DVD Server using XBOX Media Center (XBMC), DVD Profiler, and IMDB (Pictures galore) [Text View] - Page 3

Thomas J. Coyle

05-10-06, 06:44 PM

Hi all,

I have got the XBMC application up and running on a X3 Xecuter modded XBOX using the Evolution dashboard and it looks very good. However I have a slight problem:

I can view all of my unRaid ripped DVD movie file folders with XBMC, but have not been able to get any of the VIDEO_TS folder files to play.

I navigate to the movie's video_ts.ifo file and click on it and nothing happens. I have even used the clear button on the controller to get the drop down menu which allows one to select the DVD player and still nothing happens.

I can't even get the DVD ROM drive to play a movie with XBMC by navigating to the video_ts.ifo file, selecting it, then waiting for several minutes and still nothing happens.

From all of the reading I have done, I thought that there was a built-in DVD player (codec) in XBMC that it automatically defaulted to when one wants to play a video file.

Is there a parameter(s) in the XboxMediaCenter XML file that I need to edit to get the DVD player to work?

I have searched on the xbmcmediacenter.com website in their FAQ and the on-line manual and have not found a satisfactory answer to my problem.

I have also searched the forums on xbox-scene.com and still have not come up with a solution that will work.

The XBOX dashboard will play a DVD movie just fine so I know that the DVD ROM drive is okay.

Suggestions?

Regards,
TCIII

Ja Phule

05-10-06, 06:47 PM

What resolution are you running XBMC at? I know some have had issues at 1080i. What version of XBMC are you running? Do you have problems with any other video files other than DVD?

Thomas J. Coyle

05-10-06, 07:08 PM

Ja Phule

05-10-06, 07:15 PM

You might want to try a newer build. T3CH is up to 5-5 now.

curtis104

05-10-06, 08:36 PM

sean_w_smith

05-10-06, 08:44 PM

Hi Ja Phule,

I am running build XBMC-CVS_2006-04-21-T3CH and presently I am just using the composite video output at 480i, but I plan to switch to 720p over a component connection when I get things going.

Here is a sample of my log file where I tried to open a movie video_ts folder and then tried to play a DVD in the DVD ROM drive:

Unable to open dll Q:\system\players\dvdplayer\libdvdnav.dll
16:34:27 M: 39411712 ERROR: InputStream: Error opening, smb://192.168.1.230/disk1/My Movies 1/40 Days and 40 Nights/VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.IFO
16:34:27 M: 39411712 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::OnExit()
16:34:27 M: 39411712 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: eof, waiting for queues to empty
16:34:27 M: 39411712 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::OnExit() deleting input stream
16:34:27 M: 39411712 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::OnExit() deiniting subtitle handler
16:34:27 M: 39936000 ERROR: Playlist Player: skipping unplayable item: 0, path [smb://192.168.1.230/disk1/My Movies 1/40 Days and 40 Nights/VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.IFO]
16:34:28 M: 39936000 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::CloseFile()
16:34:28 M: 39936000 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: waiting for threads to exit
16:34:28 M: 39936000 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: finished waiting
16:35:12 M: 40136704 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: Opening: D:\VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.IFO
16:35:12 M: 40153088 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::CloseFile()
16:35:12 M: 40153088 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: waiting for threads to exit
16:35:12 M: 40153088 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: finished waiting
16:35:12 M: 39628800 NOTICE: Creating InputStream
16:35:12 M: 39628800 ERROR: Unable to open dll Q:\system\players\dvdplayer\libdvdnav.dll

Regards,
TCIII

is the missing DLL present?

Q:\system\players\dvdplayer\libdvdnav.dll

This should clearly work. It works fine on my system doing exactly what you describe...

Q: should point to the XBMC home.

I would guess either Q is pointting to the wrong place or this DLL is missing or corrupt...

One other thing might be the bios. run the executer bios not the cromwell BIOS. for legal reasons the BIOS comes with cromwell and you have re-flash to put the good bios on there. Its a stretch but I thought I might throw it out there....

BTW: I am also assuming you can access content on the NAS like pics or music just fine and there is no reason to suspect that the SMB settings are not correct. If this is not the case make sure you can access some other file types to eliminate the SMB aspect as a possible issue...

best of luck.

Sean

Funky_K

05-10-06, 08:49 PM

Hi Ja Phule,

I am running build XBMC-CVS_2006-04-21-T3CH and presently I am just using the composite video output at 480i, but I plan to switch to 720p over a component connection when I get things going.

Here is a sample of my log file where I tried to open a movie video_ts folder and then tried to play a DVD in the DVD ROM drive:

Unable to open dll Q:\system\players\dvdplayer\libdvdnav.dll
16:34:27 M: 39411712 ERROR: InputStream: Error opening, smb://192.168.1.230/disk1/My Movies 1/40 Days and 40 Nights/VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.IFO
16:34:27 M: 39411712 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::OnExit()
16:34:27 M: 39411712 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: eof, waiting for queues to empty
16:34:27 M: 39411712 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::OnExit() deleting input stream
16:34:27 M: 39411712 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::OnExit() deiniting subtitle handler
16:34:27 M: 39936000 ERROR: Playlist Player: skipping unplayable item: 0, path [smb://192.168.1.230/disk1/My Movies 1/40 Days and 40 Nights/VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.IFO]
16:34:28 M: 39936000 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::CloseFile()
16:34:28 M: 39936000 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: waiting for threads to exit
16:34:28 M: 39936000 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: finished waiting
16:35:12 M: 40136704 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: Opening: D:\VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.IFO
16:35:12 M: 40153088 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::CloseFile()
16:35:12 M: 40153088 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: waiting for threads to exit
16:35:12 M: 40153088 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: finished waiting
16:35:12 M: 39628800 NOTICE: Creating InputStream
16:35:12 M: 39628800 ERROR: Unable to open dll Q:\system\players\dvdplayer\libdvdnav.dll

Regards,
TCIII

I was having similar problems, and it turned out to be a samba share permission problem. XBMC does have a very good native DVD player (with full menu support) that is active by default.
Try creating a user account for the XBOX, and edit your samba path in the xboxmediacenter.xml file (eg. smb://user:password@192.168.1.230/disk1/My Movies 1/)

Thomas J. Coyle

05-10-06, 09:30 PM

Hi all,

Thank you all for your responses!!

My daughter and I figured out the problem by observing that there was a broken dvd player path appearing in the XBMC log file.

We had used the XBMC Media Center on-line manual instructions for installing XBMC as an application.

Unfortunately the instructions omitted the transfer of the "system" folder that should have gone with the other required folders and files.

Once we FTPed the missing "system" folder to the XBMC folder and rebooted XBMC, we were able to play DVDs from the unRaid server and the DVD ROM drive as well.

curtis104,

The XBMC application works just fine with my unRaid media server.

I can see all of the drives and the movie folders on them.

Would highly recommend the unRaid OS to experienced builders/users.

Most unRaid users have moved to the new unRaid community forum on the lime-technology website,

Regards,
TCIII

sean_w_smith

05-10-06, 09:58 PM

Thomas,

Great that you got it working....

Safe bet is to transfer the whole distribtion....

I use the following procedure to upgrade a lot for the last several years and it works great....

download new build
unzip/tar/rar new build
rename xboxmediacenter.xml -> xboxmediacenter.orig
delete all the languages other than english from the language dir (optional step)
Via FTP take the entire new distribution and drop it on the one I want to upgrade.

Select over write all.
Wait till done
reboot

I use XBMC as my dash so I either exit to evolution or use an alternate install to do the upgrade.

you can't upgrade the running version of XBMC because some files are locked....

There are very few reasons left (multi-disc games being one to ever run a dash other than XBMC). IMO all those other dashes are obsolete because XBMC does it all.

I use the xbox shortcut maker to do this. I find this very easy and makes upgrading really easy. (see previous posts or XBMC twiki for details).

Good Luck.... your gonna love it. Its a really trick peice of software...

I can stare at the milkdrop visualization for hours on end on my Sammy 61" DLP at 720P. :)

Sean

colonelsnow

05-11-06, 01:15 PM

Don,
I think the with way XBMC works, you will need to move your isos and thumbnails into the same directory. That's how I have it and it works fine that way. th

Do you have to rip as an iso for the thumbnail to trigger the movie to play? I currently have them as VOBs.

Ja Phule

05-11-06, 01:35 PM

th

Do you have to rip as an iso for the thumbnail to trigger the movie to play? I currently have them as VOBs.

I use ISO files and they work fine. I don't rip my movies into video folders so I haven't really tested this functionality, but this would mean xbmc would have to know to play the files within the video_ts folder which is within the movie's folder.

bjhess

05-11-06, 01:42 PM

I think if you hit the white button and then "play" or whatever it will dig into the VOB type folders for you. Not too convenient.

land_down_under

05-11-06, 06:27 PM

What are the differences with the "pimped" version ?

serfrat

05-11-06, 06:40 PM

I'm loving the xbmc except for one problem. When I choose any of my albums in the library mode the track order is backwords. It show the first, second, third and so on tracks on the bottom of the list up to the highest track on the top. It then plays from the last track to the first track. My copy of XMBC is only a few days old. Does anybody know a fix for this? Thanks

sean_w_smith

05-11-06, 07:09 PM

There is a little arrow that controls sorting order:

Sort By: Name (ARROW HERE)

you can toggle it to control the sort order....

Sean

bharper

05-12-06, 12:07 AM

Ja Phule

05-12-06, 12:18 AM

This is a awesome thread. I work in an AV store and never really looked for this ability in the XB. We sell a product called the Kaleidescape. It is a $30,000 movie server that does pretty much the same thing.

Is there a way for the XB to access a NAS (network attached storage, or HD) or a server with a few Terabytes of movies on it?

XBMC is a poor man's Kaleidescape (ok, a non-rich man's :)). XBMC supports samba shares so it will work with a NAS. I hope to put together a TB server sooner or later.

sean_w_smith

05-12-06, 12:19 AM

Absolutely!

Yep I have infrant X6 NAS with 1TB at the moment. I have tested it playing 3 diffferent movies to 3 xboxes in the house while ripping DVD's to it at 4x on 2 PC's and the X6 never misses a beat...

XBMC is clearly not idiot proof but its getting better all the time. DVD is the most unstable part. Pictures, Music and SD Videos are pretty damn solid...

Damn impressive considering the NAS and 3 xboxes + Gig-e switch and some cables is less than 2K....

Sean

sean_w_smith

05-12-06, 12:25 AM

BTW: Ajax beta 3 web interface is out. Its much better than the current web interface if for no other reason it has volume control on it. Its actually got much more than that but I really like it...

Here we go, beta 3!

XBOX AJAX Interface beta 3
by Liquidice

https://files.bountysource.com/file/downloa...-ajax-beta3.zip

or https://xbmcajax.bountysource.com/downloads

-------------
Installation:
-------------

Just unzip and upload the ajax folder into your XBMC/web/ directory

Next make sure that the webserver is enabled on your XBMC by going to:
Settings --> Network -> Servers -> Web Server
Once uploaded navigate Mozilla Firefox over to http://[xboxIP]/ajax/

This has been heavily tested in Firefox 1.5.0.1 and is the recommended browser

---------------
WHAT'S PLANNED
---------------

-The next release will focus on the graphics and UI. I have some ideas of what it should look like, but i'm open for feedback. Also if there are any graphics designers that want to take a shot at helping with XBMC AJAX, please contact me.

-fearpage is helping me do a code cleanup to make the code more readable and editable. This could possibly allow several 'skins' of the web interface using the same backend javascript code.

-I am trying to figure out if there is an efficient way to do searches from the web interface. There is some code implemented to save search keywords as a smart playlist and then display it, but it does not work yet the way I wanted it to. Ideally we could add a new search command to the httpapi, but not until the feature freeze is over.

----------
CHANGELOG
----------

version notes - beta 3

-added video and pictures support
-fixed unresponsive script bugs
-Implemented slider for playback status and seeking through music/video
-Implemented 'Save Playlist' Functionality (Saves to C:\Playlists for now)
-Remote Control GUI will allow you to control XBMC from the browser with screenshots

known issues:
-can not create photo slideshows yet
-If you don't have the C drive as a bookmark you will not be able to load your saved playlists.
-I need to figure out a way to pull the default playlist location from XML file, so I can save playlists there with FileUpload()

Read the README.txt for more info.

Feedback, as always, is welcome.

Ja Phule

05-12-06, 12:31 AM

This is a awesome thread. I work in an AV store and never really looked for this ability in the XB. We sell a product called the Kaleidescape. It is a $30,000 movie server that does pretty much the same thing.

Is there a way for the XB to access a NAS (network attached storage, or HD) or a server with a few Terabytes of movies on it?

Oh, I wouldn't recommend modding xbox's as a service at your job either. :)

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=187201877&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_All

bravo890

05-12-06, 09:17 AM

Ja Phule

05-12-06, 10:18 AM

I tested out the ajax web interface briefly last night. It works pretty well. One features of the interface is controlling XBMC from your browser if as if you were pressing buttons on the gamepad. This feature will take a screencap each time a button is pressed so you can see what is going on from your web browser. XBMC does pause each time a screencap is taking though. Neat feature though.

MikeAlletto

05-12-06, 04:10 PM

Oh, I wouldn't recommend modding xbox's as a service at your job either. :)

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=187201877&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_All

Those guys were busted because they sold pirated games as part of the mod. I seriously doubt they would have been gone after if it was just moding the box and that was it.

Thomas J. Coyle

05-12-06, 05:37 PM

I use ISO files and they work fine. I don't rip my movies into video folders so I haven't really tested this functionality, but this would mean xbmc would have to know to play the files within the video_ts folder which is within the movie's folder.

Ja Phule and anyone else who would like to know,

I have my DVDs ripped as .vobs to individual folders on my unRaid server.

When I navigate to my unRaid server from "My Videos", each movie folder on each of the 11 drives is shown as the title of the movie. Inside the movie folder is a VIDEO_TS folder.

I originally would go clear down to the video_ts.ifo file within the VIDEO_TS folder to start the movie.

However, I found that I could just navigate to the desired movie title (folder) and just select it and the movie would start automatically. No need to use the white button and the drop down menu.

Now, my question Ja Phule,

Since I do not want to store my movie thumb nails in each of my movie folders on my unRaid server, is it possible in the xbmcmediacenter.xml file to direct xbmc to a thumbnail folder on the E: drive where I have my XBMC apps stored?

Regards,
TCIII

Ja Phule

05-12-06, 05:47 PM

Ja Phule and anyone else who would like to know,

I have my DVDs ripped as .vobs to individual folders on my unRaid server.

When I navigate to my unRaid server from "My Videos", each movie folder on each of the 11 drives is shown as the title of the movie. Inside the movie folder is a VIDEO_TS folder.

I originally would go clear down to the video_ts.ifo file within the VIDEO_TS folder to start the movie.

However, I found that I could just navigate to the desired movie title (folder) and just select it and the movie would start automatically. No need to use the white button and the drop down menu.

Now, my question Ja Phule,

Since I do not want to store my movie thumb nails in each of my movie folders on my unRaid server, is it possible in the xbmcmediacenter.xml file to direct xbmc to a thumbnail folder on the E: drive where I have my XBMC apps stored?

Regards,
TCIII

The latest builds of XBMC has moved the thumbnails to a new folder, now under UserData/Thumbnails/Video. However, I'm not sure if this is used for the imdb thumbnails or if you can just place your thumbs in that folder and it will automatically set the thumb for folders with the same filename as the thumb. You may want to try some experimenting.

Thomas J. Coyle

05-13-06, 06:37 PM

sean_w_smith

05-13-06, 06:48 PM

Seems broken in 5/5 build for me ... I noticed this the same thing last weekend. I'm out of town on business or I would try the new pimped 5/13/2006 build that came out. There are a few comments in the releases notes on 5/6 that indicated they may have fixed this.... I'm sure they will get all this cleaned up in the new few weeks?

anyone played with the party mode xml files?

Sean

Ja Phule

05-13-06, 07:22 PM

Hi Ja Phule,

Installed the latest 5-5-06 build that I have access to and stored my thumbnails in the Userdata/Thumbnails/Video folder.

I now have a choice of the "Current" or the IMDb thumbnail.
However, I can only see the thumbnail in the "Movie Info" view and not in the file view.

When I was using version 4-21-06, I had the thumbnail in the file view as well as the Movie Info view.

What did I do wrong?

Regards,
TCIII

I'm not sure myself. I remember that in the earlier builds of XBMC that in file view it would use the custom thumbnail but in library view it would use the imdb thumb. They recently added the new thumbnail mode so it could be a new bug.

Thomas J. Coyle

05-14-06, 12:08 AM

Hi all,

It was cockpit error so don't mind me.

Got it working by selecting the correct view.

Seems to work quite well now.

Thanks for the responses.

Regards,
TCIII

sean_w_smith

05-14-06, 12:14 PM

Can you be a little more specific as to how you fixed the thumbnails in the fileview... I couldn't seem to figure it out. It used to just work....

Sean

Thomas J. Coyle

05-14-06, 08:04 PM

sean_w_smith,

Okay, here is what I did:

Go to the "My Video Page"

Go to the "Switch" button, set it to "Titles" (If you want to see files, select "Files" and there will be no thumbnails in this view as far as I can tell)

On the button below the "Switch" button, select "All Videos"

On the "View" button, you can now select: List, icon, big icon

Hope that this helps.

Regards,
TCIII

Thomas J. Coyle

05-14-06, 08:13 PM

Ja Phule,

I have my thumbnails in the UsersData/Thumbnails/Video folder, with the suffix .tbn, but it is hard to tell if XBMC is using mine or IMDb's when selecting the thumbnail to use.

I have found that if I use the "current" thumbnail, which I assume is my thumbnail, it will not show up in the title view.

However, if I first select the "IMDb" thumbnail and then go back to my thumbnail which is shown as the "current" and replace the IMDb thumbnail with it, it will appear in the title view.

Like I told sean_w_smith, I does not look like you can see the thumbnails in the "file" view. It seems that they are only available in the "title" view which looks much better.

I like the different icon views when in the "title" view.

Regards,
TCIII

Ja Phule

05-16-06, 02:50 AM

XBMC CVS 5-13 is out. My main pc just died so I won't be able to try this one until I get it back up and running.

Thomas J. Coyle

05-16-06, 09:04 AM

Hi all,

I am using a video adaptor on my XBOX that provides for composite, S Video, and component video that I got from computer geeks.

When using the component output, my tv/monitor appears to be overdriven as there is ghosting on the fonts in the GUI, but not the DVD player.

I have the GUI set for 720p and the DVD player runs at 1080i.

Any suggestions?

Regards,
TCIII

Ja Phule

05-16-06, 09:46 AM

I get ghosting on everything (480p/720p/1080i) with the HD pack. I don't get ghosting at 480i, which is the resolution I'm using XBMC at. The XBMC deinterlacer is horrible also and I'm better off letting the faroudja processor in my display work its magic.

sean_w_smith

05-17-06, 06:31 PM

I have both Monster, Microsoft and some 3rd party HD packs. All look perfect at 720P on my DLP and my Sammy CRT. Nothing is over driven, bleeding or ghosting. The quality of the still image is absolutely stellar. I do see the interlacing issues other see with DVD and therefore am running DVD Video at 480I. I run the DIVX and everything else at 720P at it looks absolutely stunning... Not as good my HTPC via DVI but the small text is crisp and clear...I know people complain about the MS Video pack but mine works fine. Monster and others do make alternate sets and the video cabling I am using cost 2x as much as the xbox :)

I also see no difference between hard and soft modded xboxes? Does anyone know whaa the SoftMod HD Hack is supposed to fix?

Sean

Ja Phule

05-17-06, 06:35 PM

Maybe I can blame my 3rd party component adapter for the ghosting. Maybe I shouldn't have given away my original HD pack. Things still look great at 480i though.

Ricksan

05-19-06, 08:18 AM

Definitely think it's a problem w/ some 3rd party hi def adapters. I purchased a made-in-China off-brand adapter that was previously mentioned in this thread. It enabled switched selection of component outputs or composite/s video, plus digital and analog audio but resulted in a picture with horrendous ghosting! Opened the thing up and found an incredibly bad pc board that was dirty/contaminated and had bad shielding (junk!). :mad:

When using either the Microsoft high definition AV pack (purchased through lik-san out of Hong Kong - great service!) or the Psyclone high def cable, have an incredibly good picture at 720p. Now always use the 720p output.

Thomas J. Coyle

05-19-06, 05:09 PM

Ricksan,

I definitely agree with you!

I purchased one of the made-in-China third party adaptors from Computer Geeks that allowed switching between component and composite/s video and it had the exact same problem.

I opened the case like you did, touched up the bad solder joints and cleaned the board to no avail.

Checking out the prices on Amazon for the genuine MS HD adaptor, I could not believe the asking prices for the used ones ($30-$50) let alone a new one ($60). So I headed over to the local Game Stop and found a used one for $6.95 that was 100% guaranteed or money back.

Hooked it up, selected 720p and 1080i and could not believe the quality of the display! No more ghosting and the GUI was clear and crisp! I have the GUI set to 720p which is the native resolution of my display and have found that the movies play at 1080i which the display converts back to 720p.

Bottom line here: Beware of third party HD adaptors unless it is a Psyclone!

Regards,
TCIII

mrmiller1972

05-22-06, 11:10 AM

I'm definately a noob when it comes to XBMC, and I have some beginners questions. What happend to my HD space? It's only got about 5 of the 8 gig avaliable, and I'm sure not all the "system" files take up 3 gig. It looks like about 800 meg is tied up in 3 other directories labeled X,Y, and Z. Just looked strange to me. Also, how do you get the Emulators to work in the EMU folder? Funny that I can get them to work if I put them in the apps or games folders, but not the emu one.

I've been recording shows on my computer and direct feeding them to XBMC and they look great. Best part is I don't have to spring for WMC right now, just to have it replaced with Vista in a year.

=MATT=

Ja Phule

05-22-06, 03:57 PM

mrmiller1972

05-22-06, 04:05 PM

Where do you have your emulators installed specifically? I think XBMC looks into the F:\Emu by default.

I tied there, with and without a sub-directory and neither works. I can put them in the apps and it worked there, just not under the emulators. Strange.

Any idea on the Hard Drive space? Does everyone have the same (that didn't upgrade their HD). What are those other 800 mb drives/partions? I was hoping for about 7 Gig of space (on the * Gig HD) would be enough that I wouldn't have to change out my HD, but what I got was only about 4-5 (4.8 maybe?).

=MATT=

Ja Phule

05-22-06, 04:17 PM

Matt,
What version of XBMC are you using? I had my modder install a 160gb hard drive into my xbox, and the drive is split into a few partitions, I'm guessing the xbox has to have the hd split up into a few partitions by default. You can put whatever you want in each partition. Are you saying you have 4-5 gb total or in just one of the partitions?

sean_w_smith

05-22-06, 07:32 PM

I tied there, with and without a sub-directory and neither works. I can put them in the apps and it worked there, just not under the emulators. Strange.

Any idea on the Hard Drive space? Does everyone have the same (that didn't upgrade their HD). What are those other 800 mb drives/partions? I was hoping for about 7 Gig of space (on the * Gig HD) would be enough that I wouldn't have to change out my HD, but what I got was only about 4-5 (4.8 maybe?).

=MATT=

XMBC Code is about 80M with the latest release...

Thumbnails and the Music and Film databases can consume space...

but I'm not sure what your question is... Remeber game saves and other stuff are also on your Xbox HD.... Are you saying that XBMC consumed several gig of disk space after you installed it? That I doubt highly...

The paths that are used by PRORAMS, GAMES, and Emulatiors on my programs is in the xboxmediacenter.xml

Adjust the paths there to fit your system. This works fine for me and I have 5 emulators listed on my system....

Sean

Ja Phule

05-22-06, 07:53 PM

Actually, I just checked my xbox hard drive, my emulators are in F:\Emulators. Of course, you can set it to whatever you want in the xboxmediacenter.xml as sean mentioned but I think default is now F:\Emulators (along with G:\Emulators and E:\Emulators).

mrmiller1972

05-23-06, 08:19 AM

XMBC Code is about 80M with the latest release...

Thumbnails and the Music and Film databases can consume space...

but I'm not sure what your question is... Remeber game saves and other stuff are also on your Xbox HD.... Are you saying that XBMC consumed several gig of disk space after you installed it? That I doubt highly...

The paths that are used by PRORAMS, GAMES, and Emulatiors on my programs is in the xboxmediacenter.xml

Adjust the paths there to fit your system. This works fine for me and I have 5 emulators listed on my system....

Sean

Yea, that's what I'm saying. I didn't have anything on the HD but a couple of Xbox game saves (less than 16 meg worth as they all fit for back-up on 2 mem cards), but after I did the softmod and installed XBMC I only had 4.x left to work with. That seemed strange to me. I'm using the latest version of XBMC, and I just don't see where the space went on the 8 gig HD except that in the "files" section of XBMC I can see several other drive partitions that are not being used (and that I can't seem to access by FTP).

I fixed the emulators issue :o When I installed XBMC there was an e:\Emu directory, so I used that. After tinkering I noticed the directory should have been "Emulators" not "Emu", so I renamed the directory, but in all my genius I spelled Emulateors instead of Emulators :o So of course since I was having problems before I KNEW something was wrong with XMBC and decided to ask the experts here at AVS. Anyhow, thanks for making me feel better Sean by misspelling Emulators in your post as well ;)

So any ideas on the HD thing? Is that just standard or is something crazy going on? And what's with the other 3 drives/partitions labeled X:, Y:, and Z: which are empty but have about 800meg dedicated to them?

=MATT=

Ja Phule

05-23-06, 10:06 AM

I believe the XYZ drives are standard and is used by the xbox for cache for games.

Ripper

05-23-06, 09:32 PM

Yes, I can vouch the X,Y,and Z are for the cache. When new game 'backups' do not operate properly, cleaning out the cache from the old games will remedy the problem. This worked for me during the GTA San Andreas 'Hot Coffee' update.

sean_w_smith

05-25-06, 02:26 AM

I can check on the file space issue when I get home but I am on the road travelling and don't have access to my xboxes.. There is a lot of small files in the XBMC release, maybe overhead with small files is causing the issue. I can investigate further next week....

Sean

Ratnrol

05-27-06, 06:14 PM

Currently, when I go into my System Info is shows the following:

Resolution: 720x480
A/V Cable: S-video

Where can I change these options?

I have a FP that only accepts a progressive signal.

Ja Phule

05-27-06, 07:35 PM

Currently, when I go into my System Info is shows the following:

Resolution: 720x480
A/V Cable: S-video

Where can I change these options?

I have a FP that only accepts a progressive signal.

You are using S-Video. You need to get the component adapter in order to do other resolutions such as 480p, 720p, and 1080i.

Ratnrol

05-27-06, 09:03 PM

I am currently using s-video.

However, I did hook up component and xbmc still said I was connecting via s-video.

I am using a mad catz HD adapter.

Is is true XBMC will autodetect?

My MSdash is not working with error 21 appearing. I would like to be able to make adjustments using XBMC.

Ja Phule

05-28-06, 12:20 AM

I'm not sure how the madcatz adapter works.... but I'm using another 3rd party adapter that has svideo and component, and it has a switch on it to let me select svideo/composite or component.

XBMC seems to rely on the MS Dash settings. You have to enable 480p, 720p, and 1080i from the MS Dash for XBMC to allow those resolutions. Some of the other dashboards allow you to set these settings also, but I usually do it via the original MS Dash.

GiantRebel55

05-28-06, 03:35 AM

Hello all -

Is it possible to simply upload a new version of xbmc over the old one or do I have to delete something first? I screwed up my xbox media center and was looking for some help.

I edited the xbmc.xml file and tried to ftp it back to the original folder on the xbox media center but it wouldn't accept it. I left it under E/Apps but since I had two xml files I figured I could delete this one. BIG mistake. I no longer have the nice pic like at the start of this thread but a dark screen with some red lettering about my ftp transfer and port info.

If anyone could offer a simpler explanation of how to edit the xml file that would be great too. Directions aren't very thorough on the net.

Very, very grateful for any assistance

ssusca

05-28-06, 08:45 AM

Rebel,

This error message is mostlikely due to an issue with the xml file. All you need to do is boot to an Evox disc and you can re do the transfer. I am still a littel confused as to where teh file should go. I usually leave one in the root of my C:/ drive and also put on in the e:/Apps/XBMC folder. However make sure that you read the message in red that is displayed when you boot XBMC. It willl probably tell you that there is a certain error in a particular line in the xml file. You probably forgot to put in a > or something like that. It happened to me a few times and I had to go back to the xml file to see where I went wrong.

GiantRebel55

05-28-06, 12:34 PM

Thanks for your response - maybe I can get a screen shot of the tv. I do not know what an Evox disc is and I know there was an xml file in the e/apps area you mention but not sure about the root of the c drive - I'll check it out and post back. Hope you (or others) will help me out because I REALLY want to get this media server working!

Thanks again

Rebel,

This error message is mostlikely due to an issue with the xml file. All you need to do is boot to an Evox disc and you can re do the transfer. I am still a littel confused as to where teh file should go. I usually leave one in the root of my C:/ drive and also put on in the e:/Apps/XBMC folder. However make sure that you read the message in red that is displayed when you boot XBMC. It willl probably tell you that there is a certain error in a particular line in the xml file. You probably forgot to put in a > or something like that. It happened to me a few times and I had to go back to the xml file to see where I went wrong.

Ja Phule

05-28-06, 12:43 PM

GiantRebel,
The best way to install xbmc is to transfer the new build of XBMC to a new folder. What I usually do is rename the old XBMC folder to keep it as a backup just in case, and put the new build as the new XBMC folder.

You should have a boot disc (with a dashboard like evolutionx) so you can ftp to the xbox in case you ever mess up something on your main dashboard (in this case, XBMC).

When upgrading xbmc, I usually go into another dashboard like evolutionx to get the ftp running and then rename the old xbmc folder and transfer over the newer xbmc as the main xbmc. I also backup the face#### folder from the udata and tdata folder. You should delete these folders when upgrading xbmc.

GiantRebel55

05-28-06, 03:10 PM

Thanks for your help - what I discovered was that it was an error in the xml file as ssusca said. I decided to try and ftp the xml file again but this time when having the xbox running and open to e/apps/xbmc. I edited out what I put in yesterday and ftped it to the xbox and the medida center was back!

I still need to figure out how to share but what got me going in this direction was a tutorial from a site that talked about smb sharing but how to edit the xml file was still complicated (obviously).

I also got an e-mail from the guy who modded my xbox and told me this:

"The way I have mine setup is, I share the folders that have my movies on them on my pc (right click share)" - easy enough

"And then I edited the .xml file in the xbmc folder to have a link to my pc" - this is where I run into trouble/confusion
"I created a guest account on my pc with a name and password." - easy enough again

"Then I just used the proper syntax for the link - trouble again here - with my PCs IP address in there."

As for syntax, editing, etc. does it have to be as it is when I open in wordpad, i.e. so many spaces from the left under a certain bookmark? After I ftped the file to my pc I edited it in wordpad - is that the best way to do it?

Uh, lots of questions but I appreciate your help. Feel like I'm making headway...
:)

Funky_K

05-29-06, 04:32 PM

Thomas J. Coyle

05-29-06, 06:34 PM

Funky_K,

I do not know what build of XBMC you have, but you can do this in XBMC build 5/5 under settings/network.

Just a thought.

Regards,
TCIII

GiantRebel55

05-30-06, 01:30 AM

After you FTP the .xml file to your PC, you open it in wordpad
Find the sections where you want to share files from you PC.
There is a section labeled:

Under this heading you will see a default path... and several bookmarks.
When you click My Movies from the XBMC home screen, it will go to the default path.
If you want this to be your shared movie folder, put the path between the <default></default> tags in the following format:

smb://login:password@ip address/share name

save the edited xml and ftp it back to the xbox

Thanks for your help.

When I tried as you said I get an error message under my videos that states, "Can't find computer by that name." Is it possible to have two ip addresses? I am connected to a router but have an IP different than the usualy 192.168 etc. I do find a 192.168 numbwe if I do a command prompt search for ip config all. This will be great if I ever get it to work. Oh, when inputting the share name, do caps matter and what about spaces? I have it named as PC Videos. Thanks again to all for your help.

Funky_K

05-30-06, 07:22 AM

Thanks for your help.

When I tried as you said I get an error message under my videos that states, "Can't find computer by that name." Is it possible to have two ip addresses? I am connected to a router but have an IP different than the usualy 192.168 etc. I do find a 192.168 numbwe if I do a command prompt search for ip config all. This will be great if I ever get it to work. Oh, when inputting the share name, do caps matter and what about spaces? I have it named as PC Videos. Thanks again to all for your help.

on your PC, start a cmd prompt and type: ipconfig

That will give you your local ip address.

Alternatively, you can substitute the computer's name:

smb://login:password@computer name/PC Videos

Scotty6595

05-30-06, 07:20 PM

Here is a sample of my XBMC.xml file... thought it might help.

By the way, CAPS do effect things so make sure it matches in your XBMC.xml file.

Below is how my samba is set up...

- <samba>
<workgroup>mshome</workgroup>
<smbip>192.168.0.1</smbip>
<smbsharename>(SMB) Network</smbsharename>
<defaultusername>-</defaultusername>
<defaultpassword>-</defaultpassword>
<winsserver>-</winsserver>
<debuglevel>0</debuglevel>

Below is how my My Video's portion is set up...


- <video>
<default>DVD,DVD1</default>
- <bookmark>
<name>DVD,DVD1</name>
<path>smb://192.168.0.3/DVD</path>
<path>smb://192.168.0.3/DVD1</path>
</bookmark>

Hope this might be of some help!

nsmoller

05-31-06, 03:16 PM

I personally love this method for streaming. It's awesome to say the least.

I have alot of movies in compressed format as XVID. I have a few of my favorites served as DVDs. You know, the classics - Bring it On, You Got Served, Honey.

Anyone have experience cleaning up the database after you have entries in there? I dont really want to delete the db and start again, but if i had to, what file am i looking for? Is there a "clear database" button on the GUI.

The problem i have with XBMC is it isnt ideal with MultiZone audio. Airport express and itunes seems to be the way for that.

Ja Phule

05-31-06, 03:26 PM

Anyone have experience cleaning up the database after you have entries in there? I dont really want to delete the db and start again, but if i had to, what file am i looking for? Is there a "clear database" button on the GUI.

It's under the UserData folder, delete the MyVideos31.db if you are using one of the latest past few builds.

The problem i have with XBMC is it isnt ideal with MultiZone audio. Airport express and itunes seems to be the way for that.

Sure you could...you'll just need an xbox and wireless bridge (if you do wireless) in every room, similar to how the airport works, except the xbox is just a little bit bigger, but you do get to do multizone video in addition to audio. :)

Thomas J. Coyle

05-31-06, 08:58 PM

Hi all,

I am presently running the 5-5-2006 T3CH CVS build.

I just downloaded the 5-28-06 T3CH CVS build, but have yet to install it on my XBOX.

Has anyone tried it yet?

Regards,
TCIII

sean_w_smith

05-31-06, 10:02 PM

Yes Tom....

I loaded it today... A few things are broken like no matter what I get celcius... More moving of the thumbs DB and playlists and moving stuff from the xboxmediacenter.xml I would wait to update unless you like the pain like me or you want something they fixed....

most all scripts are still broken since they updated the python libraries....

Sean

sean_w_smith

05-31-06, 10:03 PM

Curious Ja Phule?

How do I stream syncrhonized music to multiple xbox's???? Didn't think there was any support for that....

Sean

Ja Phule

06-01-06, 12:07 AM

Curious Ja Phule?

How do I stream syncrhonized music to multiple xbox's???? Didn't think there was any support for that....

Sean

Ah some confusion on my part. Was thinking more of multi-room, multi-source audio/video, not multi-room, single-source... Single source wouldn't work with XBMC, that I'm aware of...

sean_w_smith

06-01-06, 08:04 AM

I guess one could use some PC software to create a stream and listen to that stream on the xboxes.... Curious... Anyone out there know of any PC software that does this.... Can Itunes do this?

Sean

Ja Phule

06-01-06, 11:26 AM

I guess one could use some PC software to create a stream and listen to that stream on the xboxes.... Curious... Anyone out there know of any PC software that does this.... Can Itunes do this?

Sean

Good idea, what someone could do is set up their own Shoutcast server.
http://www.shoutcast.com/download/serve.phtml

sean_w_smith

06-03-06, 08:59 PM

06/03/06 XBMC is out for T3CH and Pimped.

Mostly GUI fixes. misc mem leaks fixed. crashes with DVD player... No real modification to XML or settings structure as in recent releases (EDIT: Other as most settings reset to default). Its getting closer to 2.0 Supposedly the MC360 skin is out on 06/06/06. AJAX still needs updating to deal with all the changes to the way the databases work and are located. For those updating check out the user settings directory. There is a RSS.XML and PARTY_MODE.XML in there you are gonna tweak. Xboxmediacenter.XML is pretty baren now , it only containes main menu structure. All other settings have been moved to GUI or user settings directory.... USA English language is fixed and now reports F instead of C.

Haven't tested much else with skins. Gonna watch some new Top Gear and 5th gear vids tonight....

I'm guessing it will be Agust before we see Official 2.0. The bugfix rate is not slowing down too much... but they seem to honing in on all these nitty gritty bugs and leaks and crashes... Awesome team of programmers....

Oh yeah there is this cool PATH Substitution function thats been in there for about a month that will take playlists that have some PC specific c:\somedir hardcoded in them and substiute what ever the proper path is on Xbox so they will work as is.... Pretty cool. Read the XBMC twiki if you want see how they work. Also I really am digging the smart playlists feature. I have these year based playlists for music like only stuff released in 2005 and 2006. I like how now in Paty Mode I can exclude stuff. I have it setup to exclude Phish, Dead and Jamband Genres since I have like 4,000 songs of just bootlegs and stuff. Check it out...

EDIT: Just noticed most settings were RESET. Weather is now if F versus C but had to reset locations and about 80% of the other parameters as they were reset back to default. Big changes to the SMB Client settings menu too....

FILE VIEW of DVD Thumbnails has been fixed and now works as it did a month ago... in both file and library views...

Sean

sean_w_smith

06-04-06, 01:28 AM

More Stuff....

Python Scripts are improving. Quite a few more seem to work...

Database Scanning for Music seems faster...

Using the Triggers on the controller to scroll through pages of albums at very fast speeds is back and its faster than ever... This changed maybe 6 weeks ago and it annoys me a lot since i have ~ 2500 Albums in my database.

In General paging through lists wheter in List view or Icon view for Pics, Music or Videos whether in File View or Library View are faster than any version I can remember... good job guys...

Seems to be doing a better job with some of the FLAC tags that were coming out weird before...

Top 100 Songs or Albums seems to hang. I wonder if its because my library is huge. It did use to work but is huge... Recently played is working but very slow...

Overall this build seems to fix many of the nits I have seen in the last few months. Seems pretty stable except for the hangs related to certain Music Library Views and some python scripts...

Curious: What are others opinions on Auto Post Processing on Video. It seems to help many of mine....

I was noticing some subtle flicker on the grey color bands in the GUI when doing some critical looking. Flickr filter seem to have some effect but I tried turning Digital Noise Reduction on the Sammy DLP on and it cleans it up nicely. recommended. I don't run with DNIE. I don't like the exagerated sharpening effect it has on the picture. Its probably the best sharpening I have seen but I am not a fan of it regardless. Makes the GUI look like its in BOLD mode.....

This build looks like a keeper so far. If it proves out I may keep this as my backup build for a while when new versions come out...

I do have to see the re-arrangement of the GUI settings and the way the language settings and regions work is pretty cool. Defintely more intuative than the old way.....

Sean

fanerman

06-04-06, 03:36 PM

What's the best way to upgrade XBMC? I have it set to my default dashboard. Should I go back and make whatever I used to hack the thing my default dash? After that, do I delete the old XBMC folder and copy the new one in? Or can I just paste the new one over the old one?
Thanks.

sean_w_smith

06-04-06, 05:33 PM

Upgrading is not hard....

1st Question is what method of running XBMC as the dash are you using. If you are not using the shortcut method then you need to fix this first. The XBMC Home setting no longer exists in the xboxmediacenterl.xml file and you MUST NOW USE THE SHORTCUT METHOD OR REFLASH YOUR BIOS TO BOOT XBMC. You can read more about that here....

http://manual.xboxmediacenter.de/wakka.php?wakka=dashinstallsetupv2&v=cab

Once you have that straigtened out you need to load some other program or else the main XBMC executable among other files are locked and cannot be overwritten. You can launch an alternate dashboard or a BOOT Disc with FTP or another copy of XBMC running out of a different dir. Doesn't matter which one... I tend load the Exo Dash I have installed in my F:\APPS dir from the program menu in XBMC.

Then take the new release....

I generally rename the xboxmediacenter.xml to xboxmediacenter.old
Also in the user preferences directory I will delete party_mode.xml and rss_feeds.xml so that I don't lose my customizations...

Generally the OLD xboxmediacenter.xml will just work. They have changed it alot recently I would do a merge. Only the menu settings are left everything else have been removed.

Once you have done that just FTP and overwrite the main primary XBMC setup.

Make sure you do it right or it won't reboot. Always make sure you have a working boot disc with FTP in case you mess something up. This way you settings will carry forward. If you are running anything older than a month you will have move/rename the OLD Music database and thumbnail directories if you want them to work in these releases that have some out in the last month.

Again, Make sure you have XBMC booting as a DASH using shortcut method or reflash or it will not boot and make sure you have a working FTP boot CD/DVD in case you F&^*& it up.

Its really not that hard. Hopefully they are done moving all the settings around. Until lately I have been renaming just one file and overwriting the install and it works perfectly at least 20 times.... If you don't care about saving thumbnails and old settings just overwrite everything. and merge you changes into xboxmediacenter.xml

Sean

land_down_under

06-04-06, 07:11 PM

Ja Phule

06-05-06, 01:04 AM

There's a trailer out for the MC360 skin here (http://blackbolt.x-scene.com/). I'm looking forward to using it once it's available this Tuesday. It should be bundled with new T3CH releases beginning Tuesday also.

sean_w_smith

06-05-06, 03:56 PM

Sean - what is the deal with booting up with a different application than XBMC - I have in the past always been able to ftp into XBMC and overwrite whilst it is running with no problems.

Is this a new function - my latest build was early this year and I havent changed yet due to the major changes in the builds - I was going to wait until 2.0 but you may have swayed me.

Oh and by the way the new wide icons look coooool - check them out at xbox-scene.

Something I first had issue with almost 2 years ago when I started messing with XBMC. the default.xbe and the some of the database files would be locked and I would get errors in the FTP client. Never tried it again since then since it seemed reasonable to me. Any tips or tricks you can share for upgrading a running install? I'll have to give it a whirl....

Sean

Scotty6595

06-05-06, 07:31 PM

Has anyone tried to FTP into the usual places lately? It will show connected but gives you no directory structre like normal.... Can some of you test this please and confirm that it is not just me.....

Thanks a bunch!

Scotty

Slack

06-05-06, 08:10 PM

I tried the 'usual places' this Sunday, and could not get in. Figured it was momentary downtime.

Tried again just now....
No Dice.

Perhaps they are gearing up for assault caused by the MC360 skin trailer.

cjett

06-05-06, 09:09 PM

I tried all weekend as well. no go. not sure what is going on... but hope it gets fixed soon.

jet

Scotty6595

06-05-06, 11:39 PM

Thanks for checking guys, I am thinking they are gearing up for the MC360 release as well. At least I hope that is whats up. I tried getting on xboxmediacenter.com today as well and no dice there.... It would be a shame if everything went FUBAR right before the big release....

Thanks again for checking!

Thomas J. Coyle

06-06-06, 09:02 AM

Hi all,

I had no trouble getting on "the usual places", however they are located in Europe.

cjett is right about xboxmediacenter.com. Couldn't get on at all.

Regards,
TCIII

Scotty6595

06-06-06, 09:50 AM

Hmmm, very interesting that you can get on but I can't.... Maybe your usual places are different than mine. Mine is in Europe as well. Are we talking about "xbins"? If so are you seeing T3CH builds in the directories? Just curious if we are talking about the same place....

Thanks!

Scott

Slack

06-06-06, 10:47 AM

He might be referring to the old usual places, which you can still get on. But when you drill down to apps/players/xmbc/ you see the message about a mirror.

i.e. the 'new' usual place.

which is the one I cannot access.

cjett

06-06-06, 01:31 PM

I'm also talking about the Europe-based xbins... still seems to be down. I'm way back level (long story), and need to upgrade.

if anyone has any other ideas... let me know.

cjett

Ja Phule

06-06-06, 02:58 PM

666 T3CH is out with MC360 beta. I can't wait to try it when I get off work. I tried the FTP a few times in the past few days, couldn't get in either.

Scotty6595

06-06-06, 03:28 PM

It is still down for me but what gets me is that there are people accessing xbins and downloading as we speak.... Some people over at xbox-scene are uploading to a torrent site because so many people cannot get on the usual place.... I have searched several torrent sites with no luck... Anyone have any ideas? If I find something out I'll let you know.

Peace Out,

Ja Phule

06-06-06, 03:30 PM

The date 060606 brings us MC360 BETA version. Beta is 4:3 only and does NOT support Widescreen.

:(

Scotty6595

06-06-06, 03:36 PM

Yup, I was veeeerry disappointed to see that as well.

Scotty6595

06-06-06, 04:32 PM

Ok, I have found a working torrent for this... If anyone needs a link just pm me and I will provide. Beware, it took almost 15 minutes to begin the download but once it started it rolled along at a pretty good clip.

Scott

ashokn225

06-06-06, 05:31 PM

sorry newb here, but a couple of quick questions:

1. is it possible to connect the xbox to a NAS and a computer? Essentially, right now ill be setting up xbmc to connect directly via lan to a computer that ill be using as a storage device using a 4U server case ( 11 bays!!). But in a couple months when im at school, ill be living in a frat house which has a NAS with tons of media. Reason im even building the storage computer is because the NAS does not have any good quality video files, but has tons of music.

2. Im not sure if anyone here knows about the slim case mod for the xbox, but what it is, is basically taking out the dvd drive portion of the case and putting the hard drive where the dvd drive used to be, making the case much slimmer and attractive. Im thinking about putting the xbox into either an m-atx pc case, like the one Ahanix has, or just doing the slim mod. But what im wondering is if your streaming all your media ( video, music, pictures) from a computer or NAS, will you ever need the dvd drive? Assuming you only use the xbox to stream media.

Thanks

Ashok

Scotty6595

06-06-06, 07:11 PM

MC360 Impressions:

The long and the short of it.... it's pretty, it's cool, still a few bugs but overall a good skin. Is it so good that I will replace PM3 as my default skin.... probably not. The jury is still out though. As a media player skin I definately think PM3 is much more refined and looks more professional. Now all you gamers and such will probably find MC360 the BOMB...... and thats cool to. I will definately keep learning and customizing this skin and who knows, I just might change my mind. I do own a real 360 and I must say its a good representation but even microsoft figured that when used as a media player the Media Center GUI is much more refined and classy looking on your home theater big screen.

One huge issue I have is that MC360 does not yet have 720p or 1080i support. BOOOOOO. When this is added I will def. re-evaluate the skin with a little different eye.

Definately worth the download though.

Scott

Slack

06-06-06, 09:45 PM

Scotty6595

06-07-06, 12:21 AM

ashokn225

06-07-06, 12:57 AM

are you able to set different pics to the background of each blade? Because i dont think you can do that with a 360? Or are those different screenshots at different times?

Ja Phule

06-07-06, 02:19 AM

I tested it out tonight, not too bad at all. You can view it as 480i 16:9 and the gui may not be perfect but it works just a touch wider and most people probably wouldn't notice as it just affects the gui and nothing else.

ashokn225,
You should be able to set a indiv pic for each blade, I haven't tried it myself but you can see them doing it in the preview trailer 2.

Slack

06-07-06, 08:07 AM

Ok, I do have to admit it is nice to be able to set the background of the blades to personal pics like on the real 360. I essentially set up my xbox to look exactly like my 360. I'm still on the fence as to wheather this could be my default dash.... Time will tell.

By the way, yes those are my squids...LOL

OK Thats cool. And I think that'll go aways towards getting the wife to warm-up more to steering XBMC when I'm not around. Guess I'll throw it on the bedroom unit and give it a whirl. Any major changes to XML? the torrent description said there were.

Anyone know how to embed these pictures into the thread instead of having links?

The insert image icon always worked for me. It looks like a little mountian range with the sun (or moon) up in the sky. Yellow Icon above the post edit box.

Scotty6595

06-07-06, 10:21 AM

are you able to set different pics to the background of each blade? Because i dont think you can do that with a 360? Or are those different screenshots at different times?

Yes you can set different pictures for each blade. Those backgrounds are all on the skin. The thing I did notice is that it slows down the blade transistions when the pictures are added to the back ground. I am used to the speed of the PM3 skin so it seems to bog it down even more.

As far as changes to the XML, yes they have taken out many of the scripts and put them in .dll's elsewhere. I haven't opened mine up yet to set my bookmarks and such because the word is that they will be releasing a new CVS in the next day or so to fix some of the most pressing issues.

sean_w_smith

06-07-06, 11:42 AM

Scotty6595

06-07-06, 12:05 PM

Yup, I ended up doing the same thing shortly after release. As of right now I am still not able to get on xbins... I hope this is a temp. issue. I normally don't like using torrents as there are people that like uploading malicious code in popular files like this one.

Tip: Always run your virus checker on anything downloaded from a torrent site.

Scott

ashokn225

06-07-06, 05:57 PM

Ja Phule

06-07-06, 06:02 PM

sorry this is off topic guys, but with the xbmc, ive read that you can control it using an Xbox 360 media remote control ( such as the microsoft one or even the harmony 360 version remote). If you did this but had a 360 in the same room, would that be a problem? I dont know much about how remotes and their devices interact, but if I pressed play or power or something, would that then power or play both devices simultaneously?

Reason im asking is because I want to mod my xbox with xbmc but already have a 360 in the room, and want to be able to use the logitech 360 version ( or any harmony remote) to control all my devices, including xbmc

You have the Logitech/Harmony remote which pretty much lets you program it for any device. The xbox uses RCA DVD player remote ir codes, use the harmony software to program either RCA DVD remote codes or (I believe it should be there) xbox dvd remote codes onto your remote. You will still need to buy the dvd remote kit so you can get the IR receiver for the xbox. You cannot power on the xbox with the remote unless you install the ir mod with the xbox. Without the mod, you must turn on the xbox by pressing the power button.

Slack

06-07-06, 08:41 PM

What Ja Phule said...

But you don't really have to search the Harmony site for any particular remote codes.
Add the 'classic' xbox to your set-up, then just add an activity to the Harmony called 'XboxMediaCenter', and map commands to your hearts content.

Failing that, you could do what pople with multiple ReplayTVs in the same room do. Power toggle. The unit that is off wont respond to commands. Hit the power button, and they flip-flop. This is going to be hard to pull off without the XIR mod Ja Phule mentioned.

Another way to skin the cat is to program the remotes with a device ID. This works for JP1 type programmable remotes.

Lastly, I believe that for XBMC to respond to remote codes from the media center or 360 remotes, you have to fiddle with the IR codes in xml. But I could be wrong.

In any case I think it's far easier to add an activity via the Harmony web front end.

ashokn225

06-09-06, 11:10 AM

so if I use the harmony remote and buy the xbox dvd IR reciever, and program the harmony with the xbox remote codes, then I shouldnt have any problems controlling the xbox or the 360? Assuming that I dont need to power the xbox via remote that is, since I think im going to softmod my box.

Ja Phule

06-12-06, 03:39 PM

New XBMC T3CH build out, along with a new version of MC360 skin. This one seems like it might be a little buggy so I'm gonna hold out for another release.

Thomas J. Coyle

06-12-06, 04:28 PM

Ja Phule,

If you are referring to the 6-6-06 Build, I have seen nothing but problems on the XBOX Media Center website concerning this build.

I am presently running the 5-15-06 Build, but have downloaded the 5-28-06 build. Do you have any experience with this build?

Regards,
TCIII

Ja Phule

06-12-06, 04:33 PM

TCIII,
I'm actually referring to the 6-11 Build. The 6-6 buid is also buggy in its own right, but it seems the 6-11 is even more buggy. I think most of the bugs is due to the mc360 skin, using PMIII should be more stable.

I know the previous build I was using was something between 5-15 and 5-28 but I don't recall which one it was. For the most part, most of these builds worked fine and the little bugs didn't seem to affect my overall use of XBMC.

land_down_under

06-12-06, 10:52 PM

Im with you guys - plenty of discussion and more bug reports than I have seen for ages....for what its worth though most of them relate to the 360 skin so not really assosciated with xbmc itself

Scotty6595

06-13-06, 12:28 AM

Here is the deal with the latest release. The XBMC-T3CH build dated 6-11 works great....no issues.. The MC360 bundled with it is the problem. Blackbolt has since put a new revision for download on his web site. (link can be found below. Just go to the download section) Apparently the MC360 skin that was bundled with the T3CH release was incomplete and caused massive hanging/freezing issues. This has been corrected in the Version: Beta 0.97499.

Make sure you completely delete the legacy MC360 directory and all its contents before uploading this current version....

I have been playing around with this latest version tonight and have not had any issues what so ever. They have added several cool features that were requested by the community and even changed the Kia blade to an Extras blade... Def. worth checking out....

For what it is worth, the 6/11 build with the 0.97499 version of MC360 is more stable than the previous 6/6/6 release. Just my observation.

By the way, I have a font.xml file for 1080i that works very well in the MC360 skin if anyone is interested....

Blackbolts web site: Go to "Downloads" and find the latest version of MC360

http://blackbolt.x-scene.com/

c10273

06-15-06, 11:39 PM

I just had a question to all of you, does the xbmc support touchscreen? If not are they thinking about adding it? I just think that would be a nice addition to the already cool features of this machine. thanxs to all that wrote on this forum.

sean_w_smith

06-16-06, 02:18 AM

As far as I know there is no touch screen panel hardware available for the xbox so supporting in software is unecessary since no hardware exists... Now, there is a web interface so if you have some IP device that talks HTTP that has a touch screen like a fancy remote, PDA, etc then you can use a touchscreen with either of the two available web interfaces to control XBMC... The web interfaces are quite nice. Especially the newer ajax interface... Xbox also supports IR codes so if you have a Pronto or Some other device like a crestron you can also have a touch screen GUI for it to control XBMC. I can imagine someone here is doing one of the above...

Sean

thefreeauction

06-16-06, 06:48 AM

c10273 -- yea what sean said -- check out: https://xbmcajax.bountysource.com/. I haven't tried it yet but it looks promising.

I'm eventually gonna mold in a touchscreen into my coffee table (to replace a remote) and hopefully be able to control most everything in my house. But that's down the road a bit since I have a couple of other projects to finish yet.

c10273

06-16-06, 06:57 AM

I guess what I was wondering was if I had a xenarc touchscreen that plugged into a usb port, if it would control the xbox without using the controller or remote.

Slack

06-16-06, 08:11 AM

I guess what I was wondering was if I had a xenarc touchscreen that plugged into a usb port, if it would control the xbox without using the controller or remote.

I suppose if you could 'packet sniff' the USB conversation between the xbox and a controller. And your touchscreen was programmable enough, you could replicate controller functions on the touch screen. That actually might be easier than convincing the devs to write a drivee for a touchscreen.

dreamhost

06-17-06, 05:53 PM

sorry, sure it's been asked before but after reading through the first 15 pages I give up...LOL
I currently have a computer running mce2k5 with 20 usb drives attached for movie storage.
I have used dvddecrypter to save all the dvd's in file mode to the hd's. Standard .vob/ifo format exactly as the dvd is in it's native format. This works perfectly for me on my main computer.

question:
I'm taking my xbox down to have it modded today, ready overnight.
What do I need to ask for specifically to be able to play back the dvd's from my main computer through the network to the xbox?
Also: will the xbmc play the .vob dvd's as easily as my main computer does?
Right now all I have to do is click the dvd cover and it fires up, menus working and all....

thnx

thefreeauction

06-17-06, 06:20 PM

after reading through the first 15 pages I give up...LOL -- Hey, you only had 6 more pages to go!! :D Well, XBMC has no problems whatsoever playing mine over a wired network, but I have all mine saved as .ISO images. I'm sure someone here has tried VOB files and could tell you if that works. -- look at post #441 in this thread that may help you -- From what people say it *looks* like it works but don't quote me since I haven't tried it.

I'm taking my xbox down to have it modded today, ready overnight. What do I need to ask for specifically to be able to play back the dvd's from my main computer through the network to the xbox?

I don't think the mod chip has anything to do with the playback of dvds through the network. That's a feature of the XBMC software.

-Dan

Scotty6595

06-17-06, 08:11 PM

Like thefreeauction said all you will need is the XBMC software to play your DVD's... Your installer might put it on for you but if not there are lots of great resources that explain how.

As far as .VOB's, I myself have mine in ISO format but I have read that VOB's are supported. The only thing that comes to mind that may erk you will be that you will have to click on the folder and then click on the VOB file to run the movie..... 2 clicks .vs 1...

Let me know if your installer puts XBMC on your box, if not I have tons of links I will share with you to help you out. I would personally recommend learning how to install so that you will be comfortable upgrading to the newer more stable versions of XBMC....

Good Luck!

Scotty

Ricksan

06-17-06, 08:33 PM

The xbmc will play back the vob files perfectly -- when accessing the files on a hard-drive the cover art will appear for each movie if it's in each file and named folder.jpg.

Also, when selecting the movie with vob files, all the files will appear unless "unstack" is selected in the bottom of the list at the left. Then only the VIDEo_TS file will appear to select and play the movie. Also, if a thumbnail is added to the folder and named VIDEO_TS.tbn , then the thumbnail will also appear in place of a VIDE0_TS file - definitely a better look.

If you pick up the ftp software (either buy or use in the 30 day time trial), you can add some lines of programming to the XboxMediaCenter.xml to enable you to directly access your movie files (you can direct it to access more than one hard drive location at the same time and the xbox will group all the movies together alphabetically in the listing). Here is the format that I placed in the xml under the Videos section (you have to determine the ip address of the hard drives you want accessed -- if you have a hard drive server it would be best to set it up with a fixed ip address on your router). I set it up to directly access for personal videos and for movies (I removed some of the other items that I didn't need to have listed):

<video>
<default />
<bookmark>
<name>My Movies</name>
<path>smb://192.175.1.175/usbdisk2</path>
<path>smb://192.175.1.175/usbdisk1</path>
<path>smb://192.175.1.175/Movies1</path>
</bookmark>
<bookmark>
<name>My Videos</name>
<path>smb://192.175.1.175/Videos1</path>
</bookmark>
<bookmark>
<name>DVD-ROM drive</name>
<path>D:\</path>
</bookmark>
<bookmark>
<name>WORKGROUP (SMB) Network</name>
<path>smb://</path>
</bookmark>
</video>

The xbmc setup is great -- enjoy! :)

Greg S

06-18-06, 10:33 AM

Hi folks -
I just got my box modded this week. When I go into MS dash and change it to widescreen mode, it locks up. I can turn it off/on and it boots to my mod dash, but from there if I try to launch either xbmc or ms dash, it locks up again. I have to bypass my chip and boot straight to ms dash (which loads properly and is in wide mode) and change it back from wide mode to normal. I'm connected to a Sony RPLCD via component.

Any thoughts?

Greg S

06-18-06, 12:36 PM

Solved my widescreen problem. I had to go into my evox settings and change "Game Region" from "North America" to "default." Then xbmc launches fine. Only other odd thing is that xbmc wouldn't display in 16:9 unless I enabled 720p in MS Dash. Which is fine, but I thought it should work in 480 if that's what I wanted.

bjhess

06-18-06, 01:07 PM

Watching a bunch of Futurama episodes (DVD rip) this past week, I've noticed a lot of edging - basically I can see scan lines occasionally and then the XBOX seems to catch up and make things smoother for a time. I'm outputting at 780p and I'm guessing, basically, the XBOX can't quite keep up.

I haven't noticed many video quality problems on traditional movies, mostly just on animation. Does this imply the need for a scaler/line-doubler? If so, what kind of cost am I looking at for a good unit?

Thanks!

sean_w_smith

06-18-06, 01:08 PM

cool.... glad you figured it out.... kinda weird. I know some older TV's had to use different component inputs for 480i versus 480p and 720P, etc... EvoX and XBMC always worked for me at both 480p and 720p. I have both enabled in the dash. Now with separate video versus GUI settings that works really nice. I select NTSC 16:9 in the GUI for videos and run the GUI at 720P.

BTW: in XBMC 6/17/2006
Anyone else noticed that the switching criteria settings for thumbnails have been removed. I'm not sure I understand its new operation. Seemed to work better the old way.... Also most settings were reset again in this build. This seem to continue to fix DVD Player and lots of GUI bugs. I imagine many are related to XBMC 360 Skin which I try briefly on a 4:3 set but will wait. PMIII looks great and works well....

Sean

lsarver

06-18-06, 04:58 PM

As far as .VOB's, I myself have mine in ISO format but I have read that VOB's are supported.
VOBs are definitely supported!
The only thing that comes to mind that may erk you will be that you will have to click on the folder and then click on the VOB file to run the movie..... 2 clicks .vs 1...
Not so! Just click PLAY on the folder.

(Btw, it's "irk," not "erk.")

Deathwish238

06-19-06, 03:03 AM

I went from having no idea how to mod an xbox to softmodding it and installing XBMC as my dasboard in about 3 hours that included research, buying what I needed(Action Replay and Splinter Cell), and doing the mod itself. Softmodding is incredibly easy as you don't have to open your xbox up.

I softmodded using Splinter Cell, installed UnleashX, copied the XBMC(Build 6-16-06 T3CH) into my dashboard folder via FTP..and I'm done.

fanerman

06-19-06, 02:01 PM

I can't seem to upgrade media center properly.

I've been using the shortcut method for the xbe since I first installed media center (sometime in February--the build is also from February). I went into UnleashX (which I used to mod it) and I deleted my old XBMC install and put in the new one (the 6-11-06 build with the MC360 Beta 0.97499), and I get a fatal error. Luckily it loads ftp function so I don't have to resort to a boot disk to delete the new install and put the old one back in.

Then I tried going into UnleashX and then copying the new version directly over the old one and I get past the XBMC load screen (with the MC360 logo), but then the XBMC menu screen (with the My Programs, My Videos, My Music, Weather, etc.) is messed up and no longer works. I can see where the buttons for the My Programs et al are, but the all the text for each button (My Programs, et al) is all in the top left corner in one line, superpositioned over each other. XBMC is then locked up, though ftp still works and I can go back and copy the old install over the new one.

I don't know what to do. I guess I can keep my old install since it seems to work fine. But I would like to try MC360 and I would like to see if there are various minor bug fixes and whatever.

Also, how do I make a boot disk when I already have XBMC as the default dash? I have a boot disk that works but I don't know how to make a new one. I tried following the directions from a page or 2 ago (getting the right xbe, making the iso, and burning it), but when I put it in my xbox, it doesn't load.

dreamhost

06-19-06, 04:57 PM

ok i got my xbox back today with the mod chip in it and xbmc as well as many other apps.
my problem is that when i use the xbox wired remote to navigate to xbmc I get the grey homepage but neither my media center remote(media center 2k5 stock remote silver), nor my wired remote, or even a harmony will seem to do anything. I do have the dongle on the box.
When the screen dims for the screenprotector, if I hit the buttons on the remote the screen does 'undim' so it's receiving info through the dongle, just can't scroll up down etc...
ideas?

dreamhost

06-20-06, 12:06 AM

just installed software today so still learning.
I accidentaly did the scan my hd on the music side 2x so now when I go into the thumbnail view, I have 2 copies of all my music cd albums.

How do I go about 'cleaning' it up so there is only 1 copy now?

I know dumb mistake, but as I just added an album to my server, I wanted to make sure it would be added to the xbox in the other room. Stupid me for figuring that it would only look for new albums when I did the update.....LOL

dreamhost

06-20-06, 12:08 AM

also:
I have thousands of .wmv files on my computer.... sure you can guess what they are....
How do I get xbmc to generate the thumbnails like windows does?
With Ja Phul's help I was able to get the thumbnails for all my dvd's... but can't get it to generate the thumbnails for my .wmv files---not dvd's!

Ja Phule

06-20-06, 12:21 AM

I tried to find a way to generate thumbnails for the anime avi files i had, I was going to find a way to extract the thumbs.db file windows generate for their thumbs but it only gets the first frame and in most cases, its a black frame, but I found software called "media resizer" that seemed to work "ok" however, it wasn't able correctly generate thumbs for all my file types and seemed kind of buggy.

sean_w_smith

06-20-06, 01:31 PM

dreamhost

06-20-06, 02:59 PM

As there isn't really a way to generate thumbnails for .wmv files as of yet....
Is it possible to run the 'real' xbox media center from ms on my moded box alongside the xbmc?
That would allow me to switch between programs so that when i want to watch video's I have all my thumbnails for video's using the ms program and then use xbmc for dvd's...

Has anyone tried this before?

Scotty6595

06-20-06, 06:43 PM

dreamhost

06-20-06, 07:27 PM

It is my understanding that you can run the MS Media Center Extender software on your modded xbox. The problem may be finding it..... By the way, I am pretty sure you have to have a computer running Media Center for this to work....
I do have the software as I had purchased the kit when it first came out. I remember being so excited, and then immediately so bummed that it wouldn't stream the dvd's....
I also have a server with all my dvd's etc, and that does indeed run mce2k5. It's the box that my xbmc currently 'connects' to in order to stream my junk.

There was a thread that I came across on another forum saying that it was possible, but no directions were given at all. I really don't want to attempt it on my own and mess up what I have now as I'm loving xbmc, and it took me forever to get it right.

Ja Phule

06-22-06, 02:26 AM

I don't see how running XBOX Media Center Extender would be a problem. It should be similar to just running a game. I bought the extender kit but never opened the software, just wanted the remote.

jliles

06-22-06, 07:59 PM

dreamhost,

I have the kit, and no, you don't have to worry about it ruining your modded XBOX. It runs like a game in memory and does not make any permanent changes to your xbox setup. The fact that it's software based is a blessing in that sense, but also curse - it runs S L O W L Y. I've also noticed it doesn't seem to handle wireless streaming as well as XBMC. XBMC for me will stream files flawlessly, the Media Center extender will sometimes complain of "network congestion".

Keep in mind that the Extender only plays a limited number of file types for video - basically mpeg1, mpeg2, and WMV. In theory something like transcoder 360 could be used to display and play your DivX/Xvid files to the XBOX just as it will to the 360, but with XBMC as great as it is that seems like sort of a pointless exercise.

I use it mostly to stream TV shows I've recorded on my Media Center 2005 PC (which XBMC cannot play AFAIK), and for this it seems to work ok. The remote is excellent and works nicely with XBMC - it's light-years ahead of the DVD remote that comes with the XBOX DVD kit. The extra buttons make using XBMC with a remote much more pleasant - there are dedicated buttons for mute, volume control, page up/down, and even a power button when you want to shut down XBMC. There are "shortcut buttons" that will take you directly to My Music, My Videos, and My Pictures.

The remote is very similar to the true Media Center remotes that you see packaged with some PC TV tuner cards and some Media Center PCs. However, you cannot use one of those with XBMC - it *has* to be the remote from the kit since it requires the same dongle as comes with the DVD kit to work.

I managed to get mine off ebay, and you can probably find one there if you look. You're not going to find it in retail stores anymore, I'm afraid. If you can't find it there, I believe RCA dvd player remote codes will work with the XBOX dongle. You could try getting an inexpensive universal remote and trying some of the RCA codes. The XBMC documentation also describes how you can use universal remote codes to customize XBMC's behavior with universal remotes.

Julie

sean_w_smith

06-22-06, 09:10 PM

FYI....

The XBMC twiki is getting updated a lot recently. The section on Smart Playlists is getting much better. I figured most of this just by hacking but this guide shows very simply to leverage the power of smart playlists. Note: PARTY MODE is just a smart playlist with its own GUI button. How PARTY MODE controls what gets played is by using smart play list syntax in the partymode.xml

http://manual.xboxmediacenter.de/wakka.php?wakka=Playlists&v=tep

If you haven't yet tried this on XBMC its pretty cool.... I have created about a dozen of these smart playlists which I have been using and customized party mode to exclude stuff like classical, grateful dead, and various other things that don't meet my criteria for random party music...

Only real irrations concerns the database view or more correctly shorten files. I have thousands of these and since they have no tags you can't use them in the library view or smart playlists. Clearly this is no fault of XMBC, Its SHN problem but its a big one for me as I have probably 600 CD's worth of shortens. maybe I need to figure out how to batch convert these to FLAC's... Good news is more tapers are adopting FLAC although shorten remains the most dominant format on etree.org

Sean

dylancarter

06-25-06, 02:14 AM

sean_w_smith

06-25-06, 07:29 AM

I think of myself as a smart guy, very computer literate. But man am I struggling with finding the "usual places" and downloading from them. After hours of searching, and downloading of IRC software and such I finaly got a pimped version of XBMC running on my soft modded xbox.

Now I try and get a new version and can't get back to the USAUL PLACES. Can ANYONE, ANYONE send me a PM telling me where to go? How to get it? and if you have done it on a Mac... that would be even better. Thank so much. This should be easier, but I am not typing in the right search string or something :(

DONE: BTW The UK FTP Site which is generally the offical release area for T3CH is back online.

Pimped 6/24/06 is out. I imagine T3CH will do a build today.

More of the same: Lots of UI/GUI fixes. Context menu changes etc... I'm not really fond of the new bookmarks features but it can be diasabled. you can now query info on all albums for music like you have been able to do with video for a while from the context menu....

Sean

Slack

06-25-06, 09:26 AM

FYI

I haven't needed 'the usual places' much since getting to know the xbox sky tracker.

Nav Sandhu

06-25-06, 11:01 PM

Ja Phule

06-25-06, 11:24 PM

I haven't had any issues playing isos greater than 4gb when streaming over the network. Are you playing iso's via the xbox's hard drive or over the network?

sean_w_smith

06-26-06, 11:06 AM

I have noticed that if my ISOs are larger than 4.7gb, XBMC doesn't play them. With any ISO smaller than this, it works fine. Is there a limitation of the XBOX or XBMC?

Ja Phule - Thanks for the great posts!

No Issues here. My Xbox plays 7 Gig ISO's just fine off my NAS. (Infrant X6) via SMB. I have no data on the xbox... Certain file systems have limitations on file sizes. Where does your movie live? what filesystetme is it contained on.....

Sean

Nav Sandhu

06-26-06, 04:25 PM

squidboy

06-26-06, 04:25 PM

I have noticed that if my ISOs are larger than 4.7gb, XBMC doesn't play them. With any ISO smaller than this, it works fine. Is there a limitation of the XBOX or XBMC?

Ja Phule - Thanks for the great posts!

The FATX filesystem on the XBOX has a 4GB limitation.

Since you mention 4.7GB, which is the size of a single layer DVD, you may be experiencing a problem with XBMC. Have you tried a different build?

squidboy

06-26-06, 04:29 PM

Ja Phule/Sean,

My files are located on a Win2003 file server running NTFS. I am accessing the files via XBOX (over network) using XBMSP with a program called CcXstream. No ISOs are copied to the XBOX. All small ISOs (4gb and below) work file, the larger ones are problematic.

Nav

It seems that Ccxstream may have problems with files bigger than 4GB.

See here (http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=521367).

Why not use samba? AKA Windows shares.

sean_w_smith

06-26-06, 04:49 PM

What Squidboy said.... Sounds like XBMSP is your problem. I know NTFS has no issues with this. I 2nd to try SMB.... another alternative is to use winrar to explode the ISO into its file components. XBMC will play that the same...

Nav Sandhu

06-27-06, 02:35 AM

Sean/Squid Boy,

Thanks for your help. With the SMB change everything works flawlessly! I am returning my Mac Mini tomorrow, what a waste when XBMC does everything I need! Completely satisfied.

Ja Phule - Thanks for this thread, I read it on Thursday, ordered the Mod and got it Friday. I'm all setup now. :)

Regards,
Nav

Diode1

06-27-06, 02:46 PM

Let me first say I am no gamer.
I purchased this xbox for the XBMC and my media servers.

After much reading, I copied the krayzie run linux over to my xbox drive

I went into game saves and found the Run Linux,
I started that and first want to do a eeprom backup.
I say yes and move onto the next screen to say yes again.
Then the screen changes to a screen with a status bar across the bottom just for a few seconds and then changes again to a background that has this spinning thing in the middle of the screen, at the bottom of the screen it say’s
Backup eeprom
Return to main menu
System settings
Also in the upper left is has my cpu & MB temp’s

My reset/DVD eject button turns red in color during this.

How long does this backup take and does it tell you when you are done?
Should the button turn red?

On that same last screen if I click backup eeprom it returns: Backingup :)

I want to make darn sure I have that backup prior to the softMod, I have not yet tried to ftp into the drive to find it. It seems something may not be right?

Help please.

Diode1

06-27-06, 03:46 PM

I have made it into the xbox via ftp, I have not applied the softmode.
Looking in E:\Temp I do NOT find a folder backup or a file with that name?

Again this is new to me as for the xbox.
What i see is C: D: E: X: Y: Z: DRIVES with folders & files but no backup

It seems for some reason I am not getting a backup file?

Anyone?

edit:
Not sure why all this had taken place on the backup problem.
I must have tried backup ten times, I now have the eeprom backup files.

Now to upload XBMC ;)

sean_w_smith

06-28-06, 02:19 AM

ok2fly

06-28-06, 03:08 AM

Diode1,

Sounds like you've got it. Krayzie's softmod is a good way to go. By now you no doubt have ftp'd the XMBC folder into E:/Apps and are seeing what all talk is about. Welcome to the Wide & Wild World of XBMC! Enjoy!

Diode1

06-28-06, 07:39 AM

Ok guys here is what I did.

I did not want to purchase a action pack.
Therefore I used a Lexar 256MB Fire Fly USB drive.
You can find these at walmart.
I then used UBSView to read the firefly USB id info
I made two simple edits to the first line in both copies of xbreader.inf
THERE ARE TWO COPIES OF THIS FILE TO EDIT
found C:\program files\Datel\Action Replay XBOX\
One is in that root dir the other is in
C:\program files\Datel\Action Replay XBOX\Drivers

Open the file in notepad and go down to [_Devices] on the first line you need to make edits:
For the fire fly here is what it should look like when done
%S_DeviceDesc1%=_Install1, USB\VID_05FD&PID_DBAE

Save the file, be sure to edit both files,
I have a xbox - usb cable, I plugged that into the xbox and let it erase/format the usb drive.

in xp windows I had changed the usb drivers for the thumb drive and done.
I was able to write to the usb drive via action pack.

Yes I am up and running XBMC ;)

Diode1

06-28-06, 09:01 AM

May I ask what is the easiest way to clone or upgrade the stock drive to something like a 160GB drive on a softmod unit?

I think it would be nice to ftp some of our DVD rips onto the drive.
This way the media servers would not be on 24/7 and we could just bring the Xbox with us on trips out of town and have movies to go.

I used the Krayzie's softmod if that matters, and XBMC is running as an application.

What would be the best way to say partition a 160GB drive for this as well?

Jerry

dreamhost

06-28-06, 01:43 PM

There is a clean music library option under the music settings that should accomplish this...

Sean
I've tried this a number of times now, but it does not remove the duplicates. The program seems to only run for about 30 seconds then stops. There is no way it can go through 250k+ tracks that fast.
So, is there a file I can 'erase' in order to 'start over again', on the music side only?

GadgetMonkey

06-28-06, 03:49 PM

squidboy

06-28-06, 06:21 PM

Why would someone opt for NAS as opposed to a Linux station built from the ground up to act as a storage server for the entire network? I could see if prices were substantially lower, but they don't appear to be.

I can build a 64-bit Linux box with 1TB of storage for just under $1,000. It seems that, for instance, the Infrant ReadyNAS X6 w/1TB of storage goes for about $900. And for the extra $100, you get so much added versatility.

Am I missing something?

Ease of use? Lots of people don't want to have to deal with administering an extra Linux/Windows box. They would rather just plug in a NAS and go.

I've got an older PC running Linux, and it works fine for me. But I don't mind tweaking, setting up firewalls, etc.

sean_w_smith

06-28-06, 06:36 PM

I've tried this a number of times now, but it does not remove the duplicates. The program seems to only run for about 30 seconds then stops. There is no way it can go through 250k+ tracks that fast.
So, is there a file I can 'erase' in order to 'start over again', on the music side only?

This only works if the originak path is invalid. look in the userdata dir and delete the music DB files. They should be fairly obvious... can't access mine to give you the exact files...

Sean

sean_w_smith

06-28-06, 06:37 PM

GadgetMonkey

06-28-06, 06:39 PM

Ease of use? Lots of people don't want to have to deal with administering an extra Linux/Windows box. They would rather just plug in a NAS and go.

I've got an older PC running Linux, and it works fine for me. But I don't mind tweaking, setting up firewalls, etc.

If that's all -- ease of use -- then I think I'll be opting for the full-blown Linux box. It's so much fun to set them up! Plus you can do so much other stuff with it.

inittab

06-28-06, 09:28 PM

I sure wish someone would come out with a skin that clones the Kaleidescape UI.
Or perhaps I can get my current skin to load the My Videos Section UI first instead of the main menu. Any one know how? I'd also like to hide the side menu in the videos section so that my cover art can fit on the entire screen.

jliles

06-28-06, 09:46 PM

inittab,

Can't help you with a Kaleidescape skin, but you can start XMBC in the My Videos section if that's what you want. Just go into settings under the "Appearance" section. I can't remember exactly which tab the setting is under since I'm not in front of XBMC right now (it might be under the "Skin Settings" button under "Appearance") but there is an option for you to choose which window you'd like XBMC to start in, and My Videos is one of the choices.

PMIII is a very nice skin, though I've also tried the new MC360 skin and despite some remaining bugginess it is a very slick skin. You may want to give it a try if you haven't already. You may like the way your cover art looks on it better.

XBMC is extremely customizable and if you are at all familiar with XML I'm pretty sure you should be able to remove the side buttons if that's what you want to do. I can't tell you exactly how to do that, but you may want to try looking at the XBMC wiki manual for enlightenment. :)

Julie

inittab

06-28-06, 10:31 PM

Scotty6595

06-28-06, 11:05 PM

inittab

06-29-06, 07:21 PM

inittab,
I saw your posts over at xbox scene and I would also be interested in a Kaleidescape skin. There may be some hope.... There will be a PMIII mod skin available soon that will allow you to customize a modified version of PMIII any way you want to. I have included the link below. You may want to read the complete thread and ask the developer if he could incorporate an option to remove all buttons on the vidio screen to allow for all the DVD covers to fill the screen. He seems to be very agreeable to suggestions.

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=519105

If you don't ask him, I will! ;-) Never mind....I couldn't wait... you may want to expand on what I asked slumberpod in his thread.

Scott

Thanks Scotty. I am really excited now. Initially I prefered the MCE 2005 updated skin but the developer did not update his skin to 2.0. We need more solutions that cater directly to people who don't really care about games and other extras , just video. Personaly everytime I try to run a script, example: movies, or music the xbox freezes up when the stream does not load. Cancel does nothing. Is this what the rest of you have ever experienced or is it just me ? Appologies for changing topics.

Thomas J. Coyle

06-29-06, 07:55 PM

inittab

06-29-06, 08:01 PM

inittab,

I have two unRaid servers and the drives are spun down until a data request has been received.

If I select a movie from the My Movies section, XBMC will appear to have stopped while the drive is being spun up, but I have never had it freeze because it could not start streaming immediately.

Regards,
TCIII

I should have been more specific. I mean movies or music from the web via the quicktime script etc... other movices play fine. I have a 300GB drive in my xbox. I will start lookinf for cheap external 1-2TB storage solutions after I get the UI right for videos so that my wife doesn't complain. :)

Scotty6595

06-29-06, 11:39 PM

inittab,

Yes this has been an issue with certain streams, movie trailers in particular. (and yes my box will lock up when I choose a stream that it doesn't like) I noticed that many scripts have not worked very well since April. I update my xbmc usually every week when a new T3CH build comes out but I opted out of the last one due to issues with the MC360 skin not working correctly with it. I have no problems streaming shoutcast but streaming videos has been a chore lately. I am sure they will get all the bugs worked out before 2.0 but in the mean time I will stick with what works.

I seem to remember reading a thread over at xbox scene that said you have to manually start the quicktime viewer to get streaming video to work. So, try going to your scripts folder and running the quicktime viewer script then go back to lets say movie trailers and selecting a trailer..... just may work....I personally haven't tried it yet.

Scott

Nav Sandhu

07-01-06, 12:08 AM

On XBMC, how do I increase the font size? It is hard to read at 1080i.

jkinghome

07-01-06, 10:16 PM

I am considering getting an xbox for a HTPC replacement but I have read that the HD is FATX based upon FAT32. Therefore, the 4 GB file limitation is still a problem. Is this true? If so, this kills my thoughts getting an xbox as I have mant VOBs that are 4GB+

Thanks!

lsarver

07-02-06, 01:34 AM

Use the Xbox as a streaming bridge, not a server.
Most of us here have little, if any, actual media stored on the Xbox itself. It just connects the network to the TV and receiver, providing a front-end.

Even if the file-size limit did not exist, you couldn't keep more than a few hundred gigabytes on even an upgraded Xbox hard drive. (I've got a couple of terabytes of media--without even a single HD file.)

ok2fly

07-02-06, 03:15 AM

On XBMC, how do I increase the font size? It is hard to read at 1080i.

I don't remember if this made the font larger, but it made it much eaiser to read. I grabbed it off someone else's post (could have even been this thread). Sorry I can't remember who to give the credit to but it's quoted below.

WARNING!: change the skin fonts to Arial TTF under settings > appearance before replacing the 1080i font.xml file or XBMC may not boot. I found this out using the 6-18-2006 T3CH build.

Here was the post:

Just thought i would give you my Font.xml for running 1080i. Place it in the "XBMC\skin\Project Mayhem III\1080i" folder then under settings \ appearance change the skin fonts to Arial TTF.

This makes everything muchn easier to read . Backup your Font.xml before just incase.

<fonts>
<fontset id="Default">

<name>font18</name>
<filename>common-font18.xpr</filename>



<name>font13</name>
<filename>common-720pfont14.xpr</filename>



<name>font14</name>
<filename>common-font18.xpr</filename>



<name>font64</name>
<filename>common-font64.xpr</filename>



<name>matrix8</name>
<filename>matrix8.xpr</filename>



<name>font04</name>
<filename>common-font18.xpr</filename>



<name>font15</name>
<filename>common-font15.xpr</filename>



<name>font10</name>
<filename>common-720pfont14.xpr</filename>



<name>font101</name>
<filename>common-720pfont14.xpr</filename>



<name>font12</name>
<filename>common-720pfont14.xpr</filename>



<name>fontKB</name>
<filename>common-720pfont14.xpr</filename>



<name>special12</name>
<filename>special-normal-pal.xpr</filename>



<name>special13</name>
<filename>special-bold-pal.xpr</filename>



<name>fontBL</name>
<filename>common-720pfont14.xpr</filename>


</fontset>

<fontset id="Arial TTF">

<name>font18</name>
<filename>Arial.ttf</filename>
<size>26</size>



<name>font13</name>
<filename>Arial.ttf</filename>
<size>26</size>



<name>font14</name>
<filename>Arial.ttf</filename>
<size>26</size>



<name>font64</name>
<filename>Arial.ttf</filename>
<size>26</size>



<name>matrix8</name>
<filename>Arial.ttf</filename>
<size>26</size>



<name>font04</name>
<filename>Arial.ttf</filename>
<size>26</size>



<name>font15</name>
<filename>Arial.ttf</filename>
<size>26</size>



<name>font10</name>
<filename>Arial.ttf</filename>
<size>26</size>



<name>font12</name>
<filename>Arial.ttf</filename>
<size>26</size>



<name>fontKB</name>
<filename>Arial.ttf</filename>
<size>26</size>



<name>font101</name>
<filename>Arial.ttf</filename>
<size>26</size>



<name>special12</name>
<filename>Arial.ttf</filename>
<size>26</size>



<name>special13</name>
<filename>Arial.ttf</filename>
<size>26</size>



<name>fontBL</name>
<filename>Arial.ttf</filename>
<size>26</size>


</fontset>

</fonts>

jkinghome

07-03-06, 10:19 AM

I am close to jumping in and buying an xbox to mod. But one question: If the xbox is streaming an VOB, can the user fast forward the video? Is there a streaming lag or something or is it the same as using a DVD?

Thanks!

Diode1

07-03-06, 10:47 AM

I can FF just like a standard DVD stand-alone deck, no lost features.
I am using wired network without any lag.

I am close to jumping in and buying an xbox to mod. But one question: If the xbox is streaming an VOB, can the user fast forward the video? Is there a streaming lag or something or is it the same as using a DVD?

Thanks!

bout01

07-03-06, 11:00 AM

Couple of things...

First a comment. I have all of my videos in VOB format - straight from the rip. I'm running last week's T3CH build, and when I fast-forward or rewind using the triggers or the control arrows, the video playback dies & i'm kicked back to the menu. I have to use the dpad to fast forward or rewind.

Next a question. I have two XBox's that are hardwired & play my vids just fine. I have a 3rd that I just hooked up using a Netgear 85 Mbps Wall-Plugged Ethernet Switch Model XE104. It plays a vid for a short time, then begins to stutter. After about 15 seconds of stuttering, it will play on smoothly. Then in another 10 minutes or so, the cycle repeats.

Any ideas or comments? Anyone else running into similar issues?

I have been considering hitting the Netgear Powerline HD Ethernet Adapter Model HDX101 for that 3rd box. It will supposedly stream 200 Mbps. I just want to make sure that is the issue.

ok2fly

07-03-06, 02:04 PM

Bout01,

Try swapping the 3rd xbox with one of your other xbox's and see if the problem follows or stays at the location with the powerline adapter. If it stays at the adapter, try another outlet and see if that helps.

I have no experience with those types of adapters so I'm not sure how well they work with the xbox.

Good luck,
Dave

buzzdalf

07-04-06, 11:19 PM

gmitch64

07-05-06, 12:22 AM

just installed software today so still learning.
I accidentaly did the scan my hd on the music side

I'm kinda in the same position.. Been using XBMC for about a month now, and upgraded to the 6/19 release a couple of days ago.

I've been reading thru this thread about scanning in the music and videos, but I can't seen to work out how to do it.... I am obviously missing something somewhere... Can someone point me in the right direction please?

Graham

sean_w_smith

07-05-06, 02:49 AM

OK, I got inspired after reading this thread and found myself a used xbox and soft modded it. I have XBMC installed now and the thing works great. Coming from Meedio based HTPC's, I have a question, though.
In meedio I was able to set up views of my movies by stuff like rating, etc. This allowed me to have a screen called "kid friendly movies", where only rated PG and G movies would be displayed. It is very handy in our house with 2 smaller children. Is there a way to setup stuff like this in XBMC?
Also, I'd like to have different buttons at the home page, how do I set this up? I'd like to have a library for movies aka a Movie button and then a library for TV shows aka the Video button.
Can ther ebe multiple libraries for the same file "types"? We also had a kid's music library in meedio, it would be cool to get that back, too.
Can XBMC do customizations like this? I know I am pretty spoiled with user configuration options coming from meedio, but I love this whole xbox way of doing things and want to make this work.

Anything in XBMC GUI can be customized. Can you do it easily is another question. I think in your case the answer is not easily. i have seen some older skins that dramatically re-arranged the menu structures... Anyway There is no ratings system in XBMC. The best way to handle this today is to put these content categories in different folders and then customize the xboxmediacenter.xml menu entries to use them and even pick a default. Moving these choices to the main menu would require more knowledge of the skinning engine but its possible.

Sean

sean_w_smith

07-05-06, 03:01 AM

I'm kinda in the same position.. Been using XBMC for about a month now, and upgraded to the 6/19 release a couple of days ago.

I've been reading thru this thread about scanning in the music and videos, but I can't seen to work out how to do it.... I am obviously missing something somewhere... Can someone point me in the right direction please?

Graham

Goto the folder containing music or videos you want to scan and use the context menu button (white or black, forget which one) and then you can scan for titles of movies and coverart, look up music info and cover art or scan the files for IDV3 tags etc to create the music/video database. Once you have done this you can switch views to the library view versus the file view and then browse music by genre, album, and more including full search capability....

See this page in the new XBMC Online Manual

http://www.xbmc.xbox-scene.com/wiki/index.php?title=Music_Library#Preparing_your_Music_to_be_Sca nned

Same concepts apply to videos as well....

Sean

gmitch64

07-05-06, 09:33 PM

Goto the folder containing music or videos you want to scan and use the context menu button (white or black, forget which one) and then you can scan for titles of movies and coverart

Ah Ha.... that did it, thank you very much.... I had to go dig out a controller to do it, as I've been using the DVD remote to drive. I will have to see if I can work out which keys to press on that to bring it up.

Thanks again.

Graham

sean_w_smith

07-06-06, 11:50 AM

Ah Ha.... that did it, thank you very much.... I had to go dig out a controller to do it, as I've been using the DVD remote to drive. I will have to see if I can work out which keys to press on that to bring it up.

Thanks again.

Graham

BTW: Look in the "keymap.xml" to see if there is IR remote binding for the same thing. Otherwise you can create one but adding an entry to the keymap.xml file...

Sean

sean_w_smith

07-06-06, 08:49 PM

BTW: the 7/3 release seems pretty stable so far. The xboxmediacenter.xml file is now completly gone and replaced by the UserData/sources.xml file. Same format for bookmarks. There is now this book mark feature built into the GUI that accomplishes pretty much the same thing as a have a customized sources.xml file. I am currently not using it as I had already pruned all the menus and customized to my network. cool none the less.... Minor changes to the PM3 skin home. I DON'T like this new feature that cancels the playing music if you hit B button while the visualization is running. Overall just more GUI fixes and cleanup and video subtitling stuff.... This should be the end of the settings changes and they seem to know have everything modularized extensively with the new scheme for the UserData directory.

I want to try XMBC 360 skin but have been waiting (no 16:9 Support). There are a few other skins out that work with the 2.0 skinning engine that are pretty current. PMII is one of them that is brighter than PMIII. Once they release 2.0 I expect the skinners will update at least 10 skins as there were at one point for 1.1

Sean

Steve Kinkead

07-07-06, 01:09 PM

Is anyone using the wake on LAN python script? I just installed it and get "Master Server Connection Problems" error when I run the wol.py script. The script would save me running upstairs to power on the PC.

I'm using the 7/3 build of XBMC.

mebby

07-07-06, 06:44 PM

I apologize if this has already been asked - I searched and found lots of indirect data about VOB files but not all the exact answers I was looking for.

I'm getting a modded Xbox tomorrow that is running XBMC and I'll be using it almost solely for streaming my DVD collection over my network. I currently use a Roku Photobridge for this and it works but the XBMC is lightyears ahead it seems.

Since I've been using a Photobridge I have ripped my DVDs to best be used by Mplay (third party program that does all the DVD streaming magic). I have one folder that has subfolders for every DVD that I have ripped. Within each movie folder is an IFO file and several VOB files (limited at 1gb). It also contains a Folder.jpg file that contains the cover art for the DVD.

What I'd like to know is, with my current folder/file structure:

Will the Xbox play the sequential VOB files all at one time without me having to point it to each new VOB once it finishes one?
Will I be able to use IMDB to scan my files and create all the genre, actor, rating, etc info
Will I be able to see all my thumbnails on one screen
Will I have to click into each folder to start each movie playback or can I start the movie from outside the folder

Any help is greatly appreciated.

One non-video related question. Does XBMC support WMA Lossless files?

Thanks in advance

Steve Kinkead

07-07-06, 08:01 PM

BTW: the 7/3 release seems pretty stable so far. There is now this book mark feature built into the GUI that accomplishes pretty much the same thing as a have a customized sources.xml file.
Sean

I created a GUI bookmark for my music playlists called "My Playlists" but I can't figure out how to assign a path to it. This seems like a nice feature if I could get it to work.

Waingro

07-07-06, 11:59 PM

JaPhule and Sean,

You've both made comments in the past re: 720p and how it looks less than stellar due to the poor deinterlacing. Are there any tweaks in the XBMC config/settings that would assist with the deinterlacing issues at 720p. I see there is an area where you can say deinterlacing on or off and other tweaks.
Do I turn this on ???.

I am a newbie to the XBMC having recently had one soft modded with a 250gig
Seagate added. I'm in Australia so I mostly leave the Enigmah set to PAL and it
throws out 576i to my Metz (German) 16:9 CRT via scart.

I also have a Epson TW600 projector which is native 720. It doesn't mind the 576i
thrown at it via the genuine Microsoft component HD leads, but it actually does look a little better when I flick the Enigmah over to NTSC and reboot , then scaling the XBMC up to 720p.

Everything looks just that little bit better but for the jaggies I see on some movement . It looks fine and then all of a sudden I see these issues and I go yuk, I then set it back to 576i and it's sweet, just not so detailed and rich.

I guess I'm caught in the middle and trying to find out if there is a way to just fine tune the 720p so I wouldn't have doubts.

Any way to help. ( And don't say go buy a DVDO VP30, would love to but no WAF
at the moment. )

Waingro

Ja Phule

07-08-06, 03:55 AM

Waingro,
I noticed recently that XBMC works best for me when I set the processing to Auto (instead of deinterlace, sync even, sync odd, etc).

Waingro

07-08-06, 09:12 AM

Waingro,
I noticed recently that XBMC works best for me when I set the processing to Auto (instead of deinterlace, sync even, sync odd, etc).

Thanks Ja Phule,

I'll go in and have another fiddle set everything to Auto and see how I travel.

Can I bug you on another. Now this is a total newbie question sorry !!

I have recently just started with XBMC , have backed up a dvd and some mp3s using the xbox'x dvd drive and DVD2XBOX to a new 250 g hard drive using the program above, but for the life of me I can't grasp the next step.

I can see these files sitting under My Files on the F drive, I have them noted on the left and the right. They are not showing up in My Videos or My Music but obviously I have to link those screens with the files sitting on the F drive.

I realise this is the most simplist of actions required and any dill should be able to figure this , but can you point me in the right direction. 3 or 4 pointers would be helpfull.

Believe me I have read every FAQ and manual known to man but I just can't get my head around it.

I assume that I have to go to the files under My Files - F Drive and save them in a folder that My Videos and My Music can read.

Thanks
Waingro

Don_S

07-08-06, 01:50 PM

....
I assume that I have to go to the files under My Files - F Drive and save them in a folder that My Videos and My Music can read.

Thanks
Waingro

You have to edit the xboxmediacenter.xml file to point to the path of your video files or music files. You do that by adding bookmarks using the proper syntax. Hope this helps.

Ja Phule

07-08-06, 03:39 PM

BLKMGK

07-08-06, 04:33 PM

Have just set this up this last week and only found this thread last night. I agree that this is AWESOME software and is the whole reason I even purchased a used XBOX. I've not even played a game on it yet! :) Xecutor3 CE on mine and it's working great - LCD screen etc. to come.

I've been running the 6/6/6 release installed with AID, I'm also running a port of MAME that's working well. I see that others are running a much later XBMC and that config files have moved around - how is that working out? Was it hard to convert over? I've got a 300Gig drive in my XBOX so having both is possible I guess - is it worth upgrading to the latest CVS? I personally don't much like the 360 skin so that's not a concern. The AID install vs a by hand install I did put weather and other features on the main screen, how is that done? I can currently play ripped DVD from my unRAID with no issue and my MP3 collection plays too but it's VERY slow to scan etc. (umm 400Gigs is likely the problem!) If there are quirks in the payback of either of those I'd love to hear about it - Shoutcast too.

P.S. Not seen it but can the XBMC software playback streamed video like WinAmp can? Maybe I've just not seen a link for it to try but that would be pretty cool if it did. Still got LOTS to learn about this but am loving it! This thread has been helpful - my thanks to those helping out.

P.P.S. the XBOX Sky Tracker tracker isn't accepting new members and I'm interested. If someone could umm help out I'd appreciate it! ;)

BLKMGK

07-08-06, 04:36 PM

Waingro,

When you are in your "My Videos" and "My Music" folder, are you under file view or library view? It sounds like you may be under library view. If you change to file view, you should be able to see all your drives in your xbox, including your F drive and navigate/play the files from there.

XBMC allows you to add your own shortcut to the drive also by pressing the white button once you go into the My Videos/My Music section.

White button also allows you to go in there and REMOVE all of those links you don't need - it really is VERY nice! There WAS software out there that was designed to just modify the XML config files for XBMC and allowed for editing the IMDB library it creates too but the later versions of XBMC have broken most of it's functionality. If anyone comes across such a tool or hears about work on one for the later versions of XBMC I'm all ears. :D

jkinghome

07-09-06, 02:39 PM

Steve Kinkead

07-09-06, 06:11 PM

I created a GUI bookmark for my music playlists called "My Playlists" but I can't figure out how to assign a path to it. This seems like a nice feature if I could get it to work.

I figured out how to use the new GUI button maker (a.k.a GUI bookmarks). This feature lets you create custom buttons on the left side of the the My Music, My Videos, My Pictures, and My Programs screen. Each button is assigned to a bookmark so you can easily jump to a folder containing frequently used files. For example, I created a "My Playlists" button in the My Music screen that points to my custom playlist folder. Or, you might want to create a "Wedding Photos" button in the My Pictures screen that's a bookmark to your folder of wedding photos.

Creating the buttons is a 2 step process.
1) Create a bookmark by editing the UserData/sources.xml file.
2) Create a button using the GUI based tool under Settings > Skin Settings > Bookmarks. The buttons name MUST match the bookmark name from step 1.

Slack

07-09-06, 07:41 PM

I have softmodded my xbox with XBMC - it really is the best out there.

Questions

1) Most of my files are vobs - most play ok, I have some that show the incorrect duration on the timeline bar- but still play - any ideas how to fix?

Thanks!

Letmeguess.... on these particualr VOBs, the normal Up/Down Left/Right (on the D-pad) Skips are non-functional. And if you attempt to fast forward, it'll work for a time then bomb you back to the beginning.

At least that's how it behaves with me. And I have yet to find a rhyme or reason for the particular vobs to behave in this manner.

Also, after watching for a time, you'll notice the green progress bar shootin off the edge of the screen.As you are now in hour 2 of 6 minute clip (as reported by XBMC) It's BIZAAR.

Scotty6595

07-09-06, 07:44 PM

I have softmodded my xbox with XBMC - it really is the best out there.

Questions

1) Most of my files are vobs - most play ok, I have some that show the incorrect duration on the timeline bar- but still play - any ideas how to fix?

2) I have tried to put an dvd .iso, but when played it just plays the FBI warning and then stops - no dvd menu comes up. Is this possible?

Thanks!

What program are you ripping your DVD's with. DVD Shrink or DVD Decryptor will remove all security on the DVD and save to iso. It sounds like you have not decrypted these DVD's and your being stoped at the FBI warning and this is usually the only part of a DVD that is not protected. Try searching with Google for both programs mentioned above and download BOTH. The reason you may need both is that there are some DVD's that Shrink cannot process but Decryptor can. (very few by the way). Give this a try with one of the DVD's that you are running into this problem with and I bet it will fix the issue.

Let us know how it goes!

Scott

jkinghome

07-09-06, 08:11 PM

I have ripped with DVDShrink - I also have AnyDVD running to remove the protection, so I don't think it has anything to do with copy protection. Odd - maybe I'll try just using DVD Decrypter?

Scotty6595

07-09-06, 11:16 PM

It may be worth a shot... Let me know how it goes.

sean_w_smith

07-10-06, 01:18 PM

Waingro,
I noticed recently that XBMC works best for me when I set the processing to Auto (instead of deinterlace, sync even, sync odd, etc).

and be aware you can run the GUI at 720P and DVD at NTSC 16:9 is your TV is a good de-interlacer....

Sean

Greg S

07-10-06, 02:11 PM

and be aware you can run the GUI at 720P and DVD at NTSC 16:9 is your TV is a good de-interlacer....

Sean
When I do this, my TV thinks all video is 4:3, so it squishes the 16:9 stuff and I have to manually put it in wide mode. Very annoying. But if I leave it on 720p 16:9, it autodetects the correct aspect ratios. Any thoughts on why this might be? I'm connected to a sony KDFEA10 via component.

And I don't want to set the tv to display everything in wide mode because I don't want the 4:3 stuff stretched.

Ja Phule

07-10-06, 04:16 PM

And I don't want to set the tv to display everything in wide mode because I don't want the 4:3 stuff stretched.

It's ok to set your xbox to wide mode. Your 4:3 content will still be displayed in 4:3 (as it will be pillarboxed into the 16:9 window with black bars on the side). You can easily switch to different aspect ratios while a video is playing by pressing the Y button. Setting it to normal mode should keep 16:9 content in 16:9 and 4:3 content pillarboxed.

Edit: Oops, I just noticed you were talking about your tv making 4:3 wide and not the xbox.

Some TVs will automatically lock to 4:3 mode at 480p while 720p/1080i will be in wide, and that's a problem with your display and I dunno why the manufacturer does not allow manual aspect ratio control. Some displays will give you aspect ratio control for any resolution, and thankfully, my Infocus 4805 is one of them.

sean_w_smith

07-10-06, 05:10 PM

Greg S

07-10-06, 10:50 PM

It's ok to set your xbox to wide mode. Your 4:3 content will still be displayed in 4:3 (as it will be pillarboxed into the 16:9 window with black bars on the side). You can easily switch to different aspect ratios while a video is playing by pressing the Y button. Setting it to normal mode should keep 16:9 content in 16:9 and 4:3 content pillarboxed.

Edit: Oops, I just noticed you were talking about your tv making 4:3 wide and not the xbox.

Some TVs will automatically lock to 4:3 mode at 480p while 720p/1080i will be in wide, and that's a problem with your display and I dunno why the manufacturer does not allow manual aspect ratio control. Some displays will give you aspect ratio control for any resolution, and thankfully, my Infocus 4805 is one of them.
Sean and Ja -
Thanks for advice. I didn't explain clearly, and I also didn't fully realize my issue. I think I do now.

I can get the picture the way I want by toggling either my tv or xbmc. That's no problem. But here's the issue:

I set xbmc to output 720p 16x9. My tv reads the source as 720p 16x9. No problems.
I set xbmc to ouput 480i or 480p 16x9 to let my tv do the scaling/deinterlacing. My tv reads the source as 480i or 480p 4x3.

So xbmc is actually outputting 4x3 when in 16x9 mode, if set to 480i or 480p. (Or my tv THINKS that's what's being output.)

I can adjust the mode that my tv defaults to for 4:3 sources, but that's a global setting. So then it hoses up my other devices.

It's really only a matter of one or two extra button pushes, but what is this world coming to if we're forced to shoulder that kind of burden? ;)

Anyway, it seems to me to be an xbmc bug. I'll see if I can get anywhere on xb scene.

Edit: In fact xbmc outputs exactly 480p 4x3 if I choose any of the following settings:
480i 4x3
480p 4x3
480i 16x9
480p 16x9

Ja Phule

07-10-06, 11:38 PM

Greg S

07-11-06, 01:29 AM

XBMC will only do either 480i or 480p. If you enable 480p in the original xbox dashboard, xbmc will only give you 480p whether you set it to 480p (4x3 or 16x9) or ntsc (4x3 or 16x9). If you want to do 480i, you will need to disable 480p in the dash.

Gotcha.

Do you notice any issues with xbmc at 720p? Set it to 480p if you don't like the way xbmc is handling content at 720p.

It looks fine. I just wanted to compare (which I have now done, and can't tell the difference). I'm making it sound like a big issue for me, but it's really not.

Your display is setting the aspect ratio to 4:3 when you feed it 480i/480p via XBMC. If you send 480p 4x3 xbmc should look ok. If you set xbmc to 480p 16x9 then it will be stretched.
You kind of lost me there. I can make my display stretch it so that it looks correct, but the fact remains that xbmc is outputting 4:3 when it's set to output 16:9. I must not be understanding something. I don't see why 480p 16:9 and 480p 4:3 should be the same thing.

Ja Phule

07-11-06, 02:07 AM

You kind of lost me there. I can make my display stretch it so that it looks correct, but the fact remains that xbmc is outputting 4:3 when it's set to output 16:9. I must not be understanding something. I don't see why 480p 16:9 and 480p 4:3 should be the same thing.

I guess some of the confusion might be with the xbmc setting for aspect ratio, which is controlled in the System > Appearance and System > My Videos section. I'm referring to the setting in the My Video setting. I think you may be changing the appearance setting here and not the my video setting.

Ja Phule

07-11-06, 02:33 AM

Greg S

07-11-06, 08:23 AM

I guess some of the confusion might be with the xbmc setting for aspect ratio, which is controlled in the System > Appearance and System > My Videos section. I'm referring to the setting in the My Video setting. I think you may be changing the appearance setting here and not the my video setting.
I'm talking about the video settings, not the skin settings. I understand the difference.

Greg S

07-11-06, 08:51 AM

Source content is in 16:9 ratio

16:9 display in 16:9 mode
XBMC in 16:9 mode Picture is Correct
http://japhule.collinsreport.com/avs/480p16x9-16x9.jpg

16:9 display in 4:3 mode
XBMC in 16:9 mode Picture is stretched vertically and pillarboxed
http://japhule.collinsreport.com/avs/480p16x9-16x9a.jpg
These are the relevant caps.
My display auto-detects the source material obviously, and goes into 4:3 mode for 4:3 sources, and 16:9 mode for 16:9 sources. Here's the key part:
Even if I set xbmc to output 16:9, it outputs 4:3. My display detects this, and defaults to 4:3 mode. I have to then manually put it in wide mode to stretch the picture to the correct aspect ratio.
If xbmc was outputting 16:9 as I set it to, my tv would detect that and default to wide mode, and it would look like the top picture without me having to manually do it.
But in fact I can hit a button for my tv and it will tell me the aspect ratio of the source material - regardless of what mode I'm displaying it at. It tells me the source is 4:3 when it should be 16:9. I don't know how else to explain it. I can take screen shots I guess.

http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/7402/screenshot0013uv.png
http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/7637/p71100028qp.jpg

A = what the source is
B = what my tv is set to (normal = 4:3)
picture = squished

I have to manually switch B to "full" (16:9). If the source was really 16:9 like it should be, I wouldn't have to do that manually. My tv would default to it.

Remember if I change xbmc to 720p, all is well and it actually outputs 16x9.

Ja Phule

07-11-06, 01:44 PM

Greg,
I understand what you are saying. Two things I need to check...

1) When you are switching between 4:3 and 16:9 modes in xbmc, are you stopping the video and playing it again? The setting will not apply unless you do this.

2) As I stated earlier, some displays will always see a 480p signal, whether it is 16:9 or 4:3, as 4:3. Have you tried any other devices like a regular dvd player, and set it to 480p wide and your tv correctly set itself correctly to 16:9 mode? If it does, then maybe it is a problem with the way xbmc is sending out its 480p 16x9 signal.

Scotty6595

07-12-06, 12:01 AM

For those of you interested in having a fully integrated AccuWeather radar script for your XBMC check out the link below. Go to the second page of the thread for the latest compatible version. It will integrate a "Radar" button on your Weather page so no need to run any scripts. Fully automated and really cool!

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=526986

Have Fun!

Scott

rickforrest

07-12-06, 11:06 AM

Has anybody used

www.softmodmyxbox.com

sean_w_smith implied he had used them on the 2nd page of this thread, but he hasn't replied to my PM.

Anyone else? Or sean, if you see this?

thanks,

Rick

c10273

07-12-06, 01:30 PM

I have, happy with the results. Plan to send 2 more out to get softmodded.

Ja Phule

07-12-06, 02:24 PM

Has anybody used

www.softmodmyxbox.com

sean_w_smith implied he had used them on the 2nd page of this thread, but he hasn't replied to my PM.

Anyone else? Or sean, if you see this?

thanks,

Rick

Seems pricey for a softmod. I paid $60 to get mine hardmodded including the mod chip and hard drive install.

rickforrest

07-12-06, 03:03 PM

Seems pricey for a softmod. I paid $60 to get mine hardmodded including the mod chip and hard drive install.

Thanks for the input, guys.

I'm looking at other options, but when you live in a relatively small town, you're kind of stuck.

On the other hand, the softmodmyxbox guys do a softmod + hard drive upgrade for $65 + $11 return shipping. That isn't too bad.

I thought about softmodding it myself, but when you figure in the cost of an Action Replay device, torx driver set, that gets expensive, too.

c10273

07-12-06, 03:22 PM

I am not a computer wiz nor do I have the time to mess with modding, for me its worth someone else to do it. That way I know it will work.

Scotty6595

07-12-06, 05:51 PM

Thanks for the input, guys.

I'm looking at other options, but when you live in a relatively small town, you're kind of stuck.

On the other hand, the softmodmyxbox guys do a softmod + hard drive upgrade for $65 + $11 return shipping. That isn't too bad.

I thought about softmodding it myself, but when you figure in the cost of an Action Replay device, torx driver set, that gets expensive, too.

ActionReplay $20.99 on Amazon...
Torx Drivers $6.00 (google search)
The xperience $Priceless..... ;)

Ja Phule

07-12-06, 06:12 PM

Odd thing happened to me.

I recently moved my xbox to another room temporarily for a few days. I've since moved it back into my main HT area and for some reason, my white level (aka contrast) has improved significantly. Before I had to bump my contrast on my 4805 to the max to get it to acceptable levels. Now it's back to more normal levels. Not sure what happened but I'm happy nonetheless. :)

bharper

07-12-06, 09:32 PM

OK, I'm ready to get a XBOX and I want to get a chip for it or get it chipped. What are everyon'es opinions? What is the easiest way to do this and were can I find the chip? I've heard that the Xecutor3 CE is the best going now. Is this true?

What is the price for the Xecutor3 CE chip? How hard is it to solder it into they system. I used to put chips in PS1's (up to the 9001 series PS1's). Anyway, If I can do it w/o much problem, I'd rather do it myself than spend $60 for someone else to do it..

Also, would like to add a 300-500gb HD to have Movies and Games on. I am mainly doing this to use it as a client on a network for a movie player off of my PC media server.

Please let me know what my best options are and where to go to find these items..

Thanks a lot!

serfrat

07-12-06, 10:01 PM

I have a Harmony remote and would like to add page up, page down and menu button to get to the main menu of a movie. Does any know how to add this. I've tried lots of commands from the Harmony site using the Xbox, and Rca Dvd codes with no luck.

buzzdalf

07-12-06, 10:24 PM

bharper

07-12-06, 10:50 PM

Is there any reason you are so set on a chip mod? I just got a used xbox and softmodded it and it was easy. A lot easier than any chip based mods I've ever done. I stuck a bigger hard drive in it, too. The thing is great. My only regret is that I didn't try XBMC sooner. It would have saved me a couple HTPC's.

Well, what softmod do you have? I'm open to ideas now. LMK what yours is capable of and where I can get it.. Thanks.

BLKMGK

07-12-06, 11:17 PM

I did an Xecutor3 CE and bigger drive on mine. An LCD and IRDA mod are next on the list. a softmod, so far as I know, won't allow for an LCD. If you screw up a softmod it's a brick until you put in a chip I think (not an expert). IMO, do the softmod and if it fails I think you can recover it with a chip. The Xecutor3 has alot of features and can hold multiple BIOS but so far I'm not sure it's giving me any great advantage over some others. I'm just not doing anything with it that requires anything special. It wasn't too hard to solder on my 1.4 board, I certainly wouldn't do solderless. An LCD will be interesting but not required <shrug> It was certainly cheaper altogether than my HTPC! :eek:

bharper

07-13-06, 12:19 AM

bjhess

07-13-06, 12:23 AM

I just set up uTorrent to download television shows (and some other stuff) to my NAS via RSS feed. So now I have my Xbox hitting dynamic video on a day-to-day basis. Nirvana is nearly mine.

Ja Phule

07-13-06, 01:55 AM

I'm running my xbox mod off of the cheapest mod chip, the $15 DuoX2. It runs xbmc and backups and that's all that matters.

buzzdalf

07-13-06, 07:42 AM

Well, what softmod do you have? I'm open to ideas now. LMK what yours is capable of and where I can get it.. Thanks.

Here's a link to easy to follow instructions for a soft-mod:
Click me (http://www.productwiki.com/microsoft_xbox/article/how_to_go_from_xbox_to_xbox_media_center_in_30_minutes.html)

I'm attaching some easy to follow instructions for doing the hard drive upgrade I shamelessly stole from a guide for all things mod related.

As far as making a brick, I have screwed my dashboard up a couple times messing around (I like to tinker) and I have always been able to get mech assault to load, once I get that I can re-load the savegame and ftp in to copy my original files back. Besides, I always have my backup hard drive to throw back in if it gets too ugly.

I don't think I'm aloud to tell you where to get the files necessary for the mod or the hard drive upgrade, but you should be able to find them out there.

BLKMGK

07-13-06, 07:46 AM

Bharper - the newer boxes, the 360, haven't really been hacked YET. Firmware on the DVD drives has been modified to allow burned backups to run and pics of Avalaunch dashboard with a larger drive have been posted. However for the purposes of what we're talking about here it's not been broken YET. It will be I'm sure but given the cost of the box compared to the older one I'm not sure that iot's worth it just yet even if it does get broken - we'll see.

For now get an older one. The older models had different hardware revisions which can complicate the soldering job somewhat if you go with a chip and I think some of the latest ones need a hardware mod to even softmod. I'm not sure how you tell hardware revision prior to purchase other than finding one that was bought "awhile" ago. In the end you may want to open it up to clean it and apply better heatsink grease anyway FWIW and you can figure out the revision then from pics. If you can "test drive" the machine beforehand booting an AID boot disk will allow you to get hardware information off the board too - it can also do the softmod if you choose and install software etc. :-) My hardware was rev 1.4 and was no big deal to work with - it was also a Halo Edition box which has a translucent green case and I knew it was older.

Anyway, hope that helps. Stay tuned on the 360 stuff as progress seems to be occuring there. Just not sure how much more powerful that hardware is or if the cost is worth it but we may find out soon...

Slack

07-13-06, 08:14 AM

I'm not sure how you tell hardware revision prior to purchase other than finding one that was bought "awhile" ago. I.

google 'xbox version how to'

There's a page (restricted for me @ work, otherwise I would have posted a link) on the xbox linux site that has detailed info on identifying xbox versions from the manuafacturing date & serial number information on the unit. The product label is visible through the packaging, so you can go to you local gamestop & check out the refurbs, & used units.

Thomas J. Coyle

07-13-06, 09:26 AM

bharper,

I have four XBOXes running XBMC and all have been chip modded.

Like BLKMGK, I like the Xecuter3 chip mod which allows me to install the LCD panel and the remote ON/OFF mod.

With the LCD panel, I can select MP3 songs without having to have my display on if I do not want to have the milkdrop on.

With the IR mod, XBOX control is strictly "hands off".

I have modded two 1.6, one 1.2 and one 1.5 versions with no problems.

I like the X3 chip mod because I can format any new drive from the X3 BIOS.

Soft mods are just what they are, soft mods.

Just a thought.

Regards,
TCIII

cjett

07-13-06, 11:43 AM

I'm having an issue setting up movies that do not show up in IMDB, that I cannot find any answers to. So, I am hoping someone can help point me in the right direction.

I have a few movies that are not on IMDB (mostly sports and music related DVD's that I have ripped), I would like these to show up in the same way as the others: Titles, Descriptions, Actors, Genre, Plot, Cover art, etc... I cannot find anything, anywhere on how to edit the local video DB to include this information. I even went as far as to download a SQL viewer to look at the video DB to see if I can change it there... which I am sure I can, but not sure how.

Is there and interface I am missing to make this change? If not, is there a walkthrough on how to edit the DB?

Thanks in advance,
cjett

BLKMGK

07-13-06, 12:56 PM

Cjett - there WAS a tool that would FTP to the XBOX and allow you to "manage" the movie database as well as do some other XBMC tweaks. Unfortunatly when I tried it on the 666 version of XBMC and now my later build it appears to be broken. Probably the best place to ask about this is on the XBMC support board. Surely there must be a way to do this! I'm pretty sure yuo can specify icons without too much trouble - there's a portion of the XBMC tweaks section in their online manual that talks about "wide" icons for list view - that may give some clues as to where to go in order to edit for different icons at elast....

goblue97

07-13-06, 02:13 PM

I have been using my modded xbox for the past few months with no problems sharing over my home network. The other day, when I got home, I noticed there had been a power outage earlier that day because clocks were blinking. Not sure why that would affect anything but my SMB no longer shows my shared networked drives. coincidence??? My laptop on the same nettwork shows them but not the xbox. Anyhow, no matter what I have tried I can't get it to see the networked drives anymore. Am I missing something? Does anyone have any ideas I could try?

Scotty6595

07-14-06, 12:06 AM

I had this happen once before and what happend was that my router assigned a new and different ip address to my xbox and one of my other computers... I just had to go into Evox and change the ip addy for my xbox to the new ip that was given by the router. Turn your xbox on and go into your settings to see what address you have assigned and then go to your router and see what address it is acually assigning, I bet they are not the same....

Just a thought... Hope this is the problem because it is easily fixed!

Scott

serfrat

07-14-06, 02:25 AM

Ja Phule

07-14-06, 02:49 AM

Anyone know the answer to this? I have a Harmony remote and would like to add page up, page down and menu button to get to the main menu of a movie. Does any know how to add this. I've tried lots of commands from the Harmony site using the Xbox, and Rca Dvd codes with no luck.

Try checking the harmony site for the Xbox Media Center Extender Remote. This remote has a page up/down button that works on xbmc. I have this remote and programmed it into my universal remote (non-harmony) to do this.

bjhess

07-14-06, 08:21 AM

Anyone know the answer to this? I have a Harmony remote and would like to add page up, page down and menu button to get to the main menu of a movie. Does any know how to add this. I've tried lots of commands from the Harmony site using the Xbox, and Rca Dvd codes with no luck.

Oh, I'd like an answer to the same questions with regard to the Pronto remote.

goblue97

07-14-06, 09:13 AM

thanks for the response scotty but now it appears as though my xbox has died. After going in to check the network settings in the MS dash, I rebooted and the screen went pink....then nothing, black. The light on the xbox was flashing red/green. I've done some looking around on this and there are tons of possibilities as to why it is doing this. The most common one is the modchip has gone bad. Has anyone seen this and have any first hand experience with it? Some say that the soldered leads on the mod chip may be shorting.....can this just happen? It's been working for quite some time now. I'm hoping that it's the hard drive because I'm not much with a soldering iron. I do think I can replace a hard drive though.

Thomas J. Coyle

07-14-06, 11:20 AM

Hi all,

Goblue97's XBOX problem is a good example of why it is important to have all of your digital equipment on UPSs.

Goblue97,

Since your XBOX was working up until the power outage, I would say that it is not a solder problem. Most likely the power surge that accompanied the power outage killed your mod chip and maybe a component on your motherboard.

Can you disable the mod chip and boot into the MS dashboard? If so, the motherboard is probably okay. If not, probably time for a new motherboard.

If you can boot into the MS dashboard, then it might be time to replace the mod chip. If the mod chip is on a header, the simplest thing would be to replace the mod chip with a new one and FTP in a new BIOS and you will be set.

I suggest that if you have an Xecuter mod chip that you go to the Team Xecuter forum and discuss your problem there as they are very helpful. Otherwise, go to the support forum of you mod chip's supplier and ask for help.

Regards,
TCIII

goblue97

07-14-06, 11:31 AM

Tom,
Thanks for the reply. I'm not sure if I can disable the modchip or not. To boot to the MS dash I would just press the power button in quickly. To get to XBMC I would have to hold it in for three count or so. Not sure if any of that means I am disabling it. To answer your other question, I cannot boot to either now. Just to clarify something though. Following the power outage, the xbox still booted to both the MS and XBMC dashs. It was just the SMB sharing that wasn't working properly.
Is there anything that I should be able to visually see inside the xbox that could point me in the right direction of what needs replacing?

sean_w_smith

07-14-06, 12:13 PM

Greg,

weird when I put my XBMC into NTSC 16:9 it outputs 480iand I leave the TV in wide mode and XBMC aspect setting of "NORMAL" in video fits all the videos properly to my screen. Same exact way as it does when I use 720p. Seems like your TV defaults to 4:3 mode for some reason.

Sean

sean_w_smith

07-14-06, 12:19 PM

I'm running my xbox mod off of the cheapest mod chip, the $15 DuoX2. It runs xbmc and backups and that's all that matters.

I have 1 Executer2, 1 Executer3, 1 DuoX, and 3 Softmod and there is no real difference. They all work fine for games and xbmc. The one basic advantage a modchip has is its easy to recover if the Hard Drive dies. With a soft mod this has to be more complicated as you need a working disk to softmod. The modchip can boot auto installer which will partition and format a blank disc which makes recovery easier if the disk dies. That said the last 2 xboxes I added to my system were soft mods and the 1 I use the most is a soft mod.

Sean

sean_w_smith

07-14-06, 12:23 PM

Thomas J. Coyle

07-14-06, 01:37 PM

goblue97,

To be able to help you out, please tell us whether you have a softmod or a chip mod.

If you have a chip mod, then who's mod chip is it? Also, if you have a chip mod, you can check the voltages on the mod chip's pin header. You can find out what the voltages should be at the xbox-scene website. Additionally, if you have a mod chip, try removing it from the pin header and see if you can boot into the MS dashboard.

Regards,
TCIII

Diode1

07-14-06, 03:11 PM

With a softmod it is rather easy to recover, just make sure you have a xboxhdm CD made from your drive.
Hook up the new replacement drive to your PC main ide cable.
Boot on the xboxhdm CD
Build from scratch,
Install the drive into the xbox & softmod it.

In all this may take you 15 minutes plus what ever time it takes to remove & install the new drive.

I have 1 Executer2, 1 Executer3, 1 DuoX, and 3 Softmod and there is no real difference. They all work fine for games and xbmc. The one basic advantage a modchip has is its easy to recover if the Hard Drive dies. With a soft mod this has to be more complicated as you need a working disk to softmod. The modchip can boot auto installer which will partition and format a blank disc which makes recovery easier if the disk dies. That said the last 2 xboxes I added to my system were soft mods and the 1 I use the most is a soft mod.

Sean

Slack

07-14-06, 04:50 PM

I have 1 Executer2, 1 Executer3, 1 DuoX, and 3 Softmod and there is no real difference. They all work fine for games and xbmc. The one basic advantage a modchip has is its easy to recover if the Hard Drive dies. With a soft mod this has to be more complicated as you need a working disk to softmod. The modchip can boot auto installer which will partition and format a blank disc which makes recovery easier if the disk dies. That said the last 2 xboxes I added to my system were soft mods and the 1 I use the most is a soft mod.

Sean

If there was a thunderstorm in the area, and that was the cause of the outtage, I find I lose ethernet switch ports pretty regularly when lighting is close to home. Try another port on the switch(es)