gamepro.com— The era of the Xbox may be over and Microsoft may have abandoned it, but the original console still has some life left. Great article on how you can maximize your investment.
Feb 28, 2007View in Crawl 4
"has anyone tried playing HD resolution divx/xvid in xbmc? I think its just too cpu-intensive for xbox to handle. some of them play properly some just keep losing frames.. does copying to hard disk make things better? (i always play over network)"I do, Mostly my wife watches such things as CSI Miami in HD Dvix, plays just fine. We also rip DVDs with DVD Shrink and keep them on the server HDD (1.5 terraybytes of drive space just for use with the XBMC) and stream them over with just a wireless G addaptor throughout the house. This works just fine to. Put all our DVD's away and just stream them. the XBMC Rocks.
The thing is, MS has to obey DRM, patents and copyright law so they will always be lacking in features. Look at how they were recently sued for infringing MP3 patents.The open source XBMC on the other hand is never going to be worth suing and can thus contain every codec known.
XBMC has no problems with HD content. Streams from our file server and my laptop to the XBMC no problems, no hitches. I would recommend picking one up on ebay just for the fact that this is the best way to tie your computers and TV together. I haven't watched live network TV in months now. I have already upgraded 3 of my friend's xbox' and all are extremely happy. Even Apple's iTV seems like a watered down version of XBMC.
I bought an xbox with some games and controllers off eBay for around $80, threw a modchip in it, and a $150 500 gb seagate drive that was on sale at the time at newegg.com and I couldn't be happier. Combine that hardware with broadband and a crapload of xisos on the various p2p networks and I've been enjoying a sweet home media center that plays a crapload of games that I never played the first time around when they came out. I even installed xlink kai to play online against other people... and be reminded that I'm now an old ass guy with a mortage and a kid and thus suck terribly at games like Halo 2 =) I dunno what happened between playing thousands of hours of Half Life in college and now... but I've lost the FPS magic.
I agree. I put a 500 gb drive in mine (got it on a great sale) and I haven't even filled half of it. I've put tons of movies, around 25 xbox games, thousands and thousands of NES/SNES/Sega/etc roms... and I think I still have roughly 200gb free. I probably should have thrown a spare 250 in and put the 500 in my tower.
Does anyone know if there is a size limit to what hard drive I can install in my xbox and what is it if there is one? I was thinking of the 750gig and just loading it with all my movies with dvd shrink.. Thanks
maynardjkMar 1, 2007
Avalaunch is good. I like that Qwix is set up to run with it from the PC. XBMC is still so much better though.
durkamcdurkMar 1, 2007
4.????5.Profit
visnikMar 1, 2007
"has anyone tried playing HD resolution divx/xvid in xbmc? I think its just too cpu-intensive for xbox to handle. some of them play properly some just keep losing frames.. does copying to hard disk make things better? (i always play over network)"I do, Mostly my wife watches such things as CSI Miami in HD Dvix, plays just fine. We also rip DVDs with DVD Shrink and keep them on the server HDD (1.5 terraybytes of drive space just for use with the XBMC) and stream them over with just a wireless G addaptor throughout the house. This works just fine to. Put all our DVD's away and just stream them. the XBMC Rocks.
areallygoodnameMar 1, 2007
The thing is, MS has to obey DRM, patents and copyright law so they will always be lacking in features. Look at how they were recently sued for infringing MP3 patents.The open source XBMC on the other hand is never going to be worth suing and can thus contain every codec known.
tecdoctiMar 1, 2007
XBMC has no problems with HD content. Streams from our file server and my laptop to the XBMC no problems, no hitches. I would recommend picking one up on ebay just for the fact that this is the best way to tie your computers and TV together. I haven't watched live network TV in months now. I have already upgraded 3 of my friend's xbox' and all are extremely happy. Even Apple's iTV seems like a watered down version of XBMC.
zxiaMar 1, 2007
so xbox is better than a media receiver?
jfitzpatrickMar 2, 2007
I bought an xbox with some games and controllers off eBay for around $80, threw a modchip in it, and a $150 500 gb seagate drive that was on sale at the time at newegg.com and I couldn't be happier. Combine that hardware with broadband and a crapload of xisos on the various p2p networks and I've been enjoying a sweet home media center that plays a crapload of games that I never played the first time around when they came out. I even installed xlink kai to play online against other people... and be reminded that I'm now an old ass guy with a mortage and a kid and thus suck terribly at games like Halo 2 =) I dunno what happened between playing thousands of hours of Half Life in college and now... but I've lost the FPS magic.
jfitzpatrickMar 2, 2007
I agree. I put a 500 gb drive in mine (got it on a great sale) and I haven't even filled half of it. I've put tons of movies, around 25 xbox games, thousands and thousands of NES/SNES/Sega/etc roms... and I think I still have roughly 200gb free. I probably should have thrown a spare 250 in and put the 500 in my tower.
robcashbuilderApr 13, 2007
Does anyone know if there is a size limit to what hard drive I can install in my xbox and what is it if there is one? I was thinking of the 750gig and just loading it with all my movies with dvd shrink.. Thanks