What To Do With a Free Xbox 360 Pro?

OzPeter writes "Last week I won an Xbox 360 Pro. However, I am not a gamer, and after looking at the current MS offerings, I am not tempted to become one. But I am in the market for a Media Center PC that I can use for streaming TV shows off the 'net as well as general web browsing and displaying video through the HDMI port. With that in mind, I again looked at MS and saw they seemed to have positioned the Xbox as an adjunct to a separate Windows Media Center PC and not as a stand alone unit (which is not what I want). So, once again, I did some more research into the Xbox homebrew scene and discovered things like Xbox Linux. But after reading that site, it is apparent that MS is trying to beat down the homebrewers, and I am left wondering how much hassle it would be to go down that path. So my question is: how should I re-purpose my Xbox? Is it worthwhile doing the Homebrew/Linux option (and can anyone share any experiences)? Are there other ways of re-purposing the device that I haven't considered? Or should I just keep it boxed up as a Christmas present for a favorite nephew?"

Comments

Why bother?

[M0b1u5]

Why let yourself in for a world of hurt for a device which will likely never operate in the way you require.

Best to give it as a gift, or sell it on eBay and pocket the cash, and invest that in your stand alone box.

Frankly, I can't believe you are even contemplating it.

Re:Why bother?

[Nick Ives]

Frankly, I can't believe you are even contemplating it.

The original Xbox remains, once modded, one of the best HTPCs you can get. You guys in the USA even get HD output! Unfortunately that feature was disabled in the European Xbox, but I doubt an Xbox could deal with full 1080p AVC-1 anyway. Still, if you want an SDTV media centre just use an old Xbox, there's nothing better.

I bought an original Xbox many moons ago after going round to a friends house and seeing him running Xbox Media Centre (XBMC), actually playing games on it was a secondary concern. Having said that, being able to install games on the HD was a very nice feature to have back then and I'm glad MS has replicated it with the 360. If they carry on at this rate then they'll catch up with the homebrew version of their last console by the next-next gen ;)

Re:Why bother?

[sexconker]

The original Xbox remains, once modded, one of the best HTPCs you can get.

No it doesn't.
It lacks the horsepower to handle HD content.

XBMC was great, but it's limited by the hardware, and the 360 has thus far not seen a true successor to it.

Re:Why bother?

[AnotherUsername]

All three major consoles charge to develop.

The Nintendo Wii development kit is $1,700.
The Sony PS3 development kit is $2,000 (non-Linux)
The XBox 360 development kit....$100

Compared to the others, the XBox 360 development kit is a steal. As for not offering anything in return, consider:
1.) Small indie teams can work on a major console without breaking the budget.
2.) The games created by the small indie teams can be hosted on a major console's server, allowing instant access to millions of possible customers.
3.) Small indie teams don't have to be major developers in order to use it (unlike Nintendo).

Depending on the price that the game ends up costing ($5, $3, or $1), given the millions of gamers who are on the marketplace, an indie game studio could somewhat easily recoup that year's losses($100) from having Microsoft host their game by selling anywhere between 20 and 100 copies of their game. If the game is good, they should have little problem. If it stinks, they may have more problems. If no one is buying the game, they will eventually take it off, freeing up the marketplace for others to try selling their games, which may or may not be good.

Also, if you think that the above prices are extreme, consider that licensing the Unreal Engine 3 costs $350,000. And that doesn't come with hosting. Plus, paying 3% royalties on all sales of games made with the engine.

People need to figure out that not everything Microsoft does is horribly horribly evil. They are a company. They do things to make money. They are more evil than some companies, less evil than others. Yes, they have done some pretty shitty things in the past. That doesn't mean that everything they do in the future is done in the name of Satan.

Oh, and before anyone accuses me, no, I don't work for Microsoft. I am just open-minded enough to realize that they are a company, not a church. Business is brutal. Some people can't handle this, and prefer to remain in an idealistic fantasy world. I used to be in that world. I hated everything Microsoft. But then I grew up, and I dealt with reality. And I've been much happier and less stressed than I ever could have been had I remained a die-hard anti-Microsoft zealot.

Re:Why bother?

[zav42]

Wait a moment... For 100$ you are not getting the full development kit. This is just the dev system to write managed code. To develop a retail game or even a professional arcade title, devkits are MUCH more expensive last time I checked.

Re:Why bother?

[Anonymous Coward]

All three major consoles charge to develop.

The Nintendo Wii development kit is $1,700.

The Sony PS3 development kit is $2,000 (non-Linux)

The XBox 360 development kit....$100

Depending on the price that the game ends up costing ($5, $3, or $1), given the millions of gamers who are on the marketplace, an indie game studio could somewhat easily recoup that year's losses($100) from having Microsoft host their game by selling anywhere between 20 and 100 copies of their game. If the game is good, they should have little problem. If it stinks, they may have more problems. If no one is buying the game, they will eventually take it off, freeing up the marketplace for others to try selling their games, which may or may not be good.

You're flatly wrong.

The Xbox 360 development kit is absolutely not $100. You can get a one-year membership to the XNA Creators Club, which allows you to submit games to the Xbox Indie Games service, for $99 USD. The actual development kit associated with this service is free, but you need to pay a $99 fee to actually use the publication channels for a year.

This is NOT a commercial development kit.

Moreover, as it relates to "commercial potential", Xbox Indie Games have been repeatedly grumbled about by prominent authors. The absolute upper cap for the single highest profile Indie Game is 10,000 unit sales. Developers in the price categories that even have a shot at that order of magnitude of sales are taking anywhere from 70 cents to 2.10 for their games. For commercial game production, Xbox Indie Games will NOT be profitable.

Actual commercial Xbox 360 development kits, used to develop Xbox Live Arcade games and Xbox 360 games, cost substantially more.

All of this information is available in a ten second Google tour of the subject. Why was parent modded +5?

Sell it

[MichaelSmith]

Its worth less to you than somebody who would use it for gaming.

Re:Sell it

[bigstrat2003]

The 360 can do some video streaming from XP computers with media player 11 or Vista boxes but it's a pain in the butt. There's products like tversity that can do transcoding but it's so much more hassle than it's worth it's not even funny.

What?! Streaming video files from your PC to your 360 is dead easy. Is the format DivX/XviD (most files)? Plays with no modification right from the dashboard. If not, set up the media center (can be a bit of a pain, but hardly the epic pain in the ass you claim), install Transcode 360 on your PC, select file, select the Transcode option, done.

If that's considered hard (where the majority of files play seamlessly, and the rest require only slightly more work), I want to know what the heck easy is. That must be something like "the device picks which files to play for me, and plays them without my intervention".

eBay it (or otherwise)

[Macthorpe]

Sell it as new and put the money towards something that's built for the purpose you want it for. Bit easier than spending hours messing about with it.

Re:eBay it (or otherwise)

[Macthorpe]

You're not really fixing anything, are you? What you wrote is at best orthoganal to the real point and adds nothing more than a bad attempt at trolling to the discussion.

Grade: D-
Notes: See me after class

(The sooner this fucking stupid 'LOL FIXED THAT FOR YOU' meme ends the better, sorry)

Re:eBay it (or otherwise)

[Ihmhi]

Mommy, why are those old guys fighting on the lawn in their underwear?

Re:eBay it (or otherwise)

[LinuxGeek]

You rang? And to be slightly helpful, he could trade the xbox for an older PS3 fat model that can run linux. It actually runs ubuntu fairly well.

Favorite nephew

[onyxruby]

Offer it as a bribe, perhaps if he does well in school or the like. It sounds like you already have made up your mind about the product not meeting your needs. Certainly things like the linux project would be at best pure hack value, and not much for practical use. If you want to do that, find the right ps3 and relish in a vendor that doesn't actively fight alternate os's and lets you install Linux without all the hassle.

Re:Favorite nephew

[EdIII]

find the right ps3 and relish in a vendor that doesn't actively fight alternate os's and lets you install Linux without all the hassle.

Last I heard, that premise is patently false or as I like to put it, complete fucking bullshit.

Sony does actively fight to prevent anyone from having complete control of the hardware they rightfully own. PSP is the perfect example of this.

When Sony allows you to install Linux AND have complete access to all the hardware, let me know, and I will agree with your statements. Right now, you can install Linux. Yes, that is true. Do you really have access to all the hardware though? Yeah.... you don't.

Sure you can borrow my car and mess with all the radio station presets. Tires? Well, of course not! Don't be silly. I'll keep those at home.

Re:Favorite nephew

[EdIII]

really no good reason

It is not a good reason. It is not ethical, moral, legal, etc. Sony does not rent me a PSP or PS3, they sell me one. I have had these arguments before, and quite simply, it is corruption in our legal system that allows them to continue.

The DMCA is absolute fucking bullshit. I have the absolute unequivocal right to completely own my hardware. To use a car analogy on Slashdot, there have been cases similar to this with auto manufacturers. All of the cases had been decided in the favor of the consumer. So why is electronics any different? They brought copyright infringement into it.

Without the DMCA it would be absolutely legal for you to put whatever you wanted onto a PSP or PS3 and Sony would have absolutely no recourse at all. However, since they used those cock-sucking whores in Congress to create a law that states my perfectly moral and ethical enjoyment of my own property circumvents Sony's bullshit, that I am somehow a criminal.

Last time I checked we can still own guns in this country. Well, by Sony's logic, they can take away my guns since it could possibly be used for something bad. That logic does not work, and thankfully, has not worked yet to deprive me of my right to bear arms.

This fallacious logic that is being used to deprive citizens of their rights and properties has to be fought at all costs. It has to stop.

Let me put in another way. I brutally raped some young girl because I was horny. "It's not like I did not do it for really no good reason"

Re:Favorite nephew

[Cryacin]

Last time I checked we can still own guns in this country. Well, by Sony's logic, they can take away my guns since it could possibly be used for something bad. That logic does not work, and thankfully, has not worked yet to deprive me of my right to bear arms.

I live in Australia. In the 90's some loon named Martin Bryant went ballistic with a few guns and shot up a bunch of people in Port Arthur Tasmania. Our illustrious Gruppenfuerer John Howard took it upon himself to ban "semi-automatic" rifles. Unfortuantely for us, he slipped a mickey and made it very very difficult to even own a .22 bolt action.

Sadly, over here that thought already holds true...

Re:Favorite nephew

[Cryacin]

Yes, a country without guns... That most be HORRIBLE!? There can be no high school shootings when there's no access to guns!

Yes, you're right. That's exactly why kitchen knives et al should be banned as well! Will someone please think of the children?!? http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/12/2568031.htm
http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/news-gossip-chat/26459-stabbing-mountain-creek-high-school.html
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-42523133.html

A gun is a tool exactly like a knife is a tool, except of course for those who gleefully eat meat and yet seriously have no idea where it comes from.

Penny Arcade Charity

[Anonymous Coward]

Penny-arcade.com has a charity called "Child's Play" which provides hospitalized children with toys and electronic entertainment. If I were at a loss for what to do with a new video game console, that would be the way to go for me.

Congratulations on your good fortune.

Re:Penny Arcade Charity

[rm999]

Also, don't forget that the XBox is considered income and will be taxed as such. It could cost you up to 100 dollars to keep it or sell it (assuming you do your taxes honestly - I believe here in the US the IRS has been known to go after people who don't declare their prizes). So, if you sell it you only get 100-150 dollars - not too much.

If you give it to charity it is no longer income, and won't be taxed. I think this is the best way to go - the IRS can't tax karma ;)

Re:Penny Arcade Charity

[Mad Merlin]

...the IRS can't tax karma

Yet. No doubt they're working on it.

Jeez, you don't have to brag about it.

[tommut]

In similar news I just won a million dollars, however I am not much of a consumer. Anyone know of any good ways to spend this cash?

Re:Jeez, you don't have to brag about it.

[thrillseeker]

Anyone know of any good ways to spend this cash?

My thoughts intrigue you, and you wish to subscribe to my newsletter ...

Re:Jeez, you don't have to brag about it.

[pig_man1899]

Cocaine and Hookers my good man; cocaine and hookers

Use it for casual gaming gift it, or sell it

[syousef]

Seriously, you're trying to use a proverbial hammer to saw a tree. An XBox 360 is the wrong tool for anything but gaming, which is what it was built for. Therefore trying to run Linux on it or do other cool stuff is a waste of the machine UNLESS you're into that cool stuff to start with and THAT is the game. Given that you're still wondering how to use it, the answer is simple. Use it for gaming. Or sell it and let someone use it for gaming. Or give it away and let someone use it for gaming. As a media center, there are better options - if you sell it put the money towards buying one. As a linux PC, an XBox isn't the best solution. Sell it and buy a nice Intel or AMD based machine.

The world's full of interesting geeky stuff to do. One of the least interesting things you can do is to waste time forcing a machine to do something it's not designed for. Especially since you'll be using it not writing the software to do it in the first place. Life's too short.

Re:Use it for casual gaming gift it, or sell it

[EdIII]

As such it was more about action than tinkering. The tinkering montage was just a theatrical device.

Dear God. Hand in your geek card NOW.

I could not disagree MORE. A-Team was about how this group of expertly trained ex-military personnel kept constantly getting trapped in spaces full of parts, tools, various types of fuel and explosives, and other various materials. That coupled with Mr. T's magical tools which just coincidentally looked like a bunch of gold jewelery on his neck, allowed them to break through the various walls comprising their temporary prisons with a different death machine each week.

That show was a gold mine for little geeks growing up that have been tinkering and hacking away since then. It was definitely more about the "tinkering" than the "action". Any true card carrying geek on Slashdot knows this.

Come on. Hand it over.........

If you've got a big screen, sell it and get a PS3

[Lije Baley]

HTPC/Media centers are a pain in the a$$ and streaming video is for kids with 22" screens and huge pipes. Get a PS3, it's not perfect but it's an excellent blu-ray player, will stream stuff, and you won't have to spend an hour fiddling with it every other time you use it. Use it with TVersity or the like for more flexibility on streaming. Or if you do have just a small screen, keep the 360 and stream all you want.

Hospital

[Anonymous Coward]

Give it to a local children's hospital. Cheer up some kids that could use it.

Lets see...

[Darkness404]

You can either A) Use it to play games and some media B) Sell it C) Donate it/give it away. I have no doubt that a local children's hospital would be eternally greatful for the gift. You could always donate it to some guy like Ben Heck (http://benheck.com/) to use in a mod to help a gamer with disabilities (or just to look pretty cool as a mod), or if worse comes to worse, keep it in its box and save it for a few years and sell it then in mint condition.

Re:XBMC = Xbox Media Center

[snuf23]

XBMC was originally made for hacked classic Xboxes. It doesn't run on the Xbox 360. While it was great at the time, the old Xbox didn't support HD output which limits it's use these days.
XBMC has however been ported to run on Windows, Linux and Macintosh operating systems and does support HD output on these systems. This makes for a pretty good home theater PC setup and is more flexible than the built in stuff on Xbox 360.

re: Media Center

[transporter_ii]

I have a friend who modded an Xbox to make it a media center and it is awesome. I went the PC route and made a central PC server and stream to my TVs with a d-link set top box.

Here is my experience. I used to get movies and watch movies. Boy, were those the days. Now I get movies, rip movies, convert movies to avi or mp4, and move huge files around (very slowly). The last drive I bought was a 1.5 terabyte, and I'm thinking about getting another one...because what else do you freaking back up a 1.5 terabyte drive to but another drive? And my UPnP server was on Linux, but the box was dual boot, so if someone was in windows, we couldn't watch streaming video...so I just built a new server to fix that issue.

When I finally get to sit down and actually watch a movie, it isn't uncommon for me to get up in the middle of it and kick off another DVD folder to be converted.

If I went over to my friend's house to actually play a game on his Xbox media center, we would probably have to wait an hour and a half to play something, because he would probably be FTPing a big movie to it at the time!

And hey, I just ordered a mod chip and picked up an Xbox so he could build me one. Why? I don't know. It's just cool.

Two chicks at one time man.

[Anonymous Coward]

Two chicks at one time...

No IRS exceptions for prizes.

[kklein]

Nope, any prize must be claimed. See Publication 525, page 34. The example given is a $50 prize.

Report on form 1040, line 21.

Donate It

[foo fighter]

Give it to your local childrens' hospital. Be a gent and throw in extra controllers and an E for everyone game like Lego Indiana Jones, Lego Star Wars, or Viva Pinata.

I know what you can do with it...

[mjpaci]

Where's that goatse image when you need it...

Will it blend?

[damn_registrars]

Why nobody has asked this question before is a great cosmic mystery.