Media PC or Tivo?

[Parrot of Doom]

I have a Tivo (Thompson one, 40G hd no mods), and I'm wondering what future upgrade options might be.

Is it worth putting a network card in the Tivo and some other bits and bobs?

Or should I flog it on Ebay, and buy a Media PC?



Basically what I really want to do is watch on my television the programmes that I have on my computer's HD. The computer is upstairs, the Tivo/TV is downstairs. I'd rather not run loads of cables between the two, so is it possible to put these programmes on the Tivo over the network?

[doubledrat]

well, a network card is a lot cheaper than a media pc ;)

afaik you can't put progrs from your pc onto tivo, but I could be way off.

I've read that the xbox 360 is a good way to get media from your media centre pc to the living room, and you get a games machine into the bargain :)

[Glesgie]

A lot easier to buy a DVD player that plays avi files, burn them to DVD on the PC and
watch them on the TV

[sanderton]

You can get recordings from your PC to a TiVo, but it a lot of hard work.

Your options are to get one of the video streaming devices which work with regular XP, or upgrade to MCE and use an XBox 360.

I've done the latter, and so far it's working very nicely.

[adrianeaton]

What about a mediaMVP box from hauppauge connected to your TV? you can get wireless and wired network versions and they play music video and photos from a computer. They combine very nicely with gbpvr which is a FREE alternative to MCE

The biggest advantage of a MCE or gbPVR running on your PC over a TIVO is the multi tuner support.

Adrian.

[lor]

To stream from my PC to TV I always use my normal Xbox, install XBMC onto it and not only can you stream music, pictures, and video but you can view internet TV, play DVD's, internet radio, etc etc.

I also own an Xbox360 but for streaming it cannot do Video from normal Windows XP and even if you have MSMC installed it will still only do .wmv file. The old Xbox does xvid, mpeg4, vobs, iso's and everything else I throw at it.

Chris

[Gavin]

What about a mediaMVP box from hauppauge connected to your TV? you can get wireless and wired network versions and they play music video and photos from a computer. They combine very nicely with gbpvr which is a FREE alternative to MCE

The biggest advantage of a MCE or gbPVR running on your PC over a TIVO is the multi tuner support.

Adrian.


Just sold my MVP to someone at workn as it won't do xvid, and I have a divx capable dvd player for everything esle.

Something to add is (AIUI) if you have a MCE PC you can have multi tuners But they have to be the same type, ie all freeview or all analog not a mix. Might be something to consider if your in a marginal freeview area,

[ericd121]

To stream from my PC to TV I always use my normal Xbox, install XBMC onto it and not only can you stream music, pictures, and video but you can view internet TV, play DVD's, internet radio, etc etc.

The old Xbox does xvid, mpeg4, vobs, iso's and everything else I throw at it.Let me understand this; if I buy an Xbox, plug it into my router with a spare UTP cable, then install XBMC onto it, I can watch video files (and listen to music), currently on my PC?

I've obviously not been paying attention! :p

Can I ask some basic questions?

How noisy is the Xbox?

How does it connect to the telly? SCART?

Does it come with a remote, or would I have to use that bat-shaped thing?

<Casts an eye Ebay-wards> £70-ish, tempting...

[cashew1970]

you will need a chipped "Old" style Xbox to do this as they never released the XBMC over here!!! (Sound familiar??)

The old Xbox is fairly noisey..... but nothing compared to the new 360!

[Cainam]

Note that you do not need a chipped xbox to get XBMC working. You can perform a "soft mod" on it, which gives you 90% of the functionality of putting a mod chip in the xbox without having to open it up or spend any money.

To put the soft mod on it you need some way of getting some files onto your xbox - which usually means finding someone you know (or finding someone on this forum) who HAS a chipped xbox to copy the files onto a memory card for you.

Thanks to mbriody who answered a lot of my questions on getting this working a couple of months ago.

The best bit to me? It is not just media files on your PC you can play... You can also play files stored on the silver box under your telly with the word Scenium on it (trying not to use the forbidden extrac**** word...!)

[blindlemon]

You can also play files stored on the silver box under your telly with the word Scenium on itHang on a second, are you saying that you can play videos recorded on that Scenium thing under the TV ...on the TV? :eek:

Blimey, I never realised you could do that :p :D:D

[jar_uk1]

...The old Xbox is fairly noisey..... but nothing compared to the new 360!
My 360 is a lot quieter when doing mce stuff than my chipped xbox, and with a small workaround it will now "stream" divx from my MCE machine (for some reason, it doesnt like xvid encoded ones though...)

It also streams mpgs that may or may not have been archived from a certain type of silver box under the TV...

John R

[ericd121]

To put the soft mod on it you need some way of getting some files onto your xbox - which usually means finding someone you know (or finding someone on this forum) who HAS a chipped xbox to copy the files onto a memory card for you.Darn! I was hoping it would be an FTP and/or telnet job.

Still, might be worth investigating, if I can find 70 quid.

Thanks for the info. :up:

@ jar_uk1 - I started to have problems playing xvid files on my PC;
a new version of xvid was issued recently.

Anyway, I had to install the new version and a new version my media player, BSPlayer, before they could be viewed.

[nathan]

Darn! I was hoping it would be an FTP and/or telnet job.

Still, might be worth investigating, if I can find 70 quid.

There's no "might be" about it - XBMC is great. Even SWMBO loves it and uses the one in the bedroom.

[Raisltin Majere]

<Casts an eye Ebay-wards> £70-ish, tempting...

Looking now there is one for £40 and one for £36 going in 3 and 8 minutes respectively.

Sorry for not lettingyou know sooner

[ericd121]

Looking now...Sorry for not lettingyou know soonerThanks. :up:

I'm sure there'll be others, what with folks upgrading to XBox 360.

[Warble]

I have been looking at the same idea - see a slightly earlier post. Doesn't seem to be any straightforward options for the Tivo. I am considering the Xbox as well but I am also looking at the Pinnacle Showcentre - anybody any experience of that?

[ericd121]

To put the soft mod on it you need some way of getting some files onto your xbox - which usually means finding someone you know (or finding someone on this forum) who HAS a chipped xbox to copy the files onto a memory card for you.Which type of memory card does the Xbox take?

[Cainam]

It has it own 8MB memory module to plug in, but they cost about £20.

I bought a cable (about £2 from ebay) that plugs into the controller socket of the xbox, and allows me to use my normal USB-flash-memory-pen-thing (or whatver they are called) as a memory card.

[JonMace]

Over at www.avforums.co.uk on the Xbox section they have the soft Mod kit floating about, basically as I understand it you add your name to the list it gets sent to you and once you have done the Mod you send it to the next person on the list

[iangale99]

I use a Kiss DP-500 DVD player which has an ethernet port. Using it as a normal DVD player but also plays divx/xvid fine, either off DVDr or via network. Occasionally issues with some files, but usually because they have been encoded with a 'packed bitstream' (whatever that means!!) but there is a freeware utility to unpack files like these (MPEG4 Modifier (http://www.moitah.net/)), takes about a minute for a TV show to produce the new file.

If you dont want wires everywhere they do a wireless version, the Kiss DP-1500. Theres one on ebay atm for £100.

Both of these look nicer under the TV (imho) than an Xbox brick with XBMC (which is more compatible than most standalone players as its updated so often). I instead now use xbox in the bedroom now that I've got a 360 for games and the Kiss for streaming from PC to my TV.

Ian

[Craig B]

When you use an Xbox 360 as a media extender do you get full remote access? ie. Live TV with the ability to change channels, divx(I am almost certain this is still no), plugins (such as weather and train times), music, etc?

Also can you use a standard Xbox as an extender? I already run XBMC on my xbox so presume I could watch the recorded stuff but don't believe I could watch the live tv which is a big disadvantage.

[sanderton]

You get the complete MCE experience as if you were watching the actual MCE PC, with a handful of exceptions. Divx is one. Most plug ins work.

You can import extender software for XBox, but it is pretty poor in comparison to a 360.

[JonMace]

You can import extender software for XBox, but it is pretty poor in comparison to a 360.

How so, I'm happy with mine what am I missing out on with the 360?

Bare in mind I do not play games, but just want an extender for the bedroom which has a 28" WS CRT TV, so don't need and can't use HD

[DeadKenny]

Just sold my MVP to someone at workn as it won't do xvid, and I have a divx capable dvd player for everything esle.
It can do divx/xvid with some of the latest software, but it's terrible at doing it. The MVP only does hardware MPEG and so the PC has to transcode on the fly to MPEG to stream it over the network and this puts a heavy load on the PC. I find it stutters all over the place and audio goes out of sync, plus if the video clip isn't a specific resolution it gets windowboxed.

The MVP has a whole load of annoyances which is a shame as otherwise it's a nice simple idea.


As for the original question, I'm in a similar position. I could go with doing some upgrades to the TiVo but with a lack of future in the UK and with HD from Sky, I'm finding I'm more likely to just leave the TiVo alone and go with another option. As I understand it Sky will be doing analogue HD output so I could get or build an HD PVR PC, though with Sky HD you automatically get Sky+ I believe.

[terryeden]

Popping in late here... Yes, the Xbox can be used to play DivX and .ty files (should an ethernet connection find its way between the two boxes). A modded Xbox is less than £100 and XBMC is the best bit of software around.

Xbox connects via scart or component or composite or svideo (depending on the cable) with optical out.

The official Xbox remote control is about £15 - it's good enough for most things. Or you can hack XBMC to respond to your TiVo or AllForOne remote.

[sanderton]

As I understand it Sky will be doing analogue HD output so I could get or build an HD PVR PC, though with Sky HD you automatically get Sky+ I believe.

There is no high definition analogue capture card available that I'm aware of.

As pretty much everything that I now watch on Sky (Stargate Atlantis, Battlestar Galactica, Guinness Premiership Rugby, er, that's it) will be in HD, and I will want to watch them on the big HDTV (when I buy it) I'll be relying on the Sky+HD to record them, and my network of extenders and MCE for the rest of my (Freeview) viewing. I can live without the Sky content being networked for now.

Rumours abound of the ability being created to allow MCE to work directly with Sky. It's been announced for the Fiji release of MCE (due 2007) that MCE will work directly with DirecTV, which uses the same hardware, software and encryption as Sky so will be available "off the shelf" should Sky wish to implement it.

[terryeden]

How noisy is the Xbox?

The standard fan is a little noisy - but if it's under your telly, you won't notice.

XBMC allows you to alter the fan speed so, when it's playing the fan will only come on if the box gets hotter than, say, 45C.

Frankly, XBMC is as useful as TiVo. I can FTP files to it, it can stream web radio or video, it plays DVDs and DivX, MP3, FLAC, OGG... pretty much anything you can throw at it.

[ericd121]

Well, I 'accidentally' bought an XBox on Ebay. :p

I'm hoping it will arrive this week, and a forum member has agreed to lend me his XBox Modding Kit.

Where did you get your XBMC from?

As binaries aren't available from the official site, it looks like I may have to download a compiled version from dubious sites. :eek:

[dialanothernumb]

My 360 is a lot quieter when doing mce stuff than my chipped xbox, and with a small workaround it will now "stream" divx from my MCE machine (for some reason, it doesnt like xvid encoded ones though...)

John R

John, what is the workaround? Cheers

[poissony]

May have been this one:

http://www.runtime360.com/2006/02/transcode-360-v10-released.html

[dialanothernumb]

May have been this one:

http://www.runtime360.com/2006/02/transcode-360-v10-released.html

Actually it wasn't ( I just did a search and eventually found something).

However this implementation may be better.. we'll see. Appreciate the link! Thanks

[iangale99]

Also, if you changed from Tivo to MediaPC I don't think there is any software anywhere near as good as Tivos to run on the PC. Automatic scheduling would be what I miss most from Tivo and none of the programs I have looked at seem to offer this, although I may be wrong and looking at the wrong programs :D

[JonMace]

Also, if you changed from Tivo to MediaPC I don't think there is any software anywhere near as good as Tivos to run on the PC. Automatic scheduling would be what I miss most from Tivo and none of the programs I have looked at seem to offer this, although I may be wrong and looking at the wrong programs :D

What do you mean by Automatic scheduling?

If you mean the suggestions, that Tivo records then no I do not know of anything else that does this.

But MCE has all of the other scheduling tasks that Tivo does

[iangale99]

By auto scheduling I meant Season Pass I suppose. ie grab tv lisitings (say DigiGuide) and automatically record episodes of say Eastenders.

Most of the software I have tried couldn't do this and were limited with recording. Most programs I tried you could set up to record (using Eastenders as example again :o) Monday 8:00pm-8:30pm every week, but the over xmas the times and days vary and you may miss episodes.

Never tried MCE though :(

[JonMace]

MCE downloads its own EPG in a simular wat to Tivo and will pick up shows if they move time day etc. You can also select to only record 1st run the sameas Tivo.

To be honest after my Tivo died and I brought MCE there was nothing from Tivo that I missed

[programx]

^^ same here

But I am having problems with MCE recording repeats within the same hour (!) let alone 28 days.

[sanderton]

It's the EPG data causing that, exactly the same as the TiVo can suffer with. In fact, it's mostly the exact same shows (mainly on BBC 3 in my experience) which have the problems, suggesting that what was said about the problem being in the supplied data not TiVo/Tribune may have been true!

iangale - MCE has season passes and wishlists, just like TiVo. In fact in some ways more powerful than TiVo. You can make an SP work across channels for example, or to prefer to record episodes at particular times of day

[iangale99]

Thanks for the info. As I mentioned earlier I have never tried MCE, but have just purchased a Nova-T card so may give it whirl :)

[dialanothernumb]

Thanks for the info. As I mentioned earlier I have never tried MCE, but have just purchased a Nova-T card so may give it whirl :)
if you want to try a free version that gives a similar look and feel (and most fuunctionality) try MediaPortal at www.team-mediaportal.com
It requires a fair amount of setting up... but it is well supported by a community similar to this... and it is free.

My experience with MCE has been very positive in 3 weeks of use (especially with the XBOX360 as extender)

Ther are a bucket load of add-ons for wider functionality. In all it is starting to meet and beat TiVo software. But at the end of the day each persons experience will be different. (for instance I don't miss suggestions frankly, but I know that there are some that would)

[gavinss]

I use both Tivo and MCE, and there are some annoyances with MCE.

With Freeview, when you set it up on MCE some of the channels are not associated with their guides (I think because the names are not an exact match), and you have to manually associate them. Also, they can get dis-associated if MCE decides to change channels that you have (e.g. ato dd radio channels or new ones) - which means your programs on those channels will not tape until you associate them again. ALSO it will delete any items scheduled for those channels (as I guess it thinks they no longer have a program guide.)

Additionally, they have serious guide problems with 2 channels, which though reported months ago they have not fixed. It seems they are not taking the PVR market seriously! The problems are that Sky Travel became Sky 3 months ago, and the guide is still Sky Travel. Also the ABC1 channel for Freeview has the guide for the Sky version - the difference is that Freeview is only part-day and Sky is 24-hours - so the MCE may try to tape a program which is not on.

With Tivo, if watching live or almost live, I often extend a program if I see it started late and may overrun (or is running later than scheduled, e.g. BB). Tivo, obviously, allows you to change the stop time of a program being recorded. However, when trying this with MCE it had no effect on the active program. Additionally time could only be extended on a season pass, and not an individual program.

Gavin

[dribble]

Sorry if this has been asked before, but does MCE have any hacks that allow access to the interface, over the Internet - like TivoWeb ?

I find this one of the most usefull features of my hacked Tivo.

David.

[kmusgrave]

I just log on remotely to the MCE PC. I use logmein.com (free version) but there are other providers of such a service. You can do (almost) everything on Mediacenter remotely (except watch video).

[dialanothernumb]

Sorry if this has been asked before, but does MCE have any hacks that allow access to the interface, over the Internet - like TivoWeb ?

I find this one of the most usefull features of my hacked Tivo.

David.

Yes... WebGuide3 (http://asciiexpress.com/webguide/)

[sanderton]

I use both Tivo and MCE, and there are some annoyances with MCE.

With Freeview, when you set it up on MCE some of the channels are not associated with their guides (I think because the names are not an exact match), and you have to manually associate them. Also, they can get dis-associated if MCE decides to change channels that you have (e.g. ato dd radio channels or new ones) - which means your programs on those channels will not tape until you associate them again. ALSO it will delete any items scheduled for those channels (as I guess it thinks they no longer have a program guide.)

Additionally, they have serious guide problems with 2 channels, which though reported months ago they have not fixed. It seems they are not taking the PVR market seriously! The problems are that Sky Travel became Sky 3 months ago, and the guide is still Sky Travel. Also the ABC1 channel for Freeview has the guide for the Sky version - the difference is that Freeview is only part-day and Sky is 24-hours - so the MCE may try to tape a program which is not on.

With Tivo, if watching live or almost live, I often extend a program if I see it started late and may overrun (or is running later than scheduled, e.g. BB). Tivo, obviously, allows you to change the stop time of a program being recorded. However, when trying this with MCE it had no effect on the active program. Additionally time could only be extended on a season pass, and not an individual program.

Gavin

The problem of channels disassociating was fixed with Rollup 2 in September.

The Sky Travel problem has (finally) been fixed too.

ABC1 is still broken.

Not hit that problem with extending recordings; the workaround is to record the subsequent program in the guide.

[jb_1]

If you really want to watch PC content on your tv, suggest you look at media streamers - there's a company called Neuston that does something called a MC-5000 - streams audio, picture and video content over a wired (LAN) or wireless 802.11b network. The box sits in your lounge and detects media content from your PC. Try typing Neuston into ebay or looking on the company's website.

[gavinss]

The problem of channels disassociating was fixed with Rollup 2 in September.

The Sky Travel problem has (finally) been fixed too.

ABC1 is still broken.

Not hit that problem with extending recordings; the workaround is to record the subsequent program in the guide.


I must admit I have not had the channel disassociating since I installed rollup 2 a couple of weeks ago, but thought that was just because channels had not changed.

On Sky Travel, mine still is listed as Sky Travel, and I cannot see Sky3 listed when I try to reassociate it. Do you know how to get the Sky 3 channel and guide?

Thanks, Gavin

[gavinss]

If you really want to watch PC content on your tv, suggest you look at media streamers - there's a company called Neuston that does something called a MC-5000 - streams audio, picture and video content over a wired (LAN) or wireless 802.11b network. The box sits in your lounge and detects media content from your PC. Try typing Neuston into ebay or looking on the company's website.


I assume you mean the MC-500. I see it comes with only 801.11b, so may need to upgrade to 801.11g/a to get performance for pictures if wanting to use wireless. Do you know if it works with MCE files (i.e. dvr-ms), as it may be an alternative for an MCE extender?

For some reason, MCE extenders (apart form XBOX 360) are not sold in the UK. Unfortunately, I have heard that the 360 is noisy, so defeats one of the main reasons of not having a PC in a living room, and the XBOX is bulky and ugly!

[paulpenny]

Just wanted to add my thoughts.

I have had MCE for about 4 weeks now. I still have one TiVo running for the kids in the family room.

My initial impressions are of MCE are very positive. I think the interface, in particular, is very elegant. The way the guide works is much better I think. I always find the TiVo guide difficult to read over the TV picture.

It does take quite a bit of fidddling about to get things just so. The main difficulty I had was getting the DVI-HDMI setup between the MCE and the Screen.

I had Sky running in to the TiVo but I have settled for internal Freeview with the MCE. I was already using my Sky+ box to record films & sport and to be honest that's just about all I ever watched on channels that aren't available on Freeview. So I haven't really missed Sky at all.

It would be ideal if Sky or SkyHD was available internally on MCE. Maybe it will happen one day.

Yesterday I installed Sky by Broadband and if you set the download folder to My Video then the downloaded content will appear under My Videos in MCE. As far as I can see the actual download process isn't integrated in to MCE. I haven't watched the film yet, but at a glance it looked reasonable quality, but no DD sound :( Still maybe this is how we will be able to get Sky via MCE in the future.

Then, of course, the music and photo options as well as playback of "other" files is a great bonus. The difference in quality of the picture when watching a DiVx rip of an HDTV show compared to the same show broadcast on Sky or Freeview is very noticable ( I know it's not HD. I can't wait to see the real thing when Sky finally pull their finger out) and I must be getting really lazy because I even like the fact that ads are edited out - saving me the trouble of fast forwarding!

The only other comment is that my machine can get a bit hot if it's being used as a PC and this can lead to some stuttering on the Live TV picture.

All in all, if you don't need Sky then I would say it is a very viable alternative to TiVo. Even, dare I say, an improvement (in as much as it has wider functionality and Freeview built in)

[gavinss]

Sorry if this has been asked before, but does MCE have any hacks that allow access to the interface, over the Internet - like TivoWeb ?

I find this one of the most usefull features of my hacked Tivo.

David.


I have used vnc to access the media centre interface over the Internet. You should also be able to use RDP, but that stopped working on my MCE machine (typical MS software!). Note that you should disable the moving backgrounds and highlighted items to lower the amount of data transmitted so that it is usable - also you may want to reduce number of colours to speed it up.

I actually could seem some TV pictures too, but only a frame every few seconds - though it is quite spooky being able to see some TV from your system which is 6000 miles away!

Gavin

[sanderton]

To use MCE over the net, use WebGuide 3 (http://asciiexpress.com/webguide/)

http://asciiexpress.com/webguide/images/mce2-2-full.gif

[ericd121]

Let me understand this; if I buy an Xbox, plug it into my router with a spare UTP cable, then install XBMC onto it, I can watch video files (and listen to music), currently on my PC? Yes, Eric, that's right! ;)
Update - Feedback

The XBox I bought on eBay had a fault and had to go back.

I bought a brand new XBox from Play.com (http://www.play.com/play247.asp?pa=cart&page=title&r=XBOX&title=107591) for £79.99 delivered.

I obtained an XBox Modding Kit from a very helpful member of this board, who supplied instructions;
I modded the XBox, set its IP and connected it to my network and FTP'd over XBMC.

I was also supplied with an XBox forum recommendation.

I found the following threads most useful:-

Frequently Used Softmod Terms (http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=490300)
Softmod Basics For N00bs (http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=320590)
Softmod Faqs, part 2 (http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=331644)

Having said that, I found it difficult to get the most basic question answered, on that board, or on the XBMC online manual; namely, how to I stream stuff off my PC?

Eventually, I figured it out, so here is my step-by-step guide:-
(This assumes you've already set up your Xbox on your network)

In Windows, right-click on the folders, or drives, you want to stream to the XBOX, choose Properties, Sharing, Network Sharing.
In XBMC, choose Settings, Network, Network, and enter, yet again, the IP address of the XBOX, plus the Subnet Mask, your Gateway IP address and your DNS Server IP address
Then choose SMB Share, choose Normal User, accept the WORKGROUP value unless you've changed that on your PC, then enter your Windows logon username and password.
That's it for the setup! Back out of the Settings page to the main XBMC menu.
Choose My Music, My Videos etc. Pick the top value on the right which should be (SMB) Network;
this should bring up a list of all the drives you've shared.
Drill down to a file, hit the A button, and it should play!


I couldn't find a clear set of instructions like that anywhere!

Having played with it for a couple of days now, I am very impressed: I can stream images, audio and video of seemingly every format I have on my PC.

A Media Server for £80; can't be bad! :up:

[Fred1]

Thanks Eric.

My modchip should arrive tomorrow or Tuesday, so these instructions are well timed.

Alan

[Raisltin Majere]

Yes, Eric, that's right! ;)
Update - Feedback

The XBox I bought on eBay had a fault and had to go back.

I bought a brand new XBox from Play.com (http://www.play.com/play247.asp?pa=cart&page=title&r=XBOX&title=107591) for £79.99 delivered.

I obtained an XBox Modding Kit from a very helpful member of this board, who supplied instructions;
I modded the XBox, set its IP and connected it to my network and FTP'd over XBMC.


Having played with it for a couple of days now, I am very impressed: I can stream images, audio and video of seemingly every format I have on my PC.

A Media Server for £80; can't be bad! :up:

Hi Eric

Sorry to drag up an old thread, but I'm hoping you can help me. I've just got my hands on an Xbox and want to do the same as yourself.

Could you tell me what the Xbox modding kit consists of? Is this the control pad/USB hybrid thingy? Does it consist of things that are easily bought/obtainable?

Do you still have the instructions handy?

[andyjenkins]

Get yourself a Pinnacle Showcenter. Absolutely fantastic, and I seriously can't praise this thing enough. Plays all media I've thrown at it - including video (inv xvid, divx), audio and images.

If you can get the original ShowCenter 1000g - its 99% the width of TiVo - and fits well under the TV. The newer version of the ShowCenter stands vertical and much smaller and looks nowhere near as decent for an under the TV solution. For once - bigger is better!!

(Edit : ahh .. just seen how old this thread is .. sorry for making a "useless" post :rolleyes: ).

[ericd121]

Could you tell me what the Xbox modding kit consists of? Is this the control pad/USB hybrid thingy? Does it consist of things that are easily bought/obtainable?

Do you still have the instructions handy?The modding kit is:-

a USB flash drive
a USB lead to plug into the XBox
an XBox game
a set of lengthy instructions.

It was supplied to me by a member of this board, who was so helpful that I don't want to 'volunteer' him, but maybe he'll be along soon and see your post... :rolleyes:

If he isn't, I'll PM him on your behalf.

Once you get the kit, I'd be happy to hand-hold, if I can remember what I did! :p

[Raisltin Majere]

That's great, thanks Eric.

[Raisltin Majere]

/walks past whistling innocently

[ericd121]

/walks past whistling innocentlyHey, I heard that! :p

I've just PM'd him, although looking at his public profile, he's not been around since Thursday (Easter Break?).

[IainJH]

Just a 'me too' comment backing XBMC's brilliance:

I also have a modded Xbox running XBMC (with a 120gig HD) and for the price, IMHO I think its untouchable for a media centre that plays *everything*! It plays from HD or streams from my PC (it also plays X.264 video now), it runs scripts, it's incredibly cheap and can even be skinned to look like MCE. The front end can run in HD res' and the PQ and usability is top notch.

I saw an earlier comment about noise: old xbox's have an extra fan on the GPU. Mines very quiet now, thanks to XBMC's option to run the CPU fan at 10% and I removed the GPU fan with no ill effects at all.

It's the bee's knees and I count on it as much as my Tivo. Nuff said.

In fact, its so good I'd be mortified if it died: so ericd121 or Raisltin Majere, please could you or your mate *please* pm me the softmod instructions, as I might get a second xbox for backup use.

cheers Iain

[Raisltin Majere]

I've just PM'd him,

Thanks Eric, hope you don't think I'm being pushy!

[ericd121]

Thanks Eric, hope you don't think I'm being pushy!Not at all. :) could you or your mate *please* pm me the softmod instructions, as I might get a second xbox for backup use. I'm hoping he'll make himself known to both of you very soon.
I saw an earlier comment about noise: old xbox's have an extra fan on the GPU. Mines very quiet now, thanks to XBMC's option to run the CPU fan at 10% and I removed the GPU fan with no ill effects at all.Thanks for that 10% tip; I hadn't seen that option. :up:

The option to remove the GPU raises some interesting questions.


How easy is it to open the box, and what pitfalls are there in doing so?
What does the GPU fan look like?

[Sneals2000]

Eventually, I figured it out, so here is my step-by-step guide:-
(This assumes you've already set up your Xbox on your network)

In Windows, right-click on the folders, or drives, you want to stream to the XBOX, choose Properties, Sharing, Network Sharing.
In XBMC, choose Settings, Network, Network, and enter, yet again, the IP address of the XBOX, plus the Subnet Mask, your Gateway IP address and your DNS Server IP address
Then choose SMB Share, choose Normal User, accept the WORKGROUP value unless you've changed that on your PC, then enter your Windows logon username and password.
That's it for the setup! Back out of the Settings page to the main XBMC menu.
Choose My Music, My Videos etc. Pick the top value on the right which should be (SMB) Network;
this should bring up a list of all the drives you've shared.
Drill down to a file, hit the A button, and it should play!


I couldn't find a clear set of instructions like that anywhere!

Having played with it for a couple of days now, I am very impressed: I can stream images, audio and video of seemingly every format I have on my PC.

A Media Server for £80; can't be bad! :up:

You can also edit the MediaCenter.xml file on a PC to add links to shared drives (and PCs/Macs running iTunes with sharing) in the My Music and My Videos config sections. You then FTP over the revised xml file to the XBox. I think this may be easier if you run a network where the PCs have static IPs, as I do. (Though many DHCP servers can be configured to always serve the same IP address to a given MAC address)

[Cainam]

I am the one that helped Eric set up his XBMC a few months ago (although to give credit where it is due, I only got there myself thanks to the fantastic help of mbriody on this forum).

As Eric guessed I was away over Easter, and I was not deliberately ignoring these pleas for help! (Although, looking at the picture for Raisltin Majere, not sure if I should be helping someone who supports the wrong half of Merseyside :). Come on you Blues!).

The only things needed to modify a standard xbox to play XBMC (and any other programs you want it to run) are

The xbox (duh)
A memory card that the xbox can read
A copy of the 'exploit' program that allows you to patch your xbox (downloadable from t'internet)
One of 3 specific games that have certain security holes in them which allow this 'exploit' to take place

I did not want to pay the £20 to buy the proper 8MB xbox memory card though, so so I bought a cable from ebay for about £5 that allows you to connect a standard USB memory stick to the xbox instead.

Of the 3 games you can use, I went for Splinter Cell, which I have seen available in GameStation second hand for about £3.

So the cost involved is not great.

The process is basically as follows:
Get the exploit program copied to the memory card (it is stored as a 'game save').
Start up xbox into the Dashboard, and copy the 'game save' from the memory card to the hard drive.
Put the game in the xbox and restart.
When the game has loaded, load the game save

At this point, because of the security holes in the program, a menu appears allowing you to install the soft mod to your xbox. Choose the option to install it, and you are done.

It is all fairly straightforward, (although I would recommend reading the threads Eric posted above for background reading). In fact, the only hard part of the above steps is the first one: getting the exploit program copied to the memory card.

Because the memory card needs to be formatted in fatx format (not normal fat or fat32), which is a format specific for the xbox (I think) it means you need to know someone with a modified xbox to start the ball rolling. So the first person needs to have a 'real' modified xbox i.e. with a mod chip in it, so that they can send the exploit files to the xbox through ftp, and then use the dashboard to it to the memory card.

Once you have that, then you are away. These files are then used to 'soft mod' other xboxes (sp?) who can then in turn help to soft mod other boxes. And now you know at least 2 people (myself and Eric) who have access to this functionality...

[Raisltin Majere]

Mmmm, seems easy enough(?)

As I don't currently have a USB memory stick, the cost of this + £5 wire ebay jobby would probably be pretty much the same as buying a memory card. So, if I buy a memory card, how do I get the 'exploit' program onto it? (and from where can I download the program?)

[Raisltin Majere]

Oh, I understand, I think! So I need to get someone with a modded xbox to download the exploit, FTP it their xbox, put it on a memory card and then I can crack on?

[Cainam]

Yep, that is it. Anyone can download the exploit, but it makes sense it being the person withthe modded xbox who can copy it to memory card for you.

Off topic - shouldn't that be "Raistlin", and not "Raisltin" (assuming we are talking about the same character...)?

[Raisltin Majere]

Off topic - shouldn't that be "Raistlin", and not "Raisltin" (assuming we are talking about the same character...)?

Yeah, typo when I joined :)

I've just mailed a mate with a chipped box and he's never used a memory card (for any reason) how does he get the exploit onto one?

[Cainam]

I will PM you...the technical bits of what happens next will probably not interest everyone!

[crispy5449]

Just another XBMC fan here - for those already using XBMC and those in the process of getting it set up the following blog is useful for updates on ways to make XBMC even better http://xbmc.blogspot.com/ (I just wish it was updated more often)

[Carlito]

Here is an excellent guide I used to softmod my Xbox.
It gives great instructions on how to get the exploit onto your usb key without needing another already modded xbox using a hacked 'Action Replay' program
Hope this helps...


eurogamer(dot)net/Forum_thread_Posts(dot)php?thread_id=28592

the forum won't let me post a url so just replace (dot) with . ;)

[RichardJH]

Your link did not work but I think this is the correct one http://eurogamer.net/forum_thread_posts.php?thread_id=28592&forum_id=1

[Carlito]

sorry, i think it was the capitals in the Forum_thread_Posts that did it..
if you make those lower case the link will work...
Thanks,
Carlito

[dribble]

Like many people, I am seriously thinking about trying out MCE.

There are many nice units out there, but the problem I have, is that my TV is a Toshiba 36" CRT (Model 36ZP48). As it's only about 3 yrs old, I can't really justify getting 'rid' of it just yet, and with normal TV (no HDTV for me :( ), the picture quality is fine.

I saw this unit in London the other day: Fujitsu Scaleo E (http://www.pcw.co.uk/personal-computer-world/hardware/2149021/fujitsu-siemens-scaleo)

The review looked good, although this part caught my eye:

On the back sit RGB Scart, DVI, VGA and S-Video sockets for connecting to all manner of displays. Running Windows through the Scart cable lacked in definition and was only really suited to live TV or video playback - you're much better off using the DVI or VGA connection.
My question is:

Is it worth me getting a media centre PC with a SCART RGB output and using it with my CRT? I am not really going to be using the PC for writing e-mails or browsing the web. The main use would be for TV recording/playback, music and photo's. Is the picture quality going to look rubbish on my trusty Toshiba ?

All the MCE machines I've seen, are connected to flash TFT units.

Also, if I was thinking of getting a 360 and using that as an extender, what are my connection options for that ? Has that got scart RGB out ?

Thanks for any advice you can send my way.

David.

[B33K34]

Dribble - why are you thinking of changing ie what do you think a MCPC will give you that Tivo wont? If you want music in the living room and have a pc running somewhere look at a Squeezebox.

I reckon Tivo is still the business with a CRT set. When i get an LCD screen I think i'll look at a MCPC as part of the upgrade but I'll be looking for it to have an HDMI connection and probably an HD DVD player. By Q1 next year that spec should be availble on a MS Vista PC and it's quite likely that Apple will have launched something as well.

[dribble]

Dribble - why are you thinking of changing ie what do you think a MCPC will give you that Tivo wont?.

I was wanting to have a device with more than one tuner. I was thinking that 3 would have been nice (if I was to build my own).

As I also use Freeview, I wanted to have an all in one unit - rather than having the TiVo's Freeveiw box hanging off the back of the TV :)

Yes, I know I am probably mad for even thinking about it. I just wanted to know if there was anyone out there that was running MCE with a CRT and what it was like (compared to the TiVo).

David.

[sanderton]

I ran MCE with a CRT before I upgraded the telly. It works very nicely, unless you want to use the PC as a PC, in which case the screen res doesn't really hack it. But for MCE, the pic quality was great using RGB SCART.

[Sneals2000]

I was wanting to have a device with more than one tuner. I was thinking that 3 would have been nice (if I was to build my own).

As I also use Freeview, I wanted to have an all in one unit - rather than having the TiVo's Freeveiw box hanging off the back of the TV :)

Yes, I know I am probably mad for even thinking about it. I just wanted to know if there was anyone out there that was running MCE with a CRT and what it was like (compared to the TiVo).

David.

I run a Tivo with a Sky box (the easiest RGB recording system I could find with an EPG)

I run an MCE PC with two Freeview tuners, a Radeon video card and a VGA->SCART RGB cable into a CRT. (Don't even think about using a TV Out feed from a video card - either S-video or Composite - it will be pants)

The picture quality of the MCE machine feeding the CRT RGB is higher than the Tivo, even with a hacked mode 0, as it is totally lossless recording and replay. It is also possible to burn MCE recordings to DVD relatively easily (though I sometimes have audio sync issues I've not resolved) The EPG is almost as good, and the "Record Series" option is almost as good as Tivo's Season Pass.

I love the Tivo UI - but the MCE solution is better quality IMHO. (The audio quality is better I feel as well - no analogue interconnects - SPDIF from PC to amp and no resampling to 32KHz as with Tivo)

Also - I have an XBox 360 networked to the MCE PC - and with an RGB SCART cable this offers a good quality remote viewing option - which isn't really possible with Tivo.

Where MCE falls down, unless you are an incredibly pointy-headed hacker (and able to get MCE DVB-S drivers and an unauthorised Sky emulator CAM with valid Sky sub etc. to work) is recording Sky broadcasts in quality - as you are then limited to composite/S-video interconnects for recording, while Tivo offers higher quality RGB.

[mikerr]

Where MCE falls down, unless you are an incredibly pointy-headed hacker (and able to get MCE DVB-S drivers and an unauthorised Sky emulator CAM with valid Sky sub etc. to work) is recording Sky broadcasts in quality - as you are then limited to composite/S-video interconnects for recording, while Tivo offers higher quality RGB.Can you get MCE to control the sky box, and get sky epg data in MCE,
or is it still freeview only ?

[mjk]

Works fine with sky. Controls the box with no problems. EPG data is pretty good, although they have a bit of trouble following lineup changes and still don't have data for dome of the +1 channels!!

[mesaka]

Sorry to drag up an old thread but as I am now considering getting an Xbox 360 as an extender for a MCE 2005 PC (later likely to be a Vista PC) I need some advice from the wise heads here!

I am not a gamer so the gaming part of the Xbox 360 does not bother me - can I then just go for a core Xbox 360 or are there any other advantages to getting a premium?

[Pugwash]

I just bought another XBox (1) on eBay for £18. It was sold as having a bad DVD tray, but this is not an issue if you only use for streaming. I shall be installing a modchip as soon as I've moved house, as the existing XBox gets daily use for streaming music and video.

I have a cheap P4 server running Windows 2003 in my hallway, and this contains much downloaded TV and all of my music collection transferred from CD.

Just a hint (if this wasn't covered in the thread so far) but if you edit the .xml file for xbmc, you can define your own shortcuts to network shares including username and passwords where needed. In the latest build of XBMC they've made the .xml file separate so you don't have to do it all again if you upgrade.

The XBMC360 for XBMC skin looks good, if quirky. I assume this is a copy of the 360 interface?

My media centre PC was built from PC leftovers and a couple of cheap freeview tuners. It's a backup recorder just in case the TiVo crashes. The guide on it seems shoddy, making it record multiple repeats of series like Dr Who, when I've told it to get first showing only.

[sanderton]

The guide on it seems shoddy, making it record multiple repeats of series like Dr Who, when I've told it to get first showing only.

The First Run thing works like TiVo's, ie it doesn't mean get the first showing only, it means get only current series. Not getting multiple copies depends, like TiVo, on the EPG data identifying episodes properly. And if your recording off BBC3, then, just like TiVo's BBC 3 data, it doesn't work right. Other channels are much better; I presume it's at root a problem with how the BBC provide BBC3 annd BBC4 data.

[cyril]

Sorry to drag up an old thread but as I am now considering getting an Xbox 360 as an extender for a MCE 2005 PC (later likely to be a Vista PC) I need some advice from the wise heads here!

I am not a gamer so the gaming part of the Xbox 360 does not bother me - can I then just go for a core Xbox 360 or are there any other advantages to getting a premium?

Core is OK for streaming, but you do get an ethernet cable and wireless controller with the premium, and the hard drive can be used to download some 720p film and music videos or trailers from Microsoft.

[dribble]

Sorry to drag up an old thread but as I am now considering getting an Xbox 360 as an extender for a MCE 2005 PC (later likely to be a Vista PC) I need some advice from the wise heads here!

I am not a gamer so the gaming part of the Xbox 360 does not bother me - can I then just go for a core Xbox 360 or are there any other advantages to getting a premium?

Hi Mesaka,

Well, it's been quite a while since I last posted on here! I decided to purchase a Sony XL-100 Media Centre, and so far I have been more than happy with it.

I use freeview, and have been able to install 3 tuners (two PCI, the other USB). That in itself is incredibly useful. With WebGuide installed, it gives me the same functionality as Tivoweb.

I decided the other day that I would like to 'extend' the Sony box downstairs to my TV in the bedroom. After a lot of thinking, I brought a Xbox360 core. I've got to say that I am MORE than happy with it. It's great being able to view and record different TV programs all off the same box. Picture quality is excellent

I couldn't see any advantage in getting the premium xbox package. Didn't need the wireless controllers, or the HD, as like you I am not a games player. All I had to buy was a HD lead (£14.99).

Initially I was quite sad to see my TiVo go, but I now feel that my current set up (i.e. working with Freeview), gives me much more flexibility.

I am a happy chappie, although lighter in the pocket for it :(

I'd say go with the core. It's also worth mentioning that you don't have to get the xbox360 remote control, as any media centre remote will work with it. I have the MS one, where you can program the TV's power button and volume controls. It means that I only have to have the one remote on the side table.

Hope this helps.

David

[sanderton]

Only issue with the Core is that unless you have some kind of storage device - either a hard disk or a memory key - you can't connect to XBox Live, and if you can't connect to XBox Live you can't download software updates for the 360, some of which do effect it as an extender. For example a recent download improved the picture quality on component and enabled up-ressed DVD playback via VGA.

[mesaka]

Thanks to all,

This morning I bit the bullet and went with the core option but with a memory card.

Apart from a few firewall issues (I had to turn on Windows firewall to get it up and running; then disable windows firewall and manually add some apps to my preferred ZoneAlarm firewall) it is up and running. Also installed transcode 360 which seems to work well with some of the TiVo shows I have "acquired" throgh non-discussable means and converted to divx.

I really value my TiVo still (especially the ability to cope with the leading 0 on Sky for radio shows.) I see that there appears to be a mod (TIVO X) for the xbox that automates everthing so you can access all TiVo recordings for the MCE interface. Assuming such a thing exists for the xbox360 (and its allowed to be discussed here) can someone point me in its direction?

[Tennant]

I might be missing something; but the big thing I miss from TiVo with MCE (I finally abondoned TiVo about six months ago and replaced it with a Sony XL100) is that you can't record the currently showing programme. Pressing the record button just pops us an info banner and if you go into the guide the record button doesn't do anything.

Therefore if you need to go out part way through a programme you can't record the end of it; or if you decide something you've been watching is interesting and want to save for others to see.

Unless I've not discovered how to do this?

Tennant

[darrin2101]

With regards to getting VGA output into the telly, has anyone had any experience of the Grand Hand View III PC - TV converter?
http://www.marssystems.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=handview3 for info
it's about £50 which for me would be cheaper than a second hand Radeon and the custom cable. But no point if it's pants.
Anyone?

[aitcheff]

I might be missing something; but the big thing I miss from TiVo with MCE (I finally abondoned TiVo about six months ago and replaced it with a Sony XL100) is that you can't record the currently showing programme. Pressing the record button just pops us an info banner and if you go into the guide the record button doesn't do anything.

Therefore if you need to go out part way through a programme you can't record the end of it; or if you decide something you've been watching is interesting and want to save for others to see.

Unless I've not discovered how to do this?

Tennant
I've never used MCE myself but according to the guide on Microsoft's website
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/using/tv/recordtv.mspx

"Record it now
If you’re watching live TV and want to record what you are currently watching, press the RECORD button on your remote. It’s that easy!"

Although I somehow feel that you've already tried that.

Aitcheff.

[dribble]

I've never used MCE myself but according to the guide on Microsoft's website
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/using/tv/recordtv.mspx

"Record it now
If you’re watching live TV and want to record what you are currently watching, press the RECORD button on your remote. It’s that easy!"

Although I somehow feel that you've already tried that.

Aitcheff.

Yep - Works for me!

David

[sanderton]

What it doesn't do is include the buffer with the recrding, so you only get a recrding from the moment you hit record.

[dribble]

Only issue with the Core is that unless you have some kind of storage device - either a hard disk or a memory key - you can't connect to XBox Live, and if you can't connect to XBox Live you can't download software updates for the 360, some of which do effect it as an extender. For example a recent download improved the picture quality on component and enabled up-ressed DVD playback via VGA.

Hi Stuart.

I feel like a bit of a fraud now, as I know that this is supposed to be a TiVo forum, but I just wanted to clarify a couple of things!

I haven't got any kind of memory device, but was looking at maybe getting the 64Mb module.

Is this going to be sufficient for software updates? I can't think of anything else I would be using it for.

Also, I can see that the version of xbox360 extender I am using is 200. Is this the latest version?

Sorry again for talking about Media centre - I'll quietly go back to 'lurking' mode...

Cheers

David.

[sanderton]

I don't know for certain what is needed. It may well not need any at all to do the updates, but it is needed to get into Xbox Live in the first place.

Can you borrow a memory module or the hard drive from a 360 Premium?

[mesaka]

I can confirm that a memory module was all that I needed to update the xbox360 core!

[dribble]

Great! Thanks for the information. :up:

I'll go and get one.

David.