Xbox Media Center - XBMC

TKWill · Post by **TKWill** » Tue Dec 02, 2008 6:10 pm

Heath wrote:
schi0249 wrote:I'm having a strange issue with my soft mod. I went to upgrade to the newest version of XBMC, and something got messed up. So I uninstalled it and went to reinstall. However none of the files on the internet are working for me. Anyone use Mechassault to softmod their xbox? If so, do you still have the file?
What kind of problems are you having? What are you using for the dashboard? I'm using UnleashX. And I used the Splinter Cell exploit.

I did the Bond exploit, sorry.

tssgery · Post by **tssgery** » Tue Dec 02, 2008 6:29 pm

TKWill wrote:
Heath wrote:
schi0249 wrote:I'm having a strange issue with my soft mod. I went to upgrade to the newest version of XBMC, and something got messed up. So I uninstalled it and went to reinstall. However none of the files on the internet are working for me. Anyone use Mechassault to softmod their xbox? If so, do you still have the file?
What kind of problems are you having? What are you using for the dashboard? I'm using UnleashX. And I used the Splinter Cell exploit.
I did the Bond exploit, sorry.

I thought I had them but just checked... no luck here. sorry.

Heath · Post by **Heath** » Tue Dec 02, 2008 10:55 pm

schi0249 wrote:All the exploits I've tried don't launch unleashx. All I get is a black screen. For some reason, I didn't keep the file I originally downloaded a few years back. My Xbox currently boots to the MS dash and works "normal". I just can't get it to mod again.

I actually have seen that problem. The second Xbox I bought was in that condition. It was like it was half way modded, but it used EvolutionX. I couldn't undo the mod, and couldn't fix it either. So I took it back and "complained" that it had been modded. They swapped it for me and I successfully modded the replacement.

If you have the eeprom backed up, you might can rebuild the hard drive with xboxhdm. Or maybe use another hard drive so you don't take the chance of totally killing the original. A used 20Gb or 40GB hard drive should be pretty cheap on eBay.

tssgery · Post by **tssgery** » Wed Dec 03, 2008 5:18 am

Has anyone here tried XBMC on the Apple TV hardware?

I just got a new LCD TV an am thinking it'd be nice to have an XBMC system that could play 720P. I can get an aTV for about $220 and put XBMC on it pretty easy (and boxee as well, which supports Hulu very nicely)...

Anyone tried this out? Or have an Apple TV they wish to share opinons about?

Heath · Post by **Heath** » Wed Dec 03, 2008 9:26 am

XBMC can play 720p on a regular old Xbox. It can even upconvert standard definition video to 720p. But that's the best you'll get out of the Xbox hardware. If you want to go higher definition, you'll have to look into other hardware to run it on.

I don't have any experience with Apple TV, but I've been considering building a low cost set top PC to run XBMC on. But the only benefit is 1080p output, and I'm fine with 720p right now so I'm not in any hurry.

tssgery · Post by **tssgery** » Wed Dec 03, 2008 9:51 am

Heath wrote:XBMC can play 720p on a regular old Xbox. It can even upconvert standard definition video to 720p. But that's the best you'll get out of the Xbox hardware. If you want to go higher definition, you'll have to look into other hardware to run it on.

I don't have any experience with Apple TV, but I've been considering building a low cost set top PC to run XBMC on. But the only benefit is 1080p output, and I'm fine with 720p right now so I'm not in any hurry.

Even running at 720p, the xbox struggles to decode some scenes.

I may give the apple tv a try, it [supposedly] has enough processing power to handle 720p without problem. Coupled with boxee support for Hulu (and I hear the Netflix is in the works), it can't be beat for $200.

Heath · Post by **Heath** » Wed Dec 03, 2008 12:38 pm

tssgery wrote:
Heath wrote:XBMC can play 720p on a regular old Xbox. It can even upconvert standard definition video to 720p. But that's the best you'll get out of the Xbox hardware. If you want to go higher definition, you'll have to look into other hardware to run it on.

I don't have any experience with Apple TV, but I've been considering building a low cost set top PC to run XBMC on. But the only benefit is 1080p output, and I'm fine with 720p right now so I'm not in any hurry.
Even running at 720p, the xbox struggles to decode some scenes.

I may give the apple tv a try, it [supposedly] has enough processing power to handle 720p without problem. Coupled with boxee support for Hulu (and I hear the Netflix is in the works), it can't be beat for $200.

I haven't had any problem playing 720p on my Xbox. Maybe it is pushing the limits of the hardware, but I haven't noticed it on the playback. I did try 1080i just to see and that was horrible. I had a frame rate of about 1 frame every 5 seconds!

There are some really cool plugins here you might want to check out.
http://code.google.com/p/voinage-xbmc-plugins/

Heath · Post by **Heath** » Wed Dec 03, 2008 12:41 pm

Heath wrote:
tssgery wrote:
Heath wrote:XBMC can play 720p on a regular old Xbox. It can even upconvert standard definition video to 720p. But that's the best you'll get out of the Xbox hardware. If you want to go higher definition, you'll have to look into other hardware to run it on.

I don't have any experience with Apple TV, but I've been considering building a low cost set top PC to run XBMC on. But the only benefit is 1080p output, and I'm fine with 720p right now so I'm not in any hurry.
Even running at 720p, the xbox struggles to decode some scenes.

I may give the apple tv a try, it [supposedly] has enough processing power to handle 720p without problem. Coupled with boxee support for Hulu (and I hear the Netflix is in the works), it can't be beat for $200.
I haven't had any problem playing 720p on my Xbox. Maybe it is pushing the limits of the hardware, but I haven't noticed it on the playback. I did try 1080i just to see and that was horrible. I had a frame rate of about 1 frame every 5 seconds!

There are some really cool plugins here you might want to check out.
http://code.google.com/p/voinage-xbmc-plugins/

I just remembered that when I had the Xbox networked via wireless, I did have some performance issues streaming 720p videos from my computer and had to tweak some of the cache settings. But when I ran a network cable, those problems went away.

tssgery · Post by **tssgery** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 7:36 am

Well, I think it comes down to how the video is encoded. I just pulled down a 720p encoding of a broadcast of "CSI: NY" and it doesn't play worth a darn.

It's an mkv container, so I'll need to take a look at the actual encoding to see the bitrate and codec (it's probably h.264)

Heath, how are your 720p videos encoded?

BTW, I'm hearing that the apple TV won't play these either

schi0249 · Post by **schi0249** » Tue Dec 09, 2008 5:36 pm

I got it fixed. Turns out, the Action Replay memory cards are crap.

Heath · Post by **Heath** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 12:15 am

schi0249 wrote:I got it fixed. Turns out, the Action Replay memory cards are crap.

I use a 2GB Sandisk Cruizer Micro and a home made Xbox to USB cable. Works like a charm.

I modded the neighbor kid's Xbox yesterday and encountered a similar problem. He bought it used at a flea market and it looks like it had been softmodded already, and then the softmod removed. The installer was still detecting the presence of the softmod, so it was giving me the "Turn softmod off" and "Remove softmod" set of options instead of the option to actually install the softmod. But any time I tried to do anything - turn it off, turn it on, etc. - I got an error because the files it created were gone. Even the backup of the eeprom was gone. But I could never get it to boot into Unleash-X.

I struggled with it a bit, copying files from one of my Xboxes and fearing I'd screw it up so bad I couldn't recover. But I finally got it working. I had to choose the "remove softmod" option which actually removed the MS dashboard. Then I could boot into Unleash-X, install Evox as an App, and run the backup utility to make a backup of the eeprom. Unfortunately, I could never get the MS dashboard working again. I tried copying files from my Xbox, and his original dashboard files from before they were removed, but it didn't work. It's not that big a deal because he will not be connecting to Xbox Live or anything. Booting with no game disc boots into Unleash-X, and booting with a game in boots into the game. And he has MAME, FCE, a bunch of ROMS for both, and can copy games to and play them from the hard drive now, so I guess I succeeded in the end.

Heath · Post by **Heath** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 12:16 am

tssgery wrote:Heath, how are your 720p videos encoded?

I dunno.

How do I check that?

tssgery · Post by **tssgery** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 5:15 am

Heath wrote:
tssgery wrote:Heath, how are your 720p videos encoded?
I dunno. How do I check that?

If you use windows, there is a little program called g-spot that analayzes video file and displays the codec, bit-rates, resolution, etc...

I'd be interested to know, but I also just picked up a slightly used mac mini for a GREAT price that'll play 1080p without diffuculty. I play to put both xbmc and boxee on there.

Heath · Post by **Heath** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 10:15 am

Update on the neighbor kid's Xbox. I gave it back to him yesterday evening. As I said in my previous post, when I was done with it, booting without a game disk would go into Unleash-X. Booting with a game disk would boot into the game. I made a disk full of homebrew games and applications and booted from it just fine. I tested all of the emulators and such. Everything except the MS dashboard worked great. If I chose the "Microsoft Dashboard" option in Unleash-X, I would just get a black screen and nothing else would happen. I could not get the MS dashboard to work at all.

So this morning I'm sitting on the porch with my son waiting on the bus and the neighbor kid, also waiting on the bus, tells me that his Xbox is booting to the MS dashboard and he can't get Unleash-X to load. All he gets is the MS dashboard.

WTF?

I told him I'd check it out tonight, but this is really confusing me. I've got an old 10GB hard drive that may still be good. If it is, I may just use it and rebuild the HD with xboxhdm since I have a backup of his eemprom now.

slym2none · Post by **slym2none** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 1:06 pm

Heath wrote:Update on the neighbor kid's Xbox. I gave it back to him yesterday evening. As I said in my previous post, when I was done with it, booting without a game disk would go into Unleash-X. Booting with a game disk would boot into the game. I made a disk full of homebrew games and applications and booted from it just fine. I tested all of the emulators and such. Everything except the MS dashboard worked great. If I chose the "Microsoft Dashboard" option in Unleash-X, I would just get a black screen and nothing else would happen. I could not get the MS dashboard to work at all.

So this morning I'm sitting on the porch with my son waiting on the bus and the neighbor kid, also waiting on the bus, tells me that his Xbox is booting to the MS dashboard and he can't get Unleash-X to load. All he gets is the MS dashboard.

WTF?

I told him I'd check it out tonight, but this is really confusing me. I've got an old 10GB hard drive that may still be good. If it is, I may just use it and rebuild the HD with xboxhdm since I have a backup of his eemprom now.

OK - you are just making *SQUEE* up again.

-slym

slym2none · Post by **slym2none** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 1:06 pm

Heath wrote:So this morning I'm sitting on the porch with my son waiting on the bus and the neighbor kid, also waiting on the bus, tells me that his Xbox is booting to the MS dashboard and he can't get Unleash-X to load. All he gets is the MS dashboard.

WTF?

I told him I'd check it out tonight, but this is really confusing me. I've got an old 10GB hard drive that may still be good. If it is, I may just use it and rebuild the HD with xboxhdm since I have a backup of his eemprom now.

OK - you are just making *SQUEE* up again.

-slym

Heath · Post by **Heath** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 1:16 pm

Go ahead. Say that one more time.

slym2none · Post by **slym2none** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 1:18 pm

-slym (hopes Heath and everyone else knows he is joking every time he says that)

Heath · Post by **Heath** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 1:40 pm

Yeah, that's what I thought.

(And yeah, I knew you were joking. I just figured if you were going to say it twice, you might as well say it three times. I didn't really mean to come off confrontational!)

slym2none · Post by **slym2none** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 2:53 pm

Heath wrote:Yeah, that's what I thought.

(And yeah, I knew you were joking. I just figured if you were going to say it twice, you might as well say it three times. I didn't really mean to come off confrontational!)

Did I already say it in this thread???

-slym (

)

TKWill · Post by **TKWill** » Mon Mar 22, 2010 5:54 pm

Since this is the closest thing we have to a HTPC thread I thought I would update what started with XBMC on my Xbox a couple years back.

I now have a 4TB RAID5 server running FreeNAS that I'm working on filling up. MY main computer is hoked up to my living room TV and I built her in an HTPC case so it looks pretty slick. Dinovo Mini, Logitech Harmony, and wireless keyboard and mouse for any excessive typing I need to do. I bought the most efficient hardware I could that would still allow me to have some muscle.

Dinovo Mini

I'm looking forward to putting XBMC on to some mini-ITX computers in the not-too-distant future.

Anyone else want to share their current setups?

Heath · Post by **Heath** » Mon Mar 22, 2010 9:32 pm

I've upgraded from the old Xbox too. I have a small form factor desktop PC running XBMC on top of Windows 7. It was a pre-built system that I got for free. It's a little noisier than I'd care for and I need to put a new video card in it to get higher resolutions, but otherwise I really like it!

I have a Gyration wireless keyboard and mouse I can use in the air (don't have to have a flat surface for it) that I'm using with it. I'd prefer a more traditional remote and maybe I'll add one later. But it's really nice to have a computer hooked to the TV for surfing the web and such on a big screen.

Chiclo · Post by **Chiclo** » Mon Mar 22, 2010 9:41 pm

I have used a Gyration mouse for the last... 5 years(?) (I don't mess with the keyboard, but I have it somewhere) and the mouse rocks.

TKWill · Post by **TKWill** » Mon Mar 22, 2010 10:24 pm

Heath wrote:I've upgraded from the old Xbox too. I have a small form factor desktop PC running XBMC on top of Windows 7. It was a pre-built system that I got for free. It's a little noisier than I'd care for and I need to put a new video card in it to get higher resolutions, but otherwise I really like it!

You can run XBMC from a Live CD so that it runs off Ubuntu. That could save you a license.

http://weblogs.asp.net/rchartier/archiv ... -xbmc.aspx

Heath wrote: I have a Gyration wireless keyboard and mouse I can use in the air (don't have to have a flat surface for it) that I'm using with it. I'd prefer a more traditional remote and maybe I'll add one later. But it's really nice to have a computer hooked to the TV for surfing the web and such on a big screen.

If you have a Harmony remote then this will work like a champ.

Heath · Post by **Heath** » Tue Mar 23, 2010 12:20 am

TKWill wrote:
Heath wrote:I've upgraded from the old Xbox too. I have a small form factor desktop PC running XBMC on top of Windows 7. It was a pre-built system that I got for free. It's a little noisier than I'd care for and I need to put a new video card in it to get higher resolutions, but otherwise I really like it!
You can run XBMC from a Live CD so that it runs off Ubuntu. That could save you a license.

My initial plan was to either "install" XBMC or run it on Ubuntu. But, we have a volume license key for Windows 7 at work, and I was explicitly instructed by those above me "Install it at home and test it thoroughly." So...