This thread follows on and replaces the second stage of PCA's guide where he mentions FTPing across files. I've modified PCA's addon pack to better suit the members of this board, essentially updating XBMC and setting it as the dash. I've also moved it to E:\ where there's more space.
- Installs new version of XBMC
- Sets XBMC as the dash
- Retains the other apps from pca's softmod pack
- HHAH RSS Feeds on dash
What is XBMC?XBOX
Media
Center (XBMC) is an open source application for the Microsoft Xbox. The environment is designed to encompass all of your media playing needs, and at this it excels. In terms of video playback is handled by a port of mplayer and as such it has very little problems decoding and playback all types of media, codec, and containers. Codec/Advanced Profile/Matrix compatability is simply not an issue.
Instead of listing what XBMC
can play, its simpler listing what it
can not:
- 1080p material. Unfortuantely the xbox simply doesn't have enough CPU power
- 1080i/720p, whilst it can playback this material it tends to stutter. Once again this is a cpu issue. You can often manage to playback 720p by ftping it onto the Xbox, however the cpu is a hinderance
Other cpu intensive media will pose a problem, however in terms of comapability, all containers and codecs are supported.
Why do people go on about XBMC whenever I ask about a shitty standalone?
Because your shitty standalone is a complete waste of money and significantly underpowered in comparison. For the price, a modified XBOX has yet to be beaten in terms of ease, compatability and performance.
The dash is brilliantly designed, its feature rich and quickly becomes the most significantly used piece of kit in your house. There are no manufactured solutions in the same price bracket that reaches the same level of performance, don't think that
any standalone your looking at for less than £200 will be as good.
Download
This file is 69mb big and hosted,
do not post a link to this file on any site and
do not download unless you need it
http://www.bothanspies.com/xbmc/
Installation
You need to perform the softmod instructions outlined by PCA in the softmod installation thread. After installing the default grey dash (ltools), you should now be able to ftp onto your xbox. By default this is usually host
192.168.1.32 u/p
xbox.
FTP both C and E folders in the pack onto your xbox, overwriting if prompted. This should install some apps to C:\ and most importantly copy default.xbe and default.cfg as well as XBMC onto your e:\.
Upgrade
You should be able to upgrade if you have installed from PCA's previous pack. Just delete c:\apps\Xbox Media Center before hand. You must also delete the 0face008 directories in E:\UDATA and E:\TDATA, these are the xbox media center saves and will likely cause errors given the age of the previous pack.
FTP over the folders/drives as mentioned in the above section to upgrade after deleting the old files.
Configuration
Next up, you'll want to configure your xbmc installation. Navigate to E:\Apps\Xbox Media Center\UserData. This is the location of your xbmc config. Since the new version you can actually add new shares on the fly... however, if you have a lot of network shares, its often worthwhile editing the files and then ftping them over.
sources.xml - this is the file that contains all the locations of content, you'll probably want to map network shares... using your network is easily the best method of playing media. No more need to waste money on dvdrs or have your collection gain CRCs some months down the line.
The structure is simple xml, just add/remove links in xml format, ie.
Code: |
<bookmark> <name>Horror</name> <path>smb://COMPUTER/Horror</path> </bookmark>
|
This would add a link called Horror, which is a network share on the computer COMPUTER with the name Horror. Easy. Just paste such bookmarks under the section you wish the link to be appear under ie. video, music, pictures.
Keymap.xml - This file maps your keys to functions
Configuration - within XBMC
There are a number of configuration options you can set within xbmc relating to your setup. All of these can be found within the settings gui on the dashboard.
Screenshots
FAQ: I have upgraded the xbmc version and get strange problems, what to do now?
When up or down-grading XBMC version/build level you need to delete the "Xbox Media Center" save under memory in the original Xbox� dashboard and reboot, this will restore XBMC to it�s default settings which is needed each time changing the build version. Alternativly delete both 0face008 folders under E:\UDATA & E:\TDATA on your Xbox (including the system.bin file in one of these folders). If this do not help then follow the normal bug reporting procedure.