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XBMC Discontinues Xbox Support
Xistic writes with news that the XB in XBMC won't mean Xbox any more. Quoting the project's own website: "The last official release for the XBOX by the XBMC team was Atlantis, over 18 months ago. Since then, one brave soul (Arnova) has been merging code from the main codebase into the XBOX branch in our repository. Because there were many users out there that took advantage of these updates, we had no problem with this. But times have changed. The XBOX has hard limits for what it can handle. Some users are satisfied with these limits, and we encourage them to use XBMC there if they are happy. But it is a popular misconception that official XBOX development is still taking place by the team, so we have decided to set it free. We have enough on our plates already, and worrying about a deprecated platform just increases our workload. A few days ago the XBOX branch was finally removed from our subversion repository."
We have been working on taking over the xbox branch for the last couple of months. http://www.xbmc4xbox.org/ so if you feel you can help head on over. We still have tons of work to do but it's getting really close to being back on track with continued development.
In its day, and for a fair while after, the XBOX was an excellent deal for video applications. ~PIII-733 level performance and(rather more importantly) a decent set of video outs, something that was sort of dodgy with the PC graphics cards of the day. They got quite cheap, especially used, as well.
However, at this point, a PIII-733 with, IIRC, 64MB of RAM, just isn't that exciting. Nor, with the proliferation of nettops, is the price delta between a real computer and a used xbox nearly what it used to be. Then there is the fact that, while XMBC as a project has always been legit, actually building it for the xbox has been legally kind of dodgy.
That huge black box was the best media center I have had, the WD TV Live only comes close since it can play H.264.
It is kind of funny how history made this package evolve. The XBMC, which abreviates "XBOX Media Center", was originally developed for the XBOX. And now, it supports different platforms and operating systems but not the XBOX any longer. If you don't know its history, you'd find it a joke what XBMC stands for.
Yes, Zotac ION boards do it exceptionally well according to pretty much every review I've read. I'm going to build a HTPC based on one of these.
I think, therefore I am. I think?
I think best option is probably an Ion chipset small box, and run XBMC natively booting off USB/SD card. One of the nice things about my Xbox XBMC is that it works like an appliance - it does't need to be booted/shutdown like a conventional OS - you just turn it on and off. Yes, I know it boots, but you know what I mean - my kids can use it, turn it on/off with impunity etc.
It's the little things that count - the Xbox had IR control, a DVD drive, and didn't ever need a keyboard or mouse connected to work. It's going to be difficult to replace with something half as functional and easy to use...
Buy something with hdmi and nvidia ion and I'm sure you can run xbmc with hd content.
I'm less sure about how good chipset acceleration is in standard intel atom netbooks etc.
I have both, as well as a couple of small VIA boxen.
Basically, for 1080p IMAX content, get an ION based atom. I have a Zotac N330 running the latest XBMC. It can do the aforementioned quality at 60fps, has an onboard HDMI out (including audio!) and was extremely simple to set up.
Zotac ION UK price: £130 plus a stick of ram and a case. It's great value! Just remember to offload the graphics using VDPAU (it's a setting inside XBMC).
The Atom DG (Intel reference) doesn't do anything like it. The VIA equivalents don't have graphic support for linux VDPAU either. Net result - they struggle with anything over SDTV. forget 720p or above with those.
I've been using XBMC for over 5 years now. Up until last year it was completely on two XBoxen. It was fine for it's time, but as more and more HD content became available, the XBox started revealing its limitations in a big way.
I started using XBMC on a computer with the Live version on a USB thumbdrive. I would boot the thumbdrive on my work laptop and plug into my HDTV via a VGA connection. Last summer I built a full fledged mini-ITX HTPC with a Zotac Intel motherboard and integrated nVidia graphics. I don't use a mouse to control it. I use my Wii remote or a PS3 Bluetooth remote. Both work well. The Wiimote works almost completely out of the box, the PS3 remote takes some work.
If you visit the XBMC boards, you see that there are plenty of people using it on computers both hooked up to televisions and those that aren't. It's available for Linux, Windows, and OSX. There's even a GSOC project for porting it to a Beagleboard platform.
If you can't understand why someone would use it on a comp, then you haven't seen it lately.
"It's hard to be a man when there's a gun in your hand"
For $100 you can get an Asus O!Play that will play all your files (at 1080p, including MKVs), has HDMI output, and comes with a remote, and requires no additional software.
Track your TV Shows with your iPhone - FREE
As a XBMC user on the old Xbox platform, I would like to say thank you to all the code monkeys out there who made that old junky hardware viable for nearly ten years even though it was not the purpose design for the hardware.
I see this as a great move for the project to disregard the limitations of the original hardware as they revitalize the project to better compete with some of the other Media Center software that has started looking more attractive in the last 2 years.
Good by Xbox, you had a good run!
Wii has emulators for every older console available for it, and the classic controller is closer to those older controllers than an xbox-controller.
The Xbox graphics chipset had only two advantages over PC chipsets of the time: 3D graphics, and SDTV output as a standard feature. The SDTV feature is less important now that virtually all TVs made in the past three years have VGA and HDMI inputs. And unless one writes half the video decoder in a shader (as in some modern H.264 decoders), 3D graphics won't take much load off the CPU for video decoding; perhaps the biggest thing a GeForce 3-class pixel shader can do is help convert YUV to RGB. Remember that the video codec that was popular among pirates and spaceshifters at the time was MPEG-4 Advanced Simple Profile (DivX and Xvid), which is roughly on par with Theora and less computationally complex than H.264.
Configuration failure. I've seen XBMC running flawlessly on various chipsets from vintage 2007 integrated ATI chipsets and old 5xxx series Nvidia cards to 4xxx series ATI cards and newer AMD/ATI integrated chipsets. In fact, I doubt that it is even an XBMC configuration problem - sounds like DirectX or your NVIDIA drivers are out of date. Either way, head over to the XBMC Forums" for support. It's a fantastic community that will almost certainly help you out with your problem. Only, try not to slander XBMC until you figure out how you mis-configured your system.
Nearly all nettops are NVidia ION based.
The CPU in any nettop (at the worst a single core Intel Atom) is somewhat better than the 733 MHz PIII in the Xbox (Maybe significantly? I'm assuming the PIII has significantly better performance per clock cycle than the Atom, but I'm not sure if it's enough of a delta to make up for less than half the clock speed), and the Ion is a significantly better NVidia chipset than the one in the Xbox.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
ASRock ION 330 works like a charm for £260.
Just get something that supports VDPAU. Contrary to what most new system builders think, you do not need a quad core 2.5gHz CPU to play back video when you have hardware acceleration.
I bought the cheapest CPU/Mobo bundle with gigabit ethernet at Newegg. It was a 1.8gHz Celeron with 1GB of RAM. Everything accelerated with a GT220.
I've played a blueray rip with 0 studdering. The only time I get studdering is when SABnzbd is finishing unrarring a file. As long as you are using it for JUST an HTPC you should be fine. It's not completely fanless, but I can't hear it behind from 12' away.
Asus Revo 1600s are on sale for $140-160 refurbed and should work great.
CAn any nettops run media PC stuff reasonably well?
Look for the Acer Revo - $200 for the single core Atom version, ION chipset, does full HD easily, small, quiet, HDMI out... I have the dual core version which was $330, but that also comes with twice the RAM, a wireless keyboard & mouse, & Windows 7. There are a lot of places with information on XBMC & Windows MC setups, search for Revo HTPC. I really like mine, it's recording OTA HD & works great.
I find Apple-TV to be a wicked XBMC platform.
By itself the Apple-TV is pretty junky. You can buy stuff from iTunes store or rent etc, and stream your iTunes stuff over to it for easy playing, but overall not worth the money.
BUT, i threw a Broadcom Crystal HD (http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Broadcom_Crystal_HD for some info) in it (replacing the wifi card which I did not need) and put XBMC on there and it is fantastic. Will play 1080p HD no problem, and damn near any format used in online downloading without a hitch.
This way, the features that weren't so compelling on an Apple-TV before are now great perks to my XBMC install. I can instantly rent a movie in HD if my download doesn't complete or the file ends up corrupt. If I can't find a move online, I usually can on iTunes. They are fairly complementary.
All in a tiny little box 7x7x1.
Only real disadvantage I've run into is the limited remote.
It's easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
Wow. Just hurt us people who rely on CHaOS (Cheap Array of Obsolete Systems). The Xbox was a 39.99 dollar media center which played all DVD's and some good games on the TV and it was networked into the File servers. It is GREAT and XBMC is great too... and now.... wow.
Come on, Whats the point of XBMC if you dont have it on an Xbox. Btw, just crack the darn 360 and put it there too... or the ps3 or.. Wii... for gosh sakes!
I can program myself out of a Hello World Contest!!
Fork over a couple hundred bucks and move up from a single core P3 for kripes sake! Why in this world would you want to hold back development of a damned good HTPC software in order to satisfy an ever smaller number of slow proprietary machines? Would you be happier if they just dropped XBOX out of the name entirely and called it something else? These guys don't want to have to sweat the low end hardware anymore and are trying to move forward - as someone who has the newer hardware I commend them! These guys aren't just piling on all sorts of CPU intensive stuff expecting some monster CPU to run it but hamstringing them to sweat performance on a single core P3 class CPU with no memory that has to be hacked just to install and compiled by a pirated compiler is just silly.
Yes, I still have an XBOX hacked to run older XBMC and that build is like 2 years old - still runs as well now as when it was installed so who cares? There's now folks just working on the XBOX version and that's great but there's no way it's fair to ask the current team who has their sights set on bigger things to keep looking backwards to support the old. Better to drop support than support it poorly and hear the bitching when something breaks.
Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
Many of us commenting here love(d) our Xbox's - it was a true monster at playing video, it played _everything_ :/ such a huge shame.
Why oh why did Sony block access to the accelerated video features on the PS3 under linux? XBMC would've been PERFECT on the PS3.
Wifi, gigabit, 1080p output, USB ports, internal HDD