tutorials and such can be found at www.xbox-scene.com. (Try the "Tutorials" link up top)

      Xbox-scene also has gobs of information if you want to go the whole way with your xbox and get a mod chip.

      Other than that, like the other guy said, xbins.org has a whole slew of homebrew games and such, ranging from emulators to actual homebrew games, file utitlies, and the like. You will generally need to go on IRC to download them, since they are built with the official XDK and as such are illegal to distribute. I do highly reccomend XBOMBERBOX if you have 4 controllers and have a few friends that would enjoy a few rounds of bomberman :)

  2. Momitsu V880 by Tyrdium · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Momitsu V880 seems to be pretty famous over at AVS Forums. It plays DivX, XviD, MP3, and pretty much anything you can throw at it. It's got a DVI output, and the image quality is supposedly at the top of the pack. One of the only places I've found in the US that sells it is Extreme Phono. The V880 costs about $250, and they're supposed to start selling the V880N (networking capabilities) around late June for about $400.

    1. Re:Momitsu V880 by Tyrdium · · Score: 4, Informative

      Sorry, this is the correct address.