I could google this, but I trust the opinions of the folks on here.   An xbox landed in the house and I want to set it up as a media player.   Anyone have a good link.

I guess the first few links I've landed on say I need to buy some some stuff to hack the xbox.   I'm not looking to get the most out of the xbox - just to replace a old dlink-320 media player which has one of the ugliest user interfaces out there.

Thanks in advance!

here you go:
http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/products.asp?DriveID=735

Yeah, I know those boxes Phil, but I'm a cheap bugger, and don't have the $150.   Actually the PS3 is an awesome media player - so if I were to spend $150, I'd likely double that and get another PS3 and get the blue-ray / gaming too.  

I got basically a free XBOX and I heard its a great media player.   I didn't realize hacking it was such a chore though, too (did I mention I'm lazy, too?)  

XBMC is your friend..    Does everything!  Even tells you the weather  

There are various software mods that take advantage of bugs in some games that allow saved game files to write into the firmware.  There are also hardware mods I believe, although these have the potential to brick the machine from what I understand.  A software mod is the easiest/best approach, but you'll need someone with the original game disks (MechAssault is one of them).

Just turned ours off, kids were watching a movie before bed. I picked it up second hand a few years ago already modded with XBMC.  Take a look at XBMC.org if you haven't already.  The XBOX, along with a wireless router running DD-WRT as a bridge allows you to take it an move it wherever you want.

Sounds good thanks guys.   I guess its a softmodding, but the youtube vids of this look great (even on the XBOX).  The DLINK 320 which was only a media player, released after the xbox, and cost $400 new, sucks completely...

If you tell me the manufacturing date on your system, and it's within the range I would require...I would gladly swap you for one of mine. Just ship it to me, and I'll ship you one back. I TSOP flash v1.0-v1.4 systems, a much better solution than a softmod. You cover the shipping, that's all I'd ask.

If it's a 1.6...softmod is your only option outside of a modchip.

Hey Tuborg I did that for a time with xbox then did it with 360 it's not the same and codecs can be a major pain.
I have the WD HD on my second tv and do not recommend it to anybody it's slow and a pain in the a** with my network.
What I do recommend is the Asus Oplay HDpr1 this thing is fast runs great never had any issues with it plays every codec no issues and never seen any lag in the unit yet.
But it cost me a hole 112.00$ at oemexpress that with tax in.
Best money i have ever spent and HDMI makes it great and plays all hd formats

Bring it to my house and I'll hack it right in front of your eyes!

Thanks guys.   Ken your offer is good as I'm lazy and the post office is right next door.  Jonny's offer is even better thought as he's a 10-minute drive away.  

Ethous - cool on the Asus.   I've seen it and the "popcorn in a box" - but never had the $$$ to spend on it.

If jonny can hack this, then I'm only out the gas money to his house.

It looks like an old one - serial number is 2004375 23102 (which puts it at hardware version 1.0/1.1.  

Wasting too much time hacking stuff these days....

Quoted from Tuborg

Thanks guys.   Ken your offer is good as I'm lazy and the post office is right next door.  Jonny's offer is even better thought as he's a 10-minute drive away.  

Ethous - cool on the Asus.   I've seen it and the "popcorn in a box" - but never had the $$$ to spend on it.

If jonny can hack this, then I'm only out the gas money to his house.

It looks like an old one - serial number is 2004375 23102 (which puts it at hardware version 1.0/1.1.  

Wasting too much time hacking stuff these days....

I've done so many that it's a 5 minute job opening AND soldering the points to write enable the TSOP, it's nuts I don't even need diagrams anymore.
I wouldn't rely on serial numbers to tell you for sure, date codes are more accurate...but if the serial points to early version then you know you at least don't have a 1.6/1.6b.

So not a waste of time though, I have 3 in the house I use soley for streaming A/V. I set up the 360 for media server access, it's pathetic compared to an Xbox running XBMC.

Quoted from ken_cinder

So not a waste of time though, I have 3 in the house I use soley for streaming A/V. I set up the 360 for media server access, it's pathetic compared to an Xbox running XBMC.

Yeah, the Xbox and XBMC truly are the peak of console modding (for now, anyway) .. quite amazing stuff.  M$ should stop being so stubborn and take some pointers from those developers.

Yep the modded XBox thing is ok with XBMC. Went to the 360, Windows 7 or Media Share on my older computers. With the downloadable codec support for the 360 and no modding required, never looked back. Streams great.

I was REALLY lazy and just went to GMODZ here in Toronto, got them to put in a new 750 gb hard drive and a hardware mod. and when they installed the drive, they put on XBMC and some other goodies.  currently backing lots of games to it, and going to use it in one of my candy cabs.  Never really considered putting other stuff on it, but i guess 750 gigs can hold a LOT of tv and movies, maybe i'll get another one done up for when i go on vacation to my Mom's...

Quoted from necro_nemesis

Yep the modded XBox thing is ok with XBMC. Went to the 360, Windows 7 or Media Share on my older computers. With the downloadable codec support for the 360 and no modding required, never looked back. Streams great.

The 360's codec support sucks, IMO.. unless I'm missing a recent codec update?  In which case, I'll eat my crow.    

Wireless streaming is cool though.  Freaks the wife out whenever I do it.

You don't need to solder a single think to hack an xbox. I've hacked many and only opened one up, to install a bigger hard drive. Doug, I'll hack your box in 10 minutes or less or your money back! Plus, I'll return your crimper

I use a NAF drive with a built in Media server and I also run my web/ftp/torrant server on it.  I also run a third party media server (Mediatomb).  It's a raided 2 TB (http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=509)  this things the cat meow.  I put all my important docs (because it raided) on this and all music/video/images are avaliable to every computer/xbox360/PS3 on my network.

Lance

I wouldn't mind one with the full hardware mod (large HDD), the only regret I have with my setup now.  Although having it wireless helps, it'd be nice to be able to put a few movies on it for a truly portable player.

Quoted from Cobra99

I use a NAF drive with a built in Media server and I also run my web/ftp/torrant server on it.  I also run a third party media server (Mediatomb).  It's a raided 2 TB (http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=509)  this things the cat meow.  I put all my important docs (because it raided) on this and all music/video/images are avaliable to every computer/xbox360/PS3 on my network.

Lance

Yeah, I run TVersity right now - it works fairly well.  For some reason, I cannot get it to stream to PC's as nicely as I would like ( I have to use the flashlib).   Thanks for the mediatomb link - opensource is nice...

The DNS-323 is awesome - the DNS-321 has been on sale a few times for $90.   I don't own one yet.

Quoted from jonny_eh

You don't need to solder a single think to hack an xbox. I've hacked many and only opened one up, to install a bigger hard drive. Doug, I'll hack your box in 10 minutes or less or your money back! Plus, I'll return your crimper

That's called a softmod, and softmods suck compared to flashing the TSOP.

Personally i have no reasont o stream to my xboxes, since all my tv's in the house are LCDs with media PC's hooked up and networked... with a 2 gig NAS to hold my tv shows centrally!

NERD POWER!

Media tank is another solution http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/

I spent a few good hours this weekend putting Ubuntu Karmic and XBMC on a spare PC (3GHz / 1GB ram) and I wasn't that impressed.   I'm not sure why as the youtube videos look great - so maybe I'm missing a few tweaks, or don't have it set right.    I didn't get as far a long as I'd hoped.  I'd hoped to get the crawlers installed and a good video/music browser working.  

( I played too long trying to get justin.tv working without success.  Other plugins worked, but slower than I had hoped ).

For now, I'll stick with the DLINK 320 as it works well enough.   Thanks for the thoughts.

Oh yeah, the "free" XBOX was a pile of crap.   It didn't even power up - no lights, nothing.   I didn't realize how the XBOX was in terms of processiong & video out.  

Jonny thanks for the offer!

Is said Xbox still in your possession? Will take it dead or alive.

Sorry Ken - my wife returned it to Value Village.   I still wouldn't mind an XBOX - but now am looking at the mediatomb / boxee / etc that people have mentioned.   I still really like the TVersity (Windows only though) as it does on-the-fly transcoding based on the devices profile.   From my surfing I don't think mediatomb and the other servers can do that "out of the box".

I've tried TVersity, and I really can't stand the way the 360 handles things. The interface is so basic and craptacular for playing back media on the 360, and requiring a media server is ridiculous. I wish they'd just support SMB.

Doesn't get much cheaper than that..

http://ottawa.kijiji.ca/c-buy-.....e-W0QQAdIdZ195576400