For some insane reason I had not even looked at the Xbox Media Center for over a year, in fact up until about 2 weeks ago I still had the Xbox Media Player on my HD. Then I went over to a friends house who had bought one of those XP Media Centers, you know that one from Gateway that looks like a part of your AV gear instead of an ugly white box, anyway as I looked at it I though, can't my Xbox do this? And do it better? The answer of course is yes. Then again, his was hooked up to a 54" Widescreen HDTV, while my Xbox suffers in the game room on a 32" but anyway...


How it Works and What it Does
The Xbox Media Center or xbmc is the latest version of the old Xbox Media Player that came with many people's Modded Xbox's. It;s the same thing you see an entry for in old versions of Evox. However a lot has changed since it's XBMP days.



As you can see using the Mayhem skin it really starts to look like the high class Media Center PC's. You have your choice of playing videos, music, viewing photos, and even checking the weather if you have it hooked up to the net through weather.com



What is Does

Another plus is that the XBMC folks are really pushing this as Dash replacement. Meaning that instead of Evox or Avalaunch you could just run XBMC to play your games. In fact they have even integrated Xlink within the dash so you can find people to play online fast and easy. It found all my games perfectly and the same for my Emu's and apps. It even has RSS feeds running across the top.




Although I prefer Avalaunch for my dash this thing really does put up a good fight and it looks amazing to boot. The real driving reason to get this App/Dash though is it handeling of multi-media files. I know there are a ton of features but I will let other
people pick up an issues that I missed. My favorite thing about the Xbmc is that it plays almost any format of movies from avi, mpeg, etc. It even plays BIN files. Meaning you don't have to burn a movie, just send the BIN file over and watch. Nice and easy. Another neat feature is that it has a Built in connection to the IMDB. So no more trying to guess the plot or remember who starred in what movie. Just click on imdb or hit auto scan and you will know



The controls for movies are well done as well and include a great chapter skipping feature as well as controls for how the movie fits on your screen. Even if your a rich bastard and own one of those wide-screen HDTV's thing thing will adjust and look great. Another great feature is the auto thumbnail feature which will go through all your pics and generate thumbnails. It also can do slideshows which is neat for those boring vacation photos your Uncle Lester took. ANd who can forget about the Media Streaming option.



this allows you to stream videos , photos and music from your PC to your Xbox using Samba or XBSP or any of the other formats. Although I really haven't had time to set this up I imagine it's a bad-ass feature to have. I wonder how well it works with the Xbox wireless adapter? Anyway in conclusion I have to say that the XBMC is probably the best all around app for the Xbox their is. It handles well, installs well and handles almost all the formats you could possible want. So think about this before you go spend 3 grand on one of those Media Center PC's......

Posted at FG, Xboxanomics and Xbox-Scene

wow I'll have to download it now. I still have one of original xbmp versions on my xbox. I figured some of those features would make it into the version eventually but some things such as weather check is just something you wouldn't expect to see on a gaming console.

Nice review, and with the screenshots you show it makes me want to play with it some more.

I'd love a feature that would download box art for games I own from the net. Well wishful thinking anyways.

As crazy as this sounds I think that is a feature now included, or maybe that has to do with the streaming media feature to get them off your PC HD. I am sure someone else knows a lot more than me

yes its possible. I am using xbmc from day i modde my xbox and infact i modde only for xbmc. if set up network then you can view the files in your computer just like as the hard disk is connected with your xbox. you can play all media files and everuything, only playing games from pc hd is not possible.

Great review, didnt know Xlink was included. Thats great, although I like xbconnect. Then again I never tried Xlink, and your setup looks extremely customized. I have to look into customizing mine a little more with the whole icons for the games and stuff. Thats pretty trick. Looks like I have some experimenting to do tonight. Thanks for the info!

No problem guys. Glad people take the time to read my reciews and comment. I just wish someone would comment on how hard it is to set up all the streaming servers for it

Yea I was the same as Mr Blonde... Heard about it but thought Media Player was just as good... I was finally pushed to try XBMC and HOLY SHIT ITS AWESOME! So many sick features on it! I can't belive it took me a year to finally use it! Definatley a program that ALL xbox users should have

The only thing I would add is thier a simple streaming FAQ out there. I am getting more and more into streaming stuff from my PC to the XBMC...

yes, i agree, i did the stream from the xbox to pc and is awesome.
best "dashboard" ever, now it really feel like a media center

just one question, i didn`t read anything about xlink, so i`m wondering if u can guide me were i can get a FAQ of it, or a Setup guide to install xlink on mediacenter.

thanks

Does anyone know what the ReplayTV option is?? Is it like Tivo??

where can you get this killer app?

You're not really allowed to ask that question as it's written with XDK which is MS's own code. But in the main page you click "tutorials", and from there you click "Other tutorials", and then "Guide to Using #Xbins". Everything you need to know is in there. Don't ask those questions again.


About Xlink, you can't run it along with games you've backed up on your harddrive, right? I reckon it asked me to insert my game-disc. Really annoying as I don't often have them around.

XBMC is heaps good, i use it most of the time

I could've sworn that SMB rather than XNS is the protocol that's built into Windows and XBMC... check that forum out for FAQs on how to configure it. It's very easy though.

Shit.....

Yeah, SMB is what i meant to say.

@ Mr Blonde, SMB is what i use and is what is recommended by XBMC team, it is built into windows and no, you don't need any extra software.... i don't have my xbox here at the moment but i'll post a copy of my xml file tomorrow for you

*my original post corrected*

- Shorty

EDIT:: Anyone else finding it hard to keep track of threads they are in since search was replaced with google?

Thanks man. Post that xml file over at Xboxanomics will you?

Gracias........

ya, it runs ALL MEdia types, i was even suprised it ran .mov quicktimes files!

The official web site is:\
http://sourceforge.net/projects/xbmc

I can't find this file in the usuall place, ist says xbmc now on other ftp msg xbins for more info?

at the botton of the window in irc with ftp info there is info for xbmc

but the build on the ftp is old or am I missing something here?

XBMC is GREAT for playing back XviD/DivX Movies... as this is pretty much all i use XBMC for but it works great... XviD files are great as there close to dvd quality at a fraction of the file size... 2 cd rip (meaning about 1400MB) for your average 2 hour or so movie comes out real close to dvd quality.

u can convert your dvd movies into XviD format using "Gordian Knot" as this is the program that i recommend for doing this... it's free and so is the XviD codec.

http://www.doom9.org is a nice place to check out, has alot of info on converting dvd's to other formats (including XviD)

just thought i would mention this as "movie people" would like to know about this stuff.