I tried the XBOX media center for awhile.. It was cool except I couldn't get it to play all formats, its especially didn't like some Xvid formats. and the A/R was always alittle off on my wide screen and it was rather picky about which DVD-RWs it wanted to read.
I switch to a standard computer, some piece of junk i picked up off a friend for 20 bucks and a bag of swag. Formated it, Installed Windows XP Media Center, bought a wireless mouse and its been serving all my needs for a few months now. So if you have an old computer laying around or know someone with one, thats one option you could explore if you don't mind a full sized computer next to your TV.
white_2kgt Wrote:I can play just about any console game I want on the XBMC w/o getting up off the sofa. I can play any movie I want either directly from the harddrive in the XBox or over the network, without getting off the sofa.
..and people wonder why more Americans are increasingly overweight.
To those wondering about the technology... I think in a few years media PCs will be pretty commonplace but as is there are easier ways, for those less technologically inclined, to serve their media needs.
'76 911S | '14 328xi | '17 GTI | In memoriam: '08 848, '85 944
"Here, at last, is the cure for texting while driving. The millions of deaths which occur every year due to the iPhone’s ability to stream the Kim K/Ray-J video in 4G could all be avoided, every last one of them, if the government issued everyone a Seventies 911 and made sure they always left the house five minutes later than they’d wanted to. It would help if it could be made to rain as well. Full attention on the road. Guaranteed." -Jack Baruth
jongp3 Wrote:I tried the XBOX media center for awhile.. It was cool except I couldn't get it to play all formats, its especially didn't like some Xvid formats. and the A/R was always alittle off on my wide screen and it was rather picky about which DVD-RWs it wanted to read.
Yea, the XBOX optical drive is very sensitive to RW formats. I went though 4-5 different brands of DVD before I got one that would boot on mine. I haven't had a single problem playing video's though. Although I get all my movies from aXXo on bittorrent, pretty sure it's Xvid format.
My XBOX is more user friendly than my HTPC, wife can easily pick a video for the baby and have it going quicker on the XBOX than she can find the DVD case and navigate the 'tard menus to actually get the video playing. Not to mention it can boot in like 5 seconds vs 2 minutes for the computer, and the computer is no slouch, P4@3ghz.
I don't know a lot about video codecs, but I find that my XMBC is able to play far more videos than my regular comp. Plus it un-rars for me automatically.
mrbaggio Wrote:I don't know a lot about video codecs, but I find that my XMBC is able to play far more videos than my regular comp. Plus it un-rars for me automatically.
Download VLC media Player (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.videolan.org/vlc/">http://www.videolan.org/vlc/</a><!-- m -->), it will play just about anything.
Apoc Wrote:I think in a few years media PCs will be pretty commonplace but as is there are easier ways, for those less technologically inclined, to serve their media needs.
what am i to do about all my environmental needs?
1994 Ford Ranger
2004 Honda S2000
2007 BMW X3
I hate the VLC user interface.
Maengelito Wrote:Apoc Wrote:I think in a few years media PCs will be pretty commonplace but as is there are easier ways, for those less technologically inclined, to serve their media needs.
what am i to do about all my environmental needs? you'll have to wait patiently
fuck.
1994 Ford Ranger
2004 Honda S2000
2007 BMW X3
mrbaggio Wrote:I hate the VLC user interface.
Lets see, Play, Stop, FF, RV what the fuck else do you need in a media player?
the one i used was a real pain in the ass for resizing and switching from full to windowed.
mrbaggio Wrote:the one i used was a real pain in the ass for resizing and switching from full to windowed.
Yea, double click is a bitch.
I dont want to have to use my mouse
white_2kgt Wrote:I haven't had a single problem playing video's though. Although I get all my movies from aXXo on bittorrent, pretty sure it's Xvid format.
My XBOX is more user friendly than my HTPC, wife can easily pick a video for the baby and have it going quicker on the XBOX than she can find the DVD case and navigate the 'tard menus to actually get the video playing. Not to mention it can boot in like 5 seconds vs 2 minutes for the computer, and the computer is no slouch, P4@3ghz.
Take it back, it was some WMV files it wouldn't play.. well it could play them but i couldn't seek through them. But i could on my PC. I agree with the more user friendliness part of the XBOX. But Windows XP Media Center has a very nice interface to use with a remote or wireless mouse.
Maybe im bias since i work on computers all day, but actual setup on a normal computer is easier. I didn't like the softmods out there as you had to buy some special games and hardware to get it to work and the chip mods still require opening the case and soldering.
I also like the fact that i have many adjustments to tweak the picture with on a nice video card. The sound blaster has a digital output i can put straight to my receiver for true 5.1 sound. Not to mention I can just use my Flash Drive to copy stuff to the Hard drive or a network connection on a shared folder. I suppose all these are easier for me since i know how to use a computer fairly well. As far as boot time, takes about 1:45 minutes, but i leave it on all the time so i dont really care.
Mine isn't slow at all. And its a piece of junk HP with some AMD XP processor running at 1.8ghz. 768 MB of RAM and a 80GB HD. It does have a nice ATI x1300 Pro video card and Sound Blaster Live Digital Sound card. But a fresh install of Windows can work wonders, I wouldn't use anything other then Windows XP Media Center, for my Media Center computer :lol:
jongp3 Wrote:...and the chip mods still require opening the case and soldering.
That's not true, they have solderless chips now that you can use. I got one with mine but after seeing how few wires it was to actually solider I just did that instead. Flip of the switch and it's back to normal x-box, only with a bigger harddrive.
I don't have the Windows Media Center, well I do have it, but I didn't install it, I just run SageTV interface on my HTPC with USB-UIRT so I see no need to add another layer of crash ware to windoze.
Evan Wrote:CaptainHenreh Wrote:If you're going to use it as a media center, I have one with a busted optical drive. trade for some LSD, cocaine and DMT? :wink:
whatchu want for it?
Ill give you mine for some L, coke and deemsters
Daily: 2011 Subaru Impreza WRX STi, 2000 Honda S2000
AutoX/track: 1991 Honda CRX HF D15B, 1993 Honda Civic CX H2B 225whp@2120lbs
RallyX: 1997 Subaru Impreza Outback Sport
used xboxes from gamestop: $50 if anyone's interested
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=0&t=618422">http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread ... 0&t=618422</a><!-- m -->
1994 Ford Ranger
2004 Honda S2000
2007 BMW X3
I'm looking to unload my old Xbox. I have all the cables, two controllers and a headset.
$50
'76 911S | '14 328xi | '17 GTI | In memoriam: '08 848, '85 944
"Here, at last, is the cure for texting while driving. The millions of deaths which occur every year due to the iPhone’s ability to stream the Kim K/Ray-J video in 4G could all be avoided, every last one of them, if the government issued everyone a Seventies 911 and made sure they always left the house five minutes later than they’d wanted to. It would help if it could be made to rain as well. Full attention on the road. Guaranteed." -Jack Baruth
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