Original XBox as a media player

pepsi_max2k

oh boy am i ever gonna look stupid after this...

anyone *still* trying to decide between 1.6 or pre-1.6, do take a read of this very good explanation of why you may actually want a 1.6:

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=196390

now, bear in mind that when i tested a 1.6, i saw very little difference between RGB Scart (RGBs) out and composite (CVBS) output (mostly deeper greens, slightly richer yellows, very slight increase in sharpness), and haven't seen any *less* of a difference on my 1.2.

i'm also using a full linux distro on my 1.2 and so far am using mostly default setitngs - overscan disabled (dunno if it's disabled by default on 1.6s) and a 768*576 modeline in X11 as these give the best output for what i want (mythtv), but without testing i'm not sure which of the options will be needed and will/won't work on a 1.6...

but if you only ever want to use xbmc... well... *ahem*... 1.6 may just possibly be better... *hides*

EDIT: hmm... the flicker filter alterations available on the connexant (1.0 - 1.3) boxes are very handy... if there's no way to disable FF on a 1.6 then video's still gonna look better on a pre-1.6, clarity wise at least.

jembie

pepsi_max2k wrote: »

there should be some kind of option to put the xbox's ip into a "safe" zone on some firewalls, though i had problems even when trying that with zonealarm. i've long given up on them and just use hardware firewalls in my router(s).

I have a hardware firewall on my router...Does this mean that I don't need the software ones at all?
I have the router firewall all set up with the 2 laptops and the xbox included.

saver2000

Thanks for everyones help so far. I've got an xploder cable but I'm not sure how to get the game saves on it. I found a post where they said to install the Action replay software, and then plug in the xploder. When it asks for drivers point it to the Action replay drivers, but this doesn't work. Do I need to use USBview and then modify the driver (like if I was using a normal memory stick?) or should I install the xploder software? Thanks

saver2000

drezsa wrote: »

That would appear to be the case so as many people said in the other thread there's little reason to avoid v1.6 boxes.

Krayzies NDURE has always been the most stable.

I got v1.1 from xbins. Is this the latest?

saver2000

Got my xbox modded now! (a v1.6)

Got a bit fed up of reading and just went ahead, and it was all done 10mins later!

It's quite easy, it's just that theres so much old and conflicting info around and there's not much explaination of whats happening and how it works, just a load of people saying "do this", "do that".

I used an xploder cable and a thrustmaster memory card. I used the Action replay software to do the copy, you just need to make a slight modification to the driver file. (Can't find the link right now)

Then I just used NDURE v1.1

pepsi_max2k

>> I have a hardware firewall on my router...Does this mean that I don't need
>> the software ones at all?

I'm not the best person to ask as i dunno that much about it, but technically i think a hardware firewall is best for blocking incoming traffic, and firewalls on individual pcs should block any unwanted outgoing traffic. if you're careful about what you stick on your pcs yourself then you shouldn't have any of the later, so would just need the former. personally though i just got !!!!ed off by too many bsods and crashes with zone alarm and don't know any better free software.

>> It's quite easy, it's just that theres so much old and conflicting info
>> around and there's not much explaination of whats happening and how
>> it works, just a load of people saying "do this", "do that".

yeah, and everyone who once knew what they were talking about hasn't touched the thing in years found this great video a couple days ago about how the hacks all came about though:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-749497642180741726
not very useful for an end user though, and doesn't talk about the bugs in some of the hacks that cause problems (clock loop etc) and why it doesn't affect the newer hacks which exploit the audio and not fonts. but other than that it covers most of the basics.

and i've no idea why there's so much confusion behind the usb hacks. in theory it's very simple - format a usb stick with fatx, transfer the hacked save game folder to the usb root (005020583 or whatever) as that's how the xbox stores the saves, then transfer it to the xbox (which requires the same named folder not to be there to avoid any non-overwiting of files - all games use a single XXXXXXXX named folder and that's why you get a load of places saying "delete all saves off xbox first"). and that's it.

the problem is there's multiple ways of doing each of those - xbox memory card reader to usb (action replay, xplorer), xbox mem card in controler converted to usb, normal usb stick to xbox converter. then each of those have varying software to transfer data, varying drivers to allow that, and varying ways of actually transferring the stuff. the best right now is Xplorer360 which allows browsing and transfering of fatx filesystems without any drivers needed.

then there's the varying games that allow exploits. though apparently around one in four games have a suitable buffer overflow exploit (someone actually went through them alphabetically, guess which the first they tried was?) but only 3 (mech, bond, splinter) anyone has actually bothered creating linux booting save games for (dunno if there's a bigger reason as to why those three, maybe there's a specific exploit they need, maybe they were just the most widely available).

and then there's all the hardware mods. but it does suck having to search for days to find any decent info on the thing. just be glad you're not trying to setup linux on it

EDIT: the guy who originally hacked the box: http://www.xenatera.com/bunnie/proj/anatak/xboxmod.html
His original MIT memo on how he did it. that's some dedication there...
http://web.mit.edu/bunnie/www/AIM-2002-008.pdf
and i just realised it's the same guy who makes the chumby whos "made in china" posts are real intersting:
http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/

firbyfred

I have been scan reading these ebmc threads for a few weeks and plan to get a second hand xbox to have a go, with my 11 year olds help!
2 questions (hope they are not too stupid)

can you still play games?
is it possible to surf the net?

timothyw9

I did the same thing a few weeks ago, didn't cost me much at all!

XBOX £20 @ Game
40GB HDD - Out of a faulty Digifusion PVR :rolleyes:

I used the Ndure hotswap method and then upgraded the harddrive after about 15 or so DVDR/CDR's trying to get it to lock the HDD after I had formatted and copied the xbox files to the new HDD. Took a day and a night!
Now that its done though I couldn't be without it.

drezsa

I'm still not sure about which units are best on video output, but its certainly easier to find a clean barely used 1.6 with official S controllers even if they are cost reduced versions.

Although my mate managed to spawn a v1.1 with a fully working Samsung 605B DVD-Rom. I had to buy a refurb for mine (as the Phillips it came with was not fully functional) and I still had to tinker with it to get it to eject properly.

I'm still testing a recently acquired 1.6, but the Thompson DVD-Rom seems far better than most internet reports (on good media). The standard HD is also very quite compared to the one in my 1.1, but the 1.6 fan has a louder whining sound even at the same speed.

Also I notice the 1.6 is very sensitive to the misuse of the passive command when FTPing and slows to a crawl on small files.

saver2000 wrote: »

I got v1.1 from xbins. Is this the latest?

There is an update which takes it up to v1.1.1

Files and how to in here

custardy

should hear how noisy the v1.0 boxes are with the 2nd cpu cooling fan!