Ken's Blog | XBox Media Center (XBMC) Really Is That Cool

Thursday, 24. August 2006

XBox Media Center (XBMC) Really Is That Cool08/24/2006 08:50 PM

I can't believe I waited that long to hack my old XBox and put XBMC on it. It's too bad MS would have gotten in trouble w/ Hollywood if they hacked their old inventory of XBox's when the XBox 360 came out because this would have sold like hotcakes

Here's a list of the neat stuff I can do on it now (although there are a lot more features I haven't tried):

Play any media format including VCD, RealMedia, WMV, DivX, Ogg, QuickTime, etc.; it doesn't have enough horsepower to play 1080 HD media though (nor do any PCs currently because graphics cards don't have enough H.264 acceleration support..except the nVidia PureVideo stuff..sorta)
Play media from a networked computer's shared SMB drive
Play Shoutcast music stations over the Internet
Get local weather, movie guides, TV guides via XBMC add-on scripts
View silly amateur videos off the Internet like YouTube
Play my entire music collection ripped to Ogg/MP3 format
Play my XBox game collection from the hard drive so I don't have to swap DVDs back and forth
Play DVDs ripped into ISO format (or even multipart-RAR) so there's no need to put DVDs in
Slideshow vacation JPG photo albums on the big screen
Play old arcade games using the MAME emulator (sometimes we just need that flashback to childhood :-)
Play old Atari games like Ballblazer (yeah, I'm dating myself :-)
Run the MythTV Client to get the TIVO experience from my Myth server
Browse content on other XBMC XBox's on the network (I don't have any but it's tempting to add another)...

Steps:

Download XBox AutoInstaller Deluxe (AID) and the patches for the ISO (the XBMC on this installer seems to have most of the stuff included in XBMC Pimped already).
Softmod the XBox (if you're only going to run XBMC, you can use a software only mod) or buy a $15 DuoX2 modchip (use the BT solder point suggested by HackDaBox's install instead of the DuoX2's instructions so you don't have to leave a wire dangling across the motherboard to the front panel); the desoldering/soldering can take an hour or two with careful checking if you haven't done it in a while.
Burn the X2 5035 137+ GB (if you plan to put a big drive in) ROM from the XBOX AID disc onto the DuoX2 by downloading the Eurasia Generic Flash disc and following the directions (you don't need to use Eurasia if you use the DuoX2's Bank 1 w/ FlashBIOS, but the Eurasia download includes a directory you can put on the BIOS disc you have to burn so it's useful to have).
Put the new hard drive in and boot off the AID disc and choose the one button install which will automatically format and install XBMC for you (be sure to choose the larger drive if you have a drive bigger than 137GB because partition F will only let you use 120GB of your drive).
Install any apps you find useful (I installed the MAME/AtariXL emulators and the Px HDD Loader)
Lock the drive in case you run XBox Live by mistake.
Set up XBMC to talk to your network and use ftp to modify the scripts as needed.
Add the MythTV Client as a program.
Load it up w/ music/video files.

A few tips:

Use DVD-R discs or CDRWs; all XBox drives can read this (some can read CDRs, DVD+R, and DVDRWs)
If you do the hardware mod, get a good pencil type soldering iron like the Weller WM120 to make your life easier and get the right gauge wire (I used Kynar 30awg wirewrapping wire) and do use a voltmeter to make sure you're soldering to the right points.
For MAME, grab ROMs from ROMNation; <left trigger><back> brings up the menu; <back><select> resets the game; Williams games need to be reset once after the "Factory Defaults Restored" message comes up.
For the AtariXLBox emulator, the "N" button is the "#" key, the "0" button is "Pause", and the "Atari" button is the "*" key; <left trigger><back> brings up the menu. Check the Wiki for more info.
For the XBMC MyTV script, edit the Yahoo script to use the Eastern_US region; for the XMovieGuide script, get the latest version from the author's site. The XBMC Flickr script sadly no longer works. I also found that Maddox, Flexibrowser, KMLBrowser, QuicktimeBrowser, and TommyV2 no longer work (you can delete script folders using ftp).

For those who haven't tried a TIVO or networked media center, this is definitely something to try so you can see where multimedia convergence is headed. Even though I'm not much of a gamer, I'd replace the XBox with another if it broke is how useful I think this is ;-)

Comments :

1. ren07/15/2010 13:45:44

my xbox can read on cd or dvd

2. JIMMY08/25/2009 02:09:31

in english please???

Burn the X2 5035 137+ GB (if you plan to put a big drive in) ROM from the XBOX AID disc onto the DuoX2 by downloading the Eurasia Generic Flash disc and following the directions (you don't need to use Eurasia if you use the DuoX2's Bank 1 w/ FlashBIOS, but the Eurasia download includes a directory you can put on the BIOS disc you have to burn so it's useful to have).

3. Cedric Banks, Sr05/31/2009 22:10:50

i dont kno how to download mame into my xbox please give me the step by step and the simple way to do it. My xbox is already monified.

4. ken07/23/2008 00:56:39
Homepage: http://www.keysolutions.com/blogs/kenyee.nsf

Adam: get the plugins from the AID disk. Link is in my original post.

5. adam07/19/2008 17:21:10

i have xbmc on my xbox. where do i put plugins?

6. Tenticals11/13/2007 10:15:40

download big ass emulator disk 1, 2,3 a and b for more games then you can ever play!!!! everygame ever made for atari, nes,snes, sega, mame ....ect
the list goe's on and on theirs also a emulator for ps1 and n64

7. Conor McCan07/18/2007 15:22:27
Homepage: http://N/A

Hi i have xbmc nd i want 2 no can i play games dat r loaded on my hard drive on xbox live without getting blocked or losing all da stuff i've loaded on?

Any help would b thanked

8. Stavros Papandreou04/29/2007 20:00:40

Hey guys i am a real newbie on this. A friend of mine soft moded my xbox and i really want to be able to play mame i downloaded a couple of version but i have no idea on how to transfer stuff on my xbox and install the whole thing including puting roms. If aanyone could take the time and help me through this i would greatly appreciate it
PS i have the newest version of XBmc 360

9. Ken Yee03/10/2007 16:47:01
Homepage: http://www.keysolutions.com/blogs/kenyee.nsf

spank:
Go to that AID download link in my blog, download the ISO, and burn it to a DVD. For the MAME ROMs, you can download them and ftp them to your XBox. The person who helped you hack your XBox should be able to help you w/ this as well...

10. spank21wbf03/09/2007 07:26:43

I have a problem and i need help. i had somebody hack my xbox and i want to play mameox, but i dont know how to put the emulator and roms on a dvd disk. please, i would like to know the steps for me to get these roms on a dvd disk think u

11. Ken Yee11/29/2006 02:19:44
Homepage: http://www.keysolutions.com/blogs/kenyee.nsf

I installed the MAME emulator from the AID disc...that's really a great utility disc

12. Meka11/26/2006 16:09:35

which mame emulator did you use? and how did you install it?

13. confuzzzledcow11/17/2006 15:36:05

Looking at installing the duo-X 2 mod chip installing a 60gb hd (for mp3s and tv eps/movies ) it will also be linked to network with more space (so thats not an issue there)
The issue is i have younger rellys that use my Xbox and PS2 when im not home my disks always end up scractched , lost broken etc (hence the need for a chip and being able to run dvd back ups )
I keep all my originals locked up safe away from little fingers

So XBMC fits the need for the media player (i know i can install with out the chip but need the chip for the hdrive upgrade)
Wasnt sure if this dash could run dvd backups or normal xbox games or not

so as u have said it will run dvd back ups so i shall start hunting for it cheers

14. Ken Yee11/15/2006 14:06:46
Homepage: http://www.keysolutions.com/blogs/kenyee.nsf

Yes, the modchip will allow you to run DVD backups of your games, but it's simpler to just put them on the hard drive since even a small 160GB drive like the one I installed can hold 50 games.
If you just want to run DVD backups, you can also do a DVD drive firmware hack instead of putting a mod chip on (which is only needed if you want to run non-xbox software on it): { Link } but I'm not sure how to do the firmware hack.

15. confuzzzledcow11/15/2006 13:28:33

Will XBMC play back up copys of orignal games or just the games off the hd im thinking of going down this road and installing it but i wont waste my time if its not going to play backed up games.
so i can keep the original disks away from little fingers.