Xbox 360 as HTPC

[wedge22]

I need to know if its possible to use a 360 for playing back Divx and Xvid movies. I do not need to record TV as we are planning on getting rid of our TV subscription here and just downloading shows from iTunes and buying DVD's as we currently do not own a DVD player either.

[shaithis]

Yes you can but it isn't as strait forward as most of us would like it to be.

You need to use Windows MCE to stream any video to it and you then need to install a 3rd party add-on called Transcode360 to be able to play compressed video formats like DivX etc.

You then have to select your DIVX through the MCE extender and choose INFO and then select Transcode......it might take a while to get Transcode360 running happily on your Windows MCE box as well.

[b0redom]

You can do a much better job with a modded XBOX original.

Tom

[jamena]

or wait and see what the PS3 does...it's looking increasingly HTPC-like, esp with the hdd and native linux capability

[shaithis]

You can do a much better job with a modded XBOX original.

That depends a LOT on what your doing.

The original XBox cannot handle hi def, which the 360 shines at.

I have 300GB of 720p and 1080i .TS (MPEG4) and WMVHD material that I stream to the 360 and it looks gorgeous, the XBox1 stutters and collapses while playing it.

[wedge22]

So is my easiest option just making myself a little HTPC based on a Via Epia mobo?

[mmmalas]

I will go for ps3 as HTPC, blue ray/ 60gig hdd, and the linux

+ ability to play games

[unreal]

or wait and see what the PS3 does...it's looking increasingly HTPC-like, esp with the hdd and native linux capability

Knowing Sony and their all-world-dominant-format ways I doubt if they will support Divx/xvid or anything, but if they did I would probably go out and buy the PS3 no doubt, so I hope I'm wrong (cept the wallet)

As for the problem, a modded Xbox original is highly recommended by me considering how cheap they are now, but I've never tried one - they appear real good though

[someone_mad]

noe sony + divx no way

beside psp was succsesful to prevent copying games, so I could see things going that way with all the console, force people to update, and dont let them run the game if they had not updated

[pgudge]

You can get a HD Cable for the XBox and XBMC supports Upscaling, so the XBox might not be that bad? I aint tried it as I haven't got HD, just read about it.

Modded XBox and XBMC is amazing, connects to LAN for home vids and photos a treat.

[someone_mad]

I read somewhere, someone had doubled his xbox ram, (the motherboard does have a space for an extra chip)

and thus gave him the ability to play hdv

[mmmalas]

lol

[jamena]

Knowing Sony and their all-world-dominant-format ways I doubt if they will support Divx/xvid or anything, but if they did I would probably go out and buy the PS3 no doubt, so I hope I'm wrong (cept the wallet)

As for the problem, a modded Xbox original is highly recommended by me considering how cheap they are now, but I've never tried one - they appear real good though

the PS3 is going to (from sonys chatter anyway so it's quite likely) be able to run linux from the start, no messing about with modding and such. As long as the linux can control the graphics you can be sure divx and similar codecs will just be used under linux ... surely?

[jamena]

You can get a HD Cable for the XBox and XBMC supports Upscaling, so the XBox might not be that bad? I aint tried it as I haven't got HD, just read about it.

Modded XBox and XBMC is amazing, connects to LAN for home vids and photos a treat.

is this do-able without any physical modification of the console?

[shaithis]

is this do-able without any physical modification of the console?

You can basically flash the XBoxs bios using a hack if you have one of a few certain games, plus someone who already has a hacked machine to load a specially modified saved game onto a memory card for you.....otherwise you will need a modchip as the XBMC application is unsigned code and won't run otherwise.

[wedge22]

So the 360 will work but I then need to buy Media Centre XP too?