Tag: xbox

Recent xbox media centre changes

Firefox entension in use

Recently the Xbox media centre team have been working on a stable 2.0 version. This means there is a code freeze while they iron out any outstanding bugs. But this hasn't stopped the innovation around xbmc.

So first up, xbox media centre took both game and multimedia 2006 sourceforge awards. On the side, Azureus won overall winner which like Jon is a permanent fixture in my video viewing. Good to see xbmc winning awards like this. I really believe its one of the best open source projects out there at the moment.

Some innovation which I haven't quite worked out the possiblities of yet. In the recent update to xbox media centre (march betas), is the ability for xbox media centre to connect to FTP servers. This is pretty crazy, because the only limitation is now the pipe, as you will also see in the next innovation. I've connected to my personal cubicgarden FTP server and a couple of annoymous FTP servers. It works really well and you can browse around for any media which is on there. It would be good to connect to Webdav servers but I'm sure thats coming soon. Reminds me to suggest that in the forums.

The next thing is the send media URL to Xbox media centre. Its been in xbmc for quite sometime but the application to get it working has been a windows only application. And there was no way I was going to run some odd application just to quickly post a media url to the xbox. But now someone has wrote a Firefox application which does this. Its really cool too, because all you need to do is set the ip address of the xbox and then right click on the link you want to send. And within seconds the xbox will start streaming the media link. Oh and for you mac fans theres is also a Dashboard widget, i'm sure it won't take long for it to be a Yahoo/Konfabulator widget too. Obviously the pipe/bandwidth is still a issue. But damm its quick and easy. This fits perfectly with Keep Vid.com however you can't get stuff from You Tube because its in FLV format and the xbox won't play back flash video files. Ideally the xbox would play back flash formats or Keep Vid would transcode it to something more playable like avi or mov. Then people could also take it away and play the media on there psp or ipod.

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More Xbox 360 information for non gamers

Xbox 360

The xbox 360 has really earned the category of Home entertainment. If you start looking at the facts contained within hype within this article from GamesIndustry.biz. Take for example, The console can be switched on and off wirelessly using the Media Remote control or the wireless game controller. The xbox didnt have this feature and made it difficult to be used like a ce (consumer equipment) type device. Sarah has a 6 in 1 remote with macro support, so shes able to turn on and off all our home cinema/entertainment equipment without shifting off the sofa. But the xbox still needs to be manually turned on by the small switch on the front of the machine.
So the xbox 360 rewrites that mistake and adds its self to the CE group, just what Microsoft has been planning for a long time. It also seems Microsoft have decided to pump up the stakes when it comes to securing the Xbox platform and content. I remember the xbox was meant to be a test for the Trusted computing platform. Uncrackable security system is what they claim, well I predict it to be hacked before March 2006. Uncrackable my ass! When are they going to learn, there is no such thing – its more a matter of time.

Back to Home entertainment and the xbox360, some things which will make home cinema fans smile.

On the issue of cooling – Satchell said he thought the system had three fans (he said he wasn't sure but thought it was three, so we'd open to correction on that one), and we couldn't hear them at all as he spoke. When you play a DVD, it powers down to just one fan.

One word, thank goodness! I've got my xbox behind a glass case because the fan makes such a noise.

DVDs can be played even if you don't have the remote control, unlike Xbox 1.

Yeah well its about time, I do wonder how there going to do region coding now.

DVDs will play back in progressive-scan, with the Xbox 360 up-sampling to prog-scan in the case of DVDs that don't support it.

Great except….

RGB video output will only be possible if you purchase the GBP 17.99 cable separately – regardless of whether you paid GBP 209.99 or GBP 279.99 for your Xbox 360 console.

Well, well, a extra £20 for a machine which only supports HiDef output? What cable comes with the machine? a non RGB scart?

iPods are detected by default, as are PSPs, and by our watch it took about 2 or 3 seconds for the Xbox 360 to notice they were there. With an iPod plugged in you can play music direct through the Dashboard software, with visualisations, or you can play a slideshow of photographs.

You can also plug in a laptop or PC (or not plug it in – if you're using wireless networking) and play content direct from that. This is through Windows Media Player Extender, the software for which is pre-installed on the Xbox 360. In our example, Satchell first streamed a high-definition Project Gotham Racing 3 trailer, and then drew upon a high-definition recording of Star Wars: Episode II apparently captured on his home TV.

We shall see how good this feature is compared to the abilities of Xbox media centre. I guess with the ipod and psp support, xbox 360 must support firewire, usb and network connections like smb.

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Xbox first few days

Xbox first few days

Oh my god is all i can say… The legacy of the xbox is true. I’m currently watching a divx film on the xbox which actually exists on a shared folder on my workstation. It plays flawlessly, allowing me to skip around the content with no noticable jumping or slow down using xbox mediaplayer. I updated from mediaplayer 2.0 to 2.3 which is the current realease mainly for better support of smb aka windows shares. But theres lots of other things which this mediaplayer does..

It links to imdb for extra information using the nfo files you usually get with downloads. More on this though, because I was trying to work out why some worked and some didnt. Finally worked out that the nfo file needs to contain the link of course but it has to be formated in special way.http://us.imdb.com/Title?0234215 is a correct url, http://uk.imdb.com/Title?0234215 and http://www.imdb.com/Title?0234215 is not. http://uk.imdb.com/Details?0234215 – also throws an error when parsed by the mediaplayer.I now create my own nfo files using the correct url and found you also need to add a character return after the url otherwise it doesnt work as expected, your’ll be left with no details just the link and no errors.It doesnt have to be anything special just a text file named something *.nfo with a correct url string and a character return – easy.

Also it has a built in tv guide now, thanks to some really clever programming by someone. Its actually part of another sourceforge project called xmltv which basicly grabs the tv listings for differenet channels from multiple sources and combine them into one xml file

17/04/2003 1100 – How quick things change

Check me out, less than a week I was thinking of getting a chipped xbox and moving or buying a new wireless access point. Now I’ve got a chipped xbox for a the same price as a new one. By the way Microsoft dropped the price of xboxes to take out the gamecube. So 130 pounds will now get you a new xbox with no games and one controller, good business move on microsoft’s part – cant believe they sold for 300 pounds when first launched, and i sweared not to buy one because it was the same as my pc. Now thats the reason why I’m getting one.

Anyway, basicly the xbox has already been chipped / modded and has evolution dash board, media player and some other stuff on there already. So it should be a simple case of plug it in and away I go. Already plugged the optical cable into the digital processor and got the ethernet connection ready. It looks like I may have to switch scart sockets with the playstation everytime I want to use it because my television only has one scart socket that can produce a rgb signal. Luckly I got a two scart switcher box, but its a little crap and already has svideo input from the computer in the other socket. Seeing how the xbox will become the main movie player, I will disconnect the svideo for now. More details and maybe another log when I actually get the xbox today.

On the wireless side of things. I moved the access point to a much better location in terms of spread of the signal, the middle of the house. I was outside in the garden getting a pretty good wireless connection the other day (its nice and sunny at this moment in the uk) and I’ve taken to the garden alot more for just checking email and the like, instant messager on the ipaq outside in the garden is also a favourate of mine. Still thinking of getting the 802.11g access point on the next pay cheque to really cover the whole house and garden with a nice even spread of wireless. Should speak to neighbours about using my bandwidth.