Ultimate Media Center (dvds,mp3s,xvid,divx etc)

[Gateway69]

Xbox Media Center is the bomb.. if you ever where looking for the ultimate all in one system to replace a lame ass pc connected to your AV system to wach all your free d/l movies you got deff go this route..

I know its not new and I have been using it since the old XBMP builds but just fyi for those peeps, and also take a peak at the new GUI for XBMC

http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/info_screens.htm

[strobi]

I use it to play some divx's.. it's nice! I just don't want to spend 100$/week on DVDs (I do buy dvds, but only the good ones)

[FiReC]

right on man, the best part about it is you can stream all media from a computer.

[Gateway69]

yea. pretty neat, you set up a share on your computer, mount it on your xbox,

I have mp3s, movies and photos mounted, all which can be streamed to my xbox..

and plays shoutcast streams..

another cool thing is lets say you have a movie called

matrix revolutions on your HD, you hit a button on the xbox it goes out to IMDB, pulls the cover from the movie, and data from the movie and stores it on your xbox.. same goes for cd's,mp3s..

[Gateway69]

hahaha shit i didnt see this. must see how to enable it

[samlowry]

My old PC better then X-fuckin-Box. X-fuckin-Box - new-age of useless and expensive plastic boxes.

[Gateway69]

how can u beat spending $180 for a media player with nice gui, can mount your pc drives via network, stream shoutcast, show pics, bascially play any video format out there and not to mention can all be controlled by the dvd remote.. hmmm

u cant even get a video card for the PC for $180 that outputs better TV quality than the xbox does..

closed minded people..

[fuelcell]

Originally posted by Gateway69
how can u beat spending $180 for a media player with nice gui, can mount your pc drives via network, stream shoutcast, show pics, bascially play any video format out there and not to mention can all be controlled by the dvd remote.. hmmm

u cant even get a video card for the PC for $180 that outputs better TV quality than the xbox does..

closed minded people..

Interesting. Love geeky stuff.

[Gateway69]

yea its pretty rocking. cant be the price tag

Hell and if you Love old Arcade games they compiled MAME (arcade emulator) I have about 2000 roms from old arcads on my xbox its fun to play the old classics.

[FiReC]

not only can you play old arcade games, but also every nes, snes, and genesis!

[fuelcell]

If anyone is still on this thread, what is the best MOD Chip to use? Looks like the need to be soldered on? What's the risk of fucking your X Box up?

[grannytgp]

Originally posted by fuelcell
If anyone is still on this thread, what is the best MOD Chip to use? Looks like the need to be soldered on? What's the risk of fucking your X Box up?

Go with an Xecuter 2.3B Lite or Pro chip. The pro gives you no more functionality, but does give you the ability to flash the bios externally. System-mods is the place to get them from, if they ever get them back in stock: http://www.system-mods.com/

[- Jesus Christ -]

I have a PC with mame on one of my TVs and I have a Lite-On Divx plaer at both of my BIG TVs.... I like the way the hardware divx players act just like a DVD player and I dont hav to mess aroung with anything. Plus a modded X-Box is not going to run you $180 especially not If you want to get one wit hthe CD drives that will read burnt disks.... there are 3 different cd-roms that went into the XBox and only one of them will read most burnt CDs.

The only downside to my hardwad Divx players is that they do not have network support... But they do have a PCMCIA card slots and the OS is unix based.

I'm not saying I wouldnt like a modded xbox, its just not gonna cost $180 w/mod chip and a hard drive. And they do not read all Media.

[psyko514]

so i can network the xbox with my pc and store games/movies/mp3s on my xbox off my pc?

are there chips that don't require soldering? are there chips that will still enable me to play xbox online?

[playa]

I want this,

Is there non geeky tutorial that i can use?

[Gateway69]

all your answers to everything can be found at

http://www.xbox-scene.com

chips, tutorials, forums. etc..

There is alot of cool chips out now. 4th gen stuff..

ok $180 was a bit low, I already had a chip and i have plenty of extra hard drives laying around.. YOU Dont have to put in a bigger HD if you want. .

once your box is hacked you can run a server on one of your pc's where you define what the xbox can mount, when you set up your apps they usualy come with a config file for your ip and settings this is where you can define what your shares are..

but there is no way in hell a pc can touch this, the video out on a PC vidoe card just stucks the nvidia chip on the xbox was specifially designed to handle the tv output, not to mention optical audio out if you have it.

and well, if you just want it as a media player you can have it boot up as the media player, buy the dvd remote for the xbox and there you go everything controlled by the dvd remote with the custom easy to use gui.

[grannytgp]

I'm with you all the way on this one Gateway69... the Xbox as a media center kicks some serious ass. I think people have this preconceived idea about the machine being weak because its original designation was to only be a video game console. But these little black boxes have some serious horsepower under the hood.

About a year ago I decided to try out MythTV -- so I built up a dedicated P4 2.4ghz machine (1gig memory, 120gig HD, Hauppauge PVR-250 capture card), with RedHat 9, and got MythTV setup and working perfectly.

Now that machine was cool, because it had the IMDB, weather, etc.. much like Xbox Media Center. Actually, if I were to guess I would think the XBMC guys got some of their ideas from MythTV. Check out some of the screenshots in comparison: http://www.mythtv.org/modules.php?name=MythFeatures

I would say side-by-side, for pre-recorded media the Xbox blows just about any of them away - including MythTV. Xbox doesn't have the ability to record from a Cable input, so that is one drawback... but if I'm not mistaken you can stream internet TV via the network, and record that way. But that's something I haven't looked much into yet...

But I would say anybody looking for a nice little self-contained media center, by all means consider the Xbox. Just make sure you have a bit of tech savvy before taking the whole thing on

[Gateway69]

Amen grannytgp

xbox and direct tivo best combo..

if you have a hacked tivo, you can run vstream or ccxstream on the tivo, the xbmc has the ability to pull the NOW SHOWING Data from the tivo, and you can stream the shows you recorded on your tivo though the xbox.. why would u do this. well i guess for example if you had a xbox in another room and the tivo was in the main av room, u could stream shows to this.. anyhow. hands down the interface is awesome.. anyhow rant off

[rounders]

damn thats pretty nice

[pimplink]

pretty neat! better than an X-box.