Impulse PC Buy

[Pat]

I don't know if the 360 runs xbmc, I only assumed that it would since xbmc has xbox in it's name

After looking into it, it seems it *doesn't* run on the 360.

But on the other hand I assume a chipped original xbox, which *does* support xbmc, would be quite cheap by now. But on the other hand the original xbox might not be much good for HD content. I'll have to think about it and try to find some more info...

[derspiess]

I don't know if the 360 runs xbmc, I only assumed that it would since xbmc has xbox in it's name

After looking into it, it seems it *doesn't* run on the 360.

Yeah, looks like it has to run on x86 architecture, which the original xbox is but the 360 is not.

But on the other hand I assume a chipped original xbox, which *does* support xbmc, would be quite cheap by now. But on the other hand the original xbox might not be much good for HD content. I'll have to think about it and try to find some more info...

Yeah, around here you can find a used original Xbox for $50 at Gamestop.  I've been thinking about getting one to use as a media center extender in my kid's room & maybe try out xbmc.


The 360 is an excellent console, and it can stream practically anything-- only catch to that is you have to use it in conjunction with a PC on your network that can serve up (or act as a relay for) media.

[Pat]

Been looking around and it seems you can get an original xbox for peanuts here as well. Do you think it would be a problem to get it to play HD content?

[derspiess]

Been looking around and it seems you can get an original xbox for peanuts here as well. Do you think it would be a problem to get it to play HD content?

Just looking at the system specs of the original xbox, I think you'd almost have to be a magician to get it to reliably handle HD content.  But I don't know much about xbmc so I can't say for sure.

If you want something cheap & small that can handle streaming HD content *and* play HD content from a USB drive, you might want to look for something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Network-ready-Player-WDBAAN0000NBK-NESN/dp/B002KKFP9Y/ref=dp_cp_ob_e_title_2

I have the non-networked version (only plays from a USB drive-- no network capabilities) & it reliably plays literally everything I throw at it-- divx, xvid, mkv, mp4, mov, you name it.  Only negative is that you have to manually load the content from a PC on to a USB storage device, and then plug the USB device into the player.  But it's pretty smooth sailing after that.  Simple, clean interface.

[Pat]

Just purchased a chipped original Xbox with an extra hard-drive for 450 sek (~$60). Pretty cheap so I might as well give it a try with XBMC and if it doesn't work out I can still play games on it. I have a HDMI exit on my laptop (as well as a blu ray player) so I can always stream the HD content from the laptop instead.

Thanks for all the advice!

[derspiess]

Haven't had a whole lot of time to fool with the Zino HD, but it does seem to do a good job playing Hulu video in HD, using the latest Flash beta that uses hardware acceleration for video.

I've been a bit less successful getting my two USB HDTV tuners to work, however.  One of them (which I thought had valid Win7 drivers) doesn't seem to work at all, and the other (which I know works with Win7) is only reliably tuning to standard def analog cable channels, and no clear QAM channels, save for the stupid public access ones.

Have not tried boxee at all, but I'll see if I can in the next week or so.

I also need to do some serious tweaking to the display output.  I could put up with the fact that it's not matching my HDTV's native resolution, but the colors are way off.  I have an odd feeling that if I just use VGA out, it would look a lot nicer, but I want to run everything through HDMI, dammit!